4 Days...Baby Free...in Vegas...with BRITNEY!

photo credit

I love my baby. The days where I get to spend the entire day with her are my most favorite days but you guys...mama needs a break! We all need a break now and then and we deserve it! This past weekend I not only got a break, I got a 4 day vacation! For my birthday {in December} my mom gifted me tickets to see Britney...in Las Vegas!

I have been a Britney fanatic since Baby One More Time and had seen her in concert three previous times, I have all her albums and have loved her through the barefoot gas station shaved head days. Needless to say I have been shaking with excitement since December 12th and am having a hard time accepting that this trip has already come and gone. 

I left Minneapolis early Friday morning, and while I am normally a very nervous flyer, I was as cool as a cucumber thanks to my flight essentials.

I arrived in Vegas at 9am on Friday the 7th and met my mom at the airport {she flew in from Scottsdale}. We grabbed our bags, hopped in a cab and arrived at the Paris Hotel, our home for the next 4 days.

We were able to check in early; so we dropped our bags, unpacked a bit, then grabbed our gambling money and hit the strip.

We kicked off our trip with an early lunch and champagne at Mon Ami Gabi which is in Paris. We were able to grab a perfect table on the patio which had a great view of the strip and the Bellagio fountain. I ordered an Eggs Benedict that was made with Beef Tenderloin instead of ham and it was out of this world.

After lunch we walked our way up the strip to Mandalay Bay to get pedicures at The Bath House. This spa was incredible. It was so serene and literally had baths {aka hot tubs} around every corner. Our treatment included comfy white robes, a warm scented neck pillow {heaven} and the best pedicure I've ever received. A lovely lady named Angel did my toes and I wish I could have brought her home, she was so sweet and funny and took amazing care of my toes. But, my favorite part of the experience was letting my toes dry. I normally dread sitting still under those heat lamps but at The Bath House, you lay on a lounge chair overlooking one of the baths...talk about relaxation.

 

After our pedicures we mosied our way back to Paris to primp for our night. Once we were ready we went up to Eiffel Tower Restaurant for a cocktail. The restaurant was beautiful, the view was incredible but the bartenders were rude. Nonetheless, it was a great way to start the night.

From there, we walked next door to Planet Hollywood to have dinner at Koi, where I failed to take a single picture. The atmosphere was really cool and our waiter was very sweet but it took over 30 minutes to get our drinks and edamame. After expressing my disappointment we had said drinks removed from our tab and received two more complimentary drinks from the manager - apology accepted. Despite the poor service, the food was amazing! My mom and I shared a California Roll, Rock Shrimp, Beef Potstickers and Szechuan Green Beans.

After dinner, it was time for BRITNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My super amazing Minnesota blog friend Andrea just so happened to be in Vegas to see Britney the same night! So we met up before the concert to share in our spastic excitement. Andrea's sweet hubby Aaron bought us girls a drink and we cheers-ed to BritBrit while surrounded by some of her famous outfits.

What can I even say about this show? I honestly don't know. Britney did not disappoint. Every teeny detail was incredible and just as each time before she put on an incredible show. She debuted her new brunette locks at our show and it now has me wanting to go dark. The set list was perfect, her dancers were insane, the production was out of this world...it was incredible. 

During the show we were sitting behind a group of extremely excited Gay boys. One of the boys who was sitting in front of me and one seat to the left was as my mom called him, "my long lost sister." My mom said she kept looking over and we would be doing the SAME dance moves, we'd get excited about the SAME songs and we were the only two people in our section who didn't sit down. He kept looking back at me throughout the show and we totally bonded over our love for Britney. I don't even know his name, but you better believe we snapped a pic.

Sweaty from dancing my face off. 

After the concert, we popped in to the Britney store where I bought a couple souvenirs and then we crossed the street to The Cosmopolitan. We set up shop at The Chandelier Bar where an amazing singer was covering Frank Sinatra and Tom Jones. We had a couple cocktails, recapped the show and somehow stayed out until nearly 3am. After returning to our room we ordered some much needed room service and then fell asleep with little Britneys dancing in our heads. 

We were late to rise on Saturday morning, but once we got our Starbucks we were ready to take on the shops of Las Vegas. We started at Bellagio and then made our way to The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

After hours of perusing Jimmy Choo, Tory Burch, Valentino, Burberry, Tiffanys & Co and more; we met up with one of my FAVORITE bloggers, Erin, from Hello Erin. 

We had lunch with Erin and her friends at Munchbar in Caesar's Palace and had so much fun. Erin is just as adorable and sweet as she appears on her blog and I feel super sad that we live so far away from each other. Her friends, sister and hubby were all as sweet as she is and my mom and I had such a great time getting to know them. 

