Last night we were out late, 4 in the morning late. So we slept in a little but only until like 9:30 or 10. Then we headed over to the Chicago bar that my sister likes to watch games at because the Cubs were getting ready to play at 11 am. The bar was called Brando’s Sports Bar. I got a pepperoni pizza, Don got a breakfast pizza, and I’m having trouble remembering what Kelsey got. The food was surprisingly good. I really enjoyed my pizza. We watched until about the 6th or 7th inning but they Cubs were losing so we decided to head back and check out Kelsey’s pool. Before that we checked out a store that Don wanted to see.
It actually didn’t feel crazy hot today so the pool felt really cold! Luckily there was a hot tub to warm up in, haha. I didn’t really think we would have to warm up in a hot tub in Vegas. We hung out at the pool for a couple of hours. During this time I checked the Cubs score and saw they lost to the Giants, 2-3. What I didn’t realize was I was looking at yesterday’s game and they actually won today 3-2! So crazy.
Once we were done at the pool we hung out at Kelsey’s for a bit and got ready for dinner. Luckily my eyes felt a ton better today and I had decided to wear my contacts. We ate dinner at a Mexican Restaurant near my sister’s place called Lindo Michoacan. The food was excellent and the margaritas were huge. This place was especially cool because it was more up on a hill and the bar had windows that looked down at the Las Vegas Valley and The Strip. It was a pretty cool view. The bar seats were also very comfortable. We sat at the bar to avoid a wait and also to enjoy the view. I would definitely recommend this place.
After dinner we were on a mission. We wanted to be at The Mirage Casino by 8 pm to see the Volcano Show. We made it just barely and the show was pretty cool. Who would have thought that a fake volcano erupts in Las Vegas every night? And it’s a lot of fire!
After the Volcano Show we went to The Venetian. We basically just decided to check out more of the places on the strip that we didn’t get to see the night before. The Venetian was pretty cool. I think it was here that we decided to do the “Find a Frichtl” photo. This was basically Don taking a panoramic picture of my sister and I somewhere in the crowd.
The first one was really easy….
After The Venetian we headed back over to Caesar’s Palace. Took some pictures there too.
After Caesar’s Palace we went over to watch The Bellagio Fountain Show since we missed it the night before. It was pretty cool.
Here we did another Find the Frichtl Photo…
We also checked out the Bellagio Conservatory, which was decorated in an under the sea kind of theme. It was pretty cool. We also did another Find the Frichtl photo here. ..
It was a pretty good day. We are always on the run and we leave tomorrow afternoon.
This morning we woke up early again, made some breakfast at home and got on the road to Red Rock Canyon. It felt a little cooler out today, which was nice but still pretty hot. We opted to do the scenic drive at Red Rock, although it did allow us plenty of opportunities to get out and walk around and take some pretty cool pictures.
The views were pretty amazing. We took so many pictures, but pictures really couldn’t do the place justice.
Once we were finished exploring Red Rock we decided today was the day to try In and Out Burger. Don had already had it before and of course Kelsey had too, so I was the only one who hadn’t tried it. The burger was definitely good. I am still unclear if it it was better than Shake Shack…I’m leaning towards liking Shake Shack more, but In and Out is close behind. I think it is better than Five Guys. I was even surprised that the fries were pretty good at In and Out; I had read that many people don’t like their fries. I thought they were good, better than Shake Shack fries.
After lunch we checked out Mount Charleston National Park. It was pretty awesome. The elevation at the park is much higher than Vegas so it was about 20-30 degrees cooler at times. I think the lowest temperature we saw in the car was 65. We wanted to try a short trail here so we chose Robber’s Roost Trail. It was a very short trail that headed up to a rocky cave like structure. After that trail we went to the Desert View Overlook. The views from there were amazing. It was so cool to see the different landscapes at this elevation. From the overlook we could see the Northern part of the Mojave Desert and some of the old bomb test sites.
