My Getaway Travel to Las Vegas: See All That I Did in The City of Sin

 VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!!

Hey yall!  I had an amazing time in Las Vegas!  I've been there once before when I was 21 but I feel this time visiting there was much better.  The trip started off on the wrong foot but quickly turned into a fabulous getaway vacation.

The reason for my trip to Las Vegas was actually a business trip for Mr. M, he was attending the CosmoProf trade show and wanted me to tag along with him.  The CosmoProf trade show is one of the largest beauty events that brands market their products to businesses and businesses looking to start their own product lines.  In order to get into this event you must have a business, so business license is required.  I have a business license for my blog business but I went as Mr. M’s business partner under his name.  Next time I’ll just go under me so I can promote my own business because I’m also into beauty on this blog.

Let me share how the trip started going bad quick at the beginning.  First of all Mr. M and I missed our flight.  The reason for this is my girl’s grandmother misplaced the house key that we gave her on our way out the door to go to the airport, she was staying at our house so she can watch the girls for us.  We were looking high and low for the key and couldn’t find it so we gave her our spare.  We thought we would make it in time for our flight but the lady at Frontier’s check in desk told us we had to be there 45 min before takeoff and we were there 40 min before take off; she could’ve let us on that was only a 5 min difference!  

I was very frustrated and didn’t know what to do since Frontier had no more flights going to Vegas for the rest of the night and I had someone who was going to be waiting on us at the Las Vegas airport to drop off a car, but I didn’t have their number to call them.

We frantically ran to other airline carriers looking for flights to Vegas and seen that Southwest was the only airlines left with a flight, only thing is the cost for a one way ticket to Vegas was $500 each. YIKES!  We had to pay in total over $1000 to get to Vegas and we would just be 30 mins late getting there.

You want to know what’s worst?  We didn’t have a hotel either and the reason for this is I was working with a hotel to host us during our stay, I was going back and forth with them right before our trip but they didn’t answer back if they had any rooms available for us.  So Mr. M thought, “Hey it is Vegas with hotels everywhere we’ll find something when we get there”.  Big mistake!  Come to find out that there was a boxing fight, basketball tournament, plus the CosmoProf trade show going on in Vegas so all rooms on Saturday night was booked.

I was panicking!  Mr. M and I once we got to Vegas and got our car we were on our phones calling every single hotel to see if any rooms were available and all the hotels were saying they had no vacancies.  We booked the Palms Resort for Sunday and Monday but still was in need of a hotel stay for that Saturday night.  I thought we were going to be sleeping in our car that night.  That evening was turning into a nightmare! 

One of the hotels we called told us to call hotels in Henderson, Nevada which is 30 mins away from the strip.  We called one that had some rooms left and we started driving to Henderson.  On our way there we seen a casino with a red light saying “Rooms Available” so we went there and checked in.

One of the things I hate about Las Vegas, cigarette smoke, yuck!  That casino called Fiesta was filled with it, it had my clothes reeking of the cigarette smoke.  Good thing our room was in the non-smoking section or I would’ve opted to sleep in the car.  

When I walked into our room I wasn’t impressed by the décor at all, looked like Hawaiian 5-0 back in the 80’s.  It looked old and needed some serious updating but I was just glad to have a place to lay my head for the night.  All wasn’t bad after stopping at In-N-Out burger to have a very late dinner.  When I was living in California I would always love to go to In-N-Out burger, their burgers are the best, if you’re ever out on the west coast eating at In-N-Out burger is a must!

Sunday morning we checked out quickly, ate at the Fiesta’s buffet restaurant (food is not good at all), Mr. M did a little bit of gambling and won $100, and then we went to the CosmoProf trade show at the Mandalay Bay Resort.

The CosmoProf trade show was huge!!!!  So many beauty brands inside, I was in beauty heaven!  A lot of the CEO’s of the brands were there and it was a great networking event.  I did a little networking myself and glad to have my business cards on me to pass to brands I was interested in.  But the show was mainly for buyers and I wasn’t there to buy anything, all I cared about was getting samples which businesses wasn’t really giving any out unless you were signing a deal with them. 

Metallic temporary tattoo from Krome Body

Mr. M as I mentioned is in the beauty business and went to this trade show to make new connections and start selling new products to his clients in hair salons and barbershops.  It was great to see him doing what he does with his business and him finding new ways to grow it.  He always inspires me to continue living my passions and dreams.

After the first day of the trade show, Mr. M and I checked into The Palms Resort.  After staying in the old room in the Fiesta hotel I wanted to upgrade to a nice suite, and boy did we get a nice upgrade!  Our hotel suite was very inviting with a great modern décor.  Our room had incredible views of Vegas and overlooking all of the nearby hotels.  The bathroom was my favorite with beautiful flooring and tiles, automated blinds, whirlpool bathtub, stand-alone shower with glass door, his and her sinks, TV near the tub and more.  Our king size bed was so comfortable with plush pillows to help you get a good night sleep.  Living room had a circular couch along with a couple of small couch chairs, big screen TV, wet bar, and refrigerator stocked with alcohol!  It was like a mini bachelor pad since we stayed in one of their smaller suites.  

View outside my window

View outside my window.

After drooling over our gorgeous room, we drove to the Ceasers Palace Resort, parked our car and walked the strip. (The Palms Resort is not located right on the strip but it is nearby up the street).

I was very surprised how many people there was with their children in Vegas.  I always thought that Vegas is meant for adults but there are a lot of things to do for children.

