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A Final Summer Fling… Vegas!


We ended our summer with one last fling over the weekend… Vegas, baby! What a wild and crazy place. We got a little taste of it all. Not quite as much as The Hangover, but enough for a couple of middle-aged Idahoans with their young, single daughter. Our daughter needed a break from school since she's between summer and fall quarter so what better place to meet up than Las Vegas.  She agreed.

We landed at the airport at the same time so waited in the mile-long taxi line for The Strip. Taxis sure stay busy in Vegas. Actually, I could be saying that word, Incredible throughout this whole post because just about everything we saw was Incredible! We cruised The Strip the first hours of arriving and saw a lot of entertainment along the way, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, lots of cartoon characters, break dancers, and some entertainers I wouldn't even know how to describe. We're in Vegas, baby! Our daughter was here last year for her roommate's 21st birthday but it was a quick visit for her. The one thing that really impressed her about Vegas was that it was legal to drink alcohol while walking down the street…or the Strip, I should say, so we immediately got ourselves daiquiris. They sell them like slushies at walk-up windows. Alcohol is always so easy to acquire here. Then it was bottled beer. A simple thrill about being in Vegas.




I was more impressed with food like at the candy shop in New York, New York

the Statue of Liberty made out of Jelly Bellies. Or the bedazzled lollipops at Sugar Factory



that are sold like fine jewelry.

This is where all the celebrities buy their candy. All their photos were on the wall licking their lollipops…and lots of other fantastic goodies.


We walked through the MGM which was hosting the iheartradio music festival so we listened to Bon Jovi preform on a TV screen for awhile.


Then it was on down The Strip. We watched the water show at the Bellagio. The water shoots up so high the noise makes a big bang like a canon firing.


We checked out the monorail system that goes up and down The Strip but it turned out that a taxi was still cheaper for us and always a lot easier.
The lights are so impressive in Vegas.



The Paris Hotel, I thought we were in France.


We ate breakfast here our last morning at Mon Ami Gabi French Bistro which was excellent. The best French Toast we ever tasted with blueberry syrup and little cream to go with it. 

and the Eggs Benedict with the most delicious hash browns ever tasted. All made with lots of butter, of course. So good.


We must try French Onion soup since we were in Paris.

All was worthy of our last meal in Vegas since it was so top notch and french! The Bloody Mary Bar was impressive.


Our server brought glasses with just vodka and ice



and they soon looked like this

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We wanted to avoid "buffets" which Vegas is known for because you always over-eat and then feel terrible and bloated. So, thus a nice, little French Bistro. However, our first breakfast after our evening of cruising The Strip was, indeed, a buffet. But it was an excellent buffet.

This buffet was at the Four Seasons Hotel at a restaurant called Verandah. It had healthy food, my style. Looks like my Overnight Oats.


They also had my weakness…freshly made donuts




so I tried to focus on all the other choices




like the Caramelized Peaches & Cottage Cheese that looked like Creme Brulee. So clever.

I also liked all the cute little dishes so many of the choices were served in. We may have eaten well on this trip but we walked off a lot of our calories, too. It's so easy to walk up and down The Strip to everywhere and always lots of sights to see.




Never a boring moment.






The highlight of the weekend was Saturday night when we had tickets to see Jersey Boys. 



We made early reservations for dinner at 5:30pm before the show at 8:00pm. I found an Italian restaurant at Caesar's Palace close to where the show which was perfect. The restaurant was Il Mulino located in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace shopping mall.


The nice thing was that we were early and wanted to sit outside so we were the only ones on the patio.




We had an incredible view of The Strip.


It took us awhile to actually sit down because we were so overwhelmed by the location and view

but they were watching us and as soon as we did sit down our servers immediately began bringing us our complimentary appetizers, you know, like how you get chips at a Mexican restaurant. First came the Parmesan...


Anybody want a piece of cheese? 

and they just kept coming…



We soon had a table full of the most delicious breads, crostinis, mussels, pepperoni and Parmesan…


and some sauteed zucchini.

The olive oil was flowing freely and so delicious. We had a hard time deciding what to order from the menu, it was all so Incredible. Lauren wanted a little of everything. Our servers soon picked up on our dilemma so when we all ordered something different, they split it up so we could all taste everything. I wanted the seafood stuffed eggplant with vodka sauce for my antipasto, although it was good enough to be a main entree


but we also had to order a Caesar salad since we were at Caesar's Palace. Lots of anchovies, of course. Our favorite.


Our entrees came out with all three samples of our pasta on each plate so we could taste each one's order.



The pasta was cooked perfectly, al dente, and so flavorful. Pure joy. And dessert? We couldn't pass it up after our server described their offerings. We got the peach sorbet


served in it's own little frozen peach skin and then the coconut

served in it's own little coconut shell. Wonderful! We loved it and the sorbet was bursting with flavor. We all LOVED the coconut. Incredible!
We ordered a cappuccino


just a little coffee after dinner.

Then to our surprise, our servers brought us some complimentary Grappa to top off the evening.
This is a traditional Italian sweet liquor which was most delicious.

I'm not sure who had the most fun, our servers constantly surprising us with all their gastronomical wonders one after the other or the three of us enjoying the wonderful food and the incredible, ever-changing view.


And all while Caesar looked down upon us.



Later, after we crossed the street to go to our show, we looked back and saw where we were seated at dinner in Caesar's Palace.


A magical evening in Las Vegas


and a good bye to another fun summer.
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