A Brief Stopover at Vegas

On our way back from New Orleans, we had decided to stop at Las Vegas.  Since we had our daughter along, I had to figure out a ‘family-safe’ itinerary here for the first time! After some research, I decided to combine some food adventures (of course!) with the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show and tours through some of the the resort hotels on the Strip.

I had booked us a room at the Cosmopolitan. I am nostalgic about the earlier resort hotels with their unique themes and bright (even garish) decor, so I wasn’t quite taken in by the modern edgy look and feel of the Cosmopolitan.  However, the hotel turned out to be every bit as fancy as any Vegas hotel with its miles long corridors to get to any place and a view to kill for on the 74th floor balcony of our room.





The Michael Jackson show turned out to the highlight of this trip and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone with kids who loved the King of Pop.  The show is no as acrobatic as the other Cirque shows I have watched, but every bit as entertaining.



We walked up and down the Strip during the evening and the next morning. The day-time is distinctly different from the night, both in the kinds of people you see around and the ambiance of the Strip itself.  The Bellagio fountains are clearly one of the highlights during the evening.  During the morning trip, we went into the wild-life exhibits and the botanical gardens within these massive casino hotels.






We lined like (like other tourists) for an In-N-Out burger, which was an underwhelming experience. The Super Duper in SF afforded us a far better one.  The food highlight from this trip was the excellent burger-and-shake at Holstein’s within the Cosmopolitan. Upscale and pricey but worth every penny!  Amazing burger with sun-dried tomatoes, bacon and sweet potato priced and the thickest meanest shake in this part of the world.