Las Vegas Trip Report

A few months ago, a close friend called to invite us to spend Easter with her and her family. Her step-kids were going to be baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil service. So, we began making plans to travel over a holiday.

On Holy Thursday, I picked up Chris from work and we headed to the airport for a 6:30 flight on Southwest direct to Las Vegas. The flight, while a little bumpy, was nice. It was on time, not quite full, and very quiet.

We watched Netflix shows we had downloaded to our tablets and took naps. When we landed in Las Vegas at 8:30 local time, we collected our bags, then took a shuttle bus to the car rental facility. Because we are Hertz Gold members (a free membership with oodles of benefits), we hopped into a rental car and headed over to the Chinatown area of town to get some ramen at Monta.

It was a beautiful evening, which was nice because we had to wait about 30 minutes for seats. Monta is a small place, with seats for maybe 30 people. The menu is short, but the ramen is phenomenal. The noodles are fresh and the broth is so delicious.

After a delicious second dinner, we headed over to South Point Casino to check into our hotel. We love the South Point Casino. The rooms are nice and big. The food options are decent. The price is good and we love the pool. It is also close to our friend’s house.

We checked in around 11:30 and unpacked before going to bed at 12:30.

The next morning, we got breakfast at the Coronado Café at the South Point and headed out to Red Rock Canyon, which is about 30 minutes outside of the city. You can hike or just drive around a 13 mile loop, which is what we did. The scenery is gorgeous! The road is well paved and there are bathrooms located throughout the drive.

For lunch, we went to Archi’s Thai Bistro, which was another hit! We really enjoyed the food at Archi’s.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest and freshen up. Around 4:00, we headed to our friend’s house to have some veggie pizza and visit before we went to Good Friday services.

After Good Friday services, we went back to the hotel to go to sleep.

Saturday morning, we decided to go to the buffet for breakfast, which was a mistake. There isn’t a great breakfast selection and we felt kind of yucky after eating, so we just lounged around the hotel until about 1:00 when we headed over to our friend’s to hang out.

They had chili for us for dinner and at 5:30, we headed to the church to get our seats for the baptism. We were at the church for 4 HOURS! We got there around 5:45, the service started at 7, and we left sometime around 10.

The service was nice and it was such a neat experience to be present for the kid’s baptisms. They were so excited and so moved by the whole night.

After church, we were hungry again, so we it In ‘N Out so we could have a snack. We brought the food back to the hotel and got into our pjs before eating.

Sunday morning, we got coffee and breakfast sandwiches from the Seattle’s Best in the casino and headed over to our friend’s around 11:00 for a little luncheon to celebrate the kids’ baptisms. She had ham, rolls, cheese, a super food salad from Costco, mini quiches and a cheese ball with crackers. We hung out with our friends until about 3:30 when we went back to the hotel so the kids could get their homework done and get some rest before they went back to school on Monday.

When we went back to the hotel, we picked up a drink at the Crown Royal bar before we went down to the pool and hung out down there for a couple of hours. After our pool time, we changed for dinner and went back to the Coronado Café. I had the salmon and Chris had a steak. We liked both of the meals a lot!

After dinner, we decided to do some gambling and played with $20 each for about 2 hours before we ran out of money. Then, we got some ice cream and went back upstairs to pack and get to bed at a decent time.

Monday, we took our bags to the car and went back in to eat at…you guessed it…the Coronado Café. After breakfast, we went to get gas in the rental car before heading back to the airport. We got there a bit early, but I was worried security would be backed up because it was Easter Monday, but it went pretty quickly.

We were booked on a Southwest flight at 11:50, so we went to the gate to wait for our flight. Before our flight, we got sandwiches at Einstein Brothers.

The flight was very full, but it was quiet.

We landed in Nashville at 5:30, picked up our car and headed home.

Happy Easter!