Skip to main content

Off Strip Las Vegas Experience

Last weekend Tim and I took a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas. We wanted to get away but also didn't want to break the bank. Both of us needed to get a long run in on the Sunday and we didn't want to stay up all night drinking and gambling. Why go to Vegas then? Because of the weather of course! Fall is starting to set in here in Vancouuver and Vegas is still 40C.
We flew out of Bellingham, Washington airport (about 30 mins south of Vancouver) on a 9:30pm flight with Allegiant Air. The border line up on Friday night was about 35mins long. We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half before our flight. There is NO food at the airport at this time so eat on the way down. The flight for the two of us return was around $450US. Parking at the airport is $9US/day.
We arrived in Vegas around midnight and caught a cab to the Renaissance Las Vegas. Tim booked this hotel on Priceline for $65US/night. The hotel is off the strip right beside the Las Vegas Convention Center near the Wynn/Encore properties. Once we checked in we immediately went down the bar (pictured below) for a Bombay and Tonic. Because I hadn't drank for most of 2009, one drink was enough for me making me a cheap date.

We didn't get to enjoy the pool area until after our 21km run on Sunday morning. The pool area was closed on Saturday night for a private party. There were more than enough patio chairs and comfortable couches to lounge on.
Saturday night was a real treat. Strange how things work out sometimes. We had no plans for Saturday night and planned a casual dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. When we arrived back at our room to freshen up for dinner, we received a tweet from TriBug007.
Coincidentally, her and her husband were in town on vacation with a group of friends too! She had two EXTRA TICKETS to CHER that night and wanted to know if we would like to join them!! I am not a huge Cher fan and had no intention of see the show but I could not pass up the opportunity that was presented. The show was AMAZING and Cher was FABULOUS. That woman can still sing and looks younger than me.
Another great find and benefit of staying off the strip was The Bagel Cafe. This great Jewish bakery and cafe is in the Summerlin area and is MUST DO. I had the Ruben sandwich with potato salad and fries. I would suggest you split this since it is really big enough for two. Of course I ordered one to myself and ate most of it. We loved this place so much we went there on Saturday AND Sunday for lunch.
Our return flight to Bellingham was around 7:30pm. We were at home and in bed by 11:30pm Sunday night. Neither of us took a day off work and we had a great time!








Comments

Jamie said…
Free tickets a la twitter?! Too cool, no matter who it is for.
September 29, 2009 at 5:39 PM
Big Daddy Diesel said…
Ahhh vacation time, hope you had some great R&R
September 30, 2009 at 5:04 AM
Ultradad said…
My wife and I took the whole family to Vegas is August. We too flew from Bellingham and did the hour and a half thing. Old Bellingham has some great coffee shops. Vegas was very cheap to get to and surprisingly there is a ton of things to do for kids
October 2, 2009 at 6:12 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

|ronman Canada Race Report - Part 6 (Final Report but just the beginning)

Run – 42.2kms – 5:11:09 The run was slow and basically went as planned. The first 3kms of the run are in and around the finish line. When I was at about the 2km mark, I could hear Jordon Rapp, the race winner giving his victory interview with Steve King. How crazy is that??!! I have 40kms to go on the run and the winner has finished. As I headed out of town and down Main Street I saw www.twitter.com/kelownagurl and her husband Erik cheering me on. Not more than 50 feet later I saw www.twitter.com/trifunster and her husband. I was running slowly but had a smile on my face and felt pretty good. I was not really concerned about the distance I had to cover still. I was pretty excited that I had now finished the swim and the bike and was now on the run. It was like being in a dream how quickly the time had passed during the day. Around 9kms into the run I started to feel the distinct tightness of my right IT Band. I had ITB 10 years ago when I first started to run marathons but t
20 comments
Read more

April Fools 1/2 Marathon Plus 15km cool down

After my minor breakdown at work on Friday, I set off on Saturday for Sechelt.  I have run the April Fool's Half Marathon two times and this was my third time.  It never fails to be hilly and hard.   Sunday morning I started off at in Gibsons ready to run to Mission Point Park.  I took it very conservatively knowing that I would be adding another 15kms on at the end of the 'race'.   I crossed the finish line, collected my medal, filled my water bottles, ate a  piece of bagel and a bite of banana and kept running west.   I do not recommend running your longest run before a marathon in Sechelt if you are not used to hills.  That place is full of 12-15% grades both up and down. At the end of the day, I ran from 9:17am - 2pm with a few quick breaks to refill bottles, eat gels and take few rocks out of my shoes.   After a shower and some real food, I was back on the ferry to North Vancouver.  Reward:  White Spot Legendary Burger combo with cheese and a Coke.  
Post a Comment
Read more

How Not to Pace a 5km Race

Notice anything interesting about my 5km splits for my Las Vegas 5km run? Even though the 1st km was all downhill, I knew I was in trouble when I checked my Garmin 405 to see a 4:20 km time. As you can see, the rest of my kms were quite a bit slower. Any good advice out there for how to properly pace myself for my next 5km?
6 comments
Read more