Viva Las Vegas

Today we said goodbye to mother nature and all the national parks and headed back to Las Vegas. It was a bit of shock coming back to busy highways, flashing lights, slot machines, and people everywhere.

We turned in our rental car and caught a Lyft to our hotel. We are staying at the Cosmopolitan right on the stip. We splurged a bit on this hotel, but we are glad we did because it is really nice.

Our room is by far the best room hotel room I ever stayed in. At 600 sq/ft it is almost as big as some of the apartments I have rented in the past. When we were checking in, the front desk attendant was trying to get us to upgrade to a master suite which was 1600 sq/ft.

Our room was on the 32nd floor, which is really only about half way. The room itself had an ipad fixed to the wall where you could control temperature, see the weather, turn on/off the lights, and even order room service. We also have a balcony which looks right out onto the strip. When we got there we enjoyed a few brews and some views.

We then ventured out into the wild, and headed to the High Roller. The High Roller is essentially a pod-like ferris wheel that takes you high above the strip. Of course some of the pods are equipped with a bar, so we opted for that one.

There was about 10 people in our pod. It took 30 minutes to complete one revolution, and the best part was it was all you can drink. Obviously, we took full advantage of that. The entire time I also setup the GoPro to try a timelapse. The sun’s positioning and glare made it a bit difficult to capture.

Our bartender gave us a heads up about 2 minutes before the end. She said it was last call and we were more than welcome to top off and take a drink for the road (legal in Vegas).

Katie and I were feeling pretty good by the end, so went to go grab some food at a nearby restaurant that our Lyft driver had recommended. The place was called Yard House. They claimed to have the most draft beers on tap in the world (145 taps). Their food was probably the best we had our entire trip.

At that point it was about 6:00pm and Katie and I were dead tired. Our bodies were used to getting up at 6:00am to go hiking. We went back to our hotel room and took a two hour nap in preparation for the nightlife.

We had reservations at The Chandelier lounge for 9:30pm. The Chandelier is a giant 3 story centerpiece of the Cosmopolitan hotel. Each level has a bar with it’s own view. We opted for the middle level which puts your right inside the chandelier.

The first drink our waitress recommended was one off their secret menu called the Verbena. The drink was very similar to a margarita, but it came with this special edible flower. The waitress instructed us to take a sip of the drink, chew the flower for 20 seconds, and then see how the flavor of the drink changes.

Apparently the flower was from a plant known as the Toothache Plant. It supposedly cleanses your palate by killing any bacteria in our mouth while activating your salivary glands. As were were chewing on the flower our mouths began to tingle, like eating a bunch of pop rocks. Our mouths also began to water like when you are about to eat some tasty. We took a sip of the drink again and noticed how the flavors slightly changed.

After that we took a stroll over the Bellagio to go check out the fountains and the inside of the hotel. At that point it was about midnight and the city was still just as busy as it was all day.