We had a busy day and we knew we were about to have a busy night! I had a problem though, my eyes were so dry and painful. Everything was dry: my nose, my skin, and my eyes. My eyes were so painful I even googled “las vegas painful eyes”, and it’s a thing! It’s called Las Vegas Dry Eye Syndrome. I found so many people on travel forums talking about their eye problems whenever they visit Vegas. I felt so relieved that other people had experienced this, but I needed it fixed because we were going out to the strip tonight. It was about 4 pm when we got back and I took out my contacts and pretty much cried in the shower because my eyes hurt so bad. I can’t remember the last time I cried from physical pain (probably one of my foot injuries in the Philippines). The pain was a 9 out of 10. I laid on the bed with a cold washcloth over my eyes and hoped it would get better, especially because I HATE wearing my glasses. I decided though that I would not be able to wear my contacts this night.
We decided to go to dinner at BJs Brewhouse before going to the strip. I also picked up some eye drops. I read online that many people recommended the GenTeal Gel Eye Drops so I decided to get those. I also got regular drops because I was kind of scared of the gel. The gel was amazing though, if you have this problem get the gel!
Now for The Strip. It was crazy! I couldn’t believe how big the casinos were! We started at MGM Grand because one of Kelsey’s friends gave us free tickets to see David Copperfield. That guys is crazy, seriously how does he do that stuff?! Good show, glad we went, it started at 9 and wasn’t done until about 11 or 11:30. After the show we were ready to explore The Strip. We started out by riding the tram around to see the strip, then we got off at Caesar’s Palace. I could not believe how big the strip was. I wanted to see things from Caesar’s to Mandalay Bay and that was a far walk! When you look at the map it doesn’t look that far, but it is, it’s like 2 miles! We tried some roulette at Caesar’s; I’ve never really gambled. After Caesar’s we tried to watch the fountains at Bellagio but we found out that they stopped at midnight. So from the Bellagio we went to Cosmopolitan. Here we wanted to try a drink that has a flower in it that numbs your face. We went to the chandelier bar but we were told the drink is only available upstairs. We decided to just stay here and have a drink; we were getting tired and we still had a long ways to go. But we did get a second wind here at the Cosmo, we had some fun watching my sister play and win roulette. From the Cosmo we went to New York New York. Here we stopped for some NY style pizza and it was pretty good, or I could have been slightly buzzed. All I know is that I was extremely hungry. From New York New York we trudged on. We made it through Excaliber and finally to the Luxor. The Luxor is definitely my favorite, just because it is a pyramid. We didn’t actually go in the Luxor, I just really wanted pictures of the outside. Next time we will go in the Luxor. Around 3:30 in the morning we made it to Mandalay Bay. I wish we could have spent more time here, but we were exhausted. We got home around 4 am. I couldn’t believe we stayed out that long. Time passes so quickly on the strip! I was pretty amazed by how ginormous the casinos were.
We finally made it to Vegas last night around 9:30 pm. My sister has been living here for a little over a year and this is my first time in Las Vegas. Our flight was on time and uneventful so that was good. The minute we stepped outside the airport it was like opening an oven to check on food. So freaken hot! But super dry. It was weird. Kelsey picked us up and we headed back to her apartment and pretty much we just hung out and went to bed.
I was excited to check out if Vegas had any different Pokemon than Chicago and I found out my sister pretty much lives on an Ekans nest.
Today we got up early and made breakfast. Then we got on the road for the Hoover Dam. I’ve never thought much about the Hoover Dam until I saw Tom Green visit it on his show. Basically he kept saying over and over “the biggest damned dam, you would think they would make the elevators bigger”. Ever since then I’ve wanted to see if the elevators were small. I would say they were about average. The dam itself was ginormous and it was pretty cool to see and hear about its history.
After our tour of the Hoover Dam and taking all of our pictures we headed over to Lake Mead. We went to a look out point to take some pictures.
It looked so crazy. It was like looking at another planet. After checking out Lake Mead we headed back to Boulder City for some lunch. We were going to decide here if we wanted to head back to Vegas or go to the Valley of Fire Park. We ate at The Chicken Shack in Boulder City. The chicken was great. I had buffalo strips, Don had garlic wings, and Kelsey ordered a cheeseburger. The service was great also.
We decided to head up to Valley of Fire Park. The drive took a little more than an hour I think and we stopped to take pictures in random spots. It was pretty cool to drive through the desert. I really haven’t seen this type of landscape in real life until now.
The Valley of Fire gets its name from the red rocks there. It was pretty cool. We basically drove through the park and took some pictures. It was too hot to hike.