Mandalay Bay Resort has an aquarium.  New York New York Resort has a roller coaster ride outside their hotel and nearby their resort there is an M&M store as well as a Hershey’s Chocolate store and Coca Cola store. Circus Circus Resort has a lot of things to do for kids like huge arcades, circus shows and rides too.   The Rio Resort has zip-lining on top of their hotel building (that looks very scary).   Also there are family friendly shows you can find in Vegas too.  Helicopter rides are nearby to see the Grand Canyon and a huge Ferris Wheel in the middle of the strip.  

What is also cool for the kids is people along the strip walk around in costumes of well-known characters, I've seen Elmo and Burt from SesameStreet, Olaf and Elsa from the movie Frozen, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Transformers, also I seen the Minions.  Hold up, when did Minions start wearing hats?

Hey look it's Alan with Baby Carlos from The Hangover!

There are a lot of places to shop, many restaurants to choose from, nightclubs if you want to party, and of course many different casinos if you want to gamble.

The Wynn Hotel has beautiful flower displays all over their resort.

During our walk, Mr. M and I went into the Ceasars Palace Forum, they have great places to shop inside, some stores are regular retail stores you'd find in any malls and some are higher end designer stores.  The décor inside was breathtaking, felt like I was actually in Rome.

With my body still on East Coast time I was getting tired fast so we went back to the Palms Resort, had dinner to go from their café (food was not good) and went to bed.

It was Monday and back to the CosmoProf show again.  Same thing, walking around and networking.  But guess what!  I got to meet some of the people from derma-e!!!!  I introduced myself and let them know I have been working with them reviewing their products and currently had a review up on my blog of one of their skincare products that day- what a coincidence!  They told me how much they adore bloggers and gave me some more products to review so be on the lookout for those reviews on this blog. They are one of my favorite skincare lines and it was a pleasure to meet them in person!

We were walking around the trade show for hours and I was ready to get out of there and see a Vegas show, so Mr. M and I left and went to go see Eddie Griffin’s comedy show at the Rio Resort.  Eddie Griffin was hilarious, it was dirty comedy but he had me in tears!  Glad to see he is still around and he needs to make a comeback because I can’t stand Kevin Hart, the current popular African American comedian, he is not funny to me.

We ended the night eating at the Lao Sze Chuan, a Chinese restaurant in the Palms hotel.  Food was just ok, a bit on the oily side.  

Tuesday was our last day in Las Vegas.  Mr. M and I went back to the CosmoProf show which was ending that day.  He had a meeting with one of his business partners to introduce him to a few brands he wanted Mr. M to start working with and one of them I may start working with as well since the company has a new haircare line for ethnic hair.  

We had time to spare after the meeting, Mr. M made a deal with a company he was interested in when we first got to the show on Sunday, and then we went to MGM Grand Casino to eat and gamble since I didn’t gamble the whole trip.

MGM Grand Casino has one of the best all-you-can-eat buffets with so much foods to choose from, I highly recommend it, especially if you go to Vegas with your family it’ll save you a ton of money.

I lost $60 at the casino on the slots and immediately stopped gambling.  I do not want to be one of those people mad and depressed that they lost all their money and go home broke.  Mr. M did pretty well on the craps table but unsure how much he won.  We witnessed a couple of basketball players lose $2000 each playing craps, they seemed to not know what they were doing.  If they’re just going to throw away money like that they could’ve just given it to me!

While at the MGM Grand Casino, I met the lady that was on the show Undercover Boss.  Do you watch that show?  I asked her did she actually know the whole time she was on the show and she said no because reality shows are always at the casino.  She still talks to the CEO today and said he is a very great man who did a lot for her.  She cashed out big being on that show.

We started killing time before going to catch our flight home by visiting New York New York Resort to see what it looked like inside.  I didn’t take any pictures while in there because I was exhausted with swollen feet due to all the walking and sat at a poker machine to rest while Mr. M went off to gamble again.

You want to know what’s crazy, a crazy looking man sat next to me smiling and I was wondering why he kept looking at me with a grin on his face, come to find out he thought I was an escort- disgusting!!!!!

Although Vegas started as a disaster, it ended really well; while at the airport waiting for our flight I won $54 on the slots!  What a great way to end my trip and get some of my money back.

Here is my advice about visiting Las Vegas:

• Bring comfortable shoes and clothes, you’ll be doing a lot of walking and the weather is very hot out there during the summer months.  It was 103 degrees while I was there.

• Don’t be like me, book your hotel months in advance for better rates.  Sometimes you can get good last minute rates but not for the same day.  Las Vegas hotels usually are not expensive unless there is a big event going on so make sure to check.

• When walking the strips you will see cars advertising about getting escorts as well as people passing cards on how to get them too, so you may get uncomfortable seeing that, especially if you're with your family.

• Make sure to check and see what shows Vegas will have before you arrive so you can better plan your trip.

• If you’re not a fan of cigarettes then Vegas may not be right for you, Vegas is like one big cloud of smoke.  After a while I did get use to it.

• If you’re going to gamble make sure to bring plenty of spending cash on you because their ATM machines fees are high.

• Vegas has plenty of taxis to get around so you may not need a car if you’re staying on the strip.

• Vegas is known for their buffets and you can find good ones in different hotels.  It really helps with saving money on food. 

Well it looks like I’ll be taking a bit of a break from traveling, the girls will be starting back to school soon so their education comes first.  

(All outfits I'm wearing during this trip is from New York and Company's 2015 summer collection.)

Would you ever visit Las Vegas with your children?  Why or why not?

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