viva las vegas

venus pool club at caesars palace

for those of you that know me, you probably know that vegas is one of my favorite places in the entire world (thus far). it's truly a 24/7 playground for adults, complete with delicious buffets, world-class entertainment and neon lights/glitter, and pretty much anything can (and does) happen there. so when my dear friend and bride-to-be emily invited 6 of us gals on a bachelorette weekend there, i didn't even have to think about my answer. as expected, it was a blast! though after 2.5 days, 3 nights, and another 12 hours stuck in the vegas airport, we were spent - vegas is fun, but exhausting!

some highlights of the whirlwind trip:

-getting dressed up and drinking for FREE every night.

i mean, i knew vegas loved big groups of girls, but this was out of control. we were practically assaulted by club promoters everywhere we went, offering us VIP tables and free bottle service every night. our answer: "why not?" i officially switched out of my whiskey sour phase and into a cranberry vodka phase that weekend. plus, if we wore half of the things out in boston that we wore there, we'd be publicly ostracized fo' sho'. but in vegas? anything goes. fabulous.

-making new friends.

another great thing about sin city is that almost no one you meet is actually from there! perfect. the first night, we hung with a bachelor party from the jersey shore (the actual place, not show), the next day, we met a fantastic group of southern gentlemen from north carolina at the caesars palace pool that invited us to hang in their cabana for the afternoon, and to their rooftop table at pure (nightclub) that night. everyone's ready to party/dance/talk/have some fun, and that's all that really matters. right?

-showtime.

arguably the best part of the trip was seeing LOVE, the beatles cirque du soleil show, at the mirage. after a yummy dinner at todd english's italian restaurant onda, we got psyched up for the show and i can safely say my expectations were far exceeded. i'm just now getting over my overwhelming post-show desire to be a cirque performer. the music, the dancing, the acrobatics, the costumes....all incredible and i can't recommend it highly enough (MUCH better than zumanity, which i saw last time). though i think my favorite part was at the end of the show - as the cast was rotating around while the audience clapped, a particularly hunky and muscular blonde performer took stock of our group - we were in the front row mezzanine - and started whispering to his fellow cast member, smirking, and mouthing "call me" complete with phone-to-ear gesture. le sigh!

so, i say that one raucous, crazy vegas trip a year would be just about perfect. who's with me?!