I am so excited to write this recap of my girl’s trip to THE CITY OF SIN!!! I write it that way for ironic reasons, of course. I’ve got a lot of explaining to do with this one, and I am going to warn you right off the bat that this post will be a book—or it originally was going to be. Ha, I know, when aren’t they, but I think I’ve been doing ~decent~ lately. Well, this post will be longer because of the imagery, but I finally decided to split this post into five parts. I don’t know what I was thinking, hoping to get more than 1000 photos in here. It would never load, and I know that wouldn’t make it readable at all. I didn’t know how to naturally “split” the trip because we did so much, but I figured it out, and I think all the parts will be roughly even and hopefully exciting and new each time.
I’m going to share a full recap of everything we did on this five-day trip (though two were really just travel days), along with our experiences—bad, good, and terrifying, all the stories behind everything, what I recommend and what I absolutely don’t, and why I went on this trip to begin with. There are plenty of life lessons I’m going to share, too, so don’t worry, we are still spiritualizing Sin City. It’s going to be a longer series for what I normally like when it comes to lifestyle content. It’ll be a fun one, though. We did a lot of cool things, and I’ve got a lot of interesting stories to share. A lot happened over five days; I know this because I returned home ILL from being RUN DOWN (and inhaling all the chimneys around the city…all the smoke and WEED).
Definitely feel free to skim this or scan the headings and only read bits and pieces of it that interest you or come back to this post. These will be longer posts and they are a bit different from what I normally share, but I want to nonetheless because a big part of this blog is that it’s “my journey” of learning things and growing and I share life milestones, and I don’t travel much so I do want to go over this because travel is always such a great time to reflect and learn things. Plus, it’s Vegas, so I think it will be fun and entertaining! A big part of me also wants to record it for myself a little bit so I have a thorough recording of all that we did. I would journal it, but the thought of handwriting everything we did makes me want to die.
Plus, I didn’t realize this, but I’ve actually blogged about every single trip I’ve been on in my life and shared my thoughts/life lessons/takeaways after each one! I think that’s really cool, actually, because I always wish I had more of my earlier life recorded, but my family’s first big trip ever was to Orlando, Florida, which was during the first year of my blog’s existence. At the end of this series, I am going to link every single travel/trip post I’ve published (don’t worry, I’m not super well-traveled so it’s under 10 counting the various “parts” of trips I made posts for). I am also going to go back and read them myself and see what I learned because I don’t typically spend a lot of time going back and reading what I’ve written (but I really should because it’s the kind of stuff you shouldn’t just read/write and forget, and in that spirit, I’m going to start publishing more round-ups of past posts). At the end, I will include my thoughts on not only this trip and what I learned but how it compares to things I said I learned on previous trips.
One last “also”: I said I haven’t traveled much, but that is gradually starting to change! This is sad; I’ve been working on this post since Mom and I got back, and I thought I’d have it done before going BACK to Vegas with my cousin, Kir, and aunt, Corrine, over my winter break for the weekend of Kirsten’s birthday, so I eventually will be recapping that—it won’t be as long, and that will be several weeks or even months out because after I finish this series, I want to get back to some of my “regular” content. Then, I just learned I will be going to Nashville this February for a leadership conference with the student ministry I’m part of! If you are a fan of my travel-lifestyle content, stay tuned because there is going to be a lot more!
Now, LET’S START!
Why Las Vegas?
My dad mentioned it to my mom and me back when I was in high school still, and after Mom decided she was going back to Canada with the boys for a second time when I didn’t want to, we talked about going on our own girl’s trip. My dad recommended Las Vegas as a good city for us to visit since it’s supposedly cheap (ummmm NOT REALLY) compared to other cities. Then, I ended up watching this episode on Aerial Cities about it, and the desert, luxury hotels, and pools seemed like the perfect combination of things I’d enjoy. Plus, I think I was heavily influenced by social media at the time and seeing a lot of older girls seemingly living it up out there. Over spring break in college, I had some extra money and had put together a rough itinerary and done some research, and everything looked so cool. I wanted to go to a warm place where I could see tons of amazing city sights, swim, and shop. Hotel prices, overall, were much cheaper than what any nice resort in Florida would be. I could stay for a significant amount of time for relatively cheap.
Day 1
Leaving
We left October 1, Sunday afternoon. I’d originally planned the week of October 6-10, but it’s amazing how much the prices for hotels can vary when it’s over a weekend. I’m glad we did this week instead, although I don’t think I’d ever plan a trip during the school year again, Mom and I both agreed (she’s an elementary school teacher). I worked hard to get all my work during this time done, and then, after the trip, I got sick and had to stay several days extra at home and miss even more. I think the trip was so exhausting that it took a lot out of me, and preparing at school and working so much beforehand to not have anything to worry about when I came back was taxing.
We left around two to head over to the Des Moines airport. We had bought luggage over the summer to prepare for this; I finally got my dream Victoria’s Secret pink-striped carry-on with some good discounts, and Mom bought a pink bag off Amazon. It was super hot in Iowa the week before we left and was actually supposed to be cooler in Las Vegas, if you can believe that. I had been monitoring the weather and was a little concerned because the high for the week was upper-80s when we left. That doesn’t sound bad, but some days were only in the 70s, and I wanted it to feel hot enough to go swimming; I am always cold.
I was really excited to fly again. I’ve only flown for a trip once that I remember, which is when we went to Florida for my brother’s Make-a-Wish trip. I loved flying then, and I always wished I could fly again, so I was very excited for this. It didn’t even feel real until we finally left because we were so busy leading up to this. My mom isn’t big on flying, but it definitely made the most sense in this case. You have to be careful when you’re booking flight tickets, too, ’cause a lot of the cheapest options offer the bare minimum, which is literally just a seat on a plane. I wanted us to be able to choose our seats to make sure we’d be together and I’d get the window, and I didn’t want to be charged additional fees to check our bags, but then it literally cost that extra to book a ticket with no fees. I wanted everything to be refundable, too, though, just in case something didn’t work out.
When we got to Des Moines, finding the airport wasn’t hard. I started freaking out once I could see planes from the road. My mom was worried about finding the lot we wanted to park in ’cause there are so many that charge different prices. We didn’t pay anything outrageous there. I tried recording us entering the airport, but Mom kept yelling at me to quit and help her. 😂 She gets uptight about stuff like that, but bless her heart for driving. We parked near one of the shuttle locations since we were aways out from the airport, and we didn’t have to wait long for one. That’s when it really sunk in for me!
Arriving at the Des Moines Airport
I kept recording everything as we drove in, and I’ll have to share the videos sometime on my YouTube channel because the way Mom kept screaming at me to stop so I’d help her figure out the GPS was great. 😂 I was like you’re doing great, Ma, and I told her she needed pills on more than one occasion throughout the night. 🤣 I can’t complain, though; she volunteered to drive and helped make sure I was on track, so I’m very grateful. It wasn’t hard getting to our parking lot and paying for parking at the airport, which wasn’t too bad for five days, and they have a number of lots at different prices. We were in one of the cheaper lots farther out, but we were able to call for a shuttle that came almost right away, and that was free.
I’m standing in front of my dream car here. 😉
There was a pilot on the shuttle with us, which we thought was cool, how they’re all dressed up. That would be such an interesting job.
The airport looked a lot like how I remembered it from way back when we flew out to Florida. It’s small and intimate and EASY, which is nice, and we got through TSA no problem. I didn’t remember much, if anything, about going through TSA when we went to Florida, and I’m pretty sure my parents handled most of it, so I was worried about it, praying we wouldn’t have any issues and that I’d packed everything right. We didn’t have any problems, thankfully. The main thing to know is that beauty/liquid products have to be less than 3.4 ounces. I did have to take my shoes off going through security, and since I was barefoot, that was a little weird, but I have yet to get any fungal infections, so that’s good!!! We didn’t have to wait in any lines, either!
