Vegas weekend at the Palazzo

It's a three day weekend, so why not head out to Vegas.  And even better, the Bakers are joining us.

After staying in plenty of 4 star hotels and resorts, Theresa decided she wanted to go big and stay in a 5 star hotel. 

(not my photo)

Of course Theresa can't pay full price for any hotel, so she bid on 5 star hotels on the Vegas Strip and got the Palazzo (the all Suite tower of the Venetian) on Super Bowl weekend for $150 per night, regularly $300 a night. 
The room itself was beautiful.  It was a 720 square foot suite with a king bed, separate sunken living room, and no less than three TVs.

The bed was super comfortable.

 

And the sunken living room was a great place to hang out.  In the morning, it was easy to go down here and not disturb whoever was still sleeping. 

5 stars is pretty nice.  Hopefully Theresa doesn't get too spoiled.

After we dropped off all our luggage, we went out to explore.  Chinese New Year is right around the corner, and the hotel is decorated for it.  It's the year of the snake, so in the gangway between the Palazzo and Venetian, there is a giant blossoming tree with a snake in it.

Plus lots of lanterns.

We wandered around the canals in the Venetian.  The engineers in us were impressed with the all the planning and structural support that had to be taken into account for the waterways that were directly above the casino floor.

Theresa saw a gelato shop (very appropriate, knowing how much we ate when we visited Italy), and thought we should get some.  I got chocolate hazelnut, Jonathan got vanilla, Lacey got raspberry, and Theresa got.... nothing.  Sigh...  After tasting a couple flavors, she decided to skip it.

We wandered the shops along the canal, including taking a few minutes in Peter Lik's gallery.  Of course they don't allow pictures, but you can see plenty of examples on his website. lik.com
When I print my photos to hang at home, I'm printing them on metal, just like he does.  Just need to keep working on my technique.

Before too long, we found the candy store.  This of course is an automatic stop when you're with Jonathan, who is a candy fanatic.

Before heading back for the night, Lacey decided to play $1 in the slots (none of us are big gamblers).  But which machine to put it in?  We found a Pawn Stars slot and just knew that's where it belonged.  Lacey ended up "ten timesing" her money and won $10.50!  

And with that, we ended the night.  Tomorrow we're headed to the Hoover Dam!