My 40th Birthday Trip To Las Vegas

April 23rd - 26th 2010

By:  John B. Holbrook, II

Copyright 2010

In honor of my making it 40 years on this crazy world we live in, I decided to take Karen for a long weekend getaway to one of our mutually favorite vacation spots - Las Vegas!

This particular trip marks 11 years since I first came out to Las Vegas - over a decade of wonderful memories.  Here's a photo of myself and my father in the lobby of the MGM Grand on my first trip out to Vegas celebrate my 29th birthday:

This time out, I wanted Karen to experience the pools at Caesar's Palace - I had stayed at Caesar's Palace in 2004 with my buddy John Rigano and we really enjoyed the pool area:

So Caesar's seemed like an ideal place for us to celebrate my 40th birthday together for a weekend getaway.  Karen had never stayed at Caesar's before, and I've been wanting to get back having had such a good experience back in 2004.

The lobby of Caesar's Palace

Here's our Room in the Palace Towers:

After a long day of walking up and down the strip, the Jacuzzi tub is an absolute must - a nice soak before bed makes all the aches and pains melt away:

To me, the real draw of Caesar's Palace is their pool area called "The Garden of the Gods."  When I first started coming to Vegas, the pools at Caesar's were in the Top 10 of  Travel Magazines Best Pools in the World.  Here's the view of the pools from our 24th floor suite:

Here's the view from the ground:

Blackjack in the pool anyone?

Nothing more relaxing than laying by the pool with a virgin Pina Colada listening to reggae music on my iPhone:

We certainly spent some time shopping in the Forum Shops at Caesars':

Unfortunately, Caesar's has changed since 2004, having been purchased since then by the Harras Group of hotels. The customer service and attention to detail has really gone down hill. Perhaps prevailing economic conditions had something to do with the decline in service, but I can't say I'll be coming back to Caesar's.  We actually spent most of our time at other properties on the strip.  Our two favorites are The Wynn and The Bellagio, in that order.  Here's some photos from the Bellagio:

The Chihuly glass lobby never fails to make my jaw drop:

After breakfast one morning we took a stroll through the garden at Bellagio - it's a "must see" tradition for us whenever we go to Vegas.

Great place for a wrist shot.  :)

Bellagio has an excellent breakfast and dinner buffet - check out this chocolate sculpture:

We enjoyed a nice dinner at Olive's - one of Bellagio's AAA five-diamond rated restaurants: 

I enjoyed the Ricotta Ravioli:

Karen tried the Brick Oven Roasted Free Range Chicken:

Of course, we took in the famous Bellagio fountain show:

Perhaps next year we'll stay at the Bellagio. My best experience staying in Vegas so far remains with the Wynn - we first stayed in 2007, not long after it opened. We spent quite a bit of time there as well on this trip:

This was our first time to see the new Encore tower at the Wynn:

Hands down the Wynn easly has the best breakfast AND dinner buffet in all of Vegas:

Breakfast:

Dinner - just look at those Alaskan King Crab legs!!

A stroll through the pool area of the Wynn:

Of course, I had to so a little shopping at the Rolex boutique at the Wynn for a 40th birthday present - the best selection I've seen anywhere in the world:

A cornucopia of Daytonas....

The most expensive Rolex model ever...the GMT Master II "ice" model:

Of course, I tried on a few other watches besides Rolex. Maybe a Patek Philippe for my 40th?

We were pleased to see that the Encore tower at the Wynn is every bit as upscale as the original Wynn tower:

Much to my delight, I discovered ANOTHER all-Rolex boutique store in the Encore!

We did make it out of the Wynn and Bellagio to do some site seeing and exploring.  We went in the new Planet Hollywood hotel (made popular by the movie "21") - a nice place for the younger folks, but not our cup-o-tea:

Here's the newest Vegas mega-property - the City Center.

We had to swing by the first place Karen stayed in Vegas during her first trip out in 1996 - the Flamingo:

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel built the Flamingo - the bar is nammed after him:

Going up and down the strip, we saw the Venetian (the hotel we stayed in the last time we were in Vegas) several times, but didn't go inside this trip:

We did run inside the Venetian's sister property, the Palazzo:

When we were here in 2008, the car dealership in the Palazzo wasn't finished so we stopped by to see it now that it's open. They had a couple of cars there I suggested to Karen would be suitable 40th birthday presents:

We spent a little time at the MGM Grand on this trip - it's a Vegas classic:

CSI The Experience opened at the MGM just last Fall - we watch all three CSI shows weekly, and HAD to give this a try:

Here's our "crime scene" - a dead waitress found in a Las Vegas back alley:

As crime scene investigators, we had to document all the evidence we found:

We then had to go to various lab work stations to analyze the evidence:

The dead body is examined during an autopsy: 

An image was projected onto the mannequin showing vital organs:

After all the evidence was collected an analyzed, we had to enter our report and solve the crime:

If the whole freelance writing and photography thing ever fizzles out, maybe I'll moonlight as a CSI:

Neither of us had ever spent much time at Paris Las Vegas before, so we made a point to do so this trip. Here's a sunset photo of Paris taken right before we went in for dinner:

At night after dinner:

We also went to the top of the 1/2 scale replica of the Eifle Tower they have at Paris - the observation area at the top is about 400 ft. up, and provides an excellent view:

A real highlight of the trip for us though was the night time helicopter ride we took over the strip. Here's our ride:

Time to board!

We sat next to the pilot:

The view was absolutely amazing!!

If you go out to Vegas, I highly recommend doing one of the helicopter tours.  Another first for us both was a trip to see "Old Vegas" - Freemont street:

The world's largest video screen:

Live music:

Overall, It was absolutely outstanding trip - I hope you enjoyed seeing it through the lens of my camera.  :)