2 Part Vacation to please us both (With my biggest win yet!!!)

Alright. So, after tearing up the town with my little brother a couple months ago and gambling for 99% of our trip, the time had come for a little bit more laid back vacation with the ladyfriend. I find both versions of the same vacation to be enjoyable (but need them both in my life to be satisfied with my journeys to Vegas. I only have a problem 1/2 of the time then...). Everything needs balance. The girlfriend loves to explore new places and I would be happy to simply go to Vegas every year (as has been my pattern since the day I turned 21) so we compromised and made our way out to the Mile high and back-ended it with a Vegas trip. Win/Win. She all about Vegas as well... but needs a little more variety in her life. I'm just happy for a compromise. She's cool like that.

Part 1

The first part of our two legged trip began in Colorado. I was there once when I was 10 and could use a little refresher. We stayed at the Hotel Boulderado (which is a 100+ year old hotel in you guessed it... Boulder Co) and just loved it. It's beautiful in there and is only a couple minute walk to the Pearl Street Mall. Expensive as hell... but it was worth it (or so she tells me). Lots of fun little shops and places to eat. We also rented a car and drove up to the Rockies one day and hit up Estes Park. That was awesome! Much to our surprise, the Stanley Hotel was located in this town so we knew we had to make a visit. Any Steven King fans out there will be familiar with this place (All I have to say is... "Here's Johnny!"). Now, the one thing that put a damper on our time in Colorado was the weather. It was the last week in May and the temps were in the low 30's and it snowed about 6". Not cool mother nature (or global warming... not sure what I should be yelling at). We had a 4x4 off-road tour scheduled to go up into the mountains but that got cancelled (unsafe conditions) so the Stanley was a nice distraction from the disappointment. Here's a few pics from the boring (*Cough* I mean... non Vegas part of the trip).


Part 2 - VEGAS!!!

After enjoying our time exploring the Frozen Tundra that was Colorado... it was time to thaw out in the fabulous Sin City. My suitcase was jammed with extra sweatshirts that were purchased in Colorado to ensure I still had the use of my button pressing arm when we arrived (when I had checked the weather the night before our trip for Colorado it said it was supposed to be low 60's every day. I really wish I could suck at my job as much as the weather men do and still remain employed). We arrived late in the evening and I had scheduled a Limo pickup at the airport with some champagne popped for us in the back. The girlfriend was beyond surprised and excited that the driver was waiting for us at baggage claim but she was having trouble getting over the motion sickness she experienced on the short flight over. Kind of ruined the luxurious ride I had planned... but I enjoyed the bottle of bubbly. Lol. No drop went to waste. I was too excited to not have to drive anywhere after 4 days of driving everywhere... and I took full advantage of it. By the time we checked into our Strip View room of the NOBU Hotel in Caesars, the threat of her throwing up had passed and we were able to fully enjoy that we had arrived. I love the Nobu. I don't need a lot of space like a suite has... but everything in there is crazy nice and the private elevators are worth the cost alone. The bed is on point. If I could stuff it in my suitcase and take it home with me... I would (after a thorough bleaching).

We had dinner reservations at Hell's Kitchen that night and I was beyond elated that she would actually be able to enjoy herself without pretending to not be sick (she is not a good actress). We had both never been there and I had accumulated almost a 1000$ worth of RC's I had been stowing away for this trip to live it up like High Rollers. So after we took our respective after-airplane showers and got into more respectable clothing to match our pretend baller status for the trip... I knew I wanted to make the biggest wager I had made in my life before dinner to really get the excitement flowing for the trip. And wouldn't you know it... I won! So this happened...



Most expensive trip I'll ever have to Vegas... Haha. But I guess it will pay back yearly installments for the rest of my life. Lol. I consider it a win! She loves me even with my Vegas degenerate behavior. I'd say she's a keeper.

Ok... so no more mushy stuff... Vegas! (which will be continued later in this thread because I have a basketball game I have to get to at the moment and don't have time to finish this right now). Part 2 of part 2 of the trip is will be posted in a little bit... My apologies.

 

Congratulations!!! What a touching "investment" and hope you both have lots of amazing stories to share from this trip!

Starting in Colorado and ending in a Las Vegas limo to Nobu, with champagne, sounds like a wonderful way to make this a super memorable experience (minus the motion sickness part).

 

Congrats, the wifey is reading over my shoulder and

 

CONGRATULATIONS. I am wishing you two an amazing married life together. Enjoy Vegas

 

So romantic! Congratulations to you both. Have a effing great trip and win enough to pay for that sparkler

 

Congratulations on your engagement!

 

Congratulation.

 

Congratulations!

 

Damn now that's how you propose! In Vegas baby! Boomchakalaka

 

Congratulations on the engagement.

 

Congratulations...great memories ahead. Enjoy and win some money!

 

Way to win a wager! Congrats!
Now tell us about Hell’s Kitchen!

 

Congrats!!!

 

Congrats and just think now you can go back to the motherland to relive the memories of the proposal (never a bad thing to have an ulterior motive in your back pocket).

 

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

Ok. So part 2! Sorry about the delay but weekends are always crazy busy. The fiance has way too many friends and they all wanted to see her this weekend. Lol. So back to the daily grind of work and killing time until the next weekend.

So after the big engagement wager... it was time for some dinner! And man was it an awesome meal! Like I had stated in part 1, I had $1000 in RC's so I told her that price was no concern for our couple of big meals we had planned for this trip and we really stuck to that. Normally, we are not too concerned with spending some money on good food but we wouldn't be ordering 40$ glasses of wine on a normal occasion. But this was a celebration! So for starters she ordered some crazy expensive wine (I have no idea what kind... but she seemed to really like it. It was red. That is about all I can tell you) and I ordered a cherry wood smoked old fashioned per the waiters recommendation. Just fantastic! Pretty sure I can't get that in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. Which is both a good and a bad thing... It came in a box full of smoke. Pretty awesome presentation!


So after getting well lubricated... the appetizers arrived! I had the pan seared scallops and the lady had lobster risotto. Both were fantastic! We shared the two and I ended up liking the risotto better. Go figure. It was soooo creamy and delicious.

Luckily, the portions were perfect appetizer size and left plenty of room for the main course (even though the price would say otherwise... haha). Next up were the short ribs for the pretty one and the infamous beef wellington for myself. The short ribs were fall apart tender and my wellington was cooked to perfection. Couldn't ask for a better meal!

We were getting pretty full but had to try dessert. It was on the casino anyways... so might as well stuff ourselves silly. We got the pineapple carpaccio and the sticky toffee pudding (had to). Both were amazing but the presentation the carpaccio with the dry ice volcano in the middle had people turning their heads to see what we had ordered. Food envy is a fun phenomenon.

So after dragging our fat asses out of the restaurant and clearing the almost 300$ check with RC's... we made our way back to the room for some much needed R&R. We had gotten into Vegas late after traveling from Colorado and we were both pretty exhausted. We wanted to start fresh for a new day.

I woke up earlier than planned (as I always do in Vegas) and headed downstairs for some coffee and baileys while the fiance slept in a bit and got ready for the day. I always enjoy my early morning solo gambling sessions when nobody is in the casino and hit this little beauty on DRAGON LINK (anyone that read my previous trip report with my brother will know my new found love of this game).

I managed to not lose most of my winnings by the time the ladyfriend made her way downstairs and it was time to hit up the Donut Bar! I had never been there before but anybody that watches SayHiToMatthew knows that it looks like something that should not be missed. We talked about it so much to the driver on the way over there that she decided to park the car and follow us in for some road donuts! haha. Everything there looked like it was calling my name! We had the hardest time choosing but settled on the Creme Brule, the Sea Salt Caramel, the lemon pistachio, and the Smores Pop-a-tart donuts. Shared all of them. Mentioned Matthew's channel and got a 10% discount! My useless youtube rabbit holes had finally paid off! lol. It was a steal. For 15$ we got these massive donuts and 2 large coffees with free refills. Just heaven. Highly recommend. Smores was the runaway winner in my book.