After that, we found our gate and walked to a nearby café. Mom got lemonade with a muffin, and she made an absolute mess. I love giving her crap about that because my grandma is notorious for spilling food all over, and Mom does, too, but I kinda do, as well…we’re helpless. I got a chocolate muffin with chocolate chips, and we also perused a little gift store. There was a Des Moines snow globe with the beautiful “skyscrapers” I love, and I said I was going to get it when we came home. Unfortunately, as we’ll get to, I was sick on the way home and just wanted to get home as fast as possible, so that didn’t happen, but now I’m going to Nashville and we’ll be flying out of Des Moines! I’ll get to buy it then 🙂
I started taking some pictures as soon as we sat down. 🙂
I had bought “premium economy” tickets both there and back, and like I said earlier, that’s probably what it cost to have a carry-on or select seats, but it was more convenient that way. I was so excited to finally use my Victoria’s Secret luggage and have a reason to pull the plug and buy it. Luggage is so expensive, and I don’t understand why. Mom’s bag off Amazon was pretty inexpensive, but it wasn’t quite the same quality. It only had wheels on the side with the handle, so when she’d try standing it up, it kept tipping over. 😂 We were also allowed a personal item, which was my purse, but you can definitely take a bigger bag, and had I known that, I would’ve taken a backpack. I was impressed with my packing, though: I think I packed just the right amount of things without having anything left over or unused. Usually, I overpack like crazy. When you fly, though, it forces you to pack lean.
Boarding the Plane
We had enough time at the airport to relax, get comfortable and excited, and catch our breath before boarding. We flew Delta on the way out, and I really liked them! I’d only been on Southwest before, which I said I loved, but Delta was great, too. We had our seats together, and I got my window seat! I said in my Florida post that I loved flying, and I hadn’t been on a plane since then, but I’d always look up at the sky streaked with planes going every which way and long for that again, and it had finally come! I bought Mom an adorable unicorn neck pillow at the Dollar General over the summer THAT SHE DIDN’T BRING!
Thank you, Mother, for this.
I feel like you always have to sit there forever while they board everyone (although we were near the end) and make announcements. Mom couldn’t wait to escape the heat…
So, don’t get me wrong, I like the picture below, but it’s a good opportunity to bring up some embarrassing habits I had to kick going into the trip. I’ve grown up in a generation where, unfortunately, I’ve seen all these olders girls traveling and posing real skank- and conceited-like trying to be sexy, and look, I love pictures and always have, but I feel like Instagram and comparison make me want to “stylize” them more—pose and look extra cute, get the perfect angles and backgrounds…and we all want that, but basically, and I’m going to be crude here because I don’t know how to say this “politely,” I feel like there’s always this temptation to act like an “Insta-hoe,” as I think of them. If you’re on Instagram, you’ll know what I’m talking about, and this is something I want to address and spend much more time on in later posts, but long story short, as much as I say I’m against that and it repulses me, I’ve still bought into the messages more than I realize. I started acting like that right away, trying to get not just nice, memorable pictures but “Instagram-worthy” pictures, even though I hardly post there anymore.
I bring this up because it became an issue for me this first night, and you’ll see why by the end of the post. It’s a really harmful way of living that Instagram has “influenced” us, especially as women, to try and fit in with, and I am no exception. I still feel that temptation and pressure and oftentimes, like here, try to imitate it. Hold these thoughts because we’ll come back to them.
Finally, we started taxiing down the runway!! It was about four at this time, so I was excited we’d get to see a sunset and fly at night!!! We had a layover in Minneapolis for about an hour, and this flight would be about an hour there.
There were such pretty views already, with almost a cloudless, sunny sky and sprinkles of puffy clouds here and there. 💕
Takeoff was just as fun as I remembered!! Look at this beautiful view of the city!
Up in the Air
I love this photo with the window in it! I got a good window view, thankfully—I’ve seen where sometimes they’re not.
I absolutely love the clouds, and seeing them so clearly and being among them is incredible.
This was a great experience for me to worship God and feel a little more proximally close to Him. Getting to see the expanse of creation from the air and flying with the clouds and watching His glorious light reign over them is joyous. I was surprised because I thought I’d feel closer to heaven or the “top of the world,” but even above the clouds, there’s so much space to be filled, almost like we haven’t moved at all. The world truly is more glorious than we can fathom, and it is all testament to His glory. I do think some flights are up higher (you’re probably like duh, welcome to the world of flying, but I haven’t flown a lot) because there’s a plane that looks much farther up than us here. We were only going to Minneapolis, though, so I’m sure we were lower.
Going into the clouds like this…oh, I love it. It looks so dreamy in the evening light, too.
Minnesota
As you can see by the plethora of water, here we have arrived in Minnesota! It was interesting to check the locations of my photos afterward to see where we were.
It doesn’t look like it, but we’re in Burnsville here, which isn’t too far from the Cities!
The sun is gradually beginning its descent!! Here, we’re over Bloomington, where the Mall of America is.
Now you can start to see the interstate. And aren’t the sunset colors divine!!!
We’re over Minnetonka here! That brought back memories of this summer and the weekend I spent with Kir up there, which is something I’ll have to share a bit of, too, sometime.
And there are the Cities looking gorgeous at sunset! This was a super fast flight; I looked out the window the whole time.
Because it was October, we were so blessed to even see some stunning fall foliage! I got overwhelmed here; I was trying to spot mansions by the lake. 😂
On the Ground—Minneapolis Airport
We landed under beautiful cotton candy skies. We were a little anxious to get off the plane since we only had an hour to find our connecting flight.
Right away, the Minneapolis airport seemed much bigger than ours and a little more upscale. Right after we came out of the plane, I was being rushed, yet I stopped right here by the remaining sunset in the window and demanded a picture! Then, I got yelled at and told we needed to keep moving.
But I made her take these, too. 😉
Here’s Mom finding our flight. 🤣
This airport is DEFINITELY bigger than our little Des Moines one, and I enjoyed walking it and stopping for pictures! I swear we had to go to a complete different end.
Now we’re going up escalators!
…and we still had to walk. I think Mom was practically jogging at this point or I was trying to keep up with her!
Accurate representation of how it felt…
Here I am stopping trying to get another “Insta-worthy” pic. My mom is like a bear with being a photographer; she’ll do it a little bit, but if I poke her too much for more, she’ll rip my head off. This wasn’t like the photo I was envisioning probably taken with a professional camera and photographer kneeling but I said it will work. 🤣
Here, we’re close to where we ended up waiting. I’m on the phone with my dad. There were a ton of shops and food places. We got a little snack/”dinner” in one of them, and it ended up being horrible. We were gonna share a sandwich, and even Mom thought it was nasty. But it was expensive!!! Ungodly expensive. Our food in Des Moines had been reasonable.
Here we are in our general area. It was PACKED! It was about eight when we got there. There were hardly any seats available so we stood. We didn’t have to wait long to board, anyway. It was fun looking at the different monitors and seeing where neighboring flights were going. I think one was going to Nashville, and now I’m going there soon, and another was somewhere tropical, I think, like an island, maybe. I’m always jealous when I see those. That is one of my goals for this year: near the end, I’m going to Miami Beach. Eventually, I want to get out to the Bahamas or Caribbean, but since I’ve never been to a beach before, I’m going to test it out here first.
