Vegas: Day 1

After a hellacious red eye flight, Bryan and I made it to Vegas around 9 in the morning.

{we made it!}

We were immensely relieved and grateful that we were able to check into our hotel early.  We threw our bags into the room, then head up to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

{eggs benedict}

{our hotel}

We stayed at the Platinum Hotel on East Flamingo.  It's only a short block away from the strip, right behind the Flamingo Casino.  Once we saw how close we were to all the action, we had no issues with staying at a quiet hotel off the main drag.  Our suite was immense with all the creature comforts (full kitchen with stove and dishwasher) with an attached bedroom and a massive bathroom.

After breakfast, we crashed for a few hours in the room before dressing up to meet Bryan's sister and her friends at the Flamingo Casino before heading out to dinner.

Walking the Strip towards the Planet Hollywood casino to get dinner at the Strip House.

{bright lights, big city}

{a blurry shot of the Eiffel Tower from the Paris casino}

{the casino from Planet Hollywood}

Our dinner at the Strip House was incredible.  It was fun hanging out with Bryan's sister and all of her friends (everyone was in town for their friends' wedding).  We were a group of 25 sat at two long tables in the darkened interior of the Strip House Restaurant.  Someone at the table ordered the Half Seafood Plateau as a starter.

{seafood platter complete with oysters, lobster meat, lobster claw, chilled calamari, ahi tartare, lumped crab meat, and scallops}

Bryan got the ribeye, and I ordered the chilean sea bass.  My sea bass was served on a mound of Jalapeno potato puree with swiss chard and a red wine sauce.  Everyone else's steaks were served a la carte, so the table went a little crazy with sides.  We had a truffle mac and cheese, twice baked potatoes and asparagus passed from hand to hand as we plowed through our dinner.

When we were done eating, a group of eleven of us continued the party and headed to the Mandalay Bay.

Bryan scored us this limo for the ride over:

{Carolyn's friend posing in front of our "Exotic Limousine" complete with a stripper pole inside}

{from inside the limo}

We went to the members only Foundation Room at the House of Blues at the tippy top of the Mandalay Bay resort where we got to check out this sweet view of the Las Vegas strip:

What a wonderful introduction to Las Vegas!