I really LOVE Las Vegas.

Las Vegas always makes me happy. You can do anything you want here, the food and wines are incredible and the people watching is outstanding. I’m really enjoying my trip so far. Let’s rewind….

Thursday night we got ready to go out with a friend of my husband and his wife.

Hubby’s friend chose the Sage restaurant in the Aria Hotel. The restaurant is described as modern American cuisine spiced with global influences in a sophisticated, yet comfortable atmosphere.

I started with a glass of Chardonnay:

For my first course, I ordered the Seared Black and Blue Tuna (Baby Artichoke, Quail Egg, White Anchovy):

It was pretty delicious. It reminded me of a nicoise salad. For my entree I had the skirt steak:

It had fried onions on top and a avocado puree underneath. I loved this dish. The steak was cooked perfectly and the avocado was a nice addition!  What a great dinner to start our trip!

We went back to our hotel to wait for our friends who were arriving shortly. Hubby and I gambled for a bit. Once our friends arrived, we gambled for a long time and realized eventually that we were hungry. We went to the Wynn hotel to eat at Strata. Hubby and I split hot wings and a Caesar salad:

I love hot wings. :) Then we called it a night.

Friday morning, I woke up leisurely and grabbed an iced latte and a yogurt parfait and met our friends at the pool:

We ordered mimosas:

What is better than laying by the pool, in perfect weather with a magazine and a mimosa? I’m not sure. Eventually we gathered a ton of beverages:

I ordered a glass of champagne and an iced tea to go with my lunch:

A ridiculously fabulous turkey panini on ciabatta bread with avocado, bacon, tomatoes and a delicious aioli of some sort. The fries were out of control good. YUM! We stayed at the pool all day until it was time to get ready for dinner.

We went to Botero in the Encore hotel:

Botero has a beautiful outdoor dinning area over looking the pool and has a really cool lounge feeling. 

We did indeed sit outside and it was a beautiful Las Vegas summer evening. We all split a bottle of wine which I failed to photograph. My appetizer was the Hamachi Tartare which was seared with a crispy rice cake and sweet chili vinaigrette:

This was a little too sweet for me. The rice cake was sweet and a little too greasy. My entree, however, was excellent!

Brioche Crusted Colorado Rack of Lamb = amazing. My friend Alexis ordered the truffle macaroni and cheese which was out of this world.

The dessert menu was really outstanding. We split three things:

Warm banana bread pudding with banana ice cream:

I’m not a fan of bananas so I only had one bite. The bread pudding was great but too banana-y for me. :)

Frozen Chocolate Candy Bar with milk chocolate, Godiva and peanut butter:

Loved this!!! It had a crunchy wafer type center that went well with the ice cream and chocolate.

I was most excited about these:

Botero Ice Cream Cupcakes.

They weren’t that good. :( I tried a bite of each flavor: Lemon, Chocolate, Funfetti (!!), Red Velvet and Carrot Cake. The Red Velvet was the best one but I found the cake parts dry and the sliver of ice cream in between the cake and frosting a little weird. Oh well.

We all gambled for a bit and then it was off to see Le Reve. I had seen it before but was excited to see it again. It’s an amazing show.

Alexis and I:

Our seats came with champagne and chocolates:

I love champagne. :)

After the show, it was more gambling. Late night we went to Red 8 for some Chinese food. Hubby and I split chicken chow mein and kung pao chicken:

Then it was bed time!

Here I am on a Saturday morning, lying in bed blogging. Eventually I need to get up and get ready for the pool. We got a cabana today and hopefully will watch the USC football game in there. Go Trojans!

Have you ever seen a show in Vegas? Which one?

What are your Saturday plans?

 

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