On the Plane—Heading to Vegas, Baby
And we’re boarded again! This was also on Delta, and this time, we got movie screens!!!! That was a delight I wasn’t expecting! Also, I’m going to call myself out and illustrate another insta-hoe moment here. In the following picture, I liked it, but I thought my hair looked too flat or boring, since I always have it straight and it can get worn-looking after a full day, so in the picture after this, look at the difference…literally learned this from the “influencers”…
I mean, it works, but my mom was not impressed, and she’s not afraid to call me out. 😂 She was like oh, you’re trying to make yourself look all sexy…and it is sad, how young girls especially feel that need. I want to clarify that I don’t think it’s sinful to take pictures, want to look your best and attractive, and it is natural and healthy for a woman to want to feel desired, but what crosses the line is that obsession with it this culture has. Even with my mom, I still felt that need for pictures that I knew I was going to post somewhere, like here, but as if you guys wanna see me all trying to be sexy…that’s just awkward. There’s a time and place for that, and it makes me sad because I know how easily and WRONGLY I’ve been “influenced” to think a pretty face and pretty pictures are what make life great or at least look great.
I was ecstatic to see the lights at night and got not only a good window beside me but also this one right behind me that I could look back and see through.
The flight attendants gave us these for free!! We thought it was neat how they were pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
They had a great movie selection for free!! This flight would be a little longer, about an hour and a half, so I wanted to watch something but also make sure I took lots of night photos.
Here we go!!
They kept the lights off, which was nice.
And we were up in the air! I had to fight with my camera for a while to figure out how to best capture the lights. I upped the exposure on this in editing, but to stay true to what I saw through my eyes, I took off Night Mode, especially because that makes photos blurry with the slightest motion, and even bumped the exposure DOWN while taking the photo to make the lights contrast enough. It’s not as easy as it seems! And Apple still has a long way to go to make their cameras better—I have an iPhone 14 and it still gave me grief with darkness. But oh, my gosh, these are the views I’d been waiting for…
This was just over Burnsville.
I have always found such romance in this sight. No aesthetic fits my blog and our lives better; this is what life is about right here—being lights in darkness.
Here’s my second window! This was nice because I had two different spots to photograph.
You know I’m all about free snacks on a plane! I used to think this was unique to Southwest, as I wrote at the time, but I now know it’s not. I didn’t think I’d like this flavor of Sun Chips, but they were actually wonderful.
I love this shot; this was somewhere over South Dakota.
This was actually over Wyoming!!! Now I can say I’ve been there. 😉 While taking pictures throughout the flight, I rewatched one of my favorite movies I hadn’t seen in forever, Soul Surfer. Mom started watching Avatar.
Here we’re over Colorado! I love that we’re above the clouds at night! What a serene sight!! As we got closer to Nevada, it was hard to tell if we were actually seeing the tops of mountains! I’m fairly certain these are clouds, though, haha.
We could even see the moon, which looks like that coming of Jesus in the top left. I don’t know why since it wasn’t that bright, but it was so tricky to get the lighting right. It actually wasn’t as easy to get photos of the city lights at night because of the cloud cover, and there weren’t as many urban areas as I thought. Once again, Pinterest photos of the lights at night look a lot different from what you actually see! Plus, a lot of those were over New York—I would LOVE to fly into NYC at night.
This is over Lake Mead, that big lake in Nevada you’ve been hearing about drying up. I didn’t know this until looking back at my photos, but that’s cool. We did get to see Lake Mead, and I’ll share more about that in the next few parts.
Now we’re about to Las Vegas over Henderson, a big city that blends right in with it.
Landing—Arriving in Las Vegas
And we arrived!!! We could see the Strip clear as day, which was so exhilarating. I recognized many of the hotels since I’d researched most of them—the big Luxor pyramid, Delano, New York, the High Roller… I think you can even see ours, the Flamingo, to the left of the High Roller, that big ferris wheel!
We were both exhausted by the time we arrived around 10 their time—two hours behind us. Despite that, we literally didn’t get to our hotel until midnight. Yes, this is where things get stressful. When I booked the trip and bundled the flights with the hotel, I also had the option to reserve a private sedan to pick us up and take us to our hotel; we weren’t going to drive anywhere. My mom asked about shuttles to the hotel, but I don’t really think that’s a thing anymore, and the other option would’ve been Ubers, but they can be super expensive and I didn’t know if I really trusted them, so when there was an option to bundle a ride with our trip, I took it. We had been texting our driver as we got there, and once we arrived at the airport, we worked out a location to meet. Sort of. The problem was, we never found that location.
We took some quick pictures as we walked, and this guy kept saying how easy it was to find this spot, like we were supposed to find this sign right after getting off the plane and it would take us right to the rideshare place. That never happened. What I think did happen was we walked straight off the plane, not really paying attention to the immediate signs, and walked into the airport enough where we had completely missed that, and then it was a mess from there because that airport is so huge, bigger than Minneapolis, even, and not that intuitive. There are like a million different rideshare signs. We were told ours was supposed to be for our terminal, but we ended up somewhere completely different.
Right away, we saw casinos!
I am really glad we stumbled across this awesome sign, even though this marked the beginning of the end!
So we go down these stairs and find an area that says baggage claim/rideshare. I call the guy because this is when we realized we’re not exactly sure what we’re looking for. He had an accent, so I’m not sure if there was some misunderstanding with languages, but he seemed kind of short and impatient, so that got me nerved out. I thought I’d found what he was talking about when we went in an elevator here at the bottom because he said something about that, only to have it take us right back up where we had been… I talked to him a couple times before getting frazzled and having Mom take over because she knows how to be short with people when they’re being short with her; I would just start crying. I just can’t handle rudeness.
This cute bunny sculpture became a point of trauma as we ran back and forth. We didn’t even take time to comment on it or appreciate it, but I did snap a picture.
Finally Getting Our Ride to the Flamingo Hotel
Well, Mom kept talking to him; he kept saying how easy it is… We literally went and found some people at TSA, and they also said it was super easy and acted like they knew exactly where we needed to go, which still wasn’t right. I think it wasn’t right because it was for a complete different terminal, but again, it’s confusing as crap with the different terminals, gates, etc. Even if he meant it to sound reassuring, it was even more stressful because clearly, it wasn’t easy for us even if it was supposed to be, and repeating that over and over wasn’t going to suddenly make it click for us, so I didn’t appreciate that at all. He eventually came to a different rideshare place where we ended up because I think Mom was finally like this is where we were told to go and all we see. He kinda griped about it when we first saw him, but he also could have been making a comment like this is where I was and where it was supposed to be. I give him the benefit of the doubt because he was nice after that; he loaded our bags in the back and made small talk as we drove, pointing out attractions and places he recommends.
Nevertheless, by this point, I was holding back tears. I don’t blame it on him; while he did escalate our stress, both Mom and me were already physically and emotionally exhausted and more than ready to be at our hotel for the night. Plus, I’ll throw Mom under the bus; when she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she can get super frazzled—I have a hilarious journal entry from way back in my childhood where I wrote, “One bad thing about mothers is it’s always rush rush rush.” 😆 So ever since Minneapolis, I’d been joking about getting her drunk on the plane or needing to get her pills to take, but seriously, I couldn’t have done it without her. She gets things done even when it’s hard, which isn’t to say I don’t, but if it had been me alone or with other people my age, I would’ve been crying through the dang airport. I also think it was just exhaustion in general, and when I get overly tired, I cry.
Also, it was COLD when we got there! It was like high 60s, which, okay, doesn’t sound bad, but I was in a tank top and shorts, and coming from 90-degree weather with my cold blood, I was actually shivering as soon as we stepped outside. Our driver told us a cold front had just come through and it had been raining earlier in the day, and we could tell the ground was still wet. I praise God we had such nice weather, though; it didn’t rain at all for us, and honestly, that would’ve ruined about everything if it had.
I didn’t realize travel is so exhausting. Ever since going, I used to be so bored and yearning to be one of those jetsetters who traveled all the time. I used to want to have a job that traveled all the time—you’ve all probably heard me say that before if you’ve been following me for a while! I was, again, enamored with how romantic it seems. I didn’t realize how much it takes a toll when you’re actually doing it. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but I absolutely could not do it all the time. I think Mom even asked me when we were in Des Moines, so you wanna do this every week, huh? And I was like, why not! I’m young and I’ve grown up in Iowa my whole life, I can handle it! Well, evidently I can’t. I like my “simple” life. I don’t find it boring anymore after experieing the world of work, college, and all the activities I thought would make my life. And those things can be good, but they’re time-consuming and can quickly lead to burnout if not balanced.
