Las Vegas getaway

For Christmas, The Mister surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas that he'd sneakily planned and coordinated with my parents. Las Vegas is a six-hour-drive from Salt Lake City and my parents graciously allowed us to leave the kiddos with them for a few days while we had a little getaway!

Because we flew to Utah, we had to rent a car and ended up with a gray version of this beauty:

Pity that it was 20 degrees for most of the way down so we couldn't take full advantage of the convertible top! We did, however, lower the top (and crank up the heater!) on the first evening as we drove down the Strip. :)

We stayed at the all-suite Palazzo, which is attached to the Venetian hotel. Our room was on the 36th floor and it was absolutely gorgeous! It looked exactly like this one.

The room was huge! Easily bigger than my kitchen and living room combined. The living room area was sunken down a few stairs and the big window had shades and curtains that we maneuvered with a remote control. Our window looked out on the back side of the Strip--we had a lovely view of the airport, LOL. But I can imagine having that huge view of the Strip all lit up at night would have been pretty impressive!

Even the bathroom was huge and beautiful. Ours looked just like this, only flip-flopped (the tub was on the other side). I fell in love with that little red velvet bench where I got to sit while putting on my makeup and jewelry. And we watched TV in our bathroom as we got ready, just because we could. ;)

Our trip was a quick one. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had a fancy dinner that night at a restaurant in the neighboring Venetian called Valentino. The Mister ordered black spaghetti in curry sauce, which I have to tell you looked for all the world like a pile of black worms. He said it was delicious, despite its horror-show appearance!

On Thursday we at pizza for lunch at Grimaldi's (who say they've installed special water filters in all their restaurants so that the water used for the dough is the same as they use in Brooklyn) and spent the afternoon at the Fashion Show Mall across the street from our hotel. The mall is a mix of normal mall stores (The Children's Place, Bath and Body Works) and some very upscale stores (Kate Spade, Henri Bendel). I think that Vegas started to get to me after shopping for a while because I started to wonder why exactly I don't own a pair of sequined hot pants. It seemed like every other store we visited was carrying a few. Do that many people really wear tiny spangled shorts? If so, where are they going in them? And in the winter? (even in Las Vegas, it was only in the low-50's. Pretty chilly for hot pants) It was baffling.

That night we got dressed up again and walked across the street to The Mirage hotel, where we saw The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show.

We had fantastic seats! I will tell you, it was not my favorite Cirque du Soleil show that I've ever seen. I'm a huge Beatles fan so of course the music was AWESOME, but the storyline was just plain weird! I know that's generally the case with CdS shows but it's never bugged me before, mostly because the acrobatics and other performances were so jaw-dropping that it never occurred to me that there was a storyline I was supposed to be following. There were talented acrobats and aerialists at The Beatles LOVE show, but not as many and not as impressive as some of the other CdS shows I've seen because I think they relied more on the music and visual effects and costumes. If you're a big fan of the Beatles' music, then you may find enjoy it; otherwise, I might try out a different CdS show as there are several playing in Vegas.

Our little getaway was such fun--we have no family nearby and so we don't ever get to go away without our kids (the last time was back in July 2011 when we went to Washington D.C. for The Mister's graduation) so it was a real treat to get to do that! I know my kids LOVED every second of all of the attention and spoiling they got from being under their grandparents' care without their parents around enforcing rules and bedtimes and stuff. We may not have gambled on our trip, but I know we were winners all around!