Brother's 21st Birthday Trip to Vegas

We flew into Las Vegas on Thursday to kick off my brother's 21st birthday trip. Four days of no work, lounging poolside, good food, enjoying some shows, and drinks, drinks, drinks.

But before we get into all the details, did you know they have gambling in the airport? Literally in the terminals.

We stayed at The Mirage, which is almost at the center of the strip next to Caesars Palace. It has a Polynesian theme and of course had the normal pool, casino, buffet, bars, restaurant, shops, and conventions center. The Mirage also is the home of 1OAK (which I learned stands for One Of A Kind) and the Cirque du Soleil Love show.

Because it was my brother's 21st birthday we decided to go big or go home and booked a penthouse suite. It had multiple rooms so we could hang out in the commons areas if we wen't sleeping or wandering the strip. Plus it had a great view at night of the lights of the strip!

 The first night we just wandered the strip after eating some dinner.

Caesars Palace (and a few other casinos) had the coolest shops. Not because of the brands but because of the architecture. They were built to look like you were outside and the ceilings were even painted in a sky pattern. If you were drunk I'm pretty sure you would think you were actually outside. No wonder no one cares what time it is Vegas...it's always daytime if you want it!

We didn't do much shopping but I have never seen so many Tiffany & Co., Chanel, etc in my life. I wish I would have bought myself a keepsake!

The weather in Vegas was really comfortable, so much better than the humidity back east. The days were a dry heat and the nights were super comfortable. Plus there were numerous margarita bars along the strip to help. We stopped at Margarita Bar which provided oodles of choice. Seriously, there so many flavors:

We each got a few flavors and then continued along the strip. Yummy!

During the day we continued to explore the strip. It takes SO LONG to walk from one casino to another because they are so big and there is so much to do and look at while you're there.  Here are a few daytime highlights:

The Paris hotel and casino had a 1/2 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triomphe.

We also stopped by the Borgata for the fountains. The first performance we saw was set to Elvis Presley's Viva Las Vegas. So fitting!

We also spent the morning/afternoon lounging poolside. We spent most of the time at the pool at The Mirage but we also stopped briefly at Garden of the Gods Oasis at Caesars Palace.

 I literally felt like Caesar.

We also saw a few shows while we were there. First we saw The Beatles Love which I highly recommend. Even if you aren't a Beatles fan (we all are fans) you will still enjoy the performance.

We also saw Penn & Teller at the Rio. We *almost* made it on stage to help them make an elephant* disappear.     *the elephant was really a cow. Lol.

We also spent a LOT of time eating the delicious food all along the strip. We stopped at the Bacchanal Buffet and gorged ourselves on pretty much every kind of food imaginable, including sushi.

If you're looking for restaurant options on the strip we can recommend:
1. Bacchanal Buffet
2. Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill
3. Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen

There were options for every price point. There were delicious restaurants that ranged from cheap to super expensive. I wish we would have stopped at Nobu but it wasn't in the cards for this visit. Maybe next time.
On Saturday we rented a car and drove out to the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately their elevator was broken and they weren't giving tours but whatever we still could walk around the dam and see the sights.

 You could drive over that bridge....scary! It spans the whole dam (obviously):

Luckily, the tour guides did give a little presentation with information about the dam so we still walked away with some good information.

And lastly, we stopped at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada. It was obligatory and they had a tiny parking lot so it was really easy to get to when we were returning from the Hoover Dam.

And here are two bonus photos:

We went to Hershey's Chocolate World and M&Ms World. At M&Ms World there was a mock Nascar M&M car. Car #18 is my favorite Nascar car so that was an added bonus.

And lastly, it wouldn't be Vegas without alcohol....so there is a photo of my now 21 year old brother enjoying our fishbowl drink at Guy Fieri's. So much alcohol.

Overall, Vegas was tons of fun and I can't wait to go back. There was so much to do and we definitely didn't get to all of it.

