We arrived at McCarren Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada in the early evening. The first thing I saw as we exited the plane into the airport gate was slot machines! (I'd never been near a slot machine in person, sad I know, for being almost 30 years old)
Gamble at the airport?!
After I got over the fact that there were slot machines in the airport gate, we headed to the baggage claim, grabbed our luggage, rode the airport tram to the Avis rental car facility, picked up our really awesome (by awesome I mean small and stripped down) Kia Spectra rental car and headed off to the MGM Grand to officially start our honeymoon.
Jesse doing his husbandly duty.
Avis Las Vegas - Glitzy for a rental car place!
Jesse driving the strip.
Our first view of The Strip.
I was pretty amazed by the sheer size of the MGM Grand. I had read that it was huge, but didn't realize just HOW HUGE till I saw it in person. It wasn't quite as daunting as people make it out to be (I was forewarned numerous times that I'd probably get lost because the hotel is just that HUGE! - Not really.) We got the hang of the layout by the middle of our second day. But I digress ...
We entered the MGM Grand and found our way to the lobby from the parking deck. Once we got there, I was overcome by the most amazing smell - it was a mixture of roses (there were THOUSANDS of roses in the lobby) and some other amazing scents that I couldn't pinpoint. Point is - I wish I could bottle the lobby of the MGM Grand and wear it as perfume.
After we checked in, we went to our fabulously swanky room in the West Wing. The West Wing was cool because it had a separate bar and a separate entrance to the strip from the rest of the hotel. True, the rooms are small, but they were very comfortable and I loved the mid-century modern inspired decor.
Hallway of the West Wing at the MGM Grand.
Our West Wing hotel room at the MGM Grand.
Swanky seating in our West Wing room.
Once we were settled, we met up with the other two couples who were accompanying us on our honeymoon, our friends, the Barbiers (Sarah and Scott) and the Knights (Becky and Rob). We met up in the lobby and then went for dinner at Mr. Lucky's 24/7 in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
After dinner, we explored the Hard Rock a bit and then decided to go for drinks at the Double Down Saloon. I'd been to the Double Down Saloon in NYC, but heard the one in Vegas was much better. It was definitely interesting to say the least. Becky was adventurous and decided to try the Bacon Martini. I had a sip and I gotta say, it was terrible. I very much enjoyed the band that was playing, Thee Swank Bastards. They were really good and the boys were entertained by their go-go dancer who was wearing a little tiny skirt, tassled pasties and a smile. She hula hooped the entire set without stopping. Pretty impressive.
Thee Swank Bastards at the Doubledown Saloon in Vegas.
After leaving the Doubledown, we headed back to the MGM Grand and had a drink at the West Wing Bar which was also delightfully swanky, in keeping with the theme of our hotel rooms a few floors above. Once we finished our drinks, Jesse and I ventured out to the casino for a few moments to try out the slot machines. It was my first time playing (obviously since I was so excited to see slot machines at the airport) and I didn't win a thing. At least I enjoyed myself.
My first time playing slots in Vegas (or anywhere else!)
Jesse's first time playing slots in Vegas.
The time finally caught up with us and we decided to call it a night so we'd be refreshed for the next morning ... it felt quite late for us Eastcoasters, but alas, it was only 11:30 when I turned out the light to end our first night in Vegas.
Day 2: Bad Behavior at the Wax Museum, a Visit to Paris and Venice, and the Best Little Steakhouse in Vegas
Our second day in Vegas started out with my waking up with the sniffles and a sore throat (bummer!), but I felt much better once we met the gang for breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe and got some coffee in my system.
After breakfast we headed out to the Paris Las Vegas hotel to go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I'd never been to a wax museum before, so I didn't know what to expect. I think we quite possibly may have had a little too much fun in there...
Jesse hanging out with Harrison Ford.
Just another afternoon... Me, Hef, Becky and Sarah.
Scott and Jesse with Sean Connery.
I just couldn't help myself from blowing kisses at The Rock.
Who will Mr. Clooney choose?! Sarah or Jesse?
Jesse's a much better golfer than Tiger. I promise.
Hey look! It's that guy!
Becky and Lucy!
Rob shows Evel a thing or two.
Our Honeymoon Crew... and fat Elvis.
Once we finished our debauchery in the wax museum, we enjoyed the view of the strip from the Paris for a few minutes and then we headed over to the Venetian to explore and do a little shopping. I thought the canals were pretty awesome and the interior design was pretty rad.
Taking in the view from The Paris Hotel
The Paris Hotel
One of the amazing ceilings of The Venetian.
The indoor canals at The Venetian.
Sarah pretending she's in Venice.
We relaxed back in our hotel rooms for a while and headed out to a wonderful dinner at The Golden Steer. That place has the most amazing food. I'm not a huge steakhouse kinda gal, but wow. Delicious!
The gold guilded and branded menu from The Golden Steer
We sure do manage to clean up nicely for a night out on the town.
