Vegas Day 2: Pool Time, 1st Brazilian Steakhouse and Cirque!

Better late than never, right? I really tried to get this uploaded last night...go figure that the biggest, most expensive hotel/resort that we are staying at also had the crappiest wifi. Anywho...

Another awesome day in Vegas. If you've never been, you have to go, with kids if you have them. So. Much. Fun. Chris asked where I would rank it among the other cities we've been to (Barcelona, Paris, Munich) - my thought is that it's like comparing apples and oranges! I like Vegas like I like Disney. It's like a huge amusement park for adults. 

We got up semi early and headed for the pool. The kids were itching for some pool time...believe it or not, the pool closed at 8pm (I just figured it would be open all night! Things don't close in Vegas, do they?) The Mirage has a nice, big pool, but you can tell the resort isn't new based on the pool. No water slides or lazy rivers...just a big ol' pool! What a fantastic way to start the day!

By 9:45 we were changed and headed to the world famous breakfast buffet at the Wynn. It looked absolutely incredible online - crazy selections, amazing decorations, food + experience! Unfortunately, we were too late. We got there around 10:30 and there was a 35 minute wait. Bum-mer. Lunch started at 11 and Chris wasn't really looking for lunch (I was secretly hoping the timing would work out and we would get to enjoy both! Once you're in, you can stay all day if you want!). So we took this pic...and with the lighting, you can't even see the fun decorations. Wynn was not a winner.

Their decorations were pretty incredible though!

Bender must look super trustworthy. I've never seen someone get asked to take pictures like Bender does. Not just in Vegas either!

They also had a fountain out front that rivaled the Bellagio. It was way smaller, but it was constant shows and the water moved in more exciting ways. We are such water people. Give us a fountain, we'll watch for hours.

Then it was time to visit the Venetian. So weird to be taking pictures in front of replicas of things we were actually in front of last year at this time! They did a great job recreating. Zoe was not impressed with the "canals" though..."they're just little pools mom. That's not what the canals looked like!"

Then it was back to our hotel. The kids needed food and I needed Excedrin. 

Chris and the kids enjoyed their crepes at a little place in the Mirage. We used our $25 food credit they gave us when he asked about complimentary upgrades at check in. Never hurts to ask!

After a quick trip up to the room to kill my headache and do some Creeks Lax social media posting, we were off to explore the strip in the daylight. Hot daylight. 115 is so hot that you're sweating like crazy but it's evaporating so quickly that you don't realize it until you get home and your undergarments can be wrung out (true story).

I love this picture. We were all in such better moods after our breakfast/Excedrin stop.

YaYa this one is for you! It's a real heart decorated with the Helen Keller quote about feeling with your heart. I wanted to take it home with us. And you can't tell from this pic, but this is also around the time that we ended up stuck in a hotel and then taking a shortcut that added an extra mile to our route to get to...

Adidas. Seriously. I really shouldn't fuss because a hour earlier Zoe and I were shopping in Lush which we have at the Town Center. But here was Zack, trying on soccer cleats in Vegas.

He wasn't a big fan, but in full disclosure mode, Chris and I did buy some underware. Wringing out...remember?

I love this pic too. We didn't go in the M&M store. Nobody even likes them. But you have to take a pic with the red guy, right?

Little legs were getting tired. Not sure what we'll do on our adventures when she's too big for this. She's lucky her daddy is a beast...cause she's tiny but solid muscle.

It is completely amazing how much messier a hotel room gets when you're in it for 36 rather than 12 hours!

More pool fun followed. All three Bender kids love the GoPro ;)

Zachary got his dacquiri - Zoe got one too...but her name doesn't rhyme. 

Since we didn't do our crazy buffet for breakfast I was angling for something super fun for dinner. We had never done a Brazilian steakhouse before (actually Chris did one when he went to Brazil with his soccer team, but that was a lifetime and a continent ago), so we were all excited - and maybe a bit nervous - to give it a try. We knew Uncle Brian wouldn't lead us astray though!

