my vegas vacation

over the memorial day weekend (well, sunday through wednesday for us), chester and i met up with 3 of our couple friends in las vegas. i've been to vegas a few times before, but i was really excited for this trip because of the group dynamic. we were all on the same page which makes a vacation stress-free and really enjoyable. plus it was nice to vacation with friends that i had not travelled with before :)

ok, on to the photos:

we all stayed at the cosmopolitan. it's a fairly new hotel on the strip and had a younger crowd, which was perfect for us. my friend jason's company, digital kitchen, did a lot of work for the hotel, and it turned out so cool! jason worked on a design for the entryway (he's standing next to it in the photo), and worked on concepts for the video screens throughout the hotel. i wish i had taken more photos of these videos b/c they were so well done. the entire lobby was made up of these video columns, and it was a really amazing sight. if you're ever in vegas, be sure to check out the comso's lobby.

chester and i had an awesome wraparound terrace suite. wow. it was so cool. and we had a great view. i was able to snap a couple of panoramic shots via my iphone and the photosynth app. my favorite shot is the second to last one of this set above, where the sky is in the process of changing colors :)



memorial day was spent at the boulevard pool at our hotel. we made sure to snag a prime location early in the morning, and ended up spending 8 hours there! (we were smart about spf, which was key or we would all be miserable, lol.) most of the pool area near our chairs was very shallow, about 6 inches or so, which i thought was silly until i could barely stand the heat laying in my chair. we easily were able to lay out in the shallow water, keep cool & still work on our tans, haha. this part of the day was one of my favorite parts of the trip. very mellow and low key, but still a lot of fun. the multiple pitchers of mojitos & sangria helped out too.

i love this shot! our friends posted it on facebook and i snagged it right away. thanks tom for the awesome photo idea :)

and of course, we had a lot of fun going out at night. we went to tryst (at the wynn hotel) sunday night and marquee (at the cosmopolitan) monday night. both nights we were lucky enough to snag some table space without having to get bottle service (which was ridiculously expensive). we had great food, good strong drinks, and so much fun.

on tuesday, our dear friends made their ways back home, and chester and i had the night to ourselves. unfortunately i don't have any photos of our time, mostly because i was trying to enjoy the moments without having to photograph everything. it really was nice to have that quality time, just the two of us. oh! and we had THE BEST SUSHI! not kidding, this stuff was amazing and i've been craving it ever since. we got a late start to our evening when our nap lasted 3 hours, lol, but luckily the blue ribbon sushi bar was open til 1am. we had an awesome server who recommended 3 amazing sushi plates, and we ate every last bit. our favorite was the "me bachi maguro zuke", which was "marinated big eye tuna, mizuna salad, with garlic chips and ponzu". i don't usually order sashimi, but this stuff was soooo gooood. the tuna was marinated in garlic for two days and it was divine. if you like sushi and are in las vegas, be sure to check this place out!

it was the best vacation that i've been on in a loooooong time. we're hoping to go back in august already! haha. luckily i was sort of eased back into my regular schedule, and am officially caught up on emails, blogs, and tv shows. ya know, the important stuff ;) but this whole 5 day work thing will take some time getting used to.

'til next time,

steph