Once dinner was finished we headed back to The Strip to our hotel to catch the 10:30PM show of The Crazy Horse Paris. It was pretty rad - I wasn't able to take any photos or video because its a private performance, but trust me, it was pretty great. Nothing like an evening of gluttony at a top notch steak house, followed by some burlesque and a very tasty drink that tasted like ambrosia.
After the Crazy Horse, Jesse and I wandered around a bit back on The Strip. It's really beautiful at night. I love all the lights - funny since I'm not a fan of Times Square back home in NYC.
The view looking to the North end of the strip from the MGM Grand.
Day three of our honeymoon was filled with some gambling (slots for me since I wasn't quite adventurous enough yet to move onto other forms of letting lady luck determine my fate), gawking at the amazing interior design of other hotels and having the Fremont Street Experience. Oh yeah, and eating. And drinking. We were very lucky to have Rob and Becky with us on out trip since they are totally Vegas veterans. They really helped to make sure we had a fantastic experience. I'm so thankful that they came.
For breakfast, we decided to hit up the buffet at the Bellagio. I think we spent a good two hours in there just going back for more and more food. It was fantastic. We also seemed to come at a perfect time - breakfast was still going strong when we arrived and lunch was being brought out about half an hour after we got there, so it was the best of both worlds.
After breakfeast, we took advantage of the fact that you can drink outside on the street (we all purchased some of those ridiculously large frozen alcoholic beverages and toted them along in the 85 degree weather as we slowly wandered around). I think my favorite hotel we toured was Caesar's Palace. I'd like to stay there some day when we go back to Vegas.
Caesar's Palace
Caesar's Palace
We ended up having a tasty late lunch at celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, Postrio at The Venetian. I didn't get too adventurous and went with a simple calzone, but I must say, it was a damn good calzone.
Postrio at The Venetian Hotel and Casino
After lunch, we continued our southern-paced strolling for a while. We lost some more money gambling (well, Rob won, but the rest of us were not so lucky) and eventually wore ourselves out from wandering around and the ladies (Becky, Sarah and myself) went back to our respective rooms for a nap while our husbands (Rob, Scott and Jesse) decided to have some boy time. More power to them.
Dusk Outside of The Venetian
Close to dark, we reconvened and decided to give the Fremont Street Experience a whirl to conclude our third day in Vegas. What a crazy place - much further from the "nouveau" strip than I expected and also not as busy as I expected, but it was still interesting to say the least.
Fremont Street Experience "Glitter Gulch" Sign
Fremont Street Experience "Vegas!" Sign
Sarah and I enjoying ourselves at Fremont Street
Fremont Street Experience "Golden Gate Casino" Sign
Becky, Rob, Sarah and Scott at Fremont Street Experience
Day four of our honeymoon was spent sightseeing in the Vegas area.
We started off our day going to the Atomic Testing Museum, which was really interesting. It's part of the Smithsonian family, so right there, you know you're going to be seeing a good quality exhibit. The thing I liked most about touring it was that they showed not only the scientific portion of nuclear energy and whatnot, but they also showed the effects of it in US history, which they call "Atomic Culture". It's definitely worth checking out if you are in Vegas and have the extra time. It took us about two hours to go through the museum and the gift shop (which also had some really neat things in it). Jesse purchased the book, How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb by Peter Kuren.
Outside of the Atomic Testing Museum
Outside of the Atomic Testing Museum
After the Atomic Testing Museum, we made arrangements to go to the Neon Museum Boneyard. The Boneyard is one of those gems that you have to seek out to be able to visit. You have to make a reservation to attend a tour. It's not a museum in the traditional sense - the entire thing is housed outdoors on a sandy lot. It's filled to the brim with retired signage from different hotels and casinos in the Las Vegas area. Some of the hotels and casinos are still alive and well, others were demolished and replaced by larger, more modern behemoths. It is a guided tour, not only to inform you and give you a history lesson, but also to keep you safe - you could easily get hurt in there since there is a lot of rusty metal and broken glass. It was a very interesting and enlightening experience. I learned a lot about the history of Las Vegas and neon signage (which for a typography geek like myself, was a dream).
"Wedding Chapel" signage from the Neon Museum.
Jesse and Scott enjoying the tour.
"El Cortez" Casino signage from the Neon Museum.
"Silver Slipper Gambling Hall" Entrance Sign from the Neon Museum.
"Sin" signage from the Neon Museum.
After the Neon Museum, we decided to go enjoy some drinks and the beautiful sunset from Top of the World Restaurant and Lounge at the Stratosphere. We all had some of their signature drinks and enjoyed the view.
Sunset above Las Vegas from Top of the World at the Stratosphere.
Sunset above Las Vegas from Top of the World at the Stratosphere.
The ladies chatting and enjoying their drinks (myself, Sarah and Becky).
The lights above Las Vegas from Top of the World at the Stratosphere.
We ended up having dinner at the buffet at the MGM Grand. It was not even close in comparison to the Bellagio, but it was still fun.
After dinner we headed over to see the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana. I didn't like it quite as much as the Crazy Horse, but it was still a really neat show. I think that our group of six was the youngest in there by like 25 years. Ah well, we still had a lovely time.
