5 reasons to visit Greece...

Seriously??

So, this past week, several inches of snow fell in parts of Greece. Athens got quite a bit, for Athens standards. They rarely get snow and when they do, they put chains on their tires. Anyways, this pic was posted on another web site, http://www.dailyfrappe.com/, and I saw it there and had to post on my site, for shits and giggles!! What are your thoughts????

Mini-Birthday-Break...

The past few weeks have been very busy for this (sub)urban girl. I celebrated a birthday a little over a week ago and I went to Las Vegas with my significant other. Here's the run down on both...

My birthday and my trip to Vegas were on the same weekend. Coincidence? I think not!! I had a great weekend with my maytag man. It is very difficult to find a good travelling partner, for the longest time it was my friend Jodi, we have a great time when we travel!! I've traveled with other friends and it's been semi-disasterous. So, now I'm blessed to have 2 excellent travelling partners!! My Maytag Man was such a trooper!! Any man that can put up with me (when I mean me, I mean my cranky ass) when I loose my money gambling is a man worth keeping!!

We got to Vegas Thursday, Feb 7. I had us booked at Bally's Las Vegas. Bally's is a nice unassuming hotel centrally located on the strip. For me, a hotel in Vegas is all about location, location, location!!! Plus, this was Maytag Man's first visit to "The Holy Land" so we had to be centrally located. Also, thanks to my brother's solid poker play, we had an excellent deal on the room. We were there for 4 nights, Thursday night we were charged $65 for the room, we were comp'd Friday and Saturday night, and we were charged $65 for Sunday night. So, for about $140 (taxes included) we had excellent accomodations!!

After we checked in and went to our room to freshen up, we went down to the casino to play a few hands of blackjack before we went to bed. I lost $60 right off the bat. I had a feeling right then and there that I might not have great luck on this trip. We went up to bed and got up bright and early Friday, Feb 8, my birthday.

One of the first things we had on the agenda was to go Downtown Vegas that day to get it out of the way. We visited may of the old greats on that day...The Plaza, Golden Nugget, Binions Horseshoe, Fitzgeralds etc... We played very well that day, as the odds are better downtown than on The Strip. For example, downtown when you hit a blackjack the odds are 3 to 2, whereas, on The Strip the odds are 6 to 5. So, you win more money downtown Vegas. As seedy as downtown vegas is, we had a good time just farting around. After we were done downtown, we decided to do some shopping at the Fashion Show Mall on The Strip. At the mall, we did a little bit of shopping and we grabbed a light lunch while we watched a Marc Ecko fashion show.

We then headed back to our hotel where we got ready for our dinner reservations at Sushi Roku. Dinner was wonderful! The atmosphere of the restaurant was really relaxing and the maki and nigiri rolls were wonderful. I should have taken a picture of the darned food!!! DRAT!!

On Saturday, we started ou the day with breakfast and hotel gazing at The Bellagio. Ok, let me just say this, 2 coffees and 2 bagel, egg, cheese & bacon sandwiches at a snack bar should not cost $31.25. All I have to say about that is, "What the eff?"!!!!!! Anyway, we took some time to marvel at the Bellagio, it's a beautiful hotel, but they especially beautified it for Chinese New Year, here are some pics...

After The Bellagio, we went over Caesars Palace to meet up with my brother for lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Lunch was excellent, I had one of the best burgers I have ever had. My brother had a rental car, so we decided to take a drive around Vegas. We drove out to Red Rock casino to see how the locals play. Red Rock is about 15 miles from the strip, so this is a casino geared toward Vegas locals. Beautifully decorated, no Strip tackiness in sight. It was a nice retreat from The Strips craziness.

After the Red Rock, my brother drove us over to The Palms casino. This casino was a lot smaller than I thought it was. We hung out here for a while and then headed over to The Rio. Here we saw the Masquerade Show in the Sky, then we went up to the 51st floor, the Voodoo Lounge. We got some great pics of the strip and enjoy the wonderful evening weather.

We then headed back to our hotel for a short nap and to freshen up. That night we headed over to the Hard Rock casino for dinner. We ate at Mr. Lucky's 24-7 Cafe where we both had the off-the-menu Steak and Shrimp Special. You get a steak and 3 grilled shrimp with mashed potatoes and a salad for $7.77. We both ate for $20 including tip. Dinner was excellent, it was by far the best deal of the weekend!! After dinner and a little gambling we headed back to the strip for more gambling excitement.

On Sunday, we had no plan. We decided it would be the day where we took the monorail. We decided to head over to the Wynn first and have Sunday Brunch. What a disaster that turned out to be. There was an hour wait to get into the buffet. We tried to get a line pass from the casino host, pit boss and slot attendant they were all being Nazi's with the line passes. So we ended up dining in the casual restaurant. After the Wynn, we walked over to The Palazzo and then into The Venetian. The we walked to the Casino Royale, which was a hoot to gamble in! We just loved the seedy casino joints!!!

We then walked next door to Harrah's where we caught the monorail to the MGM. On that end of the strip we visited, The Tropicana, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. I already exhausted just thinking about all that we did that day!!

Our last day, we tried to watch the fountains at Bellagio, we waited about 45 minutes, but it was just too early in the day I guess, because we never did see a show!!! :( We walked over to Planet Hollywood, and boy, did they remodel that casino. Last time I was there it was The Aladdin. Now, it's totally beautiful in there!! After we were done there, my brother picked us up and we went back to the Wynn for the buffet. My review of the buffet is was that it was just ok for the money. Although, the next time we go there I have enough points on my Wynn gaming card for 2 free buffets. So I will make sure to put them to good use!! After that we drove to where the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign is and took a couple of pics, then my brother drove us to the airport for the journey back to reality. We are already planning our next trip!