We got back to Kelsey’s apartment around 5:30 and we got ready to go out in Container Park for dinner. Container Park was pretty cool the restaurants and shops were all in shipping containers. We ate at a place called The Perch. I chose this place because we were looking for Hawaiian food and Yelp told me it was #2 in Las Vegas I think. It seemed more like Asian Fusion but it was still a good place. We had Fried Calamari for an appetizer and drinks. Kelsey and I had beer; Don ordered this lychee martini that wasn’t on the menu and it was delicious. For my dinner I had the Chimichurri Chicken Sandwich and it was amazing. Kelsey had the Chicken Quinoa and I can’t remember what Don had but we were all happy with our meals. We were supposed to meet Don’s friend Sam here but we decided to meet up after.
We met Sam at Oak & Ivy. It was basically a whiskey bar. I ordered some sort of whiskey cocktail and I really wished I would have just stuck to an old fashioned. After having a drink we headed over to the Fremont Street Experience because the bar we wanted to try had a crazy, long line. The Fremont Street Experience was basically just walking down a street with tons of crazy bars and casinos. There were a lot of performers and musicians as well. The most famous thing about Fremont Street is the giant, lighted screen on the ceiling. This was pretty cool. Fremont is basically the old strip, so a lot of the casinos and stuff are much older. It was definitely an experience. I mostly felt depressed walking into most of the casinos. It seemed rundown, with old people just gambling away.
We walked the whole thing and Sam was with us. We watched the special show at midnight. It was music synced with lights and images on the screen. It was pretty cool. The show was about 10 minutes and by then I was tired and pretty much ready to head back but we tried out Banger Brewing. It was pretty good. I had a watermelon wheat beer that was delicious. We were out there until closing which I think was 1 am. Then we said our goodbyes and got an uber back to Kelsey’s. We had the weirdest uber driver. He talked the whole way home and I was basically sleeping. We did a lot today. I was super tired and my right eye hurt like something was in it. But we got a lot planned for tomorrow so stayed tuned.
Just woke up from a crazy dream. Needed to write it down.
So Andrea and I are in the Fiesta and we are driving around some unknown city. It must have been during a road trip. There is a storm coming in and we are trying to figure out how to get back on the road and on our way home. There is a sense of us needing to get the heck out of the city and fast. As we are driving none of our GPS devices are working so we are just trying to go by instinct. We end up on what feels like a ramp bridge to cross a body of water – but it ends up to turn into a dead end pier to the water. Above us are bridges that seem to go over the body of water – we are just stuck underneath them.
Unfortunately we are not the only ones that went down the dock so there a few cars behind us as well….
So today started off weird. We got up and were excited to have a fun last day. Don was sitting on the bed and he picked up a pair of his pants that had been hanging on a chair when something black and pretty big scurried out of the pants and under the bed. I did not see it myself but Kelsey did and immediately she decided she was going out to the lobby to have a coffee. They were pretty sure it was giant spider. Don and I were freaking out. We got a flashlight and looked under the bed we believed the mysterious creature went. I didn’t see anything. Don thought it was size of the palm of my hand. We looked every where under the bed and under the mattress. We couldn’t find it. It was seriously creeping us out. We knew we had to switch rooms tonight so I started packing things up and putting them on Kelsey’s bed. Everything on Kelsey’s bed was safe because it had been packed up and checked. We checked under Kelsey’s bed also and nothing. We even checked the bathroom. We could not find any trace of this “spider”.
After about 20 minutes of searching and packing I was ready to go out and talk to the front desk about moving rooms. So I left and Don stayed in the room. We couldn’t stay in our current room tonight because it was already booked by someone else. Kelsey and I had talked that morning and said we should stay at the apartment tonight instead of the room that would share a bathroom. Unfortunately we should have made that decision yesterday because the apartment was booked yesterday. The guy told me I could see the other room that had a shared bathroom and decide so I went back to the room to tell Don. When I got back he said he had found the culprit.
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It was a crab! A freaken crab! How in the world did a crab come in the hotel room and hide in Don’s pants hanging on a chair? We will never know. What we do know is a scared crab falling out of clothing looks insanely close to a giant spider. We also found out that crabs are very good hiders in hotel rooms. I don’t know how this guy got to the other side of the room and behind the night stand without us seeing him but he did. I wanted to take him outside but he would not let us near him so who knows if he is still living in our hotel room at Rancho De La Playa.