So the salad/appetizer bar was the first step. I think I would go back just for that!! Awesome cheeses, fun salads, and even pastas and other entrees.

Then, the meat started coming. This guy was our favorite! We tried at least 15 kinds of meat. Tri tips, prime rib, NY strip, lamb, bacon wrapped turkey, chicken, and the special of the night picanha (-ish...not really sure how it was spelled) that was delish! We had a lot of fun. There was a little card you flipped over when you were tapped out...Zack would like the record to show that he was the last to flip...although I think Bender ate more meat.

Great Carmenere wine too!

Then it was over to Treasure Island for Cirque du Soleil. First we stopped to get a picture taken with one of the two corvettes we are going to win come January 15th. Zack thinks it's going to be his first car... Bwahahahaha!

I've been to see a couple of Cirques now...it's truly one of the coolest experiences ever. It was fun to share something I love with Zack and Zoe. Zoe had been to the one in Orlando with some of our best friends from gym (hi Em and Jordan!) but Zack was a Cirque virgin. 

Mystere was so good y'all! So good. Funny, death defying, amazing, beautiful! Insane. I enjoyed every single moment. I'd go back and see it again tonight...except that we'll be in Texas. 

Vegas day 2, done. Tomorrow we're hoping to hit the Vegas sign on our way out of town towards the Grand Canyon! 

Viva Las Vegas!

XOXO,

Benderz

Hollywood and Vegas baby!

Holy tired batman. We packed this day full of goodness...I am so ready to snuggle in to the eighth of the bed Zoe allows me to sleep on and close my eyes. But first, I'm excited to share our adventures today. 

We woke up in Marina del Rey. Chris went to the gym this morning instead of running, so no Bender pics today. This was the view from our hotel.

But if you looked a little to the right, you could see the harbor. So fun, and foggy! We were more than a little worried that we wouldn't end up seeing the Hollywood sign because of the fog. Kind of like when we missed Mt Rushmore on our first cross country trip right after college! Couldn't see a thing!

The kids were actually up and moving by 8 our time so we headed to Hollywood. I'll be honest, it is not on my top ten cities list. It could be that we were just doing the things all tourists do, making it crowded and tiring, but it also felt less safe somehow. Uncomfortable. We didn't have anything bad happen to us, it just was stressing me out. (And as I've mentioned before, I really LIKE cities!) Our first stop was the Walk of Fame to see the stars. Zoe took this one of a blank star so she could use her editing software and make her own! Actually, I think Bridget Sloan (her gymnast idol) may have gotten one sent to her via Instagram shortly after Zoe got back in the car!

Did you know that Bobby Flay was actually the first chef to receive a star! Bender was excited!

We hit a couple of different sections of the walk and I was struck by how most of them had both really recent honorees and honorees from long ago. Zack and Zoe recognized very, very few names. Chris and I recognized more but definitely not all.

This is us, huddling in a side street with the Hollywood sign far in the background. You can't see it in the picture, but it's there I promise you! 

We actually took a drive to try and get closer and ended up driving around in a really cool neighborhood. We didn't have a star map, but I'm sure we drove by at least some semi-famous peoples' houses today. Or at least the people who work for the famous people!

We came back to check out the Chinese Theatre and found our friend Walt on the walk!

Zoe was all over posing for pics by stars, Zack not so much. 

Her face says it all

We finally made it to the Chinese Theatre!  Zoe was super impressed with the handprints Shirley Temple made in the cement and how small they are. 

Chinese Theatre done, we jumped back in the car. We had almost three hours left to go before we were in Vegas. Bender started out driving, so I was free to find out next adventure 😉. It's dangerous to set me free with Google and an open road. I knew we didn't want a long, leisurely lunch, but we did want an experience! Hence, Peggy Sue's Dinner.

