"Show us Your Life"

Favorite Vacation Spots

I haven't been participating in Kelly's "Show Us Your Life" blog party but this week is favorite vacation spots, and I couldn't resist joining in!

One of our favorite vacation spots is Gatlinburg, which (lucky for us) is only an hour and a half away from where we live! We went there on our honeymoon and also have gone several times for a weekend, including this past January, when we took Lauren for the first time.

Gatlinburg is great, and has so much to do! But it is so crowded! We have found the best time for us to go there is January. The theme parks are closed and so are many of the "outdoor" attractions. BUT- the cabins are cheaper and it usually SNOWS!! We usually just go up and get a cabin and "hibernate" all weekend to just get away and relax. We bring groceries and cook in the cabin and always have a good time! We look forward to going with Lauren again next year!

BUT- our most favorite vacation was one we took the year before Lauren was born. We decided to go to Las Vegas in July of 2007. Don't ask me why we decided to go to Vegas...we don't drink, we don't gamble (well, we played the slot machines a little just for fun) and we don't enjoy topless shows. But, we thought it would be a fun place to go, with lots to do and lots to see!

Jason playing "The Wheel of Fortune"

We were right! We flew out of Nashville and when we arrived, we could already FEEL the heat while we were sitting in the airplane! It was sooo hot! (already above 100 degrees when we landed)

We checked into our hotel, Treasure Island, and found that they had overbooked the rooms and didn't have the suite that we had requested. Sooo...the upgraded us to a bigger suite at no charge! (we didn't complain!) Here is the view of part of our room....YES, there were columns IN our room!! Everything might be bigger in Texas, but in Vegas, everything is just over the top!!

**My favorite thing about our hotel was that when you walked into the lobby, it smelled like coconut oil. Seriously. It smelled sooo good! It was like walking onto an island every time!

What did we do while we were there? Sooo much!! We walked up and down "the strip" to see all the hotels...you can go into any hotel, even if you are not staying there and just see all the amazing things inside! They not only have a casino in every hotel, most of them have amazing restaurants, shopping malls and much more! At the Venetian, you can take a real gondola ride!

We also checked out the "Bellagio" (you might know if from Ocean's 11) and saw their fountain show one night. It is choreographed to music, and was really neat!

Our hotel had one of the Cirque de Soleil shows "Mystere" and it was incredible! I could have seen it 10 times. Cirque de Soleil has 6 shows in Vegas right now and I wished that we had seen them all!

One of my favorite places that we went was Madame Tussuad's was museum. They have these all around the country, but we'd never been in one. It was so cool! The wax figures were so lifelike...we couldn't resist taking some pictures with the "celebrities!"

And this last picture is one of the only ones we have of Jason and me together! (when you travel by yourselves, it's hard to get pics with both of you in it!) We had eaten lunch at this yummy Mexican restaurant and asked our server to take the picture. We have lots of fun and happy memories from that vacation!

The temperature was unbelievable hot every day that we were there (100+ degrees) but as they say "it's a dry heat" and it is...no humidity! Besides the heat, if you ever have the chance to see Vegas, I highly recommend it! :)