AHHHHH - What A Great Week

When Pops has to travel, I will usually try to go along if I can get it worked out with babysitters for the girls. We have been so blessed and gotten to go on many great trips. The great part is that I pay for my food and airfare, or use advantage miles, and the rest is taken care of. This is a great way to see the world. In the last few years we have been to Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, Hawaii, California, Florida, and many places in between. Pops went to Paris last April, but I decided to stay home. Little Karsyn was expected to be born the first of April and I just couldn't stand to miss any part of her birth or her first days.

Out of all the places I have been, Las Vegas is my absolute favorite. The hotels are fantastic, lots of people watching, great food and lots of shows. By Las Vegas standards, we are very boring people. Not a drop of alcohol or any naked bodies. Pops does not gamble at all and I will a little bit. Just Roulette and a few slot machines. I have my own scientific approach to Roulette and I usually win, but Pops thinks I am crazy. He has taken and taught many statistic classes and he says my logic just doesn't add up.

This week he had a conference in Las Vegas. I was not about to pass this one up. We always stay at the Bellagio. It just doesn't get any better than that. The weather this week was in the low 70's. I had my breakfast in bed 3 mornings in a row and while Pops was working, I laid out by the pool and read. There is a pastry shop that has the best cream cheese danish I have ever eaten. I think it probably has a whole 8 oz. block of cream cheese on it. Tastes just like cheesecake.

The Bellagio has a huge atrium that has tons of flowers and fountains. The theme changes every couple of months. The theme right now is the Chinese New Year (the year of the pig). Everything is made with real flowers. The children in the pictures are made of flowers that are changed out every few days. The pictures just don't do it justice. When you walk into the hotel, the strong smell of the flowers hits you. They have gorgeous arrangements all over the hotel.

Every meal we ate was fantastic. We had the Bellagio buffet twice. All the peeled shrimp and crab you can eat. That is worth the whole trip. We had dinner at Smith and Wollensky's. One of the best steaks around. We always get the Cajun marinated bone in ribeye. It looks like a roast beef that you would serve the whole family. After the first trip, we learned to share. The macaroni and cheese was awesome.

Another great place was Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab Las Vegas. We will definitely add this to one of our Vegas favorites.

Another great meal was at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. (For those of you that watch the food network, you will know who I am talking about. I had tiger shrimp on top of a corn tamale with a cilantro cream sauce. Pop's had smoked chicken quesadillas that were the best I have ever had. We had a warm chocolate moulten cake with toasted pecan ice cream for dessert. Yum!!!

We have seen some great shows in the past, but this time they were good, but not great. We saw Mystere and The Fab Four (Beatles). Our trip last July will go down as Pops all time favorite because we went to see Elton John. We saw him on Wednesday night. We were scheduled to come hom on Friday night, but after a 2 hour delay on the tarmac, the flight was cancelled. We decided to make the best of it and went to see Elton again.

When it comes to traveling, I have my 3 night limit. I am always ready to come home and sleep in my own bed. I could have stayed another week. I am already planning my next trip. I will be watching the Sunday travel section for the great deals.