Day 1-2: Vegas Marks the Spot

After a wonderful 10 days with family in Atlanta, we took a night flight to Las Vegas on the 27th. We arrived around 12:30, so we got an Uber and went straight to our hotel. We found a mega deal for Oasis at Gold Spike on booking.com and decided to go for it, not realizing that we had actually booked the hotel that MTV The Real World filmed at...lol. Long story short, it was loud and ear plugs were actually included in the room free of charge. So that's why it was so cheap...rookie mistake!

We had one day in Vegas, so we maximized it by going to the outlet malls (Hey, it was post X-mas and we still needed some cold weather clothes and gifts for David's family!). Downtown LV has a bike ride share program, and we paid the $8 each to bike around town. I wish I had a picture of us riding home after the outlet mall with all of our bags hanging precariously in the baskets!

After a quick break in the hotel (before the party started up again), we went to the nearby Fremont Street Experience, which is an outdoor tourist shopping area full of casinos, live bands, semi-naked street performers, and a 1,500 foot canopy of lights overhead. It was entertaining, but we were quickly ready to head to the strip for some more polished glam.

We road our bikes as far as the Stratosphere and then walked the strip until midnight. We saw a mini performance at Circus Circus, saw the fountain show at the Bellagio, wandered through Ceasar's Palace, Pink Flamingo,  and the Venetian. By far, my favorite was the Bellagio. I said to David, "Oh, so thiiiis is how people can stay in LV for a week!" It was truly beautiful inside, and I was mesmerized by Chihuly's glass art blossoms. Absolutely stunning.


Starving, we searched high and low for the famous In n Out Burger. We found it just as we were about to faint from hunger, and we scarfed down our burger, fries, and chocolate shake. Not gonna lie...I was not as impressed as I thought I would be! Too much hype, I suppose.

We finally caught an Uber home, exhausted after 35,000 steps and 6 miles biking (!!!!). As we learned, don't underestimate how much time you need to explore the entire strip. The strip is looong. We might have saved time if we had used the bus that drops you at different spots, but we preferred walking. We were unable to get to some of the last casinos and the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, but perhaps we'll be able to see them before we head out.

Here are a few more photos from the Strip: