This requires some back story....
In September we bought tickets for Nov. 7-12th to visit my sisters in New York. Neither Matt nor I have been to New York, so we were both really excited for the trip. Fast forward to the end of October and a little miss called Hurricane Sandy decided to pay New York a visit. After that, we weren't sure what was to become of our trip. How much destruction, were the attractions we wanted to visit open, when would the subways be running again, etc. We contemplated cancelling the trip, but realized that would actually cost us money since the airline wouldn't give refunds unless the flight was cancelled on us. So we waited and assumed we'd make the best of it. The subway systems were and running a few days before our trip, so we were happy about that and thought maybe it would be okay after all. Unfortunately, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were shut down and no longer available for tours and even the 911 Memorial was questionable. Total bummer, since those were the main things I've wanted to see for so long. However, even with that news, we still planned on going. Then on Wednesday the 7th, in the afternoon, my sister asked me if my flight had been cancelled for that evening. I said no, and asked why. Apparently another little miss called Winter Storm Athena was making her debut and so some flights had been cancelled. Since our flight was not for another eight hours or so, I figured it would clear up and we'd be fine. Around 6 pm, after dropping Charlie off at the boarding place, we got a notice that our flight was delayed from 11:27 to 1:00 am. Ok, not that cool...but we were planning on flying the red eye anyway, so not much difference. But seriously, could anything else go wrong? At this point, Matt kept thinking that it must be a sign we shouldn't go or something because of all the craziness happening. We thought for a minute we might be able to cancel our tickets without penalty, but we were wrong. Plus it seemed too late to back out and give up on the trip, especially since we had decided to go through with it before. Then around 8:30 pm we got another notice from the airline that our flight had been cancelled, and to "stay tuned" for information on the next flight to leave. Man, this trip really wasn't working out for us! Unfortunately, the flight they re-booked us on would be arriving Saturday morning and then we'd be leaving Monday. Didn't seem worth it for only a couple days, and we couldn't extend our vacation time any more at such last minute notice. It was super disappointing.
So there we were, staring at the screen with our cancelled flight, at the same time we should have been leaving for the airport. And then we decided that we were still going to make the most of our time off and try to do something on the spur of the moment. Hmm, where can we drive that won't take too long or cost too much but will get us out of Utah? Oh, Vegas! So at 12:47 am on Thursday, we booked a hotel room and went to bed, ready to wake up in the morning for the drive.
We made it there in pretty good time and checked into our hotel room at the Palace Station in the afternoon. We wanted to be on budget and stayed off the strip just a little since we'd have a car. Upon checking in, we found out that our room was less than pleasing, and went back to see if it were possible to upgrade. An upgrade wasn't possible since the rooms just one level up in pricing were all booked and we'd have to pay the price difference for a "petite suite." So, again, kinda sucky but we were trying to make the best of what we were given.
We got freshened up from the car ride and headed out to the strip. We went to Fashion Show Mall and browsed through some of the hotels and shops within, thinking of what we wanted to do.
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| First day! |
We had dinner at a tasty Italian restaurant called Trevi and hung out some more until we were tired and headed back. That night, I had a nice encounter with a bug trying to get lucky with me in bed. So, the next morning we packed up our stuff and took the dead bug down to the lobby and asked for a refund or an upgrade. They moved us to one of those "petite suites." Free upgrade ftw. Although super disgusting.
After getting settled in a different room, we went to Fashion Show mall again to see if we could get discount tickets to a show. We started waiting in line, then changed our minds. Instead we headed to Treasure Island to get tickets for the Cirque Du Solei show Mystere. We got hooked up with really great seats at a great price for the next evening. We also had brunch at the TI buffet, because what's a Vegas trip without buffets?
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| Mmm Pho! |
Then we wandered the strip some more, and made our way to the Coca-cola and M&M store. We tasted the "world flavors" at the Coke place which was our second time, but still interesting.
A lot of them taste really gross. Like I can't stand it because I'm drinking dirty feet, gross. And then I can't help but wondering if foreigners come to America and think the same thing about our sodas. Anywho, outside the Coke place we found ourselves in line for discount tickets for something we could do that night.
We bought tickets to V the Ultimate Variety Show. We'd never been to a show like this, and figured it would be a good, well, variety of acts. It was pretty interesting. Some acts were better than others, but some were pretty impressive.
Saturday we woke up and got ready and Matt looked up online what some good buffets were to try. The Wicked Spoon inside the Cosmopolitan had good reviews, so we headed there. We'd never been in that hotel before, and I was in awe as soon as we stepped inside. It was super swanky, and we were greeted with a HUGE, pretty chandelier in the center. We found our way to the Wicked Spoon, and there was a pretty large line to get in, so we figured the reviews must be right and this place was pretty popular.
It was pricey for brunch, and definitely a wait, but it was awesome! Probably one of the more memorable parts of our trip, minus the shows. They had some pretty fancy foods and all displayed super pretty, with a large dessert area. It was different than any of the other Vegas buffets I've been to. We were definitely impressed.
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| Sushi, duck confit ravioli, and Thai fried rice |
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| Curry squash risotto, 4 cheese gnocchi, sushi, Chinese greens, and stir fried udon noodles in the mini take out box |
After that, we walked some more, and it had gotten pretty dang cold for Vegas. Especially since I had forgotten to bring a jacket. We stopped by a little art kiosk with a guy making paintings with spray paint that we had seen the day before. We'd really wanted one, but hadn't seen just the right one earlier. So we stopped for a bit to watch him make some, and then decided maybe we'd come back again. We headed to the forum shops to warm up a bit, and I decided to buy a pea coat at H&M so I wouldn't be miserable. At least we weren't dealing with snow like everyone back in Utah! After shopping for a little more, we went back to that kiosk and found that the artist had made one that we really loved so we bought it. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to actually see him make the one we ended up buying though.
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| Obviously a photo of a painting does not do it justice, but you get the idea. |
Then it was back to the car and to the hotel to drop off the painting (since we didn't want it stinking up the car) and then off to Treasure Island to waste a few bucks on gambling while waiting for Mystere. I was so excited for this Cirque show. It was my second show, and Matt's first. I loved seeing "O" so much a while back, so I couldn't wait for this one. And I was really curious what Matt's opinion would be.
We didn't win any money, go figure. But we're cheap so we didn't play much anyway, haha. Our seats for Mystere were just off center and on the second row from the stage. It was really interesting to have that point of view and be so close. You could see all their facial expressions and we could even hear them talking to each other while coordinating parts of their acts. It was really neat. I did like "O" a little better than Mystere, but I'm so glad we got to see it. Afterward, I was even wishing we could have seen another! When the show was over, we grabbed some late night dinner at a Mexican place and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to leave the next morning.
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| This is as close as we got to the "Statue of Liberty" on this trip! |
Sunday we were up and on the road again, checking the weather a couple hours in, hoping we wouldn't hit the storm and that roads would be clear. We were very lucky, all roads were clear and everything went smooth. We grabbed one more "vacation dinner" in good ol' Sandy to end it all and then picked up Charlie and went home. Back to real life!
