Our Valentine’s Day only began with the visit to the Neon Museum, and the rest of the day was super fun! I honestly can’t believe how much we actually fit into the day.
When we left the sign museum we decided to head out toward Red Rock Canyon Resort where we had heard about an awesome Mexican restaurant that had some great happy hour specials. Unfortunately with it being Valentine’s Day, Happy Hour wasn’t what we had hoped and we changed plans and went to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse. I was actually surprised by the extensive menu and had trouble deciding what I wanted, they had everything from sandwiches, to pasta and pizza. They had some very nice beer options, and even had gluten-free meal, beer, and desert options!
After leaving BJ’s we thought it would be nice to check out Red Rock Canyon. Unfortunately the park area was closed, but Paul was able to get a pretty nice shot from the road! That’s definitely another spot I’d like to check out in more depth if and when we got back again.
Now it was back to Vegas we go! This was probably the most fun evening of our entire trip! We headed to the MGM Grand first, and found ourselves a Fat Tuesday’s on the way into the Casino! We wanted to see the MGM Lion Habitat, but were disappointed to find that they had closed it a couple weeks prior. The Lions have been retired to a ranch outside of Vegas. Oh well, now onto New York New York! We took Molly’s recommendation and rode the roller coaster in New York New York! It was pretty awesome!
After we left New York New York, we headed over to Ex Calibur where we met John and Elaine. Apparently they were pretty successful on the New York New York slots, so they were feeling good! And decided to get a pic with Sponge Bob… I bet Matthew will love to see that one!
We then decided to stop over at the Tropicana, and I was amazed by how nice this hotel was! It was very bright and clean, and I liked that. Of course, it did seem to attract the “Senior” crowd so we didn’t stay long, but did get some cool pics on their bamboo wall! Look at these beautiful ladies!
By this time, it felt like we were just getting started, and it became a night of rides cause we headed over to the Stratosphere to hop on some rides there! I was surprised how nice the Stratosphere is considering it is an older hotel!
We all went to the top observation and John, Kara and I were all going to just hang out while Elaine, Kevin and Paul rode some rides. We got some cool videos of the experience. After it was said and done, I gave in and decided to ride the Big Shot Ride, and it was AWESOME! I can only somewhat compare it to Archophobia at Six Flags, but even crazier cause you are on top of a very tall building to start and then go up even higher! And it’s crazy cause once you start to go up higher, you no longer see the building around you but just the city skyline around you! Insane!
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4WJzyCd5Ww&w=750&h=411]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHydIS8HOmw&w=750&h=411]
That was me playing with a BIG slot machine! Too funny…
The night was starting to wind down a little, but was still not over cause after all those Fat Tuesday drinks and the excitement of the rides, we were ready for some food!!! We headed back to the mini van, had an exciting ride through the parking garage, and then headed to Peppermill for some huge meals! Luckily it’s a 24 hour diner cause I think we hit it up around 2am and got some big breakfast meals and hearty sandwiches… I think every one of us had a doggy bag, and were ready to head back to the room to sleep off all that food!
