On my second day in Las Vegas, we discovered the tram from the Luxor to the Excalibur, then walked over to the MGM. The fastest way from the Excalibur to MGM is around New York, New York, which has some of the prettiest sights in the city, I think. It’s a small scale replica of New York City with a roller coaster running through it.
Never having been to NYC, I can’t tell you how realistic everything looks, but I love it.
There’s a tribute to the FDNY next to the scale replica of the State of Liberty, and speaker-rocks playing the National Anthem.
The MGM Grand wasn’t so impressive to me because it looks like a slightly larger version of what we have in Downtown Detroit. It was honestly more annoying how long it took to walk through it than it was interesting or impressive.
As soon as you walk into the MGM, there is a Rainforest Cafe, which also would have been more interesting if there wasn’t one at Great Lakes Crossing, a mall a few miles away from my house. I spent a few minutes taking pictures of fish before moving on.
On our way to the monorail I saw these awesome magnets that I almost took home, except they were $10 and made me want to eat donuts.
We took the monorail out to Harrah’s (about halfway) where we got off with plans to zigzag our way back through the hotels and casinos. Since we only had 2 days in the city, we wanted to make it more of a sightseeing trip than anything else. Next time I’ll go see shows and spend a little more time in the casino.
Of course, I had to throw in my obligatory “flower” photo.
Harrah’s signs were all pretty cool and flashy. Quintessential Vegas – Neon, flashing, and hard to photograph.
Walking through Harrah’s, we spotted what we thought was a tasty looking ice cream shop called Ice Pan. Unwittingly, we walked up and learned that they were going to make the ice cream RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. I chose green grape ice cream with strawberries (you’ll see what I realized shortly) with low fat milk.
The 3 inch deep pan is -30 degrees Fahrenheit and they use putty knives to slap the milky concoction around until it freezes into ice cream and incorporates air to become creamy. They chop the mix-in while the ice cream is freezing, then freeze it a little more.
They spread it around to speed the process, then scrap it into a pile to scoop into your bowl.
Do you see it yet? Without realizing it, I created my first bowl of Swanky Luv ice cream!! And it was the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Fresh fruit, fresh milk. Wonderful. The next time you’re in Vegas. Or Tokyo. Or Tatebayashi, GO. I’m serious. I wish I had the capital to open one in Detroit.
Next to the best ice cream place ever is Toby Keith’s I Love This Barn and Grill (which is also at Great Lakes Crossing – which is a slot machine away from being mini-Vegas) which has the coolest bar idea I’ve ever seen. I’ve always wanted a basement bar with a bubble wall, but after seeing these LED lights behind mason jars, I’ve changed my tune. I want THIS.
One thing I realized while perusing the shops in Harrah’s is that I love Vegas because if I were a city, I would be Las Vegas. There’s so much sparkle and it’s such a big, loud place. They play country songs loudly in the airport. It’s a sun up to sun down sort of place, and I love it. Chicago has nothing on Vegas.
I mentioned yesterday that you might be seeing a lot of photos of ceilings. I took a ton, and didn’t actually realize how much I wanted to say about my trip. This is just the beginning of the series about all of the things that I loved in Vegas and how badly I want to go back. Wednesday and Thursday will obviously be filled with my regular Fashion Star and Wilton posts, but look for more about Vegas over the coming weeks.
I love this place.
