Well going to the gym was always part of the plan, every time I go to Vegas I always tell myself that i'm going to wake up early and go to the gym even if it's for a little while. I mean it's part of the resort fees that we pay, but every time the bed always wins.
Breakfast will be at The Peppermill this time, you know, since it's good and it's right next door. It's probably about a 5 minute walk from Encore and in Vegas leaving your hotel room and actually getting to your destination within 5 minutes is mighty rare. Well, once again that was the plan, but then we would have to walk back to the hotel pack and then walk over to the self park to get the car, why not save some time, just pack up and leave now?
I must admit, I was sad to leave the tip money on the dresser and then quietly tip toe out of my suite and head on downstairs, it felt like I was paying for a certain service that was over before I even knew it. I mean, I didn't even get to go downstairs sit at the felt tables and get my happy ending. Alas, I guess that's what Vegas does to you, always has you wanting more.
We get to the Peppermill and it's just as how I remember it from every other time i've gone there. Same decor, same outfits, same napkins, some of the servers are probably the same as well.
I order the Eggs Benedict and she orders Joe's San Francisco Special. Which is the exact same two dishes that was ordered the last time I was there #Awkward. I gotta remember to try a different dish next time. But once again, my eggs benny did not disappoint!
From there we made our way over to Red Rock Canyon. Never been here before. Not bad, nice easy scenic drive. We pay the $7 vehicle admission fee, and drive along the already set out Scenic Route and we would stop at various look points to snap a few pics. We were suppose to go on a 2.6Mile hike that would take about 2.5hrs to complete, but uhhh, I couldn't do it. No shame in telling you guys about it now right?
Silly me, I didn't bring the proper footwear. I wanted to pack light, so I didn't pack my running shoes. I already packed a pair of sandals, which luckily I did not wear that day! So I was wearing these cloth shoes that are similar to chucks, so with every step, I could pretty much feel the rocks underneath my feet. I was not planning on walking on hot stones today.
So we stopped at the look point and began to set out on our planned hike. We walked a few hundred feet, but it seemed like forever under the Nevada sun and we get to a sign that supposedly marked the beginning of the trail. OMG. The hike starts now? This whole time I thought we were already on it? That's when I realized I couldn't go through with it, so we turned back and made our way to the car.
So now that our adventure was cut short, we have a bit more time on our hands. We stopped by the Red Rock Casino on our way back for a quick coffee break, also stopped by their players desk, hoping to sign up for some free play, but nope, sadly they didn't have any promos of that sort. The only promos they had were catered to seniors, ughhh, we're not that old...yet.
Alright, so back to the strip we go! Guess we'll just go check into our hotel and figure out what to do from there. So we're back on the strip and we're stopped at the red light, the red light just so happens to be the Palazzo/Venetian one. Hey, here's a great idea! They have free parking still, let's pull in there and explore the Canal Shoppes!
Yes, it's just like any of the other shopping centres they have on the strip loaded with high end fashion brands that have zero patrons in them, but still it's cool!
Whoa, wait a minute, is that actually people lining up to go on the gondola ride? $25 a person? that's not cheap either....
After all that walking, we're finally hungry! Hard to believe, I know.
She remembered reading about this Mexican restaurant that was part of Restaurant Week and had seats right next to the canal, so you could sit there, eat, and watch the gondolas float by. So our quest for that began.
It was an easy, but rewarding quest! Because we found it! The view was amazing and the food was delicious!
Canonita, is the name of the restaurant and they were once again part of Restaurant week, so we ordered from their lunch menu, it was $20 a person, but $4 of it went towards feeding the homeless, and it was a lot of food, so it was really a good deal. So much food in fact that the server should have gave us a heads up about it. One order was more than enough to feed the both of us. But OMG. The food was so good, I think it was the best Mexican meal I've EVER had.
Needless to say, they start you off with some chips and salsa, I opted to go with the Pozole as my starter, she chose a salad, and we both ended up choosing the Santa Rosa Pork Barbacoa's as our entrees, due to our servers recommendation. Boy was she right! Excellent choices!
So now that we're stuffed and all tired out from walking, onto the Cosmo, where it'll be our home for the next few days!
We ended up parking in the East lot, but the front desk and our room was on the West Side of the property, so that was a haul! But the first trip always is, because you never know where you're going and you're just getting acquainted with the property.
The check in line is long, but not that bad, so while we're waiting in line, I pull up my email, it says "Go directly to the Autograph Lounge, do not pass go, do not collect $250" So we bail out of that line and head to the Autograph Lounge, there's only one person in front of us, not bad. Check-in was smooth and simple, they had everything there correct. When we leave the autograph lounge, I see the lady who was standing behind us in the other line already up at the counter, so we saved a little bit of time.
I must have been too excited, because silly me, I was busy snap chatting for my 10 followers that I forgot to take actual photos of the room and the view. We ended up with a balcony view over looking the Bellagio fountains! To make up for it, here is a video of the room that I posted on Instagram: Cosmo Room
Anyways, after I get tired of running around the room like a kid flicking on all the switches and seeing what they do, we're ready to head out again!
