This Wednesday is our 20th wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we took a little trip to Las Vegas back in June. We’ve been several times and always enjoy ourselves. It was a quick trip, three nights and four days, but we packed a lot into it. And you won’t be surprised to hear that we ate well … very well.
We also discovered our newfound affinity for what we call soccer. With the FIFA World Cup 2026 well underway in North America, the matches were on the TVs everywhere we went. It wasn’t long before we had picked up numerous tidbits about the teams, “gotten to know” some of the players and even learned the difference between yellow and red cards.
We flew out of Houston at 7:20 a.m. Central and landed in Vegas at 8:35 a.m. Pacific to 116-degree weather. That’s okay though because it’s a dry heat with no humidity there. The lack of humidity makes a big difference. Although it was too early to check into our room at Park MGM on The Strip, we did drop off our luggage and grab a bite of lunch at Primrose, one of 14 restaurants within our hotel.
He chose the Primrose Omelet which was a three-egg omelet filled with ham, bacon and cheddar cheese that was served with breakfast potatoes. I selected the Primrose Club, a club sandwich with roasted turkey, smoked bacon, lettuce, heirloom tomato and avocado spread that was served with French fries. For beverages, we enjoyed Mimosas – his with orange juice and mine with cranberry juice.
We had tickets that afternoon to see The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere, a music and entertainment arena east of the Strip. It was a large-scale, multi-sensory 4D experience that transported us, making us feel as if we were traveling the yellow brick road along with Dorothy, Toto and the gang. It was a fully immersive feast for the senses.
Hankering for a good steak, Hubby had made reservations for us at Bavette’s Steakhouse & Bar, another of the restaurants inside our hotel. We started with hand-made sourdough bread with cultured butter and sea salt. He ordered the “Classic Ribeye - Chicago Cut,” a 16-ounce steak with a béarnaise sauce. I selected the “Filet Mignon, Petite Duchess Cut,” a six-ounce steak that came with a roasted tomato, béarnaise sauce and watercress. We chose two sides to share – Brussels sprouts with dijon, parmesan and chives and Elote-style corn with chili, lime, cilantro and parmesan.
The following morning we ate breakfast at Side Betty Grill, another restaurant in our hotel, and had something I’d never heard of or even thought about – breakfast nachos. It was a big pan of fairly standard nachos, but with the addition of scrambled eggs. The corn tortilla chips, scrambled eggs, roasted salsa roja, chipotle aïoli, shredded cheddar, pickled jalapeños and sausage were the perfect start to our day.
We often enjoy immersive experiences when we travel and prior to the trip we’d both read about, and been intrigued by, a place called ARTE Museum. Billed as “the ultimate immersive experience,” with “immersion beyond Imagination,” it was one of the coolest things ever and something we now highly recommend. We can’t wait to go back and take our daughter. It’s very difficult to describe the experience, but you walk through dimly lit rooms with mirrored walls that have various videos playing on the walls, accompanied by ambient music and an array of various light shows. An immersive experience unlike any other we’ve done, you can feel waterfalls crash around you, stroll among endless blooming flowers and hear the ocean’s gentle whisper, in addition to a variety of other things as well. The experience concluded in the ARTE Cafe where he had a golden black tea and I had a caramel latte.
We had a late lunch/early supper at La Pizza & La Pasta, another restaurant in the hotel. We started with some melt-in-your-mouth focaccia that was served with melted butter. Hubby ordered the “Diavola Dolce,” a beautiful pizza topped with smoked mozzarella, Ferrarini spicy salame, whipped ricotta, Mike’s Spicy Honey and basil. I chose the bucatini cacio e pepe.
That evening we had tickets to Absinthe, which was named “the #1 greatest show in Las Vegas history” by Las Vegas Weekly. Provocative and unforgettable, it is definitely not for the faint of heart. The fast-paced, adults-only variety show with acrobatics, contortionists, burlesque, comedy, circus acts and more was a scream. Unapologetically raunchy and quite hilarious, I don’t know when we’ve laughed as loud and hard as we did that evening. And the unique venue just added to the experience. It was an air-conditioned intimate, vintage circus tent erected on the grounds of Caesars Palace.
The following day, we strolled around the Strip a bit and ended up having lunch at Brewdog, an eatery specializing in the Scottish brewery’s craft beers. Hubby selected the pork belly burnt end sliders – charred pork glazed in BrewBQ, drizzled with chipotle aioli, pickled onion and scallions and served with French fries. I chose the Mediterranean flatbread which was topped with garlic oil, blistered cherry tomatoes, artichokes, olives, red onion, parmesan and queso fresca.
On our final night, we had reservations at Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen. He chose the dry-aged New York strip with shishito peppers and a red wine demi-glace.I selected the roasted branzino with fregola, broccolini, tomato compote and salsa verde. We shared a side of baked macaroni and cheese with smoked gouda and crispy prosciutto.
Upon arriving home, I avoided the bathroom scales for about two weeks. Seriously. It was a perfect getaway celebration. We ate very well, loved the shows we saw and thoroughly enjoyed the experiences we shared. Here’s to the next 20 years. It just gets better and better.
