Do the Flamingo

As a reward for meeting company goals, Adam's bosses sent everyone and their significant other to Las Vegas for a weekend. I'm not even sure you could call it the weekend…it was more like a day. We arrived at the Flamingo and by the time we checked in it was already 5pm on Friday. (We left at 6:30 AM Sunday morning.)

The hotel was alright. Evidently we stayed in an updated part of the hotel. Everyone else was complaining about how run down the place was.

Our party wanted to meet in the lobby and then walk somewhere for dinner. Adam and I had an hour to kill before meeting and I couldn't resist escaping to explore a bit—it was 104° out, so We stopped for some yummy all natural Murash Turkish Ice Cream.  I nursed it as long as I could. It was flavorful and sticky. Yum.

Finally we all met up to head out for dinner. Directions to the place took us off the strip and was about a mile and a half away—our reservations were in 20 minutes! So we sped walked, and sped walked, and sped walked—in the heat, passing all kinds of adult businesses and a not so great part of town—the whole time doubting the directions. As we approached the building it became apparent the restaurant was part of a strip club. (Jaw drop with big eye-balls.) Luckily after a few jokes and "you've got to be kiddings" we discovered the place was only just next door with its own entrance. Whew!

The food was good. (Mexican…as if we can't get that here in Texas? Oh brother.)  It had a 4.5 rating on Yelp. However, as the evening wound down the person who recommended the restaurant confessed it wasn't the place he was thinking of, he'd remembered the name wrong! We pulled out our maps and found the right building, which was only about a 1 minute walk from our hotel. Errrrrr.

Because of the two hour time difference, we were tired after dinner.
We took a Taxi back (money well spent) and went to bed.

Now, I hadn't realized we were expected to stay with the group. So I'd done research on places to eat and things to do. So I was feeling a little disappointed when I realized it was more of a company retreat rather than a "here you go…go have fun" kind of a thing. Which was fine, but I did not want to give up my breakfast plans and eat the hotel breakfast. (Though I heard it was good.) I KNEW we could do better. Instead, Adam and I walked through a casino and rode an escalator up to Hash House A Go Go: Twisted Farm Food.

It was so delicious! Adam requested an apple cinnamon buttermilk flapjack—in which he barely made a hole. A chocolate breakfast drink was calling out to me along with griddled french toast dipped in banana cinnamon cream with pecan maple syrup, fried bananas, strawberries, and dusted powdered sugar. I almost made it through all 3 of those fantastically large slices.

Do you get excited about fun, delicious looking food? I do. I'm glad we went. We need a Hash House in Texas!

After our early breakfast we walked around—as it was much needed—for four hours exploring some of the casinos and architecture until we were hot and grumpy.

The Belagio is quite something to see, with its LONG walkways, fountains that dance at night, Chihuly glass installation, and flower arboretum.

Later Adam wanted to join the group who had been at the hotel pool since breakfast. I took one look at it from our window and thought…"really?" But down we went.

Vegas is loud. Music assaults you from every hotel, inside the casinos and outside on the street. It's all vying for attention. The pool was no different. Loud music, loud people—I hear that's a side effect of Vodka, heh heh. So you can imagine how the rest of the afternoon was. Still, the business paid for bottomless drinks so someone ordered a virgin piña colada for me which I enjoyed! And I kept cool for the rest of the day dipping in and out of the pool—which is about all a person could do in THAT pool anyway. I promptly took a shower after.

Dinner took us to Guy Fieri's Kitchen and Bar. We had burgers cooked smash style—I ordered the Triple B Burger ($19) seasoned with creole blackening spice and topped with crumbled blue cheese, ancho bacon LTOP and donkey sauce on a garlic-buttered brioche bun. And also ordered the Triple T fries to share ($14 ). Oh the fries! The description reads: Truffle, truffle, + more truffle! Julienne cut fries tossed with black truffle, truffle infused gouda cheese + a creamy white truffle dip.
They were some of the best fries I've had. I'd go back. Everything was delicious.

After dinner we went to the Belagio to watch the fountain performance. And then to bed. Adam went down to the hotel bar and hung out with the guys for another couple of hours (no drinking of course) and then vacation was officially over. We left early the next morning and flew home.
The great thing about this weekend—it was free! All of it! Because we stuck with the group and were around when Adam's boss was handing out cash, no meals came out of pocket. It was great! (Vegas can be fun if you have a lot money to burn.)

You might be wondering what some of the other food locations were that I had wanted to hit?
Well, let me tell you:

There's a Secret Pizzeria hidden in the Cosmopolitan with pizza slices for just $3.00—which is great for the strip. It would have made a lovely small lunch had we not been so engorged from breakfast. (We ended up skipping lunch altogether which was a good thing.) But we DID go looking for it during our walk. It took some exploring and internet searching for hints since it's not listed on the Cosmopolitan directory. We finally found it at the top floor down a hallway!

The other place is Café 6 at the Palms Casino. We actually made reservations twice and cancelled both times. We just couldn't make it happen. We wanted to get there for dinner and dessert. Oh well. Next time!!!

I actually think the best way to do food in Vegas—since there are SO MANY options—is to get to your hotel and then use yelp to find the close restaurants. Because really, on the strip, it's pretty much all good and you're going to want to find something within walking distance if you don't have transportation.