LOVE Vegas

Since seeing the Making of Cirque Du Soliel's LOVE on Showtime earlier this year, I've been wanting to see it in person. Last May when I had a weekend in Vegas due to a layover from a work meeting, I couldn't afford the cheapest tickets at $150. So when my friend Shelly spotted a deal of $50 tickets, I couldn't pass it up, along with a chance to see my friend Kerri again.
We spent only 24 hours really on the Las Vegas Strip but ended up packing a lot in. We arrived Friday afternoon and after a long hot drive to the Harrahs hotel and check in we were starving. We stepped into the hot oven air (106 degrees) at 2pm and it took us 45 minutes to cross the street to Serendipity restaurant outside of Ceasar's Palace. Unfortunately the heat didn't diminish the crowds and we had another half hour wait in the blazing heat before we would get into the a/c restaurant. We were both STARVING at this point and bought a slushy to try to cool us down (it didn't work). Luckily we both knew what we wanted as soon as we sat down - ABC Burger (Avocado, Brie cheese, Carmelized Onions). We quickly ate it down before moving onto their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate! This is a perfect desert for the HOT Vegas weather. I didn't want to get brain freeze so I ate most of it with a spoon.
Photo disclaimer - Due to hunger I wasn't thinking enough to take photos of this place or of our lovely food, so I borrowed these off the web

Serendipity 3 at Caesar's Palace

Their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate

After finally feeding ourselves we headed back to the room to rest up as we waited too long to eat and it was too hot to be outside. I called my friend Kerri and after about 50 different suggestions we finally decided on going to the Mirage Stack for dinner. They offered a lot of small plate options which was good for Shelly and I since we just finished stuffing ourselves with bad fried, sugary food and our stomachs were paying the price.
Kerri was king enough to pick us up at the hotel and we went to dinner at 7pm. The restaurant was beautiful, but very dark. I commented how all I could see of Shelly was her necklace and teeth. After my eyes adjusted we decided to share the Hot Rocks thinly sliced steak, lettuce wraps and mac and cheese. Now the menu claims you can share these small plates, not the case if you eat more than an ounce of food. And at these prices I was expecting a lot more food. The thinly sliced sirloin was so thin you could see through them and there were only 6 pieces. I guess that is why it only takes 8 seconds to fully cook the steak. Three little lettuce wraps were also smoking the meat and the hit of the evening was the Mac and Cheese, so good we ordered another round of it (mostly because we were still hungry too).

Restaurant Stack in the Mirage Hotel

Earlier in the day I had send a message to my friend Phillip, who was also in town with his husband, Troy for a family reunion to stop by if he had time. Since it was dark in the restaurant I didn't notice him sneak up and pretend to be a waiter and ask if everything was ok with our meal. I guess Troy had had enough of the Vegas heat and was back in the a/c suite, so Phillip decided to buy a single ticket to the show LOVE and join us for the remainder of the evening. It was a great surprise.
We all headed over to the theater and decided on a meeting place after the show to repay Phillip for picking up our check and treat him to drinks. The show was amazing. I had forgotten a lot of the older Beatles songs and had a great time watching and signing along. I first thought our seats would be bad ones since they were in the top section and only $50 (Kerri tried to see if they would upgrade us to better ones, but they said no, not with the price we paid). The seats actually turned out to be great. Because in Cirque Du Soliel shows there is so much going on you miss a lot of it. But not from where we were sitting. We got to look down on the whole thing and see people floating by us. We also got to see a part of the show that those sitting down below don't get to see, as in the middle of the show they are covered by a white sheet.
The show is definitely one to see if you are a fan of the Beatles or Cirque. There isn't as much Cirque acrobats and contortionist, but there still is the wonder and magic that make you say "how does one's body do that?".
After the show we all took our turns taking photos in front of the sign, as you can't take any during the show itself. Shelly and I took Phillip to drinks as we owed him for picking up the dinner tab, but unfortunately Kerri had to go home as she had to work in the morning. It was great hearing all of Phillips travel stories and his adventurous life he has led. I think Shelly is hoping to have a new travel buddy in him. We departed at the street crossing at 2am where the weather was still a warm 98 degrees. Got to love Vegas in the summer!

Kerri, Me, Phillip and Shelly (the Fab Four)

Love my Phillip!

The next morning after a long delay of getting out of bed, Shelly and I decided to look for some yummy breakfast in the Caesar's Forum shops. Unfortunately, it seemed too early for most restaurants to be open and yet too late to hit the cafeteria breakfast buffet. After wandering the casino and shops for an hour looking for anything that might have breakfast on the menu, we decided to just go to Cheesecake Factory. Luckily as we were complaining to the waitress as she sat us that we just were hoping to catch breakfast somewhere, she showed us the back page of their book menu to show all day breakfast being served! We were so HAPPY at this point we didn't care it didn't include pancakes... After finally getting some food in us we wandered the forum shops for some window shopping. We made our final stop at the Haute Chocolat store Vosge. I think we ended up staying in there for about an hour taste testing all they offered. I ended up buying about $50 worth of chocolate and it was all worth it. My favorite was the chocolate covered marshmallows with caramel. The box only came with 4 pieces and I savored each one of them. It's dangerous to know they will ship it to you....
As we were heading out of the shops we spotted a sign saying Pete Rose was there doing a meet and greet. Shelly being a baseball fan thought it would be cool to get something signed by him,. But not at the prices they required you to purchase something - an 8x10 photo for $80. He wasn't looking so happy about being there and meeting his "fans". I just thought he really needed to make the mortgage payment this month or still trying to pay off those legal fees.
You just never know who you might run into while in Vegas!

Statue in the Forum shops

Interior of Forum Shops

Pete Rose happy to meet his fans