Kirsten's Visit, Version 3

Kirsten is a great friend - she has come to visit me three times since I moved out here! She was here for three days this weekend, and us girls had a crazy time on the town. The night she got here, we went to Stoney's for some country dancing and were out until 2:30am.

On Friday, she did the tourist thing on the Strip while I was working. Fortunately, she wasn't hanging out on the roof of the Monte Carlo hotel, which went up in flames.
That night, we met Leigh, Brian, and the LA boys at MGM for drinks at Rouge and dinner at Fiamma (not on the list of places I would eat again). Afterward, we went to a comedy show at Tropicana that I slept through.
On Saturday, the seven of us went to the Neon Museum to check out some Vegas history. Although it's essentially a junk yard, it's incredible to have so many famous signs gathered at one place. It will be very neat when they restore the signs.
Afterward, we got another taste of old Vegas at the Peppermill restaurant. My Cobb salad was the largest salad I've ever seen in my life. Three days later, I still have two boxes full of it.
That night, Kirsten and I shopped at the Miracle Mile Shops while Leigh, Brian, and the LA boys played in the Planet Hollywood poker tournament. Aaron and Scott joined us afterwards at Trader Vics for some tasty island cocktails.
Kirsten and I took a break from the LA boys to meet up with Brad and Rob at Firefly for some mojitos. After they wimped out, we met the boys back at Paris for some Let It Ride and much needed coffee. We finally hit the road at 4am.

Fourth of July

My college roommate, Jamie, and her boyfriend, Robby, came to town during the Fourth of July holiday. I met up with them on July 3rd for dinner at Margaritaville at the Flamingo. I love Jimmy Buffett, so this is one of my favorite places to eat in town. We had a great table overlooking the Strip, and I enjoyed two Ruby Red Ritas (margaritas with chambord) with my fish sandwich.

After dinner, we started wandering around the Strip. We stopped in at Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon (formerly, Barbary Coast) for the advertised $1 margaritas. We then walked over to the Bellagio to watch the fountains.
After watching the fountains and walking around inside, we headed over to Planet Hollywood for a last drink. I stuck with tequila and ordered some awful combination of tequila and pineapple. PH is really hip now that it's been renovated, and I enjoy hanging out there.

On the 4th of July, we headed back to the Strip for a round of casino golf. I heard about this on the Living in Las Vegas Podcast, and I thought it would be a great tourist activity. Each casino is a hole, and you set aside a certain amount of money with which to gamble at each casino. At each casino, while you're gambling, you get a free drink. We started at New York New York, then went down to Mandalay Bay and came back through Luxor and Excalibur. After four holes, we called it a round (we were shooting for 9, but it was hot and we were tired) and headed home to grill out.

After dinner, we went outside to watch fireworks. My backyard overlooks the valley towards the southeast, so I figured we would have the perfect view of the downtown Henderson fireworks. We never actually saw that show, and I read online that it was pretty pathetic. However, we were able to see fireworks in every direction being set off at people's houses. From our front yard, we could see at least three sets being set off in our neighborhood. These fireworks were as big and colorful as those in the professional shows. Apparently, the fireworks laws in Nevada are much looser than they are back east.

Planet Hollywood

On Tuesday, I met one of my best friends from elementary school and her family at Planet Hollywood. The Aladdin officially changed its name and theme to Planet Hollywood (aka, PH) just a week earlier. I've only been inside the Aladdin one or two times. It had a very cheesy Arabian Nights theme and looked run-down compared to other Strip casinos, despite having been demolished and rebuilt in 2000. They've been transitioning to the rebranded casino over the past few months, and you could watch as the facade changed. The sign on top of the hotel read "Planet Ho" for several days, then changed to "Planet Hol" as they were installing the letters at a leisurely pace.

The casino is fabulous inside now. It is a very contemporary style with clean lines, contrasting colors, and of course bright lights. The only thing that would keep me from coming here often, and this is a big thing, is that the parking garage is a long haul from the casino. I don't know what genius designed it this way, but you basically have to walk through an entire shopping mall to get to the casino. You have to read the map to even figure out how to get there. Because the casinos are so big and it can take a long time to talk from one end to the other, parking is very important to me - I want to be as close to the casino entrance as possible. The Wynn has the ideal parking garage. It has electronic signs telling you how many spaces are available on each level, and the door is about ten feet from my favorite destination, the poker room.

We all ate at Lombardi's Romagna Mia in the shopping mall (the Miracle Mile, or formerly the Desert Passage). This Italian restaurant was a bistro style with open air seating (well, open air in the sense that the mall is designed to look like it's outside, though it's just painted ceilings). The food was wonderful. I had a chop salad, my favorite meal as of lately. It had avocados and artichokes in it, yum! I usually don't order desserts, but since others were having some, I jumped on the Crème Brulée. Oh, it was so delicious! If you somehow find yourself lost in this mall, I would highly recommend this restaurant.

I don't have any pictures from PH to share, so instead I will share these pictures that I took from Stephanie's garden this weekend. Her husband, John, has done an amazing job on their landscaping. Their yard is the envy of the neighborhood!