Our Vegas Honeymoon

Well it is about time I wrote my entry all about our honeymoon!

We left Saturday May 2, 2009 in the afternoon on a direct flight. There seemed to be more turbulence than we are used to and the landing was a bit rough, not that we got sick, we aren't air sick people. I am going to blame that on the fact that it was a brand new plane, and I believe that the co-pilot did most of the flying and he seemed to be a fairly new pilot too. It wasn't terrible, just not the smoothest flight. We wound up getting there half an hour early too which was nice. We arrived at 5:35 local time. Even though it was just a short drive to our hotel, The Signature at MGM, it was still $14.10 USD. After the tip that wound up at an even $20.00 USD. Matt had forgotten that they had one dollar bills in the states so he said to the cab driver, "A five back will be good" and the driver said " All I get is a 90 cent tip?" I handed the five back to the driver and said thanks, apparently I had forgotten too that they had smaller bills. That bothered Matt into the next day that the driver was given a $6.00 tip and he was not a good driver. He was all over the place and on his cell phone the entire time speaking a language we had no idea what he was saying. It was too bad we hadn't been on the cab before, we'd have been riding in a Cadillac CTS (like the one I am aiming to earn with Mary Kay) and that driver seemed a lot friendlier! When we went to check in there were a few issues. My mom and dad had rented a time share on Ebay and the owner had not put our names on the room! After making a couple of calls, and 20 minutes later we were checked in to a room that made us feel absolutely rich!! We had a full living room and kitchen, a three piece bath and then the Master bedroom had a very comfortable king size bed, with a TV that comes up out of the desk. The master bathroom had separate his and her sinks. Hers equipped with a vanity with magnifying mirror, and his equipped with a TV!! There was a full size glass door shower, a jetted tub big enough for two and the toilet was even in a seperate little room with a phone!  Who needs a phone in the bathroom?!

By this point it was almost 9:00 our time(at home 7:00 Vegas time)  so we are starved!  So we set off to get some food.  Little do we know there is a fight that night at the MGM. This left us fighting through a HUGE crowd of crazy fight fans.  We walked over to the Luxor to find the food court there, we had walked right by the food court at MGM, couldn't see it through all of those people! It was good though because it was a lot quieter there anyway. We decide to eat at this place called Nathan's Famous. Wow! Do I wish we had one here!! I asked about the Cheese Steak,  the gentleman working tells me that it is their most popular item, not just for them but in that whole area, so I decide to get it. This was the BEST Cheese Steak I have ever eaten in my life. Now it doesn't look like much, but I had to take a picture.  The meat on it was so good! It had a soft layer of mayo, which didn't even taste like mayo with the rest of it on there, mushrooms, onions, green peppers and mozzarella cheese. The bread that it was made on was so soft. I ate two on the trip and now just thinking about it has me wanting another one!

We set off back to our hotel after walking around a bit more only to be fighting against the crowd of people leaving the fight! It was wall to wall people and being so short I could hardly see a thing. All I could do was trust that Matt could see where he was going so I clung to his hand and he fought through the people dragging me behind him! Eventually we made it through.

Day two we went to the Las Vegas Outlet Center to do some shopping. I really had been hoping to find a dress for my brother in law's wedding this summer, but no such luck. I found a lot of dresses that I would have loved to have bought but they were all way too much money! We did end up with a new pair of sandals each, courtesy of the Sketchers store. I found a couple of shirts. Ella is where I could have shopped all day. We don't have a Gymboree in Saskatoon so I made sure to get her some clothes there while I was around a Gymboree store. I could have kept shopping but Matt said, no, that's enough clothes! lol. That night we went and saw 'O' by Cirque De Soleil at the Belagio. It was such an incredible show. It is one of the more expensive shows to see in Vegas but it is worth every penny of it!

The next morning we went for breakfast with Mark(Matt's brother) and his girlfriend Kristy. Yes, we did end up doing something with them, despite that it was our honeymoon, but we had a lot of fun. We ate at the Luxor buffet, making sure to stay long enough to get some breakfast food and some lunch food ;) After that they came to our hotel to enjoy our eight swimming pools, including a lazy river. It wasn't too sunny while we were there so we didn't get a whole lot of sun, but it was nice to be lazy on the pool side. After lazing in the river we split up for the afternoon. Matt and I wound up having a nice nap in our hotel room before meeting Mark and Kristy again for a late supper at The Rain Forest Cafe. I have seen this rainforest cafe before, and another elsewhere I think, but I had never eaten at one before so I really wanted to go there. That was our "fancy meal" of the trip. One thing about Vegas is that the food there is really expensive! (Remember the cheese steak? I had that with fries and a drink, Matt had chicken fingers and a drink and it cost us $30.00 USD!!) It was a really neat atmosphere to sit in and because we went later, 8:30, it wasn't super busy. The food was very good! (I will add an image soon, need to get it from Mark)

Day four we spent some time walking around and seeing few sights, including my favorite, M&M World. Four floors of everything M&M!!! We came home with half a set of mugs that I really liked and when my mom and dad are there in September I have already told her she is going to bring home the other  half for me! If ever you want a nice big coffee mug that is the place to buy it! They are always really cute and fit a good two cups of tea in them. Perfect!

Later on we went to see a Titanic exhibit. This exhibit is going to be in Vegas for the next ten years so if you want to see it you shouldn't miss it.  It takes about an hour to walk through and look at everything. When you start off they give you a card and you are now this passenger on the ship, when you get to the end you get to see if that person survived or not. They have a ton of artifacts from the real ship, stories of passengers and crew members, and the big piece of the ship that has been brought to surface. This piece is massive! Which is likely the biggest reason this exhibit is going to be at the Luxor for so long, it would take a lot of work to move that around! We finished the day off with some swimming, and  think that was our second Nathan's meal night. We tried to eat cheaper than the first time though!

On Wednesday May 6, 2009 we spent the morning packing up, checking out, eating breakfast at the MGM buffet and then all day in airports flying home. On the way home we had to take three planes. First we flew to Vancouver, then to Calgary, then to Saskatoon. We reached home by 12:00 am local time. It was a long way home but thankfully didn't have to wait too long at the airports. One of our flights, the one from Vancouver to Calgary, left late due to other flights during the day being canceled and other flight crew members finally being able to get a flight home. That made us a bit more pushed for time but not by much.

Matt's mom and dad had brought Ella back to our house and put her to bed. She woke up at 3:30 in the morning ( I had hardly even gotten to sleep yet!) She was so happy to see me! I got this big hug and then she wanted to play. I did get her back to sleep and she was really happy to have us home in the morning. Matt spent the next two days at home and I was thrown right back into my Mary Kay work, which is why it has taken me so long to write this!  We could have used one more day to go to the pool again and see something things that we had wanted to see and missed but it was so nice to come home to Ella! I sure missed her! Next time we fly somewhere, this coming Christmas by the sound of it, she will be coming with us. Won't that be an adventure to write about!


Post written May 20, 2009 moved from previous blog