Now, here’s my first shot of the city! Probably to match my mood, HA. Actually, I have a fascination as a writer and just out of curiosity with all sorts of neighborhoods on either extreme, from the richest to the poorest. I’m not saying anything about right here, but it looks sketchy. This was on our way to the Strip. Our driver introduced us to the Sphere and how it was a pumpkin for October, which Mom loved, and he told us that STUPID XFINITY RACE was going to be here… I’m going to make a video of this trip sometime because I have lots of videos that would be cool to show you. I can probably embed them in this post, but I think it’d be better to make one video you can watch combining them all. I did record us driving through—downtown? the city? honestly, it doesn’t really give city vibes until you get to the Strip; there aren’t any skyscrapers—the freeways to the Strip. As we got closer, I swear we’d sit at lights for like 20 minutes because of the stupid traffic thanks to that dumb race; they had a bunch of the strip blocked. That might have added to my negative feelings, too, but I honestly can’t remember. The race wasn’t until November, but they were already building it because they literally were having the race on the Strip. More to come on that.
I did perk up when we came into the Strip, and I could tell Mom was trying to be more positive, too, ’cause she can always tell when I’m about to cry, which can be stressful when you’re trying to disguise it.
Yes, look at these views. They were constructing the dumb grandstands along the Strip! This looks horrible here, but it wasn’t *quite* as bad where we were. Thank God we didn’t come any later because it would’ve been so ugly, and I would’ve made their stupid F1 Prix or whoever they were reimburse me for the trip. I don’t know who signed off on this crap, but I think it was someone who can be bought off. We learned this is happening every year for the next decade!! Of course, I found out when it happened that two of the bigwig sponsors were Rolex and the Wynn, what I think is the rich-person hotel on the Strip. They had their name plastered all over the track, and they flew all these “influencers” and celebrities in for it AND HAD THEM IN SUITES IN THE WYNN!!! That disgusts me. The world of excessive wealth disgusts me, and I will never support it. You can call me jealous if you want, but it’s morally not okay when you have people struggling and living in poverty, and no, I don’t support socialism or taking money away from people who have earned it, even if they shouldn’t be earning so much, and yes, I support Trump, but not because he’s a billionaire—because he had policies that benefitted the working class, and that’s what needs to change. That’s one thing you’ll notice throughout this post that both makes Vegas iconic and turns me off—the excessiveness of everything.
It was so exciting to see the Strip in person—I first saw it on an Aerial Cities documentary and then through Instagram and Pinterest photos and on websites and YouTube videos, but to see it with my own eyes was a peculiar feeling after imagining it for so long. We came in by the High Roller, the big ferris wheel with closed pods, which I’d gotten us tickets for! We even drove by the Sphere while it was a pumpkin! I wish I had more photos of those initial views (I do later), but I have videos of us experiencing it for the first time, which is why I will eventually make a travel vlog of the trip compiling all the videos and maybe some live photos of the pictures I’m not posting.
Arriving at the Flamingo Hotel
We finally made it!!! I was still close to crying but I like to think I was somewhat happy, too. I’m so thankful I went with this hotel (although in just a little bit, you’re going to hear how initially I wasn’t and then had a mental breakdown—the best is yet to come). I thought almost every hotel on the Strip was incredible when I was initially researching, but when I started thinking about narrowing them down and booking the trip, there were primarily three I was a bit torn between and all actually very different despite what I initially thought: the Golden Nugget (for the TANK POOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Luxor (because I thought it was cool how it was a pyramid on the inside, too), and this one (because it was PINK, which should’ve been the deciding factor right there, and the whole theme was flamingos, which Mom and I have always loved, and it was the most inexpensive with a great pool [that’s another story that almost led to mental breakdown 2, stay tuned 🥲]). I showed all three to Mom and let her make the final choice, and she chose this one, AND I THANK GOD SHE DID!!!
Not only is it absolutely gorgeous in pink and hugged by palm trees, but we couldn’t have asked for a better location on the Strip. I didn’t realize until later that the Golden Nugget was part of the “old downtown,” like where the Pawn Stars shop is on Fremont Street, and that’s a good 20 minutes away from the Strip in its own world. Luxor was also at the complete other end of the Strip, second only to Mandalay Bay, which is the farthest out on one end (I don’t know directions, haha, so I’m not sure if that’s east or west or even south or north). The Flamingo is dead in the center, right across from the Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace, two of the best hotels on the Strip, in my opinion. I’m getting a little ahead of myself, though. We’ll come to see all that in a little bit. At this point, I’m still depressed and angry.
One of the things you’ll also notice not quite here but in some photos to come is all the nice cars in these little rideshare areas. Big limos, Cadillacs, shiny Yukons and Tahoes… I’d always wondered what it would be like to go somewhere where you see a lot of upscale cars, and I think in Vegas, you do. Of course, there’s still a good mix of your more everyday vehicles, too, but you do see a lot of luxury mixed in. I would come to learn that you can actually spend an exorbitant amount of money in Vegas if you want to, and I’m not just talking about from gambling or even shopping.
We had a great view of the High Roller and palms!!!
We ended on a good note with our driver, too. Mom felt bad because she didn’t have a lot of cash to tip him with, so she only gave him $5, but he was still grateful and nice about it. Then, we walked inside to get checked in. I laugh now even though I was on the verge of having a meltdown here because this is where it gets worse, worse, and more worse. We walk in to be overwhelmed by the incredibly FOUL smelling aroma of smoke and WEED. I have no words to describe how retched the smell of weed is. I’ve had the pleasure of smelling it before—thanks college—but my gosh, I don’t even know what to compare it to. It’s suffocating, it really is, and I can smell it a mile away. So there was that; I knew it was legal in Vegas, but I must’ve thought the flipping hotels had some class and wouldn’t allow it but of course not because that’s where the casinos are, and that’s where most of the chimneys are!!! Walking through them is like walking through the perfume department on Spongebob—the real ones will know what I’m talking about.
I did experience a couple seconds of genuine pleasure, though, as we walked by the hotel shops, like their gift shop you can catch a glimpse of here, and the lobby was pretty and looked high-end, at least. You’d never look at this picture and think you’d be wanting to stop breathing because of the smell. There was this super glamorous Marshall Russo I’d learn is very popular out here, but that was closed already; however, the gift shop was open until I wanna say like one, maybe? We wanted to hurry back down and check it out.
THEN, getting checked in, we go to this kiosk where one of their employees is, and as we’re getting checked in, he starts going on about upgrading our room, and I’ve heard sometimes hotels do that for free, but it would cost extra, and they were already charging me an extra $200 for ~RESORT FEES~. As he’s going on about this, he’s acting like our room is absolute crap, saying it’s “older” and we could upgrade to a more renovated part of the hotel, and then, he’s acting like they don’t even maintain it at some point, and finally, at the end of my rope, I point-blank ask so you don’t clean it? And then he’s like yeah they do and backed down, and I wish I remember exactly what he said, but he made it out like this room was such a trashy part of the hotel and I was like that is unacceptable; I am still paying good money for it, and why do you even let it out if it’s so awful? We got our keys and went up there. I was happy because we were on a higher floor, but I think his talk got to me…
The hallways were nice, and I LOVED this carpet.
…because as soon as we got to the room, my mental breakdown was activated. I don’t know; I thought the room looked horrible compared to what I’d seen in pictures and expected. My mom kept talking me down, saying no it’s not and why do I think it’s so bad; it’s just older, etc., but I started crying and pouting. I truly wished at that time that I had not come here and spent my money on this trip. I thought I was being ripped off. Looking back now, here’s what I think also played a role beyond my hormones, exhaustion, and unrealistic MARKETING expectations: it was dark when we got there, and the lighting in our room wasn’t the best (you can tell in the photo below), whereas the photos I’d seen were taken in broad daylight with natural light shining through. I really think that’s what made it look “dingy” to me because the next morning, I loved it.