The food was basic diner food - Brian Vosteen, you would have been proud. Zoe got meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Zack got a Philly cheesesteak. 

Chris and I did eat sandwiches, but more importantly, we got pie. The strawberry rhubarb was yummy, but nowhere near as good as L's!

After we took this pic, one of the waitresses said we did good. She said she gets bored with everyone who stands next to the Blues Brothers and doesn't do anything fun. No worries about boring with this fam!

Did I mention that outback at Peggy Sue's there is a Diner-Saur Park. You read that right, diner-saur. It was 115, but we spent a couple minutes checking out the beasts!

Dab photobomb by Zack! Very uncharacteristic. He must have wanted to mess with Zoe.

I asked them what they wanted to get their pic taken with...this Stegosaurus was the winner. Totally fun...but crazy hot! (I'm not lying, 110!)

Then it was my turn to drive though the desert....

While Zack knocked out Module 4 of his summer math. So exciting! Although he's not fond of school work over the summer, he seems to like the online platform and his teacher. He's moving right along! He even did his conference with his teacher from the road!

It really was 115. 

And the desert.

We almost thought it was a Mirage when we saw this appear out of the sand. Yay! We were at our Vegas hotel!

The girls did a bit of exploring while the boys checked in. We got upgraded to a room overlooking the volcano, but because of shows we have tickets to, we won't be here to watch it explode. It's still super neat to be able to see the strip from our room!

View from our hotel room.

We quickly changed and grabbed an Uber to the Excalibur where our show was playing. We saw Tournament of Kings, which was kind of a take on the Kights is the Roundtable. We picked seats in Dragon, which was totally the bad side. Sometimes it's fun to cheer for the bad guy!

Front row seats!

Us with Merlin. 

This was dinner. Here comes the best part. No utensils! Seriously. Drink your soup and eat everything else with your hands. The food was actually pretty solid. The show was lots of fun. We yelled Hazah, toasted the king, and pounded the tables... A lot. It was a fun way to start Vegas!

Then it was on to explore the strip. We took uber to the show, so we were walking the 1.7 miles back to our hotel and exploring along the way. One thing we noticed was how hard it was to wander down the strip. Lots of sidewalks closed off making it necessary to climb up stairs to cross walkways and climb back down. A few extra flights of stairs certainly wasn't going to kill us!

In front of the Statue of Liberty!

The kiddos in front of New York, New York. They were so excited to ride this coaster!

So we headed down to the bowels of the hotel to buy tickets, only to discover Zoe was an inch too short to ride. Such a bummer. Zack and I rode (totally awesome! Zack was a bit worried to be riding after dinner, but he didn't puke on me or on the people in front of him...which he threatened to do.)

Time for a few arcade games! When we walked into our hotel earlier, Zoe said to me, "I can't wait to play mom!". I looked at her and told that was against the rules, she was very perturbed that out of the whole casino, she wasn't allowed to play anything. Glad we found some games at NY, NY!

Selfie with the giant martini glass!

Enjoying the strip at night!

So...it was still 100 while we were walking around. (For real! It felt like we were standing in front of a hot hair dryer when the wind blew!) So we may have had some fun with this water feature...and gotten more than a little wet. (You can see my short but cute dress fashioned from a shirt too!)

It was definitely time for ice cream if we were going to make it all 1.7 miles on foot back to the Mirage. This is my new favorite ice cream store. They made me a milkshake with coffee ice cream and Baileys. So much yum!

Paris at night.

The Bellagio fountains were next on our list of things to see. The show was crazy cool. Music, lights and water all coordinated. The kids were entranced. We were all sad it was such a short show. 

We took a shortcut through the Bellagio hotel and saw this stunner! Even more gorgeous in person!

And this shrine. Amazing!

Our first night in Vegas was amaze-balls! I'm thrilled that we have another night here because we definitely have more we want to do! 

XOXO, 

Benderz

A few GoPro pics to end the blog 😉