** warning: long post **

For our girls trip we headed to Las Vegas for 4 days and 3 nights.

Day 1

We caught an early morning flight to Vegas and got to our hotel around 11 am. We opted to stay at The Linq which is located at the northern end of the Strip (opposite Caesar’s Palace). I personally prefer the other end of the Strip where Park MGM is as I feel it to be a bit more family orientated which this end seems more like party central.

We were lucky to get an early check in as soon as we arrived. The hotel was nice though the room was smaller that the one I stayed in at Park MGM but it was fine as it was just a place to sleep, shower and change in. We would be spending most of our days out and about. as we had reached Vegas before noon. As soon as we got to our room, we had a quick change of clothes and then it was out the door to start out trip.

The first place we went to check out was the Linq Promenade. The Promenade like an alley street located just behind the hotel and is filled with shops, boutiques and food joints. You can also get to the Flamingo Hotel from here with two large flamingos on either side of its entrance. At one end of the Promenade is The High Roller which is a large ferris wheel. We grabbed some lunch from Gordon Ramsey Fish & Chips. The food was nice but I’ve tasted better.

From the Promenade we headed over to Fremont Street. Both of us have been to Vegas a number of times but neither of us had been to Fremont Street so we wanted to check it out. It was nice to check out the old part of Vegas and see the old neon signs. It wasn’t as fascinating as either of us expected but we suspect it might have been because we were there in the middle of the day. I’m sure it would probably be more livelier during the night.  At the end of the street, we stopped to grab something from Pinkbox doughnuts before heading back to the hotel to relax a little before heading out for an early dinner.

We decided to head over to Eataly over at Park MGM. We took the free tram that goes between the Bellagio and Park MGM. I had a chicken skewer while my bestie had steak and we also shared some pasta. The pasta was fantastic, but the chicken and steak was a little over cooked.

After dinner, we headed back to the Bellagio to check out the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanicals Gardens and the fountain show. Not the first time I’ve visited the Conservatory and I love going to conservatories and botanical gardens and this one is especially interesting as it’s located in a hotel. The Bellagio Conservatory changes their display with the change of each season. They still had their summer display up – Majesty: The Grandeur of Nature.  but they change their displays every season.

After the conservatory, we headed outside to get a good spot to watch the fountain show. I also managed to get some nice photos of the surrounding hotels with the water in the foreground. I’ve seen the fountain show before but it’s still something to see. After watching the show, we headed back to our hotel as we were beat.

Day 2

We started our day by heading over to the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino. One of my cousins had recommended a dim sum restaurant there. We had a giggle at the name of the place – Ping Pang Pong – but we happily surprised by the great food. This was some good dim sum! It reminded me of going for dim sum as a child as well as when I lived in Hong Kong. Even the jasmine tea was brewed to perfection.

After our very yummy lunch, we headed over to the outlet mall. We had already checked out what shops were available that and had our “wish list” of shops we wanted to visit. Even with being selective with what shops we went to, we still managed to spend quite a bit of time there. I got a couple of bags from Kate Spade (one for me and one for my sis), a couple of bags from Tory Burch (all for me) and a bag at Marc Jacobs – yes I went a little bag crazy but they were all different styles and sizes lol, plus a girl can never have enough bags and shoes hahaha. Given that it was the day after Labor Day, every where was offering an additional 20% off their usual discounts so even more savings!

After we were done shopping, we headed back to our hotel to drop off our bags and then headed down to the Promenade. We had decided that we were going to get dinner at In & Out Burger. We had tried to get lunch there the day before but the queue was too long, so we were hoping if we went down for an early dinner, we’d have better luck and we did. The queue to order was short and we managed to get a table before our food was ready. Neither of us had had In & Out before so it was a new experience for the two of us. I got the cheeseburger with fries while my bestie had the double double. The burgers were nice and juicy.

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Honolulu Cookie Company. They had different kinds of butter macadamia cookies available, so I got myself a mixed box of 5. I picked one each of the butter macadamia, the chocolate chip macadamia, the chocolate dipped macadamia, the dark triple chocolate macadamia, and the white chocolate dipped macadamia. I had them later when we were back in the room, and they were absolutely delicious.

Day 3

We started our day by having breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi located at Paris Hotel. We had made a reservation for a table on the street terrace, so we didn’t have to wait too long for our table. I ordered the scrambled eggs with sausage and hash browns. Of course the food was delicious but then it is pretty hard to mess up scrambled eggs.

After breakfast, we headed over to Area 15 to check out Meow Wolf and Omega Mart. Meow Wolf is an art collection site providing a space for artists to display their works and develop the skills. Omega Mart is one of the installations. It’s set up like a supermarket but the things the stock on their shelves are truly unique. Thinks like Nut Free Salted Peanuts, Dehydrated Water, Dream of Mushroom soup, and Cubed Peas to name a few. There are also hidden entrances to the back part of the art installation. The back area was completely different from the front but just as interesting.

Once we were done exploring Meow Wolf, we headed over to Chinatown to have patbinsu from Sul & Beans. Patbingsu is a Korean shaved ice dessert. Bestie ordered their earl grey tea patbingsu while I opted to get Nutella bungeo-ppang (carp bread) instead. I also got an iced latte for a pick me up. The patbingsu and bungeo-ppang was delicious but their drink was disappointing.

From Chinatown we headed back to our hotel to rest a little before heading out for our dinner reservation at Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace. This has to be one of the best buffets we’ve had in Vegas and we always make sure to go back at least once whenever we’re in Vegas. Word to the wise, always make a reservation way in advance. Without one, it’s almost impossible to get in. Even though we had a reservation, we still needed to queue and wait for our table. We went early to queue. Our reservation was for 745 pm but we started queuing at 7 pm. We were seated by 740 pm.

The food selection at Bacchanal is amazing and tastes great too. Unfortunately I will still full from the bungeo-ppang so I didn’t actually eat a lot of food, at least not enough to make the cost of the dinner worthwhile but oh well, I was on vacation. After dinner, we waddled our way back to our hotel and called it a night.

Day 4

Our last day in Vegas. We started our day looking for a place to have breakfast. We ended up going to a place at The Promenade called Favorite Bistro. It was like French food with an American flair. The décor gives a Parisian café vibe. I ordered the Parisian omelet (basically a ham and mushroom omelet). The omelet was delicious and came with breakfast potatoes and toast.

Once we were done with breakfast, we headed back to our hotel to grab our bags and check out. We had gotten an extension to check out at 12 noon so that we could head straight to the airport. We ended up being a little early to check in for our flight and had to wait about 30 mins before we could.

Bestie and I went on a hunt to check out as many of the Hudson News stores we could to see if they had a particular book she was after. Sadly no luck. To kill some time while waiting for our flight, I tried out one of the many slot machines. At least now I can say that I gambled while I was in Vegas hahaha. Neither of us had lunch so we thought we best get something to eat before our flight as we wouldn’t be getting back to Lawrence till around 10 pm. Luckily there was an Einstein Bros Bagels shop right by our gate. She went with a bagel sandwich while I just went with some toasted bagels and butter as I was still full from our breakfast.

Just as well we had gotten something to eat, because our flight was delayed in departing Vegas and we got into Kansas City late. Bestie’s husband and two sons were waiting for us at the airport to us back to the house. And there ends another girls trip for bestie and I.