Per Erin's suggestion, we made our way back to Planet Hollywood so I could buy this giant pimped out champagne bottle chain filled with Captain Crush - which was some sort of mango rum concoction that gave me gut rut after like 3 sips. But it wasn't about the drink...this bad boy made it's way home with me and is patiently awaiting tailgate season.

After we were all showered and ready to hit the town again, we went back to Bellagio to have a drink at Picasso. This restaurant sits right next to the Bellagio fountain and is decorated exclusively in original Picasso artwork. Pablo Picasso has always been my favorite artist and I was in total awe of what surrounded me as I sipped my Picasso Pom Martini.

Not only were TWO of my bloggy friends in Vegas the same weekend but so was my DAD! He was in town for business so we all met up for a couple of drinks at Tap in MGM. My parents are divorced but it makes me SO happy that they get along and are able to be around each other. I had so much fun hanging out with both of my parents, even if it was just for a couple of hours.

After our drinks we walked to Mandalay Bay to have dinner at Border Grill. We shared guacamole and I ordered the Brisket Taquitos - HOLY MOLY - they were so frickin' good! The restaurant was pretty dead for a Saturday night but I loved the atmosphere and decor and the food was some of the best Mexican I've had. This is definitely a place I would revisit! 

We finished dinner around 10:30pm and were both beat from our antics the night before and the 11+ miles we had walked that day {thank you FitBit}. We opted to head back to Paris, grab a drink and Gelato and watch a movie. I polished off my Gelato but fell asleep before I could finish my drink...and I'm pretty sure I saw about two minutes of the movie.

Sunday morning we woke up feeling nice and rested so we once again walked all the way to Mandalay Bay to visit The Shark Reef Aquarium. It was so neat to see all the crazy sea creatures and be surrounded by tons of sharks.

 

On our walk back we stopped in New York New York and had lunch at Broadway Burger Bar. I ordered the Greek Turkey Burger which was SO delicious. I loved that it was served in a pita and I'm definitely going to use this as inspiration for dinner in the future, or like tomorrow.

We made a pit stop at the hotel to shower and change and then walked to the Sports Book in Caesar's Palace to watch the Arizona basketball game and place some bets. I won one of my four bets and then bet my winnings which I lost - such a bummer! But it was really fun to watch the game and now I understand why Jason is so obsessed with sports books.

After the game we ran into Richard Sherman in the casino. He was so much smaller than I thought he would be so I had to google him to make sure it was actually him. Of course by the time I got my act together he was gone so I missed my chance to snap a pic. We had some time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we popped into Fizz which is Elton John's bar {also in Caesar's Palace}. The bar is decorated with art from his personal collection and is a wonderfully eclectic and totally Elton atmosphere. We both ordered the Fizz Noir Martini which was probably the most delicious drink I've ever had. It was made with Grey Goose Cherry Noir, Domaine Chandon Brut Champagne, Cherry Herring Liqueur, rock candy syrup, lemon juice and egg whites. I tried to get the recipe out of the bartender with no such luck. I would seriously fly back to Vegas JUST for one of these bad boys.

That night we had dinner at Rao's {also in Caesar's Palace} and it was incredible. We each had a Caesar Salad and I ordered the Ricotta Spinach Ravioli in Vodka Cream Sauce. It was SO GOOD. It was probably my favorite meal of the trip - which is saying a lot.

As we were leaving the restaurant we got passes for free cover and free drinks at Pure Nightclub in Caesar's. Experiencing a Vegas nightclub was definitely on my list but I knew wasn't really my mom's thing. We figured it was worth it to check it out and at the very least get some free drinks. We ended up having the BEST time. We danced the night away, talked with quite a few interesting boys, saw quite a few interesting girls and had one {or two, or three} too many drinks.

I can't even tell you what time we got back to our room but I can tell you I was a hurting unit the next morning. Despite the brutal headache, we hit up the strip one last time. We did some shopping at The Grand Canal Shoppes in The Venetian and Palazzo and had breakfast at Grand Lux Cafe in The Venetian which was a great spot but just had OK food but it certainly hit the spot after a night of drinking.

It was such a gorgeous day, we opted to spend the rest of our afternoon lounging {and napping} by the pool at Paris. After the coldest winter in Minnesota's history, feeling the warm sun on my skin was just about the most amazing thing ever.

We ended our trip with lunch on Cabo Wabo Cantina's patio with nachos and a Corona.

It was an incredible trip filled with so many new memories. I had such a blast with my little mama and am so grateful that we are able to do things like this together. I'm happy to be home with my family but wish I had a few more days to recover. That, and I'm incredibly sad this trip is over.