I was also furious with the view, though. I’d paid for a room with a city view, and right across from us was an alley with the Horseshoe Hotel, and you could see the Strip and Bellagio off to the right, but you had to position yourself a certain way to see that; you couldn’t see it staring out the window straight-on very well. I don’t know what I expected, but again, I was looking at flawless, probably VERY staged and Photoshopped marketing photos from all sorts of hotels on the Strip, so I’d seen views where the windows had nothing obstructing them and it was pure skyline and mountains. I’d fantasized about taking these sexy, gorgeous shots in front of the window with the views in the background, and I was in for a hard reality check. My mom was like that’s marketing for ya, and she’s always stressed how I can never compare but like I ever listen to that, and it was so frustrating on top of all this to realize that about myself—how much I’d fallen for smoke and mirrors, even though I, of most people, should know better. I literally AM an advertising major; I know all about marketing and making things look as great as possible to sell, and I’ve watched and read countless things over the years on social media and marketing being so fake most of the time. Yet I still fell for it hook, line, and sinker and wanted my own beautiful shots to—EVIDENTLY—post and make other people feel like crap because welcome to the 21st century’s cycle of life.
It’s not all depressing, though; it was a wakeup call I needed to have, to QUIT living life for what society says is glamorous, fun, and sexy, when half the time they’re lying, anyway, and enjoy my life as it is, having this precious time with my mom, who I love to death, taking in a new location I’d been dying to see forever. I will say, too, that the culture shock was a bit riveting at first; we got there at the scarier time of night, but there were TONS of people milling around the hotel, and some freaky people, too, if you can imagine what I’m saying. I realize I probably sound incredibly judgmental, but sorry not sorry, I’ll never enjoy seeing hookers or drag people or whatever bizarre looks people can concoct. It reminds me of the Capitol people on The Hunger Games, with those very out-there, weird styles and looks, and I’m not one of those people that believes in “live and let live.” I believe in kindness and respect, but I also believe there’s morally right and there’s morally wrong, and that’s it. That doesn’t mean you don’t show kindness and respect, but I’m not going to enjoy or be content with people looking certain ways. It’s not my problem how people make themselves up, but I don’t have to agree with it.
Now, I realize the majority of people don’t come to Las Vegas to be moral, and I was expecting to see stuff I didn’t agree with, so it wasn’t really a surprise, but it just added to my long list of things that made me uncomfortable and irritable at this time; I couldn’t win for losing—my emotional ship of sanity had sailed.
Here’s our view—or part of it. You can even see the Paris hotel and the Eiffel Tower, so that was cool, at least, but I’m sitting here sulking trying to find my will to live again, which I realize sounds so dramatic and makes me sound like I have rich-person privilege whining about the smallest of things. I realized all this but couldn’t shake the emotions. Sometimes, you have to make peace with not being okay, and I wasn’t that night. Plus, I’m not rich, and even though I booked this trip for $1.5k with the flights and hotel and I thought that was cheap-ish for a five-day vacation if not a little more on the expensive side for Vegas (before COVID and the country went to crap, I had this same bundle priced at only $900…), that was still a lot of money for me, and during my freshman year of college, there was a time where I thought I was going to get to go, but I ended up needing to do something else with a big chunk of money I’d received, so when I had this opportunity, it was a blessing and something I’d been praying about for a long time. I wanted to get my money’s worth and have it live up to my expectations, but expectations are always unrealistic when comparing. I really just needed to go to bed, but I wanted to try getting my ~sexy photos~. I ended up loving this little couch/futon they had right in front of our window, even though it was in my way for the photos.
While I was still in the middle of my sob-fest, we ventured down to our food court for chances at a more real dinner. I was probably starving, too, to add to my mess. I wish and hope I have some more photos of our hotel’s casino, but to be honest, it was hidden more than some other hotels’ because you didn’t have to go through it to access the elevators or exterior. The food court was somewhere tucked in there; I don’t think I have any photos of it unfortunately because I was too mad to take photos, and I think my phone might have been dead, anyway, so I might have left it in the room; I don’t remember for sure. I just remember standing there, my cheeks and eyelids and lips swollen, giving anyone who looked at me death stares while waiting to get our food (I wasn’t trying to be mean; I was waiting for Mom while she ordered and kind of afraid of some of the people and I was taught you need to look confident/tough to repel people with bad intentions). We ordered some chicken tenders, and I think it was seriously like $30 for four of them and French fries. They were okay; I obviously ate them, sitting on Mom’s side of the bed with her in the chair by our desk, but they weren’t that great and they cost a fortune. Mom volunteered to pay for our food at first, so I’d have to ask her how much it was. Definitely something ungodly, though.
That’s when I realized anyone who told me Vegas is cheap probably hasn’t been there for 10 years or more. The way companies market and capitalize on human souls won’t allow any area of the Strip to go untouched by tourism inflation. I probably spent almost if not another grand during our stay, but I really don’t regret it. There is one thing I regret, which you’ll learn about in later parts, but even that wasn’t horrible.
Here’s Mom living her best life, chilling on the bed and reading the magazine they gave us. 🙂 That was actually a great magazine, and it had a map of the Strip that proved very helpful even though I’d kind of glanced at some beforehand.
Mom let me have the side of the room and bed closest to the window, and one thing that delighted me were these curtains. In the photo with Mom, you can see the lamp on the counter there, and they had switches to automatically close these, one for the sheer curtains and another for the drapes!
Shortly thereafter, Mom went to bed, and I shut off all the lights in the room to try and get no reflections in the window so I could start being a hoe. Somebody speak now or forever hold your peace if my frankness with those words bothers you—I really don’t want to be a disrespectful or rude person even though I try to be blunt and real on here. I don’t want to tone it down to be more politically correct, but if you’re a Christian and not someone woke who believes no one should ever be slut-shamed or judged, period, even if it’s done with love and wisdom, and it bothers you, I’ll stop because I don’t want that to be the reason you stop reading my posts. 😉 There are a lot of things I won’t apologize for, but language can be a bit up in the air; I don’t always know exactly how far is too far when it comes to slang, so I’m willing to tone that down if it’s too much.
I’m also not trying to purposefully be mean or rude to girls who dress and act slutty (I am gonna say that because Kyle Kupecky, a man I deeply respect, said that point-blank in a YouTube video one time, and it’s true; I just don’t know how else to say it)—I said earlier I can’t stand rudeness and I meant it; however, I can’t express how much damage the devil is doing to young people and girls in particular with encouraging us to act, dress, and pose like sex objects. That is not empowerment; that is degradation, and as a woman who cares about other women’s wellbeing, I am going to passionately call that out. I make fun of it a lot with my friends who I trust and who I can be real and funny with, including my mom, but really, it grieves my heart, and I can’t stand when people act like it’s nothing, so I’m gonna poke fun at it including when I’m the one doing it because it is pathetic when you think about it. I’ll talk much more about this in posts to come solely about this topic.
Some of these photos turned out nice, though. I’m obviously not sharing any where I was trying to act sexy—those didn’t turn out very good, anyway, and I was with my MOM; it’s like good gosh, that shows I have a problem when I feel the need to act that way on our trip, too. Here you can see the Cosmopolitan, a ritzy, iconic hotel on the Strip, too. I did have Night Mode on here because the room looks much brighter than it was.
My big mug (as my grandpa would say 😂) is in the way here, but from this angle behind me you can see the Bellagio and the renowned water fountain!! Of course, they had construction crap blocking some of it you’ll see later, but you could still see enough of it, thankfully. I really like this picture, though; it has the vibes I was seeking without being raunchy (because why do girls have to be that way in all our photos? isn’t that so sad, how that’s what’s expected and gets the most attention?!).
