What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

So, I guess I'm breaking that rule! Brad had to go to Vegas for a work conference, so the kids and I drove down with him so we could have a little family vacation when he wasn't in classes.

The first thing we did as soon as we rolled into town was go to Ceasar's Palace to eat at Bobby Flay's restaurant, the Mesa Grill.


It definitely lived up to our expectations and set the mood for the rest of our trip. We ate our favorite thing of the entire trip there, it was called queso fundido. But what made this appetizer better than the queso fundido we ate at the Border Grill in our hotel was that it was melted GOAT CHEESE with peppers...oh heavens it was amazing. The other fundido we had was melted mexican cheeses with sausage and other things in it, also good, but not as good.

Monday we went to the zoo. Ruth loved looking into the fish pond, but especially loved all the birds they had. Several peacocks roamed the grounds along with a couple chickens. Then they had an emu, two ostriches, tons of macaws and parrots and a raven. When we were leaving the zoo, we said "bye" to the birds, and one of the macaws said "bye" back to us!

The other great part about this zoo is their chimp named Terry. He came right out of his bed when we walked up and sat right next to the window so we could see him. He kept thumping the window with his knuckles. It was really amazing to watch him move and see how human-like he really was.

Brad's company paid for us to stay at Mandalay Bay, which has an AMAZING pool/beach complex. The kids and I went swimming/splashing every day. I just kept Will in the Bjorn and held Ruth's hand or let her splash around by herself.

The first day took some getting used to the water, but once she was comfortable with her surroundings we spent hours out there.

The other thing we did was walk the strip. Here we are in the New York, New York hotel in front of a jelly bean replica of the Statue of Liberty!

And here we are in front of the Bellagio watching a really great water show.

The main experience Brad and I had in Las Vegas was the food. We love food. We watch the Food Network religiously. So being in Vegas was a great opportunity to go to some restaurants of chefs we've been watching on TV. Other than the Mesa Grill we went to Lupo which is one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants. It was INCREDIBLE. We had clams for the first time and became totally addicted. Then Brad had the green lasagna made with fresh pasta, which neither of us had had before. And I had a lamb sirloin steak with white beans, YOWZA. We also went to the 4 Kegs which was a place recommended on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We felt really lucky to be able to eat such amazing food, even if it cost us an arm and a leg, it was worth it! We were also really lucky that the kids were angels when we were at these nice restaurants!

The only down side to this vacation was that all this indulgent eating of cheesey, rich, meals and chocolatey desserts meant I gained weight, I'm back to 190. I was pretty upset about that for a while. But since there's nothing I can do about having gained the weight back, I just have to get over it and start up my routine again. I just have to get re-motivated to exercise and eat smaller portions again (which I'm finding to be difficult after going on vacation and having no inhibitions about spending money or counting calories!).

Oh, I forgot to mention the other negative thing that happened. When we were heading back to our hotel from the zoo we got pulled over by a cop. We got a ticket for not having our plates properly registered, oops! We were told that if someone else pulled us over for this same offense that we could get arrested! That meant that all the things I had planned for us to do, like go to the children's museum, go to SkyZone, see the Temple, among a few others would not be happening because we didn't want to risk jail time! Luckily we made it home and to the DMV without incident and were able to entertain ourselves with the awesome pool and restaurants in our hotel.