Las Vegas Day 2 and 3

On our second day in Vegas (Friday), Bruce and I decided to take it easy checking out of our hotel room. I enjoyed a nice bath with jets to ease into my day. Check out at Caesar's was 11 am so we were out of the room pretty early and decided to walk over to the Bellagio. I wanted to show Bruce the gardens. Here are two really cute pictures from the gardens that I had to share.

After the gardens, we walked down to the fountains but we were early and it was too hot to wait so we decided to skip the fountains and walk back to Caesars to wait for Mike. Mike actually found us before we even made it to Caesars! He has great timing and a great internal GPS system. How did he track me down?

Since it was lunch time and none of us wanted to walk outside again - it was Las Vegas's hottest day of the year with it reaching 115- we decided to enjoy lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesars.

This was our first time to Mesa Grill and even though it was on the expensive side, it was totally worth the splurge. I went with the Prix Fixe lunch which included an appetizer, entree and dessert.

For the appetizer, I chose the blue corn pancake with barbecued duck. It was amazing. The spices were strong but not overpowering. Definitely would order this again if I get to go to Mesa Grill again.

The entree was an easy choice for me - Buffalo Burger - or as my brother kindly likes to remind me it would really be a Bison Burger. There was a southwest twist with the spices on the burger and then a pickle relish with peppers that was to die for. This burger tasted as good as it looked.

As a side, the french fries were a great compliment with their own special spices. I tried the chipolte ketchup that came with them but decided they didn't need anything else.

Bruce had the pork tenderloin sandwich which he enjoyed. Thanks Mike for taking the picture of us.

As always, Mike pulling a face to show you how serious he takes his french fries or is he doing the Austin Powers "one million dollars" face??? Hard to tell. (Mike ordered the same thing I did but don't tell anyone!!)

For dessert our prix fixe lunch came with a mango icecream in a puff pastry with mangos on the side. The puff pastry was really dry and after a bite we just ended up eating the icecream and mangos. Really good. The icecream had real vanilla bean in it - a special treat for our taste buds.

After lunch, we got our suitcases and piled into Mike's car to run some errands. Best buy, liquor store for rum (banana's foster) and Trader Joes. Why isn't there a Trader Joes in Florida????

Finally we made it to Mike and Becky's just in time to run into Greg and Kevin who were hanging with this on their way back to Utah. We hung out at the house, catching some zzz's and catching up. Then Mike grilled some meat we bought at trader joes and corn while Greg took care of the sweet potato fries and regular fries. Dinner turned out awesome and the company was even better. So fun to have all of us there.

For Greg and Kevin, Becky and Mike had pulled some strings and got us reservations at the hottest dance club in the world (or Vegas -I am not really sure). Bruce was super tired that night so he stayed with Max. The rest of us dressed up and headed over to the Venetian to go to Tao. Ok I will be honest, I love dancing but think dance clubs and staying up till 3 am is just not my thing anymore. Plus I was in sticker shock - we are in a recession and I am still wondering how people can pay so much for alcohol.

Saturday morning was definitely a day of sleeping in, stealing Mike and Becky's car for a run to Starbucks and then once everyone was waking up enjoying Mike's special belgium waffles and sausage. Since I didn't get to make bananas foster for dessert the night before, I made them for the waffles. Amazing.

A sad goodbye to Greg and Kevin, then we were off to shop at the outlet stores. I got two new pair of tennis shoes thanks to a buy 1 get 1 half off deal and Bruce found some new tennis shoes as well. So it was worth all the hassle of parking and fighting the back to school traffic.

Before we knew it it was time to leave to get ready for Roy's. I am sorry I don't have too many pictures on this post but a lot were posted on my facebook page because I had my phone and not a camera. So check out our craziness there.