We head on back downstairs to their Identity desk so that I can pick up my players card and have them load my $250 free play and $50 resort credit on to it. I walk up to the desk, present my ID's and explain to them that i'm picking up my card, one should have already been created for me and that I should have some FP loaded onto it. She hands me the cards, but says there's no FP on it. So I explain to her a bit more about the situation, and ask her to look again. Oh yes, you're right. I see it now. $250 FP, here let me load it. Okay, so that's loaded, and then I ask her about the $50RC, she goes, oh I don't see anything about that. I say okay, and ask who I should email. She says your host. I then pull up my phone and pull up the email, she asks me for my host's name, I give it to her and tell her I have it written in this email right here. She takes a look at the email, looks at her screen again and goes "oh, you're right, it's here, I see it now". It's just funny how those credits miraculously appeared after telling her a few things, she just made it feel like the money was coming out of her pocket. It could have gone smoother, but in the end I did get it.
I had a surprise planned for her, we needed to be there by 7:45PM, it's about a 25 minute drive, which means we should leave Cosmo around 7:15 in order to get there on time. I've been stressing out about this all day! Because of the timing issue, wondering how i'm going to trick her into going where i'm going and making sure it's timed correctly so that we get there on time and we're not in the middle of something then. We have a little under an hour to kill, and we just ate, so we're not hungry. So we decide to walk around.
Great thing about the Cosmo is that the Bellagio is right next to it! So we leave the property, cross the side street, walk down the street and voila, we're right in front of the fountains. It's almost time for the fountain show, we stand there and we wait, we watch the show, it's amazing. I look back down at my watch, damn, didn't kill enough time, still a long way to go. We ask each other what we want to do? Neither one of us knows, we both just shrug and stand there. I keep looking at my watch, and I seemed stressed. She knows something is up 'cause I keep looking at my watch and my face shows frustration. After what seems like forever, I said screw it, let's go there now!
In order to get her to the car, I make up some lame excuse about how we parked in the East lot and we live in the West lot now, so let's move the car closer. Gah! Can't believe she went with it! It's a good thing we left a little early to go search for the car too, because we kinda forgot where we parked. What? It happens. All the floors and rows look the same. We had to retrace our steps and eventually figured it out!
By the time we got to the car, it was the time I wanted, 7:15PM. So I pull out the GPS and set the coordinates in. By now she's figured out that we're not just moving the car and we're headed some place else, but she doesn't know where and just goes with it, probably just thinks we're just taking a drive around town.
We get to the airport right on time! Phew! She sees sign for helicopters and such, and she's asking me if I was going to fly a helicopter and brought her along to watch. Close, but not quite right!
I was in such a mix of emotions that i'm pretty sure I forgot one of the most important parts of the surprise, to yell SURPRISE. Anyways, we get inside, we check in. Our scheduled flight time wasn't till 8:45, but they wanted us there an hour early. I assumed it was for forms and safety info.
There's two other couples in front of us, so we're just sitting in the waiting area and this is when I finally remember to reveal the surprise to her and explain what's going on, but she kinda figured it out by now.
I bought the tickets off Groupon, but you still have to pay an additional $25 airport fee once you get there. There are so many of these tour companies that you have no idea who to go with, the one I initially chose, when I called their toll free number, the operator said "This number is no longer in service" uhh sketch. So I decided to go with another company instead. But I did post on the other companies Facebook page telling them the number was not in service, by the time they got back to me and told me to call their local number instead, I had already opted to go with another company.
They have an "upgrade" option, where for an additional $40 you could choose to fly without the doors, they claim it's a better view and you can see the ground. Uhhh, i'm flying in a helicopter why would I want to look straight down and see the ground, as if it's not scary enough already. Just based off of the girls voice who was telling us about this, you could tell it was an upsell. We passed, since neither one of us have been on a helicopter ride before, we didn't know what to expect.
When it's finally our turn, they load us up into a golf cart and take us out onto the tarmack and wait for the helicopter to return, they unload and then we hop on. The couple in front of us did doors off, so when we got there, one of the mechanics had to quickly put the doors back on for us, and it took him less than a minute to reassemble each door, click click and he was done. Uhhh $40 more just for that? That works out to like $5 a click.
The flight was about 15 minutes long, they fly you once around the strip and then back. Worked out to be about $100 CDN per person for this experience. It's alright to do this kinda thing once in your lifetime. This is the kinda thing you want to #YOLO about.
I'm too young for the Vietnam war, but this seems like a fitting song for the helicopter ride up: To The Top Please
This next video was taken while we were flying over the strip, this song is more of my taste: All The Way Up
It was super windy up there, I can only image how much more windier it would have been without the doors! And when the helicopter turns, it's super scary! It's like you're about to fall out, would have been even scarier without the doors. And guys, word of advice if you're planning on surprising your girl with this kind of thing as well, make sure she's wearing pants and not a skirt, so she doesn't have to keep holding it down, and another thing, if she has long hair, make sure you bring a hair tie for her so that her hair isn't flying all over the place and keeps wacking you in your face and so that when she's done with the ride her hair isn't all in knots.
I'm so relieved that I was able to pull it off and that it's over with, no more stressing about that surprise! We headed back to the strip and night time traffic on the strip was beginning to pile up, took forever to make it back to the hotel, and we were only going till mid-strip as well. By the time we got back it was around 10:15PM. I must be getting old because I was feeling tired in VEGAS and we still weren't hungry, so I wanted to rest for a bit and then we would get up and go on another quest to find Secret Pizza. I guess I was more tired than I thought because I couldn't get back up afterwards. By the time I finally managed to pull myself out of bed, it was 1:30AM and by then she was fast asleep, so I didn't want to wake up. So we just ended up sleeping the rest of the night and never went to go look for that Secret Pizza. Oh well, that's money saved by skipping a meal!
END of Day 2 - Total Distance Walked - 11.64KM or 7.23M
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