Have you ever been to Las Vegas? What did you like most? Anything you would recommend?

California Adventure - The End

Our last day there we toured the west coast just Andrew and I. We stopped at Bodega and saw the church where the Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Birds, was filmed on our way to Bodega Bay. This church would be a good choice for our wedding, right? Destination wedding anyone??

It was seriously the most beautiful day ever. The sky was clear and sunny but it wasn't too hot. I was in jeans and was super comfortable. Here are some coast photos we took during our excursion.

Northern California beaches are weird to me because they aren't typical beaches. As you can see, there are a ton of rocks! And you have to be really careful with rip currents/tides if you decide to go surfing or swimming in the water. We just stayed on the land and in the sand and let the surfers enjoy the ocean.

How pretty is this photo though? I kind of want to frame it for a hallway or something. I really love the rock formation in the background, the wispy hint of the cloud, and the cresting wave. It just looks really pretty! I could stand and listen to an ocean forever.

What's really nice is you can drive the coast and then get out at overlooks where you can have some amazing views.

 Andrew took this photo. This is another one I'd be interested in framing and hanging up somewhere.

Lastly, just a few more photos of one of the vineyards we went to. These last two were taken a Chateau St. Jean. Is this not the proudest palm tree out there??

 And the final photo of us in the garden at Chateau St. Jean.

Seriously, if you have never been to California I highly recommend going! We had a blast and are so grateful that my family let us crash with them.

California Adventure - The Middle

We took a day trip to walk around some shopping places in cute little towns in Sonoma county. We also ended up going Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in Guernesville to check out some super old (and super BIG) redwoods. To give you some perspective about the scale of these trees, here are a couple photos I took of Andrew. He looks like a tiny child next to the massive trees!

If you don't want to walk through the redwood grove you can drive up to the top of the hill and see some pretty cool views at the outlooks along the way. The road up the hill is a little terrifying since it's a one lane road with constant switchbacks but Andrew and I are pros at mountains since he lived in Colorado for six months.

Is this the first photo of me during this trip?! Andrew took it at the top of the hill and I actually really like the way it came out...

 And here is some of the view we were looking at:

It sort of reminded me of our one Jamaica photo actually. Maybe we just like standing on top of mountains?? There are more mountain photos in my Colorado recap. Of course I don't think we saw a sign like this in Jamaica or Colorado...

Enough for one post I think. I haven't bored you too much have I??

California Recap - The Beginning

A LONG time ago (lol, I know it's been a while already) Andrew and I visited my family in California. I already posted here on the blog about our wine tasting adventure but there are sooo many more photos and things to share about our visit.  Hmm, where do we start? At the beginning I guess... Andrew was in Silicon Valley for work the week before Memorial Day weekend so I joined him on that Friday. The sweetheart drove to San Francisco from Silicon Valley just to pick me up from the airport and drive back up to the Sonoma county area. This is bloggable moment #1 -- our trip across the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently it was the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2012...at least that's what a sign we passed said.

The last time I was in San Francisco was years ago and the last time I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge I was about 10-12 years old. Unfortunately, I was a clumsy kid (apparently) and I knocked into a bicyclist. He didn't completely fall off his bike but thank goodness they have those fence-like barricades to keep him from becoming roadkill!

Also, fun fact for you if you ever drive over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco: Apparently, during rush hour (which is between 9 am and 11 am as we found out) the Golden Gate Bridge is a cashless toll. That means that although it usually does accept cash payment for the toll, you have to use a FastPass (or whatever it is called in California -- it's EZ Pass on the east coast) to pay during the rush hour. As non-west coasters, neither of us knew about the cashless toll until I noticed the lighted sign flashing on the road. A little late to find out! Thank goodness the rental car we had one of the cashless toll things!  Sheesh, I'll have to keep that in mind when we plan to drive places we don't know.

We didn't do much that first day in California only because my flight got in the the afternoon and we didn't get up to Sonoma until early evening. We got settled into my cousin's room (pay back for when my sister would be booted when they came to visit us I guess, just kidding!) and then we all went to dinner.

The next day we stopped for some snacks at Whole Foods (did I mention my California family is SUPER healthy) and then went to watch my cousin play baseball. He's on some serious little league team and he's really good! It was one of the games leading up to playoffs and I'm happy to report that his team is going to the playoffs now. I'm sure he enjoyed having some extra people in his cheering section and we enjoyed being able to munch on snacks while watching other people be active. I snapped this photo of him while he was at bat. He hit a double!

The next day, Andrew went with my Uncle to a car show nearby the house. It was really cool because my Uncle owns a really amazing classic/antique/old/vintage/awesome car. It's one of the ones below but I'm not telling you which!! Lol. I hung out at the house with my cousins (watching the Kids Baking Championship on Food Network). Obviously we all share the love of Food Network in my family. Remember this post where I talk about Food Network??

Then Andrew came back and we hung out and learned more about our cousins' hobbies. One of their favorite activities was playing with a contraption called a "Diablo", a plastic thing that you spin and do tricks with. We tried to learn (as evidenced by the photo below) but let's just say we'll keep our day jobs and leave the Diablos to them!

I think I'll cut it off there for now. I'll pick up with our trip to the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

Have you been to California?? What did you do?

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Cozumel, Mexico

Today's post is the final in my Cruise Recap series. If you missed any of them you can read about the ship we were on and our days in Haiti, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. The final island was Cozumel, Mexico and this one may have been my favorite of all of them.

We arrived in Cozumel but traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula so we could visit the Tulum Mayan Ruins in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was one of the final cities inhabited by the Maya and survived about 70 years after the Spanish started to occupy Mexico. I'm talking 13th to 15th centuries here! It was surreal to be standing somewhere that an entire civilization used in a time I can only imagine. The buildings were incredible and we were told that Tulum has a few of the best preserved ruins. We had an amazing tour guide who gave everyone headphones and packs so we could hear him without having to follow him too closely. It was so cool to get the history and hear stories about the Maya.

The focal point was clearly the Pyramid El Castillo (which translates to "The Castle") and I couldn't take enough photos of it. Seriously, when I was going back through my photos I had like 40 shots of it!

It was SO hot that day! I felt like I was baking at a few points. There were also some iguanas that just lounged around and crawled into the buildings. A few of the ruins you could walk through which was pretty neat.

The picture below is of the God of the Winds Temple . So incredible.

There were also really pretty flowering trees and crazy iguanas that were huge and just chilled out in the sunlight.

So there you go. I have now bored you with my entire trip! I hope you at least enjoyed the photos!

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Cayman Islands

Today's post is the a follow up to the Cruise Recap series and will talk about our day in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. If you would like to read about the ship and stuff, our day in Jamaica, or our day in Haiti.

Cayman is seriously gorgeous. There was shopping of course all throughout where we were but we decided to do a bit of snorkeling first. I never snorkeled before but it was so much fun!

 The excursion we did was "Reef and Wreck Snorkeling" and was basically just snorkeling in two different locations. The first location was a shipwreck and then we also went to a reef to see all the fish. The boat had a glass bottom and enabled you to see the bottom between the locations. I saw one of the largest sting rays I have ever seen in person or on TV. The thing had to be 2 feet wide! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera ready for that so I didn't get to snap a photo :( Just FYI, the snorkeling gear is super stylish and the mouthpiece gave me the best looking lips ever....

 

Seriously, who needs botox? Just walk around with a snorkeling mouthpiece on. Jk, that'd be a little weird. Anyway, a sneak peak of the reef is behind Andrew in this photo:

All in all, the snorkeling was so much fun and I can't wait to try snorkeling again! And if you can believe it, this was the only nail photo I took the entire trip! I figured having the backdrop of a reef underwater was too good to pass up. Pardon the chipping nails!!