Las Vegas Adventure- Day 1: Travel Day Rough Start!

Hey Everyone... It's Fall Break in Hawaii, so that means the Sakamoto's are on the road again... this time we are heading to Vegas!  Our friends decided that we needed to go to Vegas as a group since the last time we went some of them couldn't make it.  This has the makings of another epic adventure!

Met up with the Hilo gang at the Hawaiian Airlines lounge in Hilo.

We met up with the rest of the gang in Honolulu and then we were off!

We started traveling on Sunday night and arrived early morning in Vegas on the red eye.  Can't wait to take off!

One tradition (or is it a superstition?) from Grandma K. was to eat 7 musubi's on the plane.  My hubby made small musubi's for everyone.

We were pretty tired after the flight... but excited to be in Sin City!

I had a hard time sleeping on the plane this time, which is really unusual for me.  My husband said the same, so we were pretty tired after the flight.  But our night was nothing like my nephew's!  Poor thing!  He was not feeling good before we got on the plane and got sick many times on the flight.  My SIL had a rough night and didn't sleep at all.  This kinda set the tone for the rest of the day.


After a LONG ride to the rental car (yes, we had to take 2 shuttles... WTH?), we finally got our wheels and headed to the hotel to see if we could get early check in... Guess where we are staying at?

Then we found out the Luxor doesn't have early check in until 11am at the earliest (and you have to pay $20?  Again, WTH?  So we decided to go find some food.  Before that though, my nephew felt junk, and the group split up.  Hubby and SIL took him to Urgent care.  I guess he started feeling better after his appointment.

 Meanwhile, the rest of us went to seek rations.  Kyle was in charge of finding all the good eating places, and recommended Mr. Mamas.  It's a little off the strip, definitely a place where the locals go.  Didn't see much tourists there.

I thought their menu cover was funny.

Have no idea if you can see the menu, but this will give you an idea of what they have and price point.

I guess they are known for their ribeye and eggs, which is what Kyle and Roy had.  The steak was yummy.  If I didn't have all those musubi's on the plane, I would've had that too!

I opted for the breakfast sandwhich.  It was pretty awesome.  Had it on he sourdough bread which made all the difference.

Akemi had something similar but deconstructed.

And Chris had the biscuits and gravy.

After breakfast, they asked me if I wanted to go to Michaels.  Hell Yah!  So they were nice enough to drop me off while I had a shopping spree.  Meanwhile, they found a pet shop to entertain them.

On our way back to the hotel, we were basically at a stand still on the freeway.  It was raining all day and I guess LV people don't know how to drive in the rain.  Kyle said that whenever he tried to brake, we would kinda slide?  Guess that caused this 8 car accident on the freeway.  Before we even saw the 8 car accident, we saw 2 other smaller accidents.  We decided to get off at that point and then saw one more accident.  Yikes!  This was the best photo I could get from the backseat.

Yes!  We were finally able to check in.  Met back up with hubby and SIL and got settled in our room.  The elevator ride is very interesting.  We are in the pyramid and on a higher floor- so the elevator skips the lower levels.  Its moves very fast and at a slant.  Hard to tell though as it is not a glass elevator, so you can't see what direction you are going in.

Everyone was kinda tired at that point, so we left the kids with my SIL to nap and we headed to the casino to explore.  Kyle found the Walking Dead machine.  It wasn't so nice to him though.  Maybe it works better for zombies.

Now, this machine was much nicer!  Kyle got several bonus' on the Ghostbusters machine!

I had to try the Friends machine (of course) but it wasn't so "Friend"ly to me.

OK here, we are attempting to show you how scary the view inside the hotel was.  I kept getting sweaty palms when I looked over the edge.  In fact, I'm getting sweaty palms just thinking about it!  I'll try to get a better pic.

Ok more food... but before I get into the epic buffet we ate last night, I just have to comment on the traffic.  Damn!  We took the back road from Luxor to Caesars (not very far) and got stuck in traffic.  It took us 1 hr to get there.  Akemi and I took a nap, that's how long the ride was.  Our friends left after us and got there way before us.  Just saying... you never know which route will be better. Everyone was miserable, except Stef for some reason.  I think its cause she figured out that the radio could be controlled via bluetooth from her phone and she could play her music?

Ok on to the food.  This is my pick of the Bacchanal buffet in Caesars.  This is the first time I've gone there- heard so much about it!  Before we even got inside, Akemi started complaining her stomach hurt!  Yikes.  No, it was not related to my nephew's illness, but still a bummer.  After she went bathroom, she seemed all good and was able to eat. Thank goodness, cause they charged us adult price for her.  I believe it was about $52/head for dinner, but it was well worth it.  I paid more for the Mauna Kea Brunch Buffet and it doesn't compare.  Ok sorry, got distracted and didn't tell you about the wagyu sliders!  This was my favorite food of the night.  I had 2.  Even the french fries were ono.  I'm not even a burger fan!  They also had a lot of seafood, italian, asian and meats.  My friends also liked the street tacos a lot and recommend that.  Sorry, I forgot to take more food pics!

By the time I remembered, I was on dessert.  Here's my dessert platter.  Starting from the left, are macarons.  I was so full, I took them home (forgot my ziploc in the hotel so I had to carry them ghetto style in my napkin).  Haven't tried them yet.  Hope they are still good.

OK this was my favorite dessert!  I loved the chocolate covered strawberries that were rolled in chocolate covered crunchies!  Linda- if you are reading this, it reminds me of the berry cup that I made you taste in Ala Moana.  Yummy!

Here's a better look at the macarons.  Paul said they were good, but I was too full to try them.

Next is my Strattachella (I know I spelled it wrong) gelato.  That's my favorite gelato. Its like chocolate shavings in your vanilla gelato- similar to Baskin & Robbin's mint chocolate chip, only better.  On top is a chocolate mochi ice cream, but I should've known better.  Hello, I'm not in Hawaii or Japan!  The mochi crumbled in my mouth.  Pass on this one.

This is the jasmine rice pudding. It tasted really good, but I didn't eat much cause I was over my limit.  My SIL said this was her fave dessert of the night.

I'm still full from last night's buffet.  After dinner we tried to "walk" some of it off in the forum shops, and tried to catch the statues, but as luck would have it, just as it was about to start, the security guard came and told us it wasn't working.  SOMEONE was pissed off.  Poor thing, last time we came, we told Akemi all about the statues.  She couldn't wait since she was really into the whole Percy Jackson thing, but it wasn't working then.  We heard it was back in service, but I guess we just had bad luck again.  Maybe our luck will change when we head back to Caesars on Wed?  Wish us luck!


Oops!  Forgot one last photo!  Just before the Bacchanal Food Coma.  LOL!