See, this is a great view! I hope I was finally realizing that by this point; I think I felt a little better, but by the next morning, I’d be completely better. LOOK AT THAT STUPID CRANE!!! You can still see most things, though.
This is the view walking into the room. I should’ve been happer; it gives me high-rise vibes now, which is something I’ve always wanted to live in but probably never will until NYC gets their crap together. Probably not even then, given that I had a mental breakdown in Las Vegas!
In my defense, this is different than if we were right by the road with a view, but I probably got to see more this way being farther back, honestly. Well, it’s a great view, and it brings joy to my heart now thinking this was our Las Vegas home for a time. ❤️ It was so peaceful, too, looking out the window with our lights off and everything mostly quiet. That probably helped me calm down. You could always hear sirens going off every 20 minutes or so, though, and I can still remember the familiar whooshing/smacking sound of the water being distributed from the fountain as the show was starting.
Day 2: Exploring the Strip and Flamingo Hotel
Good Morning
We slept in until nine, which wasn’t terrible. I know Mom was ready to start exploring, and I was, too. We laid around for a little bit before getting ready. I was in a better mood and ready to give the city a chance. I am SO grateful I had a rough itinerary planned out for us of things we were going to do! We didn’t follow it exactly, occasionally cutting or adding things here and there or reordering things based on what we had time for, but having an idea made sure we hit what we wanted to most without getting overwhelmed. There are endless possibilities for things you can do in Vegas and around Vegas, so you have to pick and choose. If you don’t have a general idea, you could waste a lot of time wandering around blind, which can be fun, too, but even with three full days, I felt pressed for time. I tried to carve out some time for exploring, but I also made sure we did the things I wanted to most.
See, this counter was nice. It’s marble!
Mom was up for pretty much whatever, though I tried asking her as often as possible to let me know if anything stood out to her that she wanted to do. I think she ended up liking everything I picked, so that made me happy because even though I brought her along as my plus-one, I wanted her to enjoy it, too, and I know it’s definitely a different vibe for both of us but especially her.
This closet was awesome, but I don’t think we ever used it. Mom might have hung up her dress shirt for what I had planned on this night, which we’ll cover in the next part! 😉
And I loved our TV and this setup. I picked this room layout specifically with the white and neutral tones, and it did not disappoint, except in harsh artificial lighting at night when I was at the end of my rope. 😄
Doesn’t this look much better?! I would come to love our view at night, though.
That’s my extra pillow since I only sleep with one. 😜
I had another hoe moment in between these pics because I asked Mom to take a photo of me INNOCENTLY just laying there with the view in the background, but this pajama top is so flimsy and shifts a lot, and when you’re on your side with gravity and your chest… She was like, “Fix your shirt!” and then I wrapped myself completely in the comforter to protest. 🤣 That’s it, though, with me being a hoe; I finally quit doing that crap because it sunk in that (1) how does that give God any glory or advance what I preach, even though I have taken photos like that ON MY OWN for MY OWN EYES ONLY because sometimes it is nice to document how you look and gives you a confidence boost but also (2) what is the point of me taking photos like that on this trip when I KNOW I’m not posting them anywhere because that’s what I’m against? I truly had seen too many raunchy (there, I didn’t call them hoes) 20-something girls on Instagram in Vegas being hoe-y with their friends and felt like I needed to be that way, too.
It’s always, seriously, when you let go, too, that things start naturally unfolding beautifully. Like the rest of the photos I’m going to share, they’re awesome (not just ’cause of us HAHA) and they’re not super staged or taken with professional cameras, but they’re still just as good and, more importantly, they perfectly encapsulate this time and trip! That’s what SHOULD be the whole point of photos—to remember, rejoice, and praise God in.
Mom loved the view, too! I’m also so grateful I have her to hold me accountable; she doesn’t “slut-shame” me but she will point-blank ask why I’m wearing/doing something like that in her practical, grounded perspective, and I so appreciate that because I know she’s doing that to protect me and help me mature. She helps me see the pointlessness and absurdity in our culture today when I get sucked into the insanity of it all.
I realized we had a GREAT view looking back, too, of the mountains!! That track you see is the monorail, their little “train” that takes you up and down the Strip. We did that on our last day, which I’ll cover in posts to come.
We’re matching!! Isn’t Mom gorgeous?! She looks 10 times better than I do here. I say this because despite being the queen of telling me not to compare and one of my biggest encouragers, she has a massive complex when it comes to her looks, and I always tell her she’s drop-dead gorgeous, but she never believes me…
Leaving the Hotel—Exploring the Flamingo Wildlife Habitat and Hotel Shops
The first thing on my list for the day was to wander outside to the Flamingo’s wildlife habitat! They have Chilean flamingos (I’m not sure what that means, like if there are different kinds…THERE ARE! the “American flamingos” are all pinkish/reddish but these are more of a light pink/white…I never would’ve noticed) and various birds and fish! Plus, I am in love with water displays, and this whole area is a big, beautiful garden oasis. It definitely gave me Discovery Cove vibes! This habitat is free to check out, by the way, so even if you don’t stay here, you should come by and see it! Here we are coming out of the elevator lobby, and right there are the doors to go outside to see it. You can catch a glimpse of this cute crystal place on the right; these were also common in various hotels and malls.
Even before we stepped outside, though, I wanted to check out the shops in our hotel! This is in Marshall Russo; I was seriously tempted to get this dress but it was $100, which actually isn’t horrible for a dress believe it or not, but I decided to wait and never did get it, which was okay—I spent enough. Mom gave me that dreaded “wait until you would need it for something” crap. 😂
Look how sad this is, it was going to be a mid-70-degree day and here I am wearing Mom’s cardigan! I HAVE. COLD. BLOOD. ANDIHATEIT! They blast the A/C, too; I remember when we first walked into our room, I was like turn the heat on. 🤣
I did not walk away empty-handed, though! I planned on spending money on this trip so I was ready to shop. I ended up getting these pearl jeans because I love glamorous embellished jeans (if anyone can find a good pair with glitter [preferably that doesn’t rub off…] or rhinestones, PLEASE let me know!!!), and they seemed so Vegas. That is something I loved about Vegas, the glitz and glam and luxury (but not the excessive wealth…HOW DOES THAT WORK 😅—I like being poor but living rich, like the rush of spending money you don’t have and wondering how you’re going to pay your bills the next month; it keeps me living on the edge🤣).
You know what, though, most of this store was pretty inexpensive besides the dress, surprisingly! I had to have these sandals; you can’t see super well but they’re outlined with rhinestones, and the strap is adorned with pearls and finished with a pink bow. THOSE ARE ALL MY FAVORITE THINGS IN A SHOE!!! I haven’t even worn them yet, but they were only $28 on sale, I think. My mom said I had to have them.
I spent enough money to get this bag at a discount that Mom loved, so I bought it for her, and I used it as my personal item on the way home! And I would need it…
Breakfast at Nook Express
After that, we had this Nook Express right before heading outside, and I saw a pretty pink sprinkled donut I had to have, so I got that and Mom got a cinnamon roll, I think, for breakfast. I think we paid around $5-6 for each, so that’s not horrible.
After that, we stepped outside to enjoy our treats while inhaling the fresh morning scent of weed. We had to hold our breath a lot while walking around out here, and that makes me mad they allow that because it isn’t pleasant at all. But how could I be mad looking at this view? I also didn’t know the windows were tinted pink!! This reminds me of Florida’s splendor I could live in forever.
Oh boy, here I go trying to get cute photos with the donut…
I don’t know why I even try because the donut hole never lines up with my eye…
This reminds me a ton of Animal Kingdom!
I loved seeing these colorful fish!!
I couldn’t wait to get pictures with this cute little sign! This was one thing that looked like it did in photos. 🙂
Here are some ducks swimming with the fish!
