Vegas baby, yeah!

If I've been a poor blogger the past few days, it's because hubby and I were in Vegas, baby!

Yes....we left on Tuesday and got into Vegas at noon. After picking up our car rental, we headed to the Outlet stores and had lunch at one of our favorite sushi places in Vegas -- Makino (more on that later on).

Then we checked in to our hotel --- The Marriot Grand Chateau. I actually prefer staying in one of the hotels that's off the strip and this location was perfect. It was walking distance to the Vegas strip so it was still fairly close to most of the *big* hotels. A big plus is that the gym is FREE. If you've been to Vegas and have stayed in one of the hotels on the strip, you have to pay at least a minimum of $25/day to use the gym....plus most of those hotels reek in smoke.

This one was a resort that's more "family-friendly" and NO casino inside.

The lobby

Our room

...the living room/dining room

 Kitchen

 Bathroom

 King size bedroom

 Our view

Here's some of the "new" sites in Vegas.

The new Aria hotel next to the Vdara. Aria has a casino while Vdara is strictly a hotel. Both hotels were more modern and contemporary in design.

Rubbing the Buddha belly for good luck!

The Venetian and Palazzo

Stratosphere

One of the highlights of our trip was a couple's massage that hubby booked for our Anniversary. It's our 20th Anniversary, which is really why we went to Vegas. We went to a place called Boracay massage that hubby found out about on tripadvisor. It was probably one of the best massages I've ever had in my entire life. It was 1½ hour Swedish massage that also included a stone massage and a foot scrub. I was a noodle afterwards...all the soreness from Bloomsday was kneaded away.

Luck did pay off at the end our stay....and Mandalay Bay paid us good!!!!

What have you been up to? Are you a gambler or just a spectator?

I like the slot machines and my favorite one is called *Haywire Deluxe*. If you're ever in Vegas, look it up before they become extinct {they are replacing most of the slot machines with digital ones}.