Road Tripping to Vegas!

What is with Las Vegas?  Why is it so fun?  I mean, it is a pretty terrible place!  But, when Shey, Dillon, Bailey, and I were deciding where to go this weekend, it somehow made the top of the list and we have no regrets!

Yes - Shey and Dillon are in town!  After more than a year without seeing Dillon, we were so excited to have him stay at our place for a few days this week while Shey was doing a photography workshop in Salt Lake City.  We picked up Shey last night, and even though I just saw her in March, I was so happy to see her!  I don't think anyone gets me quite like Shey does, and I feel so blessed that she and I had the opportunity to find each other and become friends.

Anyway, we left early this morning on our long drive.  We stopped at one point to get this road trip picture which I love!

The time in the car went quickly.  Granted, I slept for a good portion of it - we all did (except for Dillon who was driving... sorry Dillon!) but soon enough we were at our first destination.  A Chinese restaurant, which I will respectfully not name because it was terrible!  Someone had told me that they had noodles like the "muslim" noodles we used to eat in China.  Well, all we saw there was a bunch of boiled greens, subpar noodles, and a variety of mystery meats that we weren't super excited to try.  It was just like being in China, except the waiter looked and dressed just like Michael Jackson.  We picked at a few things and then called it good!

We then had to deal with an issue.  I had booked our Airbnb a few months ago, and the host only had like two reviews at the time.  They were pretty good reviews so I trustingly booked it.  Well, every review since has been like "the host cancelled on us right before check in".  So we've been a little wary, and by 11:00 today the host still hadn't contacted us with an address and check-in instructions.  So we got customer service involved and in the end they couldn't contact the host either, so they set us up with a new booking.  Unfortunately we had to pay an extra $30, which I think is lame, but it is what it is!  It is the first bad experience I have had with an Airbnb, but the company was quick to solve the problem so I'm still a loyal customer.

I'm sure all of that was so exciting for you to hear.  On a more interesting note, we then headed to Seven Magic Mountains!  Here Bailey and I are practicing our romantic jumping pose.  We are definitely awful at it.

Seven Magic Mountains is a work of art created by some guy out in the middle of the desert just out of Las Vegas city.  It always looks cool in pictures and it is basically what you could expect - a bunch of colorful stacked rocks in the desert.  I loved it!  It was hot and crowded, but I'm glad I got to see these babies, because apparently they are only temporary.

Our next stop was The Strip.  It has been Bailey's dream to do the soda tasting thing at the Coca-Cola store.  They give you two trays full of sodas to try from all around the world and a little guide to know what you're drinking.  It was so much fun!  Who knew that tasting sodas could be so entertaining?  Also who knew that Africa has some seriously delicious fruit sodas, and France offers basically a poison-tasting garbage soda?  We feel so much more cultured now, having tasted sodas of the world and making the boys chug the poison French perfume-tasting soda.

We then hit a casino to play a bit.  We came up with a rule for gambling: we would each have a set amount of money to spend at the casino, and when it is gone it is gone!  We believe that gambling isn't a very healthy hobby, so we thought of it more as an arcade where we are just spending money to have fun.  In the end, though, I was too afraid to spend my $25 and put it towards dinner instead haha!

Now, if you have followed our journeys you may remember that Bailey's first gambling experience was an unusually fruitful one.  He put in the $20 Christmas money he got from my grandma in the cruise ship slot machine, and walked away with $350.  The boy did not learn his lesson!  I thought for sure he would learn his lesson today, but he turned $20 into $95.  What is this luck!

Dillon did pretty good - he played poker instead of doing slot machines and only lost a few dollars.  Shey quickly turned her $25 into a few pennies!  I love this picture of her and Bailey displaying their "big winnings" (it was taken before Bailey won the $75 - he had only won a few cents on his first try).

We called it good on gambling after that, and walked around the gardens at the Bellagio.  We were working up an appetite for dinner, which wasn't hard to do after having such a tiny lunch.  For dinner we ate at the Wicked Spoon which was delicious and so fun!  Of course, it was super overpriced, but I don't think you can really hit Vegas without hitting a buffet.

The rest of the evening was spend watching the fountains at the Bellagio and attempting to get a picture with the Las Vegas sign.  It was an excellent day, but we were exhausted by the time we checked into our Airbnb!