I had never been the type of girl who dreamt about going to Las Vegas. In fact, we decided to go to Vegas, more or less, because it was on our route anyways. I noticed though that as we got closer the excitement grew. After sleeping in cheap hotels, on a cot in a church and dorm-style bunkbeds I was looking forward to a little luxury (i.e. a real bathroom in the same room as the bedroom). We spent a night recharging in Barstow, California after leaving LA. We had to do one last touristy thing before we left LA though.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
These are our “excited” faces because we were Vegas bound!
The drive from Barstow to Las Vegas was about 2 hours long and went by quickly. It was pretty neat driving past the Mojave Desert and it made for a pretty picture.
Mojave Desert, California
We stayed at Treasure Island after it was recommended by a couple friends. We got a screamer deal too, a king size bed with a view of the Las Vegas strip for less then $100 per night!
18 floors up at Treasure Island Resort and Casino
Not a bad view 🙂
Once we got settled into our room it was time to find some food. We didn’t have to venture far to find some stellar food at the Treasure Island Buffet. It would have been $35 per person but we scored a “buy one get one free” deal when we booked out hotel. I opted to try a little bit of everything: southern food, Greek (a first), Sushi (eww, another first) and some amazing desserts. Jake had more of a…focused palate. Meat. And potatoes and mac. And more meat.
Jake and his steaks (honestly, he must have had at least 5 of them)
About to try real sushi…it was gross. A fishy tasting California roll and some eel sushi!
We decided to walk around the strip for a little while to kill some time until our Cirque Du Soleil show, Mystère started. We happened to arrive before the Sirens of TI show started. The first half of the show I was not impressed. The dancers were super sexual and scantly clad- I understand it is Vegas but probably a quarter of the audience were children. The show got better though when the two ships began to “fire” at one another and it ended with a spectacular sinking of a ship and fireworks.
Sinking of the ship
Awesome fireworks post show
We were very excited to watch our first Cirque Du Soleil show. With out hotel package we also got 2 for 1 tickets to Mystère. Honestly, I watched the show and I’m not entirely certain what it was about. I think the theme is like “French carnival.” As we were looking for our seats in the first balcony area we were offered to be moved to the front row! The seats and view were incredible. As soon as the lights dimmed it was as if we were transported to another world. The only word I can think of to describe it was magical. There were various acts including acrobats, aerialists, two brothers that have a “strong man” hand to hand act (incredible!), aerial tissu (dancing on a piece of fabric hanging from the ceiling and doing various tricks) and a giant baby that kept showing up throughout the show which was surprisingly funny!
No photos allowed inside 😦
The show let out after 11pm and we decided to be party poopers and head to bed, completely exhausted but overwhelmingly happy. Stay tuned to hear how we spent our second day in Vegas!
-Valerie
Dailey Adventurers 