April 2022: What Happens in Vegas (and Utah) Won't Stay in Vegas: Day 2

Day 2: Sunday April 24, 2022

I woke up about 20 minutes before my first alarm, pleasantly surprised that I had slept basically through the night. I started getting ready and then got Nick up too. In true male fashion, he was ready in approximately 5 minutes. Hopefully this trend continues for the whole trip!

About 3:50, we headed downstairs where we paused briefly to check out, and then joined the line for the 4:00 airport shuttle. I think everyone waiting was surprised to see the crowd at this hour. Thankfully, the hotel had a system and they loaded up two shuttles, and we were off to the airport.

The other bus got the amusing shuttle driver we had had in February, but we had the amusing multi-generational family that was also going to be on our flight. It was a quick ride over to Logan.

When we got to Logan, we easily found a check in kiosk. Our boarding passes printed easily, but no bag tags printed. Say what?! Eventually we saw the kiosk assistance line/booths and headed there, where we were helped quickly, and minutes later our suitcases were checked and we were headed for security.

The pre-check line was short and security was, thankfully, uneventful. We were at our gate soon after getting to the airport and quickly discovered that, unlike Manchester, nothing in Boston opens early enough for these crazy early flights. No in-flight water bottle for me!

Boarding began shortly after 5 and was quite efficient. We pushed back for our once-7am-but-now-5:45am-flight early and got to see the sun coming up. As much as I hate Boston, and cities in general, the glow of sunrise on the skyscrapers is always kinda cool.

The flight was uneventful but a bit bumpy. Turns out we flew over a bit of a storm system. It was cloudy until southern Utah and then the landscape got awesome. And hey I think we are going to see some of those places this week!

Thankfully we got into Vegas half an hour early. Also thankfully JetBlue has free internet. I’m really not cut out for sitting through these cross country flights. I don’t sit still well. Adrenaline and flight anxiety prevent me from sleeping. My lack of focus keeps me from reading. A 5+ hour flight and I are not the best combination. But I made it. We landed shortly after 8 am local time.

Deplaning was quick and Vegas slammed us in the face as soon as we were off the plane. They have gambling in the airport. Woah.

It was easy enough to find the train to baggage claim and pretty soon we were making the trek to the absolute farthest carousel. But hey, at least it’s right next to the door for the shuttle to the rental car facility?

Our baggage took its sweet time to emerge after the shoot started throwing out luggage, but once it did, we were off! We lucked out and were the last onto a loading bus to the rental car facility.

It was about a 10 minute ride to the rental car center. I’m pretty sure the driver was funny and trying to give us all tourist tips. I couldn’t hear him very well. It was a noisy bus. Once there, we found Alamo and headed into the garage, where we were directed to the midsize line. We surveyed the options, selected a silver Toyota Corolla, and we were off!

It was a relatively quick drive to the Bellagio but it was immediately evident that I was NOT going to like driving in this city. We made it though, albeit with a bit of confusion. If you’re planning to self park at a Vegas hotel, just go ahead and do so before going into the lobby to check in.

I did the initial check in (room obviously not ready), got lectured about parking by the front desk chick, and we went back outside to move our car to the garage. Then it was off to the Cosmopolitan for brunch!

It was a quick walk to the Cosmo but then a LONG walk to our hopeful destination. We were starving so if the wait was long I had a backup plan. Thankfully when we arrived at Wicked Spoon, there were only a few people ahead of us in line and everyone was being seated almost immediately. We paid and then were led to a table from which we were quickly directed to the buffet.

Wicked Spoon is a place Nick had found in a YouTube video. It’s a pretty sizeable buffet with quite the variety of options. Given that it was after lunch time to our bodies, we had some breakfast foods, some lunch foods, and plenty of desserts. There were some highs and lows but overall it was a good buffet at a fair price point (by Vegas standards). And the fact that they don’t take reservations on the weekends worked really well for a travel day, especially since we got there relatively early.

 
Once we finished eating, we headed for the Strip. The line to get into Wicked Spoon had gotten considerably longer, but given the size of the queue set up, it still wasn’t nearly as long as it could get. We started exploring a bit, wandering into different shopping areas, and the Paris and Caesar’s Palace. I was blown away by the theming of the properties, and admittedly, kind of excited to send a picture of Hell’s Kitchen home, since we know one of the chefs that once competed on that show. Nick was on sensory overload pretty early on. This could be an interesting few days.

Thankfully as we headed toward the Bellagio to see if we could find a quieter corner to just chill until we got our room ready text (and as Nick complained that I shouldn’t have paid for early check-in, since according to his Eastern time zone watch it was nearly regular check in time), we got the room ready text.

We wound our way through the Bellagio, grabbed our luggage from the car, and with some effort, found our way to our room: 18070, a Fountain View room on the 18th floor. When we arrived, a person from housekeeping was in our room, staring out the window, talking on his phone. So we waited in the hallway, where we were spotted by another member of housekeeping, who got the dude off the phone. He had us come in, confirmed we were supposed to be there, explained he’d been cleaning a carpet stain, showed us how to use the power window shades, and then went on his merry way.

We immediately checked out the view, and I took pictures of the room, because it was pretty nice. The fountain show started while we were checking out the view so we watched that.

And then we both fell asleep. Clearly that plan to keep us mostly on eastern time is going to work well!

After a great nap (Bellagio has comfy beds!), it was time for an early dinner. Nick had found a video of crazy foods to eat in Vegas and his friends at work who go to Vegas regularly had encouraged him, so we needed to get to Stuff My Turkey, and given the schedule for the rest of the week, this was the night that made the most sense. So…we headed down the Strip to Stuff My Turkey.

Now Nick and I had already agreed that we prefer NOLA to Vegas, and that Bourbon Street is cleaner than the Las Vegas Strip. But we also both agreed that the series of escalators and pedestrian bridges around the Strip was VERY convenient. BUT…we ALWAYS encountered at least one escalator that was not working, and sometimes it would change over the course of the day which one was out of order…in the same escalator set.

Anyway…it was about a 15 minute walk to Stuff My Turkey which was down the Vegas equivalent of an alley. It was a little hole in the wall and smelled good when we walked in. We ordered (I think) the MOB to split, which was a smoked turkey leg, pulled, and covered in pasta and alfredo sauce, with some shrimp on top. It emerged quickly enough, and tasted pretty good. Even splitting it, we couldn’t finish the whole thing.

 
Once we finished dinner, we headed back to the Bellagio. We hung out in the peace of our room for a bit and then went downstairs to get some gelato from Cafe Gelato, which was conveniently just past the guest elevator bank! I had Snickers gelato and Nick had tiramisu gelato. We both thoroughly enjoyed it! Then we headed back to our room where we called it a relatively early night after taking in some of the view from the room after the sun went down. I liked the fountains better at night than during the day!