Vegas & Thanksgiving

As soon as hubby and I decided to move to the USA we promised ourselves to make the most of the country.....so here we were all booked up and ready for a weekend in Las Vegas without the children! The flight was 3 hours long, we checked into our hotel and then headed out into town....we unfortunately went to a restaurant in a bleak part of town with a heavy rock band just setting up, so we ate up quick and went straight back to our hotel to test out the bars, gambling tables and to find our UK friends....

Our hotel http://www.mgmgrand.com was bigger than I could have imagined with the reception area as busy as the underground tube stations in London plus every person you pass looks completely different to the next person you pass!

The gambling tables were more serious than I anticipated and the staff were not as friendly as I was expecting, they ALL look at you sideways like they are expecting you to cheat or pull out a gun any second..not sure us slightly tipsy tired stumbling Brits were exactly prime targets to keep an eye on!

Saturday morning arrives and after an extortionately expensive breakfast ordered from room service we head out down the Strip - 4.2 miles of concentrated resort hotels and casinos south of the Vegas city limits - it feels like we have stepped into a real life computer game, there is so much colour and plastic as far as the eye can see Vegas is truly extraordinary!

We stopped at http://www.bellagio.com to watch the water show which was far more entertaining than I was expecting! Then a late lunch, plenty of cocktails, and people watching later it's time for a nap and we are ready to party round 2! We started at http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/Restaurants/FineDining/Mizumi where the food was amazing, then a party bus picked us up outside and took us down the Strip, stopping at the famous Vegas sign for pics - like true tourists - then dropping us outside a club where we spent the rest of the night....the flight home the next morning was not something we were looking forward to!

Thanksgiving has arrived! There are no houses decorated and no present giving but the children are off school, hubby is off work and we have been invited to a friends house to join them for their Thanksgiving dinner, we enjoyed some traditional dishes such as smoked turkey and sweet potatoes with marshmallows.....the day felt similar to our Christmas Day, shops were closed, everyone getting together cooking and drinking, kids playing outside and terrorising the dog!

The day after Thanksgiving is called 'Black Friday' shopping day, we had been advised by numerous Americans to stay off the roads and away from shopping malls as it is a jungle out there on this day....and watching the news I'm glad we did!