Vegas, Baby!

Me, myself, and I.  That's how I spent much of my time in Vegas.  And I loved every minute of it.  Of course, I missed my munchkins but I also enjoyed my time relaxing.  

This wasn't just a quick vacation for me and Dan.  One of us had to work... and it wasn't me!  He was heading west to attend the IBM conference so we thought I would just tag along.  We got out there on Sunday before the conference started so that was our day to be together and explore the strip.  

The view from our 22nd floor room in THE hotel
(part of Mandalay Bay)

Since I'm becoming more of a foodie, one
thing I wanted to do while in Vegas was eat
at celebrity chef's restaurants.  So we stopped
at Todd English's Olives for lunch.
This was the BEST bread I've ever had.
Holy cow... great.  Apparently just olive
oil and onion on top. 

We walked all the way down the the Wynn
and stopped to have a drink.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!
That was the motto of our trip.

The Bellagio

Caesars Palace

Paris...

and New York - all within a mile.

This is how I spent most of my days.  Woke up around 7 and got dressed and somewhat ready.  Went to breakfast by myself (which was odd the first day but it turns out I liked it - just brought the iPad and read magazines) Went back to the room and took a soak in the tub the first day and showered...

Then headed out to the pool for a while
(and yes, that is Rev Run and his son Diggy on the left
side of the picture!)

Sipped a Bloody Mary, poolside.

I'd go in for lunch.  This day was Hubert Keller's Fleur.
On today's menu was a croque monsieur with dipping
sauce and waffle cut chips that melted in your mouth.
Delish! 

While eating lunch, I looked up and got to see the
man himself, Chef Hubert, in the chef's coat toward
the middle of the picture. 

On the last day, I made the trek to the
Mirage (about a 50 minute walk from our
hotel) to eat lunch at BLT burger that was
recommended by someone.

I had this burger with sweet potato fries
for lunch and let me tell you... it was
worth the walk.  

Speaking of the walk - I needed something
to keep me hydrated on the way back.
What better than a mocha oreo milkshake!

To make the trip easier on me the kids we Skyped
right before they went to bed two of the nights.  

but there's nothing like seeing their faces
in person once we got back home. 

And they were happy to see us too!

(Note: about three minutes after this picture
was taken just Dan and Nora were sitting in
the swing when it went falling to the ground!
One of the strings broke and that was the
end of the swing.)