I woke up hours before everyone else.
6 AM…
I didn’t want to be rude and wake Jeremy up, so I headed downstairs to the cafe to pick up fresh fruit and coffee. I like to eat right when I wake up to boost the metabolism. I knew it would be hours before Jeremy even rolled over.
To sweeten my fruit, I used honey. This was a much better option than the other, Sweet n Low.
I went through two cups of coffee in the first hour. Unfortunately, they don’t do refills. I had to pay full price for two. As a coffee addict, cost is just a number.
After giving up cable in January, T.V. doesn’t interest me anymore. I put on my gym shoes and decided to walk the the mall. Yes, our hotel had it’s own mall. Still mind-blown about it.
I may have stopped at a few slots while making my way around the hotel casino…I broke out of my shell this weekend. I should have had 1-800-bets-off on my speed dial. I now understand why people form gambling addictions. Once you win…and win again…you never want to stop! It’s a good thing I don’t live in Vegas. I can still see the slot machines go round and around in my head.
Finally, I got the text from Jeremy….”Where’d you go”…I headed back upstairs. I brought him a whole wheat bagel and cream cheese on the way up to the nineteenth floor. I thought it was a nice gesture since bagels are his favorite.
He’s a guy, so he was happy to see his bagel. He leaned in to kiss me good morning, then snatched the bagel bag like a thief I felt robbed. As he started eating, we got a text from his parents “come meet us for breakfast”. Uh oh! We already ate! It was going to be a long day full of walking, so maybe eating again wasn’t a bad idea. I was already getting hungry. I had only eaten half of my fruit and had been awake for hours being productive and stuff… (walking the mall and gambling my life away).
His parents wanted to eat the the Mandalay buffet. That’s right! Two buffets in less than 24 hours. I could have easily dove into the blueberry pancakes, banana nut muffins or french toast. Instead, I decided to nourish my body and go for fresh fruit and yogurt bar. All of the starchy options would have left me hungry in a few hours.
My first plate had : strawberry yogurt, spoonful of almonds, granola, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apricots, blackberries, grapes and a little portion of the scrambled eggs.
Sometimes I think I have a tapeworm. I can eat more food than my body size. Healthy food of course. I went back for more. I grabbed the same choice but with a piece of crepe and pineapple this time.
I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I stirred everything up, contemplating a finish, but there was no way. The second plate was too much. I threw in the towel! My face was starting to look like Adam Richman’s during his food challenge days.
After breakfast, Jeremy’s parents hit the casino and we hit the strip. We walked from 10 am to 6 pm, covering about ten miles of Vegas! I was in awe of the impressive architecture and art. The buildings were miraculous inside and decorated with a royal style.
People watching was my favorite.
We lucked out with the weather. It was almost eighty degrees. I was excited to wear my sundress. I made a mistake by wearing my new shoes. My feet were killing me! As the sun went down, Jeremy and I made our way back to the hotel to meet his parents.
All that walking made us HUNGRY! Anything sounded good. The hotel stocked our room up with all kinds of junk food. All my favorites: Pringles, Peanut M&M’s, Snickers, chocolate chip cookies, cashews, Sour Patch Kids and salty trail mix. We could have easily ripped open the bags and ate till we were satisfied, but we didn’t. Thank goodness we have self control as the fine print said each bag was fifteen dollars.
Luckily, I had leftover fruit from earlier that morning. I grabbed it from the mini fridge and ate the rest to hold me over until dinner. I relaxed in the Jacuzzi again, then got ready for the night.
We headed to old Vegas, Fremont street. This is where the crazies are! There were all kinds of people. People wearing feathers, to people wearing nothing, to transformers and movie murderers. Its almost possible to be bored here. Everyone was getting hungry. We stopped at another buffet, the Golden Nugget. Yep, that’s right…mythird buffet!
This time, I decided to go lighter on the dinner plate. I had a huge sweet tooth. My plate had: vegetable shrimp stir fry, steamed broccoli, crab legs and a salad with a side of dressing.
I have this method when it comes to buffet desserts. How can you say no to all the delicious treats screaming your name? Instead of putting a whole brownie, cookie or piece of pie onto my dessert plate, I add little sample pieces. That way I get a little taste of everything without going overboard on the sugar. There are usually broken pieces of dessert on the trays, so I grab those. On my dessert plate I have: apple pie cobbler fudge brownie, raisin oatmeal cookie, carrot cake and whipped butterscotch ice cream with a cinnamon sugar chip. It doesn’t look like I have six desserts on my plate, but that is the beauty of the “sample-method”. It’s all about moderation splurges, not binge splurges.
My eyes were starting to get heavy. I always get tired and go overboard on vacations, so I ordered some coffee for an extra boost.
After playing hours of casino games, I was so ready to head back to the hotel and crawl into bed for some shut eye. When we got to the hotel , Jeremy pointed out the “karaoke night” sign at the House of Blues. I rolled my eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking. There was no fighting it, we all headed in and grabbed a table.
Jeremy and his dad, Greg, love watching people sing. We sat there for about fifteen minutes before his family secretly signed me up. I was already tired and now mad on top of that! I did not want to sing. But, I did it for Greg and ended up getting an extra $100 out of the deal.
Finally 2 AM rolled around. I was ready to leave the House of Blues. As we walked through our hotel casino, Jeremy couldn’t resist the craps table. We stopped and decided to play the extra $100. I wasn’t kidding when I said we needed 1-800-bets-off during this trip.
After playing the table, we turned our $100 into an easy $600. Again, I felt the gambling problem increase…you just keep winning…and winning…
Finally, I dragged Jeremy back to the room and refused to make any more “stops”. At that point, I would have paid $600 to get some sleep.
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