My Friday night started by flying from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas where I met Maddie flying in from Dallas. We grabbed her (huge) suitcase and jumped in our Uber toward our hotel, The Luxor, for the first few nights. Home to the Blue Man Group and Criss Angel, The Luxor is situated toward the end of the Strip, looks like a pyramid and was a great introduction to the crazy world of Las Vegas. I hadn't been to Vegas in over fifteen years but had fond memories of it due to winning a life-size Sylvester doll at the arcade the last time I had come around the age of ten. We headed down the Strip and wove through the crowds, hotels and cars - it certainly was a city that never slept.
Alcohol was openly consumed on the streets and it showed up in plastics cups of all shapes, some of which resembled the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. We made our way to the iconic Bellagio Fountain and watched a short choreographed water show before continuing our touristy walk around the area. Both losing energy from the time change, we decided to head to the hotel to talk to our concierge about some shows and also for some much needed sleep.
Instead of recounting every second of Vegas, here are the highlights:
-Cirque O - AMAZING Cirque show with water as the main feature
-Criss Angel MindFreak Live - a great show right in our Luxor hotel
-HighRoller - a 30 minute all you can drink ride similar to the London Eye
-Buffet at the Bellagio - all you can eat everything, including king crab legs and an enormous dessert selection
-Britney Spears - a show I had wanted to see for a while, it was good but mostly just dancing
-Maddie almost winning at the slots - we should've quit while she was ahead
-Hash House A Go Go - good but make sure you don't go during peak hours
-Zipline - a Groupon deal that was a little out of the way
The first portion of our trip was fun and we certainly saw what the attraction of Vegas was but the most exciting part of our trip was up next: our Jucy roadtrip!
We requested an Uber to take us to Jucy Las Vegas which was about 20 minutes from The Luxor. We could see the neon green sign from down the road and were excited to see all of the Jucys, one of which would be ours for the next 6 days. The check-in process was about an hour which was longer than expected. But after being told all about the features of our Jucy, we were handed the keys to our traveling home.
We soon realized that being tall wasn't ideal as the seat didn't go too far back, but we made do. Our first stop was a grocery store to grab some food and essentials to cook on the go and not have to worry about finding restaurants - plus it saved us a lot of money and time. After picking up everything at the store, we were off to the Hoover Dam! A short ride from Vegas, the Hoover Dam was only the beginning of a very exciting road trip.
After walking around and over the dam, we had our first Jucy kitchen attempt with a sandwich. It was a success! After finishing our lunch, we decided to get back on the road in order to drive the next portion of the day's trip - Route 66.
Although Route 66 would add some time to get to our final destination, we felt it was the only way to get the true experience.
We made many stops along the way and saw the numerous neon signs and random small towns. Many, many pictures were taken and we also stopped at the famous Hackberry General Store and enjoyed some sodas while taking in the aggressive storm that had just rolled in.Once checked in and assigned a spot, we began to prepare our dinner of Caesar Salad, pasta with marinara sauce and sautéed onions, and Blue Moons. Thank goodness Maddie brought her headlamp!