I want something like this in my backyard!
This view…looks like heaven.
Mom got to see her favorite wood ducks!
I loved seeing a turtle!
BEHOLD THE FLAMINGOS!!! I’ve been telling Mom for a while that one day I’m going to release one of these birds in our yard.
I loved this adorable duck.
I was really excited to go swimming a bit later in the afternoon, and we walked across a bridge that overlooked the two pools—their family “beach club” pool and their club Go Pool.
Here’s another funny story about my photography desires and mom: I had compiled some photos on my laptop before the trip that I’d saved off Pinterest and blogs, and they were your typical high-end, posed, editorial-like fashion shots with the blogger. I showed them to Mom where these girls were so highly staged and it was a no-go; one was where the girl was in the middle of the Strip crossing the street, which Mom thought had to be Photoshopped, and another was this pose with the girl leaning back with her arm over her head and closing her eyes in front of the Bellagio fountain, and Mom was like, what is the point in posing like that. 🤣 Below is where I had seen some bloggers take cool photos, and no, mine doesn’t look professional or editorial, but I still love it.
Walking the Strip
The next thing on my list was to try this breakfast place in the Cosmopolitan called Eggslut (the word slut is appearing too many times in this post…). I found it when I was looking at different hotels’ restaurants to pick out places to eat. Mom was good with that and pulled up walking directions on her phone, which helped us out quite a bit. I tend to be someone who forgoes directions whereas Mom will put her GPS on to get to Des Moines. 🥲 I was worried about the walking distance because she complains easily when we walk too much and she gets too hot, but she said it was only like 15 minutes, so we set out. I was so excited to finally be on the Strip!
This is actually similar to the “fancy” shots I’d wanted and I wasn’t even really trying after Mom vetoed them hard. 🥳
I finally took my cardigan off. 🙂 It was a beautiful, cloudless, sunny day, and when you get walking a lot, it’s a blessing not having it overly hot. We were so thankful to God for awesome weather.
We went through this alley several times, which was a liiiittle sketchy in the evenings more so, but we survived. Stay tuned, though—I do have some sketchy stories from this trip…
I LOVED this view!!
It was awesome that they had these pedestrian bridges to go over the busy street!
SO many photo ops! We certainly couldn’t have booked a better hotel for our aesthetic!
This is looking down to our right of the Strip; I was excited to see the Mirage because I knew that’s where I’d be staying with Kir and Corrine when I came back! This looks like California, somewhere else I’d eventually like to get out to. And you can see the F1 construction…
Mom especially thought it was cool to see Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen right across the street! I knew there were SO many famous chefs with restaurants out here.
The famous Bellagio was just a block away from us, so the Cosmopolitan wasn’t that far, although it does take a decent amount of time to walk the Strip.
We couldn’t cross here, so we had to go down the road in front of our room to get on this walking bridge and cross the street. They had escalators most of the time, which was nice, except sometimes they were out of service!
Oh my gosh, don’t you love construction… Although it’s hard to mess up that view of the Eiffel Tower! I felt like I didn’t even need to go to Paris!
The bridges provided even better views!! I was freaking out when I could see the mountains with my own eyes outside, haha! My mom, especially, loves the mountains.
It was fun identifying hotels I’d researched earlier. Rio was one I had considered with their huge pool complex, but I’m glad we didn’t stay there because it looked farther from the action.
Once we crossed the street and came down the escalator, there was this tunnel-like walkway along the road that was pretty ghetto if I’m being honest, which is probably why I didn’t take any photos of it. I think it was like that because of all the construction. Then, you come out by the Horseshoe Hotel, and they have this outside walkway with all these shops and fast food places. I was dying to go to Wahlburger’s because I’d seen them in one of the hotels online, and I don’t know, I thought their food looked really appealing. When I was talking to my cousin about food options for our trip, she said they have Wahlburger’s up by them in the Cities, and I wanted to go when I stayed there but her boyfriend, being an absolute guy, didn’t want that so we got Chic-fil-A instead, which I can’t complain about one bit because I’m literally addicted to that place. They had one of those on the Strip, too, but Mom and I didn’t find it. When you walk through this, you eventually get back out on the street again by Paris.
This was inside one of the Raiders’ shops outside of Horseshoe; I had been dying to get a picture with a Jimmy Garoppolo jersey. I’m trying not to objectify men anymore for all the guys reading this because I can’t stand when guys do that with girls, so I’m just going to leave this here. I really wanted to buy his jersey, but it was pricey enough where I hesitated, and that was okay that I never got it because after our trip, I got in a little kick with him where I was watching all these videos with him and made him my screensaver for a time and said I was going to buy his jersey for sure when I came back, but then I got over him again and moved on and still didn’t buy his jersey. 😂 He can send me one. 😘
There are SO many shops EVERYWHERE around the Strip! It is a shopper’s dream!
I’d seen this Paris ball in several photos, so I was excited to see it for myself!
It was also incredible being right under the Vegas Eiffel Tower!
On Las Vegas Boulevard!!
After looking at the various restaurants in Vegas from fast food to high-end, I decided I wanted to splurge for one of our meals, so when I was booking the trip, I purchased tickets ahead of time for several of the attractions and made reservations at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant! If you look at their website, they have THE most stunning views of the Strip!! The ambience also looked incredible; I have yet to come close to finding a guy to take me out for a candlelit dinner so I thought screw it, Mom and I deserve this and we’re doing it. From the photos, I (once again mistakenly…🤣) thought this was at the very top of the tower because that’s how it looked, but I didn’t know how that would work since the viewing deck (which I also bought tickets for!) is up there, so I realized it’s still off the ground but right above the hotel entrance. I was so excited for this; we were having dinner there later that night, so there’s your sneak peek for the next post. 😉
I think at this point, I decided to wait on Eggslut since we’d both had desserts for breakfast and it was already after noon, so we headed back and got Subway for lunch at that little strip of shops and restaurants around the Horseshoe; IT WAS STILL EXPENSIVE!!! I think it was over $20 for meals for both of us, which is probably close to what it normally is but still a couple dollars more… Then, we must have been sidetracked by the Bellagio water fountain! As you can see, they had the whole sidewalk in front of it BLOCKED OFF WITH F1 CRAP for the bleachers to go IN THE FOUNTAIN…what a disgrace. Thankfully, as we crossed the pedestrian bridge to head over there, we got a great view!
Bellagio Fountain and Shops
I also remembered the Bellagio had DESIGNER STORES inside!!! I am from Iowa and I about faint when I see a Louis Vuitton bag in Von Maur (which JUST HAPPENED a year ago as far as I know). We don’t have designer stores in this state. And while I’m not as into designers partly because of their wokeness but more so because of their elitist, bizarre stuff that is painfully ugly half the time and because I think it’s morally wrong to spend as much as they charge for their names, I’m still a fashion aficionado and they are iconic as far as fashion goes, so I was thrilled to see them. I was bouncing off the walls when we entered and the first thing I see is this Gucci logo. I wish you could feel my mom’s boredom and annoyance through the photos—she HATES designer brands hahahaha!! I drove her NUTS on this trip with that, and this is only the beginning, as you’ll see! She was tolerant-ish at this point but still unimpressed. I think she wanted to get back to our hotel to eat, too. Making her hangry is what activates her mental breakdown.
Look at their fancy little ropes…
Look at that, a WHOLE Louis Vuitton store!!
I was a little nervous to go inside because they’ve got salespeople dressed in formal businesswear by the doors, and I read online that some of them, like CHANEL, it said, were appointment-only, and I’ve seen movies where they judge you based on appearances and such, and here I am holding our subs and slurping down my Dr. Pepper! They were very nice, though. They didn’t allow food and drinks inside, but they had a tub for it for me, but Mom, all too eager not to step foot in this place, said she’d hold it for me while waiting. I’ve seen so many Insta-“models” and “influencers” and “wannabes” with these classic white Gucci bags, but what I loved most was the heart crossbody! I’ve seen pink crossbodies on Pinterest from Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent, so that is on my bucket list to find at a reasonable price someday.
