Vegas, Part I

Hello there! I'm going to post about the first part of my Vegas trip. We got to our hotel toom Wednesday night around midnight. We had booked a non-smoking room, but when we got there, they said they had no non-smoking rooms left, and they placed us in a smoking room. I wasn't happy about it at all, but we didn't have a choice. This has never happened to us before anywhere. We were staying at the Flamingo, and it was our forth time staying there. They told us we could switch rooms the next day, but that didn't end up happening. So, we didn't get into a non-smoking room until the day after. We were both disappointed with the Flamingo, and I don't know if we'd stay there again. We didn't like the way they handled the situation either, which is, basically they acted as if they didn't care. 
But, moving on, we went out for a couple of drinks in the hotel that first night, and then just went to bed. We had been up for 24 hours by the time we went to bed. Thursday we headed over to the Orleans in the morning to pick up our Viva wristbands. Luckily the line was very short, and it only took a couple of minutes. After that we headed out to lunch near our hotel, and then we went over to Frankie's Tiki Room. There were only a few people there, so that was really nice. The bartender we had was great too; we had never had him before on previous Vegas trips. We stayed at Frankie's for awhile, and then headed back to our hotel to freshen up before heading back to the Orleans. When we got back over to the Orleans we watched some music and went to the vendor rooms. I only picked up a hair flower there.  
On Friday we went to the Charleston Antique Mall; we had never been there before, but I had heard good things about it. It was a decent sized place, but we didn't end up buying anything there. Before that we went to the Bellagio in the morning, to look at their conservatory & botantical garden. They change their display there seasonally, and we always make sure to stop there on our Vegas trips. The displays are beyond gorgeous and amazing! They had a Japanese spring theme this time. 
We went to the Orleans to watch some music, and we went to Balliwick Pub for the first time. We ended up going there three days during our trip. We really liked it there, and they also had a stage with live music going on. The food was good, too. We went to the Peppermill for an early dinner, and then we went to check out their lounge (it's attached to the restaurant). We had tried to check out the lounge last year, but it had been closed for a private party. 
The lounge was okay, if a bit of a let down, ha. There was one fire pit inside, and it did give off a lot of heat, but Bob got hot quickly, and we went back to sit at one of the bars in the lounge. After we left there, we headed to Frankie's. It was much busier there, and we could only find seating on a bench (there were no seats at the bar), and the guy who was already sitting on the other side of the bench started talking to us. We talked to him and then his friends for awhile, but itt was really loud in there, making it hard to hear. 
In my next blog post I'll write about the remainder of the trip. 

Peppermill Lounge

Dresses: Trashy Diva & Pinup Girl Clothing
Heels: BAIT Footwear

~Bye bye for now!

Viva Las Vegas, Part II

Hello there! We are having a very beautiful, sunny weekend here, which is so nice. On Friday it was so warm and humid that it felt like summer! I can't wait until it atually is summer....it's my favorite season, and so of course that mean it flies by the quickest of all the seasons. It's so nice when it stays light out until 9:00 p.m., and we take weekend day trips and don't need even a light sweater, and to be able to eat and drink outside; ah, there's just countless amazing things about summer! 
In this post I'm going to continue with my Vegas trip details and pictures. So, in the last post I talked about Wednesday night through Thursday night. On Friday, we got over to Viva early in the morning, because I wanted to straight to the vendor selling the Retrospec'd fruit dress I had tried on the night before, and snag it! We got over there, and I spotted that they had the size I needed, and was so relieved! I tried it on one more time, and then promptly bought it. I wore it a lot on the trip, and know I will be wearing it a lot in the future. I got tons of compliments on it when I wore it in Vegas. I had never bought that brand before, but I'm happy to see that as of very recently more American retailers are selling the brand. The dress has quite a high neck, so I won't even need a bandeau to wear it to work. After I got the dress, we walked around the vendor rooms again. Bob actually bought a shirt, hat, and CD (normally he doesn't buy anything when we go on trips)! 
After the shopping (I didn't buy anything else in the rooms), we went to the fashion show. We missed the first fifteen minutes and left before the last few minutes of it, but saw the rest. I hadn't gotten to see it last year, so I wanted to check it out this time. After having a couple drinks at one of the Orleans's bars, we went back to the hotel. We met up with my friend Sara at New York New York for dinner at a burger restaurant there, and ater that, we took a taxi over to Golden Tiki. Golden Tiki was neat inside, and has a lot more room to sit then Frankie's. But, it has a less dive-y atmosphere than Frankie's does. I got a drink called Banana Batida, and it was really good, so I kept ordering the same one. 
This was Sara's first time at a tiki bar, and her first time seeing Viva. Some more of my friends came by Golden Tiki later on, and after awhile a few of us left to go to Frankie's, so Sara and my friend Kristina could see Frankie's, too. Bob and I got a tiki mug to take come from Frankie's; always looking to add to our tiki mug collection! Sara also got the slot machine one, which I love, and already have. It was really nice catching up with Sara. We found out we have more in common then we already knew! Since she was in Vegas for a business trip, she couldn't spend much time at Viva or with us. It was great to spend so much time together Friday though. 
Saturday morning we met her right before 10:00 a.m., to take the bus together to the Orleans. She had to leave by noon at the latest to go set up for her trade show, and wouldn't be able to come back at all to Viva, or to see us again in Vegas. I was glad she got to at least check out the car show, and vendors there! The car show has the best vendors, better than the vendor rooms. A very small amount of vendors who are in the rooms also vend at the car show. I bought four hair flowers/hair fruit pieces, a necklace, a purse and a clutch. I had also ordered a dress and two skirts before Viva from Shop VDM, and picked up my items from the shop owners on Friday afternoon. Sara ended up having to leave around 11:30 a.m., but she found some great items at the vendors, although she didn't get to look at the cars. I was just happy she got to experience the little bit she did!
Bob and I were at the car show for awhile. After Sara left, we did a little more shopping, and then got some lunch, and after that we looked at all the cars there. Ah, so much 50's beauty! When I was young, my dad used to take me to car shows with him, so it's a very familiar feeling to be at a classic car show! He's still very into classic cars, and drove me to my wedding in a 1954 lavendar Cadillac (which he since sold). After we were done with all of that, we hit the vendor rooms once more time, and then took it easy for a bit, at the Orleans. We went back out to the car show area in the early evening, to see Brian Setzer perform there. I had never heard of him before, but evidently he's big in the rockabilly world. Him and his band were great. After seeing most of his set, we headed inside, and saw some of the burlesque show. We had never seen burlesque before, so it was something different to experience. After we left the show, we headed back by our hotel, and had a couple of drinks at New York New York. Saturday was a very fun, full day!

