Day 1: Apparently I Came to Las Vegas to Rest

Vegas + Alaska Birthday Adventure

There are probably not many people who arrive in Las Vegas thinking:

Thank God. I can finally relax.

Yet here I am.

And honestly? I am exhausted.

The Vacation Before the Vacation

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning doing all of those last-minute things that somehow multiply overnight before you leave for a trip.

Finish this. Pack that. Take care of one more thing around the house. Make sure everyone knows where everything is.

We showed the dog sitter around—thanks, Stacey!—loaded up and then drove the hour and a half to the airport.

By the time we got there, I already felt like I'd completed a full day.

But I think today's exhaustion is about much more than getting ready for vacation.

The past month has been a lot.

We welcomed a new baby into our family, which has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

And then this past week, we lost our dog Beckett.

There has been happiness and worry and excitement and grief and work and house projects and everything else that regular life continues throwing at you regardless of what you're already carrying.

So yes.

I came to Las Vegas to relax.

Does anyone actually say that?

Because apparently I do.

Sometimes the Adventure Starts Before You Land

One of my favorite parts of today actually happened before we ever touched the ground in Nevada.

Flying west gave us some incredible views.

We flew over the Rocky Mountains, and I could have stared out the window forever.

Then I spotted Hoover Dam from the plane.

And Lake Mead.

Lake Mead from the air was breathtaking.

There's something completely different about seeing a place from thousands of feet above it. Roads disappear. Mountains become patterns. Water cuts through this enormous desert landscape.

Suddenly I wasn't quite as tired.

I was officially looking out the window thinking:

Okay. The adventure has started.

Welcome to the Oven

Note: we do NOT look this good. I used an app to help clean up the photo a bit and it made us 20 years younger. I'm way too tired to fix it so on Day 1, you get young versions of us. LOL

We landed in Las Vegas around 1:30 p.m. Pacific time.

Except my body knew perfectly well that it was 4:30 p.m. at home.

And we had eaten...

Nothing.

Not breakfast.

Not lunch.

Nothing.

By the time we made it to Hilton, checked in and finally went looking for food, my body was somewhere around 6:30 p.m. Michigan time and wondering what exactly I had against feeding it.

Also...

It was 102 degrees outside.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWO.

Opening the door to go outside feels approximately like opening an oven to check your cookies.

Welcome to Vegas!

Dinner With Gordon Ramsay... Sort Of

Our first official Vegas meal was at Gordon Ramsay Burger, and my travel bestie Lucia was so excited.

She LOVES Gordon Ramsay. She watches all of his shows, so eating at one of his restaurants was absolutely something she wanted to do while we were here.

I had the garden burger, which was exactly what I needed after accidentally fasting my way across the country.

But perhaps the most memorable food at our table wasn't even ours.

The guy sitting next to us ordered one of the hot dogs.

I don't know what I expected a Gordon Ramsay hot dog to look like, but apparently the answer is:

ABSURDLY LARGE.

It was genuinely the biggest hot dog—and hot dog bun—I think I've ever seen in my life.

I couldn't stop looking at it.

Sorry, random man at Gordon Ramsay Burger.

Your dinner became part of my vacation journal.

Walking the Las Vegas Strip

After dinner, we walked the Strip for about an hour.

And Vegas architecture is absolutely over the top amazing! The statues and the sheer size of these buildings is just massive!

There is so much to look at that you almost don't know where to look.

Entire environments built to make you forget you're standing in the middle of a desert.

We eventually made our way to the Bellagio fountains and watched the water show.

It was awesome and the song for this particular show... PERFECT! 'Beautiful Day' by U2.

It's one of those classic Vegas things you've seen countless times in pictures and videos, but standing there watching it happen in front of you is completely different.

Definitely worth stopping for.

And Then Hawaii Showed Up in Vegas

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at the ABC Store at Miracle Mile to grab some snacks for the room.

And suddenly...

I was back in Hawaii.

I visited Hawaii with my mom in April, and seeing that familiar ABC Store immediately brought those memories rushing back.

I love when travel does that.

You're having one adventure and suddenly some tiny, completely unexpected thing connects it to another.

A store.

A smell.

A song.

A food.

And for a second, two completely different trips exist in the same moment.

Calling It a Night at 6:42 P.M. in Las Vegas

Our Hilton hotel is absolutely amazing.

But I'm not going to get into all of that yet.

I'm going to stay here, experience the whole thing, and then give it the full review it deserves after our stay.

For tonight, though, we're done.

It's currently 6:42 p.m. in Las Vegas.

Which sounds embarrassingly early to call it a night in a city famous for staying awake until sunrise.

But our bodies think it's 9:42 p.m.

We're cooked.

So on Night One of my birthday adventure in Las Vegas...

We're going to bed early.

And you know what?

I'm perfectly okay with that.

This trip isn't about squeezing every possible thing into every possible minute.

I've done enough squeezing lately.

Maybe this one can have a little more room in it.

Tomorrow, Vegas will still be here.

And so will we.

Day 1 complete. ❤️

Next stop: Day 2 in Las Vegas...