As most of you are aware I was married on August 12. We wasted no time jumping into the honeymoon. The plan? Hop on a ferry to Vancouver, take a shuttle down to Bellingham Airport, fly to Vegas (connection in SeaTac) and spend 5 nights in MGM Grand. I can't begin to tell you how much I love planning vacations. Years back I realized how much cheaper we can travel by booking everything on our own. I spent countless hours planning the trip and I'm thrilled to say it went off with only one hiccup. Neither of us drive so that was not an option the entire trip. We'll probably fix that for our next trip.

August 13

A day after our wedding we woke up ready for a full day of travel. A 1.5 hour ferry trip later we were on the mainland of British Columbia. Hopped on a bus and waited at River Rock Casino for our shuttle. The shuttle arrived on time and off we went to Bellingham airport. I've heard the rumours and they're true indeed, Bellingham Airport is miniature! We flew to SeaTac airport and stumbled upon a young boy (12 years old?) who asked us, "Are you flying to Vegas?" Maybe my Nike Las Vegas shirt gave me away, lucky I wore that shirt! With a new travel partner we made our way to our gate. All the while this young boy reminded me of a nephew of mine. When we grabbed our luggage in Vegas I was thrilled to see the young boy reunited with his father.

We stepped outside the airport and it felt like an enormous blowdryer was set to the highest heat and blasting in our faces. The heat back at home is nowhere near this hot! A $15 cab ride later we arrived at MGM Grand. We ran into our first and only snag on the trip, we were checked into a room with two double beds in the Grand Tower. Unacceptable! It was after midnight and I wanted some rest, I did not complain. A few minutes later we were relaxing in our King Deluxe Grand Tower Room. Bags unpacked and a 10am alarm set we called it a night. (Lame right??)

August 14 - Day 1

We woke up at around 10am and hit up the MGM Grand Buffet. The food was delicious!! I loaded up on traditional breakfast items and a bunch of bacon! During our meal we decided to go to the North Premium Outlets first. The moment we stepped out of MGM the heat hit us like a punch in the face! My sweat was sweating!! We bought 3 day bus passes and made our way to the North Premium Outlets. Our first stop was the Nike store where we stocked up on some stuff: shirts, shorts and shoes.

For a while I've been eye-balling Coach wallets but could not justify the price tag. I think the most I ever spent on a wallet was $25. We lucked out on the day we arrived, Coach had a one day sale, save an additional 30% on everything in the store! I spent 10 minutes deciding which wallet I wanted and opted to buy a Coach messenger bag too. If someone told me 5 years ago I'd be freaking stoked to visit a Coach store I would have punched that person in the face!

To thank my wife for planning and executing every last detail for the wedding I offered to buy her a Coach purse/bag and wallet combo. I took advantage of one of the few chairs in the store and sat down with our shopping bags. It was a ****ing joy watching her from a distance. I can be as creepy as I want, she's mine!! Feeling a little fatigued I rested my eyes a while. She kept coming up to me, "what do you think of this one?? How's this one?" Time goes by and she walks away with two bags, a wallet and some other random stuff. We spent about an hour more at the Premium Outlets before making our way back to our room to drop off our bags.

On our way to dinner at Noodles in Bellagio we spotted some street performers in front of Bally's. These guys were dancers who entertained big time! We tipped 'em a few bucks and took some photos. Pretty cool, eh?





Before entering Bellagio we took in a couple of water shows. I will never grow tired of the show, always reminds me of the end of Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven.

Noodles is a special restaurant to us. After we got engaged (November 2010) we went to Bellagio for dinner. I heard great things about their buffet but we missed it by an hour. Super hungry we decided to eat at Noodles where we received excellent service, delicious food at a reasonable price. The quality and service far exceeds the price IMO. Anyway we arrived at Noodles and had a great meal. The same man who served us back in 2010 served us that night. We made sure to tell him. He chatted us up and we had a ****ing fantastic time. We ordered wonton soup, steamed rice, and forgot the name of the noodle dish.

After dinner we went across the way to Paris. She was sad we missed The Eiffel Tower during our first trip, we promised to head up there this time around. I was exhausted by this point and did not realize we would spend 1 hour+ waiting in lines to get there! We arrived just in time to watch the last Bellagio water show of the night. I snapped a bunch of pics, here are a few of my favourites.





Physically drained we decided to call it a night. We walked back to MGM Grand from Paris. It seemed to take an eternity as my feet were incredibly sore. I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

Speaking of which I'm going to have to press the pause button there. I'll conclude days 2-4 on my next post. Day 2 teaser? "In which Cro sees The Dark Knight Rises in real IMAX!"

grats croshow!

Nice TR Cro. Glad you had a good time.

Lots of face punching in this trip report.

When bad writers write bad haha next part is drafted, will post more tonight

August 15 - Day 2

We went our separate ways for the first part of the day. Wife went shopping, I made my way to Brenden Theatres at The Palms. I've been dying to see The Dark Knight Rises in real IMAX, 15/70mm format. I was blown away by my experience, one of my favourite movie-going experiences of the last few years. There were only a handful of people in the theatre, it felt like a private screening.



We met back at the hotel room then went swimming for a couple of hours. At one point I got out of the MGM lazy river and lied down where we placed our stuff. It happened to be next to an enter/exit area for the pool. By pure accident I discovered a perv pro move, I glanced up to see a woman's ass while she was pulling up her bathing suit bottom. I noticed a few times the tiny current of the lazy river yanked their bathing suits down and while they got out they had to pull 'em up.