After carbo loading (I call it that to make myself feel better about life choices) we wandered around the post apocalyptic world that is Freemont early in the morning. There had to only be 50 brave souls wandering around at 8 in the morning on a Wednesday. It was pretty sweet. We casino hopped for a few hours with nothing too interesting to note. We made our way down to Axehole in Neonopolis for our reservation and signed a waiver stating that if we stabbed ourselves with any of their pointy objects... it was our own fault. Fair enough. Ha. Axe throwing was something she had always wanted to do for whatever reason and I was game. Who doesn't want to throw sharp stuff at a wood block for an hour? We signed up for the ultimate experience ($45 a person) and it was totally worth it. They had all sorts of fun sharp stuff to potentially hurt yourself on (3 different axes, spears, ninja stars, sharpened playing cards, and a shovel? That threw me... Ha. Or I threw it... whatever). SO MUCH FUN. Apparently, I am some kind of Viking reincarnate because I probably threw the axes a hundred times and only missed the target 2x. The guy running it didn't believe that I hadn't done it before. That was a fun compliment. The lady on the other hand... she was clearly new at this. But she loved every second of it. Look... pictures!


So after burning off some much needed calories we made our way back to the strip and hit up my favorite hotel... Cosmo! We were determined to try the verbena. I had seen too many videos of peoples reactions and knew we had to give it a try! It was definitely... and experience. Haha. Just try it once.. and you will be glad you did. But you might not want to try it again. The flowers looks so innocent...

So after doing some gambling at the Cosmo and not much to show for it we headed back to Nobu to clean up before dinner. We had reservations at Old Homestead inside CP. We had never been there before but had always wanted to try it as we have stayed at Nobu multiple times now and you literally walk past everyone's delicious looking steaks on the way back up to the room. It was another fantastic meal! Crazy expensive again.. but it was free (kind of-- we won't talk what I had to do to earn those RC's). Giant crap cake, Calamari, a massive lobster tail, and an aged ribeye were on the docket. We ate like Kings with no regrets! Until we regretted it... lol.
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We were so stuffed after the meal that the fiancee decided she was ready for bed and released me into the wild to gamble and drink until I tuckered myself out. Pretty happy I did! Collected 14 buffalo with a ton of retriggers for a handpay! Not bad for a 2.40$ spin.

I decided to call it quits after a few more hours of playing and went to bed. I wasn't even that tired... just all of these giant meals were starting to add up. I have been eating Vegan for the last 6 months to try and drop some weight (down almost 60!) but I knew that those restrictions were going out the window for this trip. Never even crossed my mind... haha. Bed time.

The next day was full of sightseeing and touring around the strip with the fiance's cousin as she had just flown into Vegas that morning. She had never been out there so I was put in charge as the obligatory tour director. I was happy to do it but died a little bit inside every time we passed a Dragon Link machine and I didn't stop to play. It's ok though (I kept telling myself)... I knew this trip would not be gamble heavy but sometimes these kinds of trips are a good thing to keep myself in check. Lol. We ended up heading home the next morning (victorious on both the monetary level and personal level!). I know that most trips won't have the food porn that I experienced on this one and enjoyed it for what it was. There will be plenty of gambling only trips in the future!

Until next time Vegas... (which I am already trying to figure out at the moment). We shall meet again.

 

Just finished part 2 with the Hells Kitchen food porn pics! Enjoy!

 

Congratulations on your engagement! What a great trip you two had.

That end of May snowstorm cost one of my daughters a walking field trip to a nearby park, and my other two daughters had to do Field Day on the blacktop in coats and gloves instead of out in the field in shorts and tees like normal. Interesting last week of school this year! Gotta love Colorado weather!

Vegasworm

 

Congrats...wishing you a wonderful life

 

Congrats on your engagement!
The best type of timeshare you can get!

Thanks for the report and best wishes for you both!

RICHARD