We finished off the evening (and our last night with our "Honeymoon Crew") by watching the fountains at The Bellagio. Gorgeous!
Our fifth day, and first solo day in Vegas, was our big road trip to the Grand Canyon. It was a fun drive out (about 5 hours east-ish from Vegas) and we passed some beautiful scenery, including Lake Mead, lots of desert and then the big boy, The Grand Canyon. Not much else to say except it was gorgeous. I wish we would have been able to see more of it, but only the South Rim of the canyon being open due to the time of year we were visiting. Oh well, it just gives us incentive to visit again at another time.
The blazing Nevada sun.
Lake Mead. It sort of looks like we're going to drive straight into it from this point.
Jesse shooting some beautiful desert scenery somewhere in Arizona.
Jesse in front of the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon.
My insane yet adorable husband on a very small ledge.
The Grand Canyon makes me smile. It's so beautiful!
Jesse scouting out the next small ledge from which to perch himself.
The sun starting to set over the Grand Canyon.
Jesse all set up and ready for sunset.
Sunset.
It started to get cold, but we're still happy and enjoying the sunset.
Day 6: I'll be your Dam tour guide... the road tripping continues...
We continued the "road tripping" portion of our trip and hit up the Hoover Dam on Day 6 of our Vegas vacation. Speaking of Vegas Vacation, Jesse and I love that movie and went in with high hopes that our experience would at least have a bit of the flair that the the Griswold's did - of course, minus Jesse swinging through the dam (a la Clark Griswold). I gotta say, it sort of did. I loved the fact that the tour guides did the whole "Welcome to the Damn tour" schpeal. It totally made my day. We opted for the top notch level tour of the dam - we got to go INSIDE of the mechanical workings. It was really cool and definitely worth the extra bit of cash.
I thought it was very cool that we could see where they're building a new bridge to help deter traffic from taking the route east across the Hoover Dam. Pretty nifty seeing a bridge built over this HUGE dam!
Another photo of the two ends of the bridge.
Jesse was too cool to wear his Hoover Dam hard hat.
I, on the other hand, was not.
Inside of the dam.
The tunnels inside of the dam walls.
Another tunnel... this one is kind of rickety and scary looking.
Since we took the special tour, we got to go into one of the drain / vent thingies. Crazy.
Looking out from the vent thingie.
And looking down below us ... glad we're secured by a floor grate.
Making our way back out from the vent.
We had fun on the Dam Tour.
We're on "Nevada Time".
Jesse taking photos of the Hoover Dam.
A memorial to the "Dam Dog".
On our way back to Vegas from the Hoover Dam, we decided to stop at Lake Mead and take in the view. It's a very cool lake. I love how blue it is.
Lake Mead.
We still had a few hours of daylight left, so we figured we'd use them to visit the Red Rock Canyon. It was absolutely beautiful. We got there about half an hour before the park officially closed, but the guard let us in and told us to take our time, which we did. We didn't end up leaving till after dark (which was kind of creepy).
Driving to Red Rock Canyon.
Red Rock Canyon.
Red Rock Canyon.
Jesse shooting Red Rock Canyon.
Dusk at Red Rock Canyon with Vegas Lights in the background.
Today was another road trip day. I love love love driving in the desert. I'm so glad that we decided to rent a car and experience more than just The Strip in Las Vegas. There are so many great destinations that are close enough to be able to experience in a day trip.
Anyhow, our road trip today was to Nelson, Nevada and the El Dorado Canyon. Jesse and I fell in love with ghost towns when we went to Montana back in 2002 to visit our friend Josh. We figured we HAD to go to at least one, real or not, while we were in the wild west. Nelson happened to be the easiest one to get to. It's not technically a ghost town anymore, considering its not just building ruins, but it was neat none the less. Nelson, Nevada has been used as a filming location for numerous movies, including 3000 Miles to Graceland. Despite the fact that it wasn't a real ghost town, it still had some pretty cool vintage cars and signage on display.
You take two roads to Nelson, Nevada and the El Dorado Canyon. This is the first.
And the second.
The town of Nelson, Nevada / El Dorado Canyon
A vintage Texaco sign.
Jesse walking the long, lonely main drag of Nelson.
I want this car - only not rusted and in working condition.
Some cool signage on the buildings in Nelson.
Our awesome little Kia we tooled around in on our trip.
Photo Op in the desert.
On our way back to Vegas after our visit to Nelson, we realized we'd had yet to experience In-n-Out Burger. And so we did.
I loved how simple the menu was - perfect for an indecisive lady, such as myself.
We spent the rest of the evening wandering the strip (Treasure Island and The Mirage) and then having a nice dinner at the Grand Wok and Sushi Bar at the MGM grand.
Our final day (if you can call it that!) in Vegas was spent getting up at the crack of dawn ... showering, returning our rental car and being at McCarren airport for our 7:30am flight back to NYC.
I was sad to leave. It was truly a fantastic honeymoon.
Dawn at the airport... waiting for our plane to arrive.
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