old ladies take on vegas

so back around the holidays during our annual dinner GTG, my little group of mom friends and i picked out a date to do a fun girls' trip to vegas.  we've been talking about doing this for years, and this was the first time we actually got as far as choosing a date that worked for all of us.  of course, given everyone's crazy busy schedules, we knew it would only work if we kept it down to a minimum of one night.  but we figured that if we flew instead of drove (which would save us at least 6 hours of travel time) and chose our flight times carefully, we could squeeze in as much fun in that quickie trip as possible.

as the date approached, we looked at flight schedules and picked out the perfect itinerary - fly out at 10am on saturday, returning sunday evening at 8.  lilcee took the reins for booking our hotel and got us a room at caesar's palace, and she and dailygluttony worked together on picking out a great restaurant for our one nice dinner.  kelley ended up having a little schedule conflict that put her on a later flight coming out, but it all worked out so that we'd all fly home together.

the old lady went with me on a couple of shopping trips so that i could put together some cute little packages for the girls:

and then after packing and goodbyes and driving to meet up at lilcee's house to carpool to the airport, we pulled into a spot at one of the remote parking lots right next to the shuttle stop:

and our trip officially began.  i don't remember ever flying out of burbank airport before, since we live closer to ontario and usually travel from there if not the dreaded LAX.

we stopped to grab coffee and a pastry at one of the coffee stands and then it was time to board the plane.

bye bye, burbank!

what is this?  anybody know?

hello, las vegas!

since we just had our carry-on bags, we made our way through the airport and headed right to the taxi stand.

it was a quick and uneventful trip to caesar's, and after lilcee got us checked in we were finally in our room.

looking out the window, i spied the trusty orleans off in the distance:

and the paris in the other direction.

we decided to head out and find something delicious for lunch, and set off on foot to walk over to the venetian.  it looked close by, and we figured it would be our only opportunity to walk the strip.  and of course, while it didn't seem like it was that far away, it ended up taking us a good 20 minutes to get there as we maneuvered through the crowds and the bridges and walkways and things.  it made for some terrific people watching though, not to mention damn near getting a contact high from all the weed in the air.

oh, and as we walked out of caesar's we passed gordon ramsay's hell's kitchen restaurant.  i'm not gonna lie, i would've liked to eat there but no one else was interested so i figured i'd save that for another trip.  maybe the hub or the old lady will go with me some day.

being april, it wasn't super hot outside yet...but it was definitely warm out there.  i was, as always, nice and sweaty by the time we got inside the venetian and found our way to the restaurant.  we'd chosen yardbird as we were able to get in right away, and i was excited to try something new.

we decided to order a handful of things and share, which is always the best way to go.  they offer a nice variety of flavored mimosas, and i opted for the watermelon:

we started it off with the BLT appetizer - smoked pork belly, pimento cheese, tomato jam and a lemon vinaigrette served on a slice of fried green tomato.  this was so good, i could have kept eating it.

we also ordered the special crispy brussels sprouts cooked with honey and cayenne.  these, too, were super tasty.  i couldn't keep my fork out of them.

their specialty is the fried chicken, cooked fresh to order and served with housemade honey hot sauce.

another highly recommended dish was their biscuits and gravy - a fresh, fluffy biscuit served open fced with a fried chicken thigh, savory country gravy and two poached eggs.

our server was friendly and funny, and we really enjoyed our meal there.  afterwards we walked over to bouchon bakery to pick up some treats to take home - after all, i can't be anywhere near one of these without bringing home a box of chocolate bouchons for the family.  it's kind of a tradition for us by now.

we grabbed a cab to head back to caesar's and wait for kelley to arrive, and because we're a bunch of old ladies who are content to just hang out and relax even when in vegas, we found ourselves kicking back in our room until she got there.  we may or may not have caught a quick catnap, too.  heh.  this was after lots of chatter about reading glasses, aches and pains, the kids, face masks...

damn, we're so old.