Las Vegas.

Boyfriend and I went to Vegas last week for a MUCH needed vacation. It was seriously the best Vegas vacation I've ever had and I'll tell you why: No gambling, no partying. Don't get me wrong, I can do both of those and enjoy myself, but the point of this trip was to enjoy the amenities and come back home rested and relaxed. And that's just what we did.

Since I have a shit ton of photos to share, I'm just going to lay out here like this: Start to finish, what you would have experienced on a Vegas vacay with TILTE.

The drive from my house to Las Vegas is about 5 hours. Most of it is through the desert and this is pretty much all you see once you get through greater LA.




First stop- lunch on the go from Tommy's.

The hotel where we stayed.



Just kidding. This is an abandoned motel in the middle of nowhere. AKA Baker, CA.

The World's Largest Thermometer (I cannot verify the validity of this statement).

WE'RE FINALLY HERE!!!


WE'RE IN OUR HOTEL ROOM!!!




First thing we did was head straight down to the pool. If you've stayed at The Mandalay Hotel before, you know HOW FUCKING AWWWWESOME AND INCREDIBLE AND FUN AND RAD this pool is. If you haven't, it's kind of like a giant, deep rectangle and at the far end is a machine that makes a wave every couple of minutes. Not only is this pool sweet relief for burning hot third-degree-from-the-sun burns, it's also fun because you get swept away just like you're drowning in the real life ocean.

Boyfriend. (LOVE this shot.)

$8 beer. And it's not even the good kind. That's how Vegas rolls.

My audition reel for Dexter.

After scorching it up in the desert sun, we headed in for a nap. The nap ended up turning into a half-sleep and we woke up just after 9pm. Oh well, we're in Vegas. It's the city that never sleeps and we can still go anywhere for dinner! WRONG. Apparently the city DOES sleep and bedtime is 10pm. It's nearly impossible to find a restaurant with a full menu open late at night. STUPID. We lucked out and found an Irish Pub called Rí Rá in the walkway between Mandalay and Luxor.

My Stella Artois.

Boyfriend's Guinness. (Fun fact: This was the first time I've ever tried Guinness. Meh... I'm not a huge fan.)

My corned beef and cabbage. I love me some corned beef and cabbage... but this place was actually a letdown. The mashed potato and cabbage was good, but the corned beef was too dry. Take note, Ri Ra.

The chandeliers inside Ri Ra. (I wish I could take the credit for thinking up the brilliant idea of snapping chandeliers, but I got it from drollgirl. Genius.)

The next morning was breakfast-buffet-till-you-bust at our hotel.

Serving #1- The Greasies.

Serving #2: The Healthies.

Serving #3: The Cream of Wheat with butter and granola.

Yep. Three servings. (I actually took a photo of my hot bod when I was laying out at the pool, but I won't be posting that little gem because I look like pregnant-bloated-corpse-belly. Which is unfortunate because I am neither pregnant, nor am I a corpse.)

After breakfast we headed back down to the pool. After we clowned around in the hallway, that is.







Heads up- the drinks at the Mandalay pool bar are strong. I blame my intoxication on the bartender. That, and the roasting hot sun burning the sense out of me.





Poolside weinies.

After we'd made a hundred rounds in both the wave pool AND the lazy river, we headed to the room for a nap. (I'm a napper, okay.) That night, we took a stroll over to The MGM hotel and had dinner at a great Italian restaurant called Fiamma.

Chandelier inside Mandalay.

Chandelier inside Fiamma.

Boyfriend ordered the Gnocchi (potato dumplings) with lobster, mushroom, and truffles. I wasn't a huge fan of the gnocchi, which is surprising because I love both potato and pasta. -But the mushrooms, lobster, and sauce were FUCKING DELICIOUS.

I went safe with the meat lasagna.

Some shots on the walkways between MGM, Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay.

"Ugh, I'm done taking pictures."

"JUST KIDDING! Take some more!!!!"

On our last morning in Vegas, we had breakfast at Hash House A Go-Go in the Imperial Palace. Two of boyfriend's coworkers recommended this place based on the Chicken and Waffles plate.

Chandelier inside Imperial Palace.

Boyfriend started out his meal with a Tallboy-in-a-Bag.

He went with the recommended Chicken and Waffles specialty.

I ordered the avocado/ onion/ bacon/ cheddar scramble with a side of potatoes, fruit, and biscuit. Everything was really good and VERY filling.

While we were in Vegas, my friend Vanessa tweeted that we should go to Freed's Bakery because it's only THEEE most well-known bakery in Vegas AND does the most wedding cakes in all the land. Well, that little "stop on our way out" turned into a 30 minute detour that took us all around greater Las Vegas because Freed's stupid website listed their OLD address. We ended up finding the place and I was super excited to order some cakes TO-GO since we'd just filled up on breakfast. Unfortunately, the woman behind the counter said their cakes wouldn't last a drive to LA unless they were in a cooler. Well, we had no cooler. And I was not about to let this bakery beat me. So we ordered a couple of non-perishable sweets and ONE cupcake that Boyfriend and I planned to split sometime during the drive home.

"Fuck you, cupcake."

As soon as we got back in the car, it started to rain. But desert rain isn't normal rain because it can go from 100 degrees and sunny to torrential downpour in a matter of seconds. I said a Hail Mary because I was sure we were going to get flooded away. We didn't.

Although the vacation was soooo nice, it was comforting to be back home. At least for a short time anyway. I'll be probably be dying for another vacation by the end of the month.

Hope you got to live vicariously through me on this wonderful trip to sin city!

Oh yeah- and after all that searching for Freed's Bakery, the cupcake lasted the drive home. Only I have no idea what it tastes like because I let my mom have it. Oh well. But I CAN say that the Cinnamon Crispy was mouth-watering, very inexpensive, and left me wanting more. Next time, Freed's.