Weekend recap: Vegas baby, Vegas!

Hey, hey everyone I'm back from Vegas! And the good news is, I came back unmarried and untattooed. Win, win!

As you know, this weekend I was in Vegas with a group of awesome and fun bloggers and it was a blast! This was the first time I've been to Vegas so I had to find the delicate balance of alcohol and sight seeing. It was tough.

And here are a few things I learned while I was in America's Playground:

• Vegas is totally chick-friendly. If you're a woman, Vegas is the place for you. You can have any of the following things happen: get a high five, be talked dirty to in Spanish, be whistled at and get just about anything you want if you travel with two or more women. Clubs are your oyster!

• Boobs are not a big deal in Vegas. In fact, they're everywhere on the streets. People hand out cards with boobs (and the "other" if you know what I mean) and after awhile you just go dead inside when you see them. Being a woman, if you've seen one boob, you've seen them all

• Holy shit it is hot. We came during a "cool week," which was still in the 90s but damn, I was baking like a pig on a spit at the pool and on the strip. That sun is punishing, as my arms will attest

• Your depth perception will fool you. I think this may be heat-induced but things look close together on the strip but they're not! Yes, the Bellagio and Mirage are next to each other, but it can take you 10-15 minutes to walk there because of other tourists and sidewalk space

• Time doesn't really exist on the strip. Yes, the time change from Chicago (two hours behind) was tough because it goes by so quickly and then suddenly it's 5 p.m. and you're eating lunch and 11 p.m. and it's dinner time. It's madness!

Anyhow, Jamie, Allie and I arrived on Friday morning in Las Vegas and quickly ditched our stuff at the Luxor and hit the strip, where we first discovered that whole depth-perception lie crap. I live in Chicago, walk everywhere and was still begging for mercy by the end of the day. Sanctuary! Save me! 

So after some sight seeing and a lovely lunch with our other roommie, we met up with our blogger group and walked with them over to their dinner buffet. We would have joined them but we had to run over to the Mirage. Why? Because we had tickets to the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show, Love. 

And here's an overly sappy moment, I love the Beatles. I love them so much. I grew up listening to their music and on any bad day, I always play some Beatles music to boost my spirits. So the opportunity to see the show (thanks to Cirque) made me literally cry. And as you know, I'm not a huger crier. So I put on my best boob shirt and we went to the show! And it was AMAZING. The music, stage set up, dancing and stunts were wonderful. It was a true sensory overload and I am so glad I got to go. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Moving on to Saturday, after leisurely sleeping in until 1o:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. Chicago time, hey ya!) my roomies and I met up with our blogger group at the pool (where I proceeded to get a decent amount of sun) and then hit the strip for more sight seeing, including a lovely tour of the Venetian hotel and "lunch" at Mario Batali's restaurant, Entocea San Marco, which had the best gelato I've ever had. 

View from our table at Entocea San Marco

And of course, that was followed by an epic blogger meet up at a bar in the Venetian, full of $5 glasses of wine, hilarious photos and a trip to the "best bathroom" as voted by the Las Vegas Sun. And from our group's consensus, it was awesome.

Katelin and me toasting out trip (before getting silly)

My bathroom stall. Tres chic!

On Sunday, The time change finally hit me and I was up and moving at 7:30 a.m. Vegas time (9:30 a.m. Chicago). So Jamie and I jumped in a cab, to save our legs, and headed to the far end of the strip to cruise through more casinos. In fact, I even rocked the penny slots (daredevil!) and was up 71 cents before losing it. Well, at least it wasn't the rent. We also met up with Allie, Katelin and Matt for brunch at the Bellagio, which was awesome and filling, without the full "food baby."

Another perk of the trip? My cousin and his wife live in Vegas so they picked me up and took me to the "burger mecca" of the west coast, In-n-Out burger. I won't lie, I was ridiculously excited for this trip. And after some apologies for my serious photo-taking, I snapped a photo of our Double-double before it was devoured. It was heaven.

We were some of the few bloggers staying until Monday so we grabbed Amanda and went back to the Mirage for dinner, where the restaurant was so fancy, we had to ask for the prix fixe meal because they didn't openly offer it. But it was SO worth it. And I know you're sad, but the restaurant's lighting prevented me from taking pictures of the food. FAIL. I know.

And in closing, yesterday we returned to Chicago, where I came back on budget for the trip but exhausted. Seriously, our flight was circling O'Hare for an hour. And after some turbulence, my stomach was NOT happy. 

But all in all, it was an awesome, fun, crazy weekend where I got to meet a lot of cool new people and get a break from Chicago, work, life, etc. It was a real adventure and now it's time to rest up before I depart from Boston. But, I'm sure I'll go back to Vegas in the future, but this time a little more gambling-savvy.

After all, Missy Jess needs a new pair of shoes :)

How was everyone else's weekend? 

Guest bloggers start up again tomorrow, but I'll be back in full force after the weekend when I'm back from Boston! So come on back now!

Oh and Jamie took this picture of me near the bronze Siegfried and Roy and tiger statue. It's too hilarious NOT to post.