We made one last trip to the MGM Grand buffet, this time for dinner. Stuffed with incredible food we walked over to Ka Theatre for the show. This was my second viewing, her first. It's an amazing show, many wtf/jaw on the floor moments. The story is interesting, overall a great time. Doubt I'll see it again, two is plenty.

After Ka we decided to go to Peppermill Lounge. We went there during our first trip and loved how it feels like a 70s/80s time capsule. It's about as chill as it gets, it was a nice way to wind down at the end of the day. We reflected on our trip so far, caught our breath and talked about our plans for the next day. After another long day we stumbled home.

August 16 - Day 3

For breakfast we went to Hash House A Go Go at IP. What a great way to start the day! Tall glass of orange juice, cup of coffee and a huge serving of potatoes, chorizo, tomatoes, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, eggs and whatever else they threw in there! Hash House 1 - Me 2 (This was my third visit, first visit annihilated me)




Once again we parted ways because she wanted to go to Bonanza, the world's largest gift shop. I did not want to go there so I roamed around the strip for a while. Bad idea! That was probably the hottest day. I drank some water, had a drink or two and made my way to Aria to meet Dominic for lunch. I wandered through the pricey stores there and cooled off for a while. I stumbled upon a cool car so I snapped some pics


I walked to Lemongrass inside Aria, a Thai place recommended by Dominic. Moments later I was greeted by the man, the myth, the legend himself. He let me take a photo, apologize for the low res, you get the idea.



We had some delicious Thai while discussing films, life experiences etc. I highly recommend Lemongrass and drag Dominic along if you can! Dominic is a cool dude, guy's aces! (I say this while mimicking a pistol with my hand) After lunch it was time to meet up with my lady. On my way back, you guessed it, photo op! Lots of cool stuff outside Monte Carlo, this is my favourite shot.



We had some chill time back at the room so we took a quick nap before meeting up with another 2p2er, beermankirk (LV Lifestyle reg). I've heard all about the famous Ellis Island steak special so Kirk took us there. It was great to meet up with Kirk, we bumped into each other at a Canucks game once upon a time and spent a drunken night pissing away money at the nearest craps table. The Ellis Island steak special did not disappoint! Juicy delicious steak with veggies, side and a tall icy cold glass of beer. We spent a while catching up and once again it was time to part ways. ='(

We journeyed to The Mirage and joined the enormous line-up for The Beatles Love. Both of us love The Beatles and were glad to see it again. It's hard for me to pick a favourite moment, probably one of the following: I Want To Hold Your Hand, Help, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds..I could go on. The performance was outstanding and the crowd was a rowdy one! Everyone knew exactly when to cheer, you could feel the energy in the air. It felt like the performers were feeding off our enthusiastic cheers.

On our way back we stopped at this food court and had a snack. It did the job, by far the worst thing we ate the whole trip.



August 17 - Day 4

We slept in until around 1pm or so. We decided our last full day would day would be slower paced. We crawled out of bed and went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. I ordered a huge bacon cheeseburger. I couldn't finish the last 1/3 of the burger, that's a serious burger!! We picked up some stuff in the Hard Rock gift shop and went back to our room to drop off our stuff.

We spent a couple of hours relaxing at the pool (no perv move this time). All the while I'm shocked my wife didn't get a sun burn once, she's as white as they get!

After a relaxing day of swimming we got ready for our next stop. During our last trip we spent our last night downtown, decided to do the same this time around. I wore a tuxedo t-shirt, she wore a tiara that read, "Vegas Baby," combining for the ultimate combo which screams, "We just got married!" The whole night people kept shouting, "congratulations you two!!!!" This wasn't our intention but it was kinda cool all the same. We took in an overheard display show, Queen. Had a bunch of drinks, strolled through places like Golden Nugget and Binions.

We took a photo with $1,000,000 at Binions, pretty cool and free of charge. I made sure to check out the poker room and the Poker Hall of Fame. We got a bite to eat at Binion's Cafe, the club sandwich is tasty and filling. As soon as it started raining we decided to call it a night. Below is a thrilling picture of me browsing the menu.



Once we arrived in our room my wife packed within moments and was asleep before I knew it. I took my time packing while sorting pictures, deleting bad ones, etc. I decided to check in to our flight on the Alaska Airlines website. I noticed an "upgrade" option for $50. I threw down a hundred bucks so we could fly home first class, it was a relatively cheap upgrade. Alaska charges $20 per checked bag, but if you fly first class you get two checked bags free. When all was said and done the upgrade was $30 each and bloody worth it. Huge comfy seats, LEG SPACE and overall a much more comfortable ride home. The rest of the trip home was smooth and I can't tell you how relieved I was to come home.

Wait a minute, no poker? No gambling? This is VEGAS! I haven't been a winning poker player or gambooler for a long time. My previous few trips I have only donated to fellow tourists and decided not to gamble. Next time for sure! Playing ultra low stakes while drinking and chatting with a bunch of others in the same scenario is a great time. We're likely going to spend our first anniversary in Vegas. The price is right and we love it!! Until next time! Las Vegas 4 - Me 0

nice trip report! Meeting Cro was a good time....he's a great guy and his new bride is a lucky gal.

who is this?

May I ask what Cro is short for? the crow nation?

Thanks Dominic, very kind words.

mschu,that's me browsing the Binion's Cafe menu. Cro is short for Crosis. Long story short i used to be a Magic: The Gathering nerd. My favorite deck was blue/black/red counter burn, matching the colors of Crosis, The Purger. Used that name for gaming, still do for xbox.

Sounds like a great trip!
Congrats.

Great trip report! Always good to run into the croshow! Need to throw down that pic of us outside Ellis Island!