Okay, I know Mom makes fun of this stuff for being generic and nothing special, but look how adorable this pink bag is with the logo representing bow shapes…AND THE HEART STITCHING UNDER THE STRAPS! Of course, they lock their prices in the archives of hell so you have no idea how much this costs unless you inquire. I just looked it up now to see if they’re still selling it, and they’re selling similar bags with the same design, and one of them retails for $1400, so it has to be ungodly. You know, I used to say Gucci was one of the more “affordable” brands on the spectrum of luxury (because Chanel bags cost upwards of $10k…), but looking at their website, I think they’ve raised their prices like everyone else! Their mini Marmont bags, those cliché black and white ones you see girls wearing, I thought used to only be like $1200; now they’re $1500-1800…
Somehow, Mom actually came in with me to Prada. I think I begged her because I actually have one of their bags bookmarked, waiting to see if they put it 90% off and I can actually get it for under a thousand dollars…
BEHOLD!!!
This is a picture of me holding $5700. I knew it cost that much because I had it (and still have it) bookmarked on Farfetch. The saleslady who helped me in here was SO sweet; she treated me like I was any other customer perfectly capable of rolling out $5700 even though I’m a college student from Ames, Iowa. But she actually let me hold this beauty!!! I STILL WANT THIS BAG SO BAD! I thought about it the whole trip. I would be lying if I said part of me wasn’t tempted to buy it, but it was a small part of me, because I knew if I spent money on that instead of nearly paying off my car loan with that sort of money, I probably don’t deserve to live. But my gosh, look at how it shines. I will get my hands on this (again) someday…where there’s a will, there’s a way! 😉
*I want to give some appreciation to my favorite crossbody I do own that accompanied me on this trip and I got for Christmas one year when it went on sale for $60…this shimmery gold Michael Kors crossbody! She’s just as nice of quality and gorgeous with all my pink.
The lady at Prada also added me to their store mailing list, which was sweet, even though I knew I’d probably never make a purchase from it. She was so sweet to us, though, asking where we’re from and hoping we had a good trip. Then, I had Mom take my picture outside Chanel. There wasn’t anyone guarding the door religiously to throw me out, but I decided not to go in, anyway; I’m sure my mom had some influence in that decision! I was already heartsick over the Prada bag; Chanel would’ve been double the price, so I kept chugging my booze and kept going. 🤣
Luxury Lunch: Subway with a View
By this point, I had fallen in love with the trip, our room, and our view. We both sat on our little futon staring out the window! 🙂
It tasted so good after walking around so much, and I loved just chilling here SUNBATHING!
Going Swimming at the Flamingo Beach Club Pool
Watch this corner evolve over the trip. I’m usually very neat and organized like my mother, but I got lazy quickly after running around the city. Now, we got dressed to go swimming!
I tried my jeans on and I loved them! I think Mom had Hocus Pocus on in the background…
I thought our bathroom was nice, too! *maybe not the night before*
I loved the pink!
Here’s the desk area on Mom’s side of the room.
I put my neon pink bikini on under this to tan in, and look at this adorable pink tank I bought over the summer where I worked for Parks Marina and The Barefoot Bar; it says “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset” like Luke Bryan’s song (which is so ironic now that I think of it because my mom’s and Corrine’s cousin, Aimee, who lives in Las Vegas and we’d get to see when I went back out with them, bought us all tickets to see him during the end of his residency!). I bought one for both Mom and me when she came up to visit over the summer thinking we could wear them going out to the pool, but she DIDN’T BRING HERS…
Here’s where I almost had a second mental breakdown. I knew the water slide would be closed unfortunately because for some dumb reason they only open it on the weekends, but here I am, thinking this is the pool we’re going to that I’d seen pictures of on their website under the “family pool”! I knew some pools were restricted to 21 and up like their Go Pool, but I was convinced this was the family pool… IT WAS NOT! I was so mad; I was telling Mom I booked this hotel for the pool and the waterfalls and photo ops, and now we’re going to this puny “family” pool that resembled the tiny hotel pool we went to in Florida! (I loved that pool at the time when I was only 12 and easily impressed—anywhere new was awesome; it’s sad how with age, that doesn’t seem to be the case—and I wonder why I was so much happier back then.)
She didn’t think it was a big deal and somehow didn’t receive the mixed marketing messages I had because I swore up and down that the website made it seem like this was the family pool. I looked again while editing this, and now it is clear that the family pool is the smaller one because now the headline is directly under a photo of it. I think they updated it since…I KNOW THEY DID because as I just found the link to the Paris/Eiffel Tower Restaurant website that is through the same place, they edited the font!! Ha, I knew they changed it, as they very well should have. Anyway, I was still irate because you can smoke all the weed you want and sell your body for sex in this city, BUT GOD FORBID A 20-YEAR-OLD SWIM IN A POOL WHERE THEY WOULDN’T EVEN BE BUYING A DRINK!!! We didn’t try going over there to see if they’d let me in; I’m sure they wouldn’t have. I think the reservation portal made it seem like the family pool was different, too, because I’d been going back and forth on reserving us a daybed (they were SO cute), but after seeing it’d be $100 for one of them AND we would be required to order an unspecified amount of drinks and food, I thought it wasn’t worth it. Well, thank God I didn’t because that would’ve been sad.
YOU’RE IN FOR A RUDE AWAKENING, LADY! Haha poor thing… 😂
Mom and I grabbed some (free) lawn chairs and laid out by the pool. I was still so unbelievably mad and feeling like I really got ripped off this time, and Mom didn’t think it was a big deal and still thought this was nice and I was like yeah, what a joke, but I also decided I didn’t have the energy for another mental breakdown, so that’s how we avoided it. I just laid there on my puny lawn chair in front of my tiny pool and seethed until the sun on my skin—one of my favorite sensations ever—melted away my resolve.
This is still gorgeous, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes it is better to have no expectations and certainly not to compare to photos! I was also relieved there weren’t tons of kids running around wild like you stereotypically see in movies and such. In fact, it was mostly all older adults just relaxing. Someone sitting behind us was reading a book—that would’ve been fun and a vibe I am going to chase at the end of this year; I’m hoping to save up enough money for a trip to Miami in December. It actually isn’t that much more expensive than Vegas, so I think it’s very doable, and I might even book it for a solid week with five full days in between where we never leave the hotel and go lay on the beach! And I’ll buy several books!!
Flamingo Gift Shop
We did dip our toes in a little bit, but Mom didn’t want to get in the pool so I didn’t, either. I think I was worried about messing my hair up because most of our plans for the day were taking place after this! We headed back and had some time to kill before our reservations at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. I think this time around, I only bought a pink magnetic Flamingo poker chip at the gift shop, but I would get more later that night. I should’ve bought this for my future child! It made me miss WILLY and our KITTY that we have now, Binx!!!!!
These unicorns and dolphins were also precious. I should’ve taken more photos of the whole store. It was such a cute place. Mom got some great stuff!
Next Post:
Alright, this concludes it for now! I can’t believe I thought I was going to do one big post with over 1000 images. I’m not even exaggerating. Well, one thing I’m never short on is ambition. I about broke my website uploading them all, but they’re all here finally, so now I just need to go in and finish writing the rest and hope it doesn’t break anything…please let me know if it does!
The posts will get even more exciting than this! I don’t have any more mental breakdowns, but I do get sick at the end. The next part will cover everything we did for the remainder of the day—and there was a lot: more shopping at an incredible mall, eating at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, and seeing the Strip AT NIGHT at the top of the Eiffel Tower and in the High Roller. I hope you enjoy this series and, if nothing else, find humor out of the whirlwind it was. Stay tuned!
