Eat Your Heart Out

Vegas recap week continues!!!!

Are you bored yet? Hopefully not but if so, I apologize...sort of.

Hands down, for me, the best part of the Vegas trip was the food. Initially, when we settled on going to Vegas I was a little less-than-enthused. Having been to Vegas before, I couldn't fathom that Sin City could offer me anything unique or interesting. Then I remembered Season 6 of Top Chef was filmed in Vegas. I'm a total Top Chef junkie and remembering all the restaurants and interesting chefs that had made their home on the strip suddenly got me very excited. I did some research and discovered that our trip also coincided with Las Vegas Restaurant Week, another bonus.

My dear friend was more than happy to let me make all the food decisions/arrangements so I set about planning our three days of meals. In the end we hit four Top Chef spots and had some of the best meals ever!

Hands down, for me, the best overall experience was at Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger's Border Grille. The service was impeccable, attentive without being intrusive and the food was perfection on a plate. Literally. If you can only eat one meal in Vegas, do it here.

The meat was so tender I don't even think you'd need teeth to eat it!

Second best, by a fairly close margin was Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill where we stopped for brunch on Saturday. I am anxious to get back and try their dinner menu!

I look ridiculous because I'm enjoying the hell out of the green chile hollandaise sauce!

And, of course, no true Top Chef Vegas trip would be complete without a stop at Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak. While the food was amazing, I have to admit I was a bit put out by the service. When we were seated, we were introduced to our TWO servers. I don't know if one was in training or what, but they didn't seem to work together cohesively, making the meal seem disjointed. I suppose that after our lunch with the waitstaff at Border Grille, I expected much more for what we were paying for this dining experience.

The day of our departure we had breakfast at Serendipity3. Other than the ice cream parlor in the John Cusack/Kate Beckinsale movie, Serendipity, I hadn't heard much about this place. It was Kathy's pick and she did good. We finished off a great foodie trip with their signature Frozen Hot Chocolate before heading to the airport.

Isn't that a beautiful looking plate?!

Looking back at the trip, the food was definitely the highlight for me. However, there were so many restaurants we missed, I can't wait to return with Elijah and eat our way across the strip!

Linking this up with:

Girl Gone Wild

What does a suburban mother of two do when her Vegas trip just isn't "CRAZEH" enough?

She gets a tattoo, of course!

I know my last post about Vegas talked about how chill and non-partying our trip was but I did get a little wild. We found Starlight Tattoo on our way to dinner in Mandalay Bay our second night there and it seemed like a sign. Now, this isn't my first tattoo. I got my first one at 20 while on vacation in Miami. But I had been wanting to get inked again for a while now I'd just been having trouble deciding what or where.

I was so lucky to have Kathy there to talk me through the details and push me, ever so gently, towards the store the next day to make my appointment.

Also, she took some excellent photos!

A perfect star for Miss Marina Star!

Waking Up in Vegas

I am back from my Las Vegas Girls Trip!!! I think I'll just go ahead and try to get a week's worth of posts out of those four days, so be warned...it may start getting old.



I had envisioned a Vegas trip that would have made Katy Perry proud. Unfortunately, I failed miserably. Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful trip. And we actually visited several places that we talked about seeing, doing, and shopping at during our four month planning session. Our original plan was to spend four days shopping, laying out by the pool drinking margaritas, eating amazing food and spending some quiet time getting reacquainted.

However, somewhere between the initial commitment to the trip and the months leading up to the actual take-off, I began to envision a far more wild and crazy girls weekend. Jello shots, late nights gambling, dancing all night with the other hoochies at the clubs, meeting wicked hot celebrities, and coming home with enough money for both our families to retire together on a tropical paradise with a chef, a housekeeper and a nanny for the kids.

Alas, that was not how the trip unfolded. For one, Kathy and I were completely incapable of staying up any later than 10pm. AND we got up at 7am every morning. This was NOT part of the plan, but we simply could not get onboard with the two hour time difference. Plus, we rationalized that since it was OUR vacation we could go to bed whenever we wanted!

In your face, Vegas night life!!!

The fact that I didn't come home with a four day hangover, a multi-million dollar cashier's check from the roulette table, or the phone numbers from my Top Five Celebrities list is okay with me, really. We still had a great trip; a trip that was perfect in it's imperfections. Kathy and I discovered that we travel well together, there was minimal catiness and absolutely no arguing about each other's bathroom routines.

Today's post is how I failed to produce a Katy Perry worthy trip to Vegas. Tomorrow I'll share a bit more about how two suburban ladies party down in the City of Sin!