Last Week, This Week: Vegas Baby, August 20-24

In this weekly series, Last Week This Week is typically a look back at what I actually wore the previous Monday thru Friday as long as it was a workday. However, this week’s edition doesn’t fully adhere to that format because Monday and Tuesday were the only days that I worked. For the remainder of the week, I was on vacation and enjoying time with my family in Las Vegas. So in this edition of LWTW, I’m still sharing my outfits for the past week; however, not all of the looks are what I wore to work and I’m throwing in some detail of what we did in Sin City.  And in another break from my usual format, I’ve included a lot of photos but many of them are grouped together for faster browsing.

Monday

The swelling my right foot continues to decrease but I’m still stuck with my limited footwear choices.  Both the pants and boots are from my favorite look in last week’s post but here I’ve paired them with a peplum tee and a newly acquired cardigan I found on Poshmark (<— that’s the link to my closet).

Tuesday

Nothing new here, same ol’ knit moto-style jacket and fashion sneaks that I wore last Tuesday but this time paired with my olive green cropped pants and knit top.

Wednesday

A trip to Las Vegas is nothing new for The Husband and I. We’ve been there numerous times together, both for business trips and to just have fun. Even as children we’d both been to Las Vegas several times with our respective parents as they also had a fondness for The City Of Lights. Last week’s trip was special because it was in celebration of our son’s (and youngest child) 21st birthday. Unlike our parents, we’d never taken our children to Las Vegas so this was to be his inaugural trip. The three of us headed out Wednesday morning and our daughter, her boyfriend, my sister and brother-in-law, and my niece would join up with us on Friday.

When driving to Las Vegas from Southern California, the main highway into town is I-15. From the Los Angeles area, one of the routes to take to connect to I-15 goes through the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. A section of this route is called Pearblossom Highway and Charlie Brown Farms has been a fixture on this road for nearly 90 years. The Husband and I have stopped here before but on this first leg of our trip, it made for a convenient bathroom pitstop.

Keen on getting into town sooner rather than later, there were no stops at the two outlet malls we passed. We did, however, stop at Terrible’s Road House which is a fairly new travel center that is about 20 minutes south of Las Vegas.

We’d asked our son to look for places in and around Las Vegas that he’d like to visit and Seven Magic Mountains was on the list. Seven Magic Mountains is a large-scale public art installation located off a side road that parallels I-15, approximately ten miles south of Las Vegas. It is comprised of seven towers of colorful, stacked boulders standing more than thirty feet high. The exhibit opened in May of 2016 but neither The Husband nor I had heard of it. It was pretty spectacular to see in person and we’re glad the kid had it on his list.

Finally, we made it to Las Vegas and stopped for a picture in front of the infamous welcome sign but it was too hot and we were too hungry to stand in line. Can you guess where we had lunch? I’d wanted to go into the Bass Pro Shop that is across the parking lot (just as a curiousity) but the guys had other plans in mind.

Topgolf did not disappoint. Being that my shoulder and foot are still on the mend, I mostly sat and watched but the men had a lot of fun. We’d definitely do it again.

Next, it was time to hit the casinos. Out first stop was at Circus Circus because neither The Husband nor I had been there in a long time and we were curious to see how it might have changed. As a child, my parents would take my sister and me there to play games and hang out in the midway area while they gambled in the casino below. As we walked through the casino, we were intrigued by the electronic gambling games and played craps for a while at one to explain the game to our son. Nearby, there were old-fashion coin one-armed bandits with plastic tubs stacked by their sides to cart off your winnings. The kid dropped a few dollars into one and he walked away a winner.

Our final stop before checking in at our hotel was Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. We saw one of the light shows, had our picture taken with $1,000,000 and played some Blackjack. Later, after we checked in and settled into our room, the men went down to our hotel’s casino and the kid got to roll the dice for real while I iced and elevated my foot which was a bit aching after clocking in over 10,000 steps for the day.

Thursday

On this day, the three of us split up for a few hours after breakfast. After dropping me off at Las Vegas South Premium Outlets (yay, shopping!), the guys went to do some more guy oriented stuff. They went to The Range 702 where the kid got to do a little target practice with a 50 caliber sniper rifle. After that, they checked out the offerings at Gold & Silver Pawn Shop which you might recognize from the TV show Pawn Stars. And since it is now legal to do so in both Nevada and California, they browsed at a couple of canibis dispensaries.

Once I’d been picked up, we hit a few sights on The Strip, including The M&M Store, and then made our way to The Mirage by early evening to see Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE. The night was “topped off” by panoramic views of The City Of Lights from the Stratosphere’s Observation Deck.

Friday

My sister, brother-in-law, and niece arrived at around lunch time (or also known as breakfast for those who stay up until the wee hours of the morning). After everyone had eaten, the three of us with my sister and niece headed out on foot to explore a few of casinos near where we were staying which was the MGM Grand. We gambled for a little while at The Excalibur and then headed over to New York New York. One of the items on the kid’s itinerary was to ride the rollercoaster at NY-NY and he wanted me (or should I say dared me) to ride it with him. My niece was game for it too so that’s one activity in Las Vegas I can say I’ve done and don’t need to do again.  Fine, whatever.

After dinner that night with the group, the next activity on the kid’s to-do list was a Virtual Reality Game where he battled against rogue robots. Later on, my daughter and her boyfriend arrived and the group headed towards the Downtown casinos in search of lower stakes tables. Another late night and another 10,000 steps day.

The Weekend

Saturday was a day to relax and recharge by the pool. We had opted to stay at the MGM Grand mainly for the pool area. Even though it was a splurge, the older adults had decided to reserve a cabana so that we could more fully enjoy the day with shade and food service. Floating and walking along in the lazy river was a lot of fun and good therapy for my foot.  In the top-right photo below are my niece, my sister, and my brother-in-law and that’s my crew in the bottom photo.

In the evening, The Husband and I took our kids and our daughter’s boyfriend to see Penn & Teller. Our seats were fairly close to the stage and the birthday boy was lucky enough to get selected as a participant in one of the routines (he’s the one in the middle).   After the show, we “lyfted” to the Cosmopolitan so that we could get a slice of crack pie from Milk Bar. YUM! It was all it had been cracked up to be (LOL) and eaten before I could get a photo. Now fortified, we walked over to The Bellagio to watch one of the dancing fountain shows and then further up The Strip to Harrah’s to meet up with my sister and niece. Another 10,000 steps day.

Sunday morning we played beat the clock with our 11am check out time and then headed over to The Omelet House for breakfast. The Husband and I discovered this place a few trips ago and we’ve made it a point to eat there on every trip since. It was just the five of us since my sister and her family had flown to Las Vegas rather than drive and they’d left for the airport already. With our bellies full, it was time to hit the road and for us to head home as well.

And there you have it, a look back at what I wore to work last week and the lowdown on our family trip to Las Vegas. Next week’s edition of LWTW will be back to its regular fare. As a side note, I want to share that I’ve only recently learned how to use “gallery” as a way of grouping my photos. I’ve struggled for a while with how to group photos (and not always with much success) and then I stumbled on to this feature. It’s always exciting to learn new things, don’t you agree?

Let’s connect! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, love, pin … all options are available and waiting for you. I look forward to hearing from you. And be watching for a return of the Fine-Whatever link up this coming Saturday.

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