Bellydance and Vegas
Just back from the ‘Third Annual’ Vegas Bellydance trip. This year ended up being pretty relaxed and easily the most mellow of them all, which is probably a good thing. Kimberly was a little under the weather the whole time, and the event was at a smaller hotel so I think this all lead to the more subdued path.
We headed up a couple of days early. We had gotten some screaming deal offers from the Hotels (one good thing about a bad economy I guess) and so we stayed pretty much free at MGM the first couple of nights and then moved over to the hotel where the Bellydance events were located (umm… not quite the MGM by the way). The trip plan was to have a chilled out few days hanging at the pool and relaxing, get a couple of runs in on the Strip, have some good meals, and enjoy the Bellydance events.
When we arrived we found out it was Restaurant Week in Vegas which was way cool. Basically every top-end restaurant sets a price fixed menu for three or four courses and the funds go to charity. The net is you can eat at some of the best places for about half price. We were going to take advantage of this several nights, but ended up doing it only once, at Sea Blue. One of the main reasons is I had also wanted to get in a Rao’s dinner and they were not part of the event. So from a Vegas dining perspective this trip: Sea Blue was disappointing overall though parts of the experience were really enjoyable. Rao’s is as good as we remembered, and we got into one of ‘the rooms’. We had some amazing Sushi at a new place called Sushi Samba, and the best chocolate both of us have ever had is at Payard (across of Rao’s in Caesar’s Palace).
As we have been talking about, everywhere we go now we like to get a ‘run around the city’ in. For sure when in Vegas this means you have to take a run down the Strip. It was pretty cool, Kimberly and I threw on the iPods and ran from the MGM down to The Wynn and looped back. Lot’s of zigging, people watching and cool views - a great run. I liked it so much I did it (and then some) the next two days while she was at her bellydance classes. One day was one of my longest runs to date, darn near two hours straight.
We did get out ‘clubbing’ with Kimberly’s Troupe friends one night to ‘The Bank’ in Bellagio. But with Kimberly not feeling her best, and all a little tired from the long day, we called it a fairly early night. Most of the rest of the trip was hanging out at the pool and walking around (typical Vegas).