Saturday night, after the long day at the car show/Orleans

You can see here how windy out it was!

Inside Golden Tiki

Inside Golden Tiki

Outfit I wore on Friday night

The Retrospec'd dress I bought at Viva!

Viva Las Vegas, Part I

Hello there! Well, we are back from Vegas, back to the real world. We had a blast! We got to do a lot; we did just about everything I had wanted to do. We spent more time at Viva this year than last year, which was great. It would be even better to actually stay at the Orleans hotel during Viva, because otherwise it's a lot of traveling to and from the Orleans, which obviously takes time and money. 
I got to spend time with three of my lady friends I had met previusly, which was very nice, as I only see them at events like this. Bob and I got to our hotel on Wednesday night, around 9:30 p.m. We changed and got ready to go out for the evening. We had some drinks in our hotel and a hotel next door, New York, New York. I wanted to go to Nine Fine Irishmen; we've been there before, and I really like it there. I love Irish pubs in general. There was a band playing, and a river dancer, and both were great. Bob wanted to gamble for a bit though, so I went into that bar by myself, and he joined me later. I'm not really interested in gambling. We stayed out until around 2:00 a.m. Vegas time, which was 5:00 a.m. NJ time! So, I had been up for 24 hours. I only got five hours of sleep that first night in Vegas too, but surprisingly wasn't tired on Thursday. 
Thursday was the first day of Viva. We had an early dinner at a restaurant at the Tropicana, and got to sit outside, which was nice. The weather was perfect. We headed over to Viva after that, in the late afternoon, picked up our wristbands, listened to some live rockabilly music and then went into the vendor rooms. They opened at 5:00 p.m., and were insanely crowded with shoppers!! It wasn't any fun; you had to constantly bump into people to try and walk anywhere/look at anything, and it was also very hot, which made it even more annoying to try things on. I did meet a lovely, sweet lady who I follow on Instagram though! Her name is Dezzy, and she recognized me, and her boyfriend took a picture of us. I ran into her another day, as well. 
I didn't end up buying anything that night. I tried on a dress I ended up going back for the next morning, and luckily they still had my size! The dress has a fruit print, is made by an Aussie brand called Retrospec'd, and I am in loveeee with it. I wore it a lot during the trip, including to the car show on Saturday (the biggest day at Viva). 
After we checked out the vendor rooms, we went back to our hotel and got ready to go out to Frankie's Tiki Room. We met my friend there, Lisa (who I met at Viva last year), and her friend from home, Hannah, who Bob and I met for the first time. Frankie's was fun, and all three drinks I had there were soooo yummy. I can be quite picky when it comes to food and alcohol, and definitely don't like all rum drinks (the sweeter, the better). We were at Frankie's for a few hours (we got there early in the evening), and then went back to our hotel. I definitely got more sleep Thursday night, which was great. I experiened Golden Tiki for the first time Friday night, and I can now say Frankie's is my very favorite tiki bar I've been to anywhere. It feels like a dive bar inside, which I love, but has amazing drinks and kitschy decor. Perfection!
The pictures below are from Wednesday night - Thursday night. I'll write more about Viva/Vegas in my next blog post!