I told Don the news about our only option for tonight at Rancho De La Playa was the room with the shared bathroom. He was upset because he thought I told the front desk yesterday that we wanted the apartment. We had a miscommunication and he really didn’t want to stay in the room they were offering. I didn’t really want to either but I also just wanted to relax and enjoy our last day. We went outside to show Kelsey it wasn’t a spider, it was just a crab. We had a laugh and packed our things into the car. The guy at the front desk said we could see the room now so we did. It was a fine room and the bathroom looked okay but we really didn’t want it, especially since it wasn’t much cheaper than a room with a private bathroom. So we told the guy we were gonna do a walk and see if we could find anything else and we would come back and let him know.
We first stopped at Laconda Hotel, the place we had breakfast at the day before. The woman showed us the only room available. It was very nice but no AC…the windows were the same as the ones at Casa Papaya and Kelsey was not ok with this. I couldn’t imagine sleeping without AC so we declined. The next place we went was Villas Kalimba but they had no vacancies. Next was a place called Samara Tree House Inn and it looked very cool, but we would be staying in a tree house basically. It wasn’t really in a tree, it was just an elevated room that overlooked the beach. The problem was it had a giant window with no screen, so this was a no go. We were about to give up but we tried one more place, Casa Del Mar Hotel. It looked very cute and the woman at the front desk was very nice. She had one room available with AC for only one night. We took a look and we were very happy with it. It was definitely an upgrade and it wasn’t expensive, $80 a night. The stay came with free breakfast and Casa Del Mar has their own beach chairs on the beach. The place was great. We went back to Rancho De La Playa and told the guy we would not be staying and we checked out and moved to our new place.
Our room at Casa Del Mar Hotel.Common area at Casa Del Mar Hotel. There was a small pool that isn’t in view here.
Once we moved we saw we were right across the street from Gusto Beach, the place we had drinks last night. We decided to have breakfast there and we could have those amazing iced coffees with ice cream! The breakfast here was good. I loaded up on iced coffee. During breakfast we discussed the plan for the day. Did we want to attempt the snorkeling? Kelsey and I were okay with it or just staying here and relaxing, so we told Don to decide and we would be okay with whatever. He loves to snorkel so if he really wanted to I didn’t want him to miss out. He said that he really didn’t feel like it though and thought it might be better just to have a relaxing day here. We found out we could come back in sit in their beach chairs at Gusto Beach if we wanted.
The amazing iced coffee with ice cream at Gusto Beach.
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After breakfast we went back to our new room. I really liked it. We got ready to go to the beach. Don said he wanted to relax a bit in the room so Kelsey and I went ahead. We decided to just hang out at Gusto Beach.
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After about an hour Don showed up. We all swam and had drinks. It was awesome.
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Around 2 or 3 pm we were getting hungry and nachos sounded good. We knew the place next to us had tacos so we decided to move over there. The place was called Lo Que Hay Bar Taqueria. We got some beers and steak nachos. The bartender brought us over free shots. I think they were just extra pina colada but they were delicious! We really liked the bartender and waiters here, they were much more attentive than those at Gusto Beach.
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We hung out here for awhile and debated if we should just have dinner here and stay all night. Ultimately we decided to go to the place Don saw last night so we went back to the room to get ready. The place was called El Lagarto and it looked pretty cool. The food was great. Kelsey had steak with lobster tail.
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Don had steak with shrimp I believe.
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I had the churrasco, of course.
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The food was amazing. We were very glad that we stopped being lazy and came out for our last night. After dinner we wanted to go out for our last night so we went back to Lo Que Hay. We really liked the atmosphere and service here. We did have a spider incident here but it turned out okay. Kelsey didn’t even scream, must have been the drinks.
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Next we went to a small bar that had caught my eye the night before.
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The place was called Microbar Samara. It was much different from anywhere we had been so far in Costa Rica. They had many different Costa Rican craft beers, so that was cool. It also had a hipster feel to it. Kelsey and I enjoyed it, Don was done though so after one drink he went back to the hotel. We were determined to stay up past 10 pm and have fun on our last night in Costa Rica. I think we accomplished that.
