Mesa Grill - Las Vegas

Ok. I couldn't talk about our entire Las Vegas trip without mentioning F-O-O-D!!!! I had completed tons of research and planning in advance to pick out the perfect dining locations for our vacation.

We decided to go here:

Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace

Restaurant Owner: Bobby Flay. Love him! Bobby is known for his tex-mex/southwestern spin on food and is known for cooking with all things pepper. Chiles, Poblanos, you name it. This restaurant encompasses all of the above, plus some more! The menu also offered a unique twist on Mr. Flay's other famous creations ---- Burgers! (Wait and see below.)

Here is a peek at our dining experience at Mesa Grill

Drinks: Brian started with a traditional margarita. I tried the cactus pear margarita. How cute is that bright pink cocktail!?! They were so smooth and refreshing.

Appetizer: Goat Cheese "Queso Fundido"
Delicious melted goat cheese, with roasted peppers on top, served with blue tortilla chips.

I loved the little individual Staub ramekin that this dip was served in. You could easily tell it was freshly baked.

My pick: Yucatan Chicken Tacos
Chicken skewers with grilled red onion, served with a peanut-smoked chile barbecue sauce

This was like Tex-Mex, BBQ, and Thai tastes all in one. That may not sound like a great combo, but that sauce was so unique and flavorful!

Brian's pick: Green Chile Burger
Queso sauce, roasted poblanos, pickled red onions and a side of southwestern fries
Look at that queso dripping off the edges of that juicy hamburger patty! YUM!

Brian and me at Mesa Grill

Needless to say we had a fabulous lunch and we were so full after eating all the scrumptious food! The best part about the meal???? We didn't have to pay one penny for it! My wonderful, sweet sister surprised us a 2nd time on our trip. She took care of the bill by contacting the manager in advance! It was a great surprise to end our meal and a terrific anniversary present! Thanks again, Whitney!

Las Vegas!!

Yay! I've gotten my many, many pictures finally uploaded from Las Vegas!

Now I can share our vacation with you! Brian and I spent our 1st Anniversary in Las Vegas. It was a great decision to go ahead and *live it up and spend some $$$* before we get older and start a family. Don't worry......a family is not coming that soon! haha!

We stayed at the Aria at City Center. It is a new hotel in Vegas and it did not disappoint. We loved the hotel! Our favorite thing you ask?

Well...........

Our hotel room!!! Yes, that's our bed looking out over the strip of Las Vegas! It was perfect. The hotel was offering tons of deals to get guests to stay there since it is new, we were able to get a corner suite for a great price! I think I could have laid there and watched time go by in the city forever.

This was another view from our hotel suite. Amazing!

We couldn't resist exploring as soon as we got into town, so we headed off to the Bellagio which was right next to Aria. This is the famous blown glass ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio. It is mesmerizing!

We also checked out the conservatory which is where I fell in love.

BLUE HYDRANGEAS!! Gorgeous!

We had blue hydrangeas in our wedding and I am slightly obsessed. That's why I'm squatting down to pose next to the flowers like a dork! Every hotel in Las Vegas had some type of hydrangea in their decor, and I was in Heaven.

We came back to sweet surprise after our first day out on the town. My sister, Whitney, had ordered us a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries as a present for our anniversary! It was such a thoughtful gift. At that moment it really felt like our second honeymoon and not just any other vacation.

This was a beautiful fountain at The Venetian.

I love America, blue hydrangeas, and of course Brian!

Gondola rides at The Venetian.

It looks like we were outside walking the streets of Venice! This has to be one of my favorite hotels. I loved just walking up and down the "streets" and window shopping.

Brian and me at The Venetian

The Wynn and Encore

One evening we ate dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. It is a little french inspired bistro famous for their *steak frites*. This was the view from our dinner table! It was so perfect and so romantic. We were able to watch several water fountain shows outside the Bellagio. This was by far my favorite dinner of the trip! (I also had a favorite lunch, but it will have it's own post later!)

After dinner, we walked allllllllllll the way down to the end of the strip to Mandalay Bay. While exploring the casino, we were offered free passes to the rooftop bar. We thought, "Rooftop bar? Great View? Free?!!?" Of course we will go! Well this was what we stepped out to after getting off the elevator on the 64th floor! Mandalay Bay is at the end of the strip, so we had a fabulous view over the entire city!

Me and Brian at Mix rooftop bar at Mandalay Bay

The Mirage. It has an erupting volcano!

At the Mirage, we went to see Beatles LOVE, a cirque de soleil show. This was the main reason we went to Vegas! Not kidding! Brian and I have both wanted to see this show for years now. My parents gave us show tickets as our anniversary present! It was a great show set to Beatles music! Go to vegas now and see this show!!!

While waiting for the show to begin, we went to the Beatles Revolution Lounge. I didn't notice until my mother-in-law pointed out that I had chosen to sit in the letter "O". Quite fitting!

Treasure Island

New York City anyone? Vegas has it ALL.

Ahhhhh, Las Vegas. Let's go back tomorrow!

Las Vegas! (Sneak Peek)

Hi friends! I have not forgotten about posting more Vegas pictures!
I thought I would try and set up Picasa account in order to upload my pictures faster instead of directly from my computer, but it is giving me major problems. I feel that I am somewhat computer literate, but I can't get this program to cooperate with me. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture as a sample of what is to come!



P.S. If anyone uses Picasa or another picture sharing website and would like to tell me how you upload your pictures to your blog, PLEASE SHARE!

The Grand Canyon

Hello! Is anyone still out there? Are you desperately waiting to know what we've been doing? Well Brian and I have certainly been jet-setting across the country. Since getting back from Ohio, we took our ONE YEAR (yay, we made it a year!) anniversary trip to Las Vegas. Shortly after that, we went to Chicago and moved my sister into her new place, then we headed off to the gulf coast this past weekend. I think you can say that we have definitely traveled around the USA this summer! It's been so fun, but also nice to get back to our normal routine this week. Mr. Brian starts his senior year of dental school this coming Monday! Eeeeek!

In the meantime, I've got plenty of pictures and stories to tell you about our adventures this summer. It's actually worked out well that I haven't been able to post this past month because it has given time for Mr. Fix It to edit/fix all our pictures on photoshop. He has of course, already mastered that program and is really producing some wonderful pictures.

While in Vegas, we took a half-day trip to the Grand Canyon.........by helicopter! It was an awesome experience and, in my opinion, the best way to view the canyon and all of Las Vegas.

That's me and our pilot, Chuck. Isn't he great!?! I felt really safe with him as the pilot. He told us so many great stories about his life. He flew black hawks in the army for 20+ years. He flew helicopters in Alaska and landed on glaciers. The list goes on. I felt certain if we needed an emergency landing he would do so safely in the vast dessert!

That's me in the front seat! I was excited about my view!

First stop on the tour, Hoover Dam. It looks slightly small from the sky, but it is NOT!

Then we landed the helicopter in the beautiful canyon! What a view, right?

Brian and me in the Grand Canyon

Oh you know, we picnic in the Grand Canyon every weekend! haha!

(Side Note: Notice the color of the background here, the canyon walls. It was actually a very cloudy day and all our pictures turned out a little drab. See below also. But if you notice the above canyon pictures......yep, that's Brian's mad editing skills!)

On our way back to the airport, we took a surprise trip down the Vegas Strip. It definitely felt like we were on The Bachelorette in that moment! hahaha!

Another great view of Las Vegas!

More posts of Las Vegas to come! Soon.....I promise!