On our second to the last day, we took it a little easy in the day and lounged around the hotel room, ordered lunch, and got some naps in before going to Downtown LV that night. We had dinner at Triple 7 sports bar in the Mainstreet Station hotel.
After dinner, we sent the kiddos to the arcade while the adults hit the casino. Kahele won some money on the craps table, I lost money in the slot machines which means it’s time to go back to the hotel room and sleep.
On New Year’s Eve, we checked out of our hotel room and headed over to my sister’s house. The prices of hotel rooms skyrocket on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, so I was so happy when we had the option to stay with my sister. Before heading over to her house we did a little shopping at the outlets. My best friend Hina flew into Vegas that day so we did some shopping together and we all met up at Tasha’s. Tasha invited Hina and her daughter to also stay because they had plenty of room. Honestly, just chilling at my sister’s house was exactly what we needed.
That night we headed to another bestie’s house. Sarah owns a restaurant and she was so nice to cater our food for that night. We were able to catch up before heading back. Back at my sister’s, we started a series called Yellowjackets on Showtime. We spent the next couple of days binging on the series while cuddled up on the couch.
On day 5 of our vacation, we went to Ceasars Palace. We did some shopping, ate some treats, and finished an early dinner at Planet Hollywood. I’ve never been to Ceasars during the holiday. It was so beautifully decorated with wreaths and Christmas trees along with Christmas music playing in the background. Whenever I see a Tiffany & Co. store front I have to take a picture because it always reminds me of my grandma and our favorite movie we’d watch together. The Tiffany’s at Ceasars Palace is gorgeous!
On the 4th day of our trip, we took the kids to the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. This is always a must on our list of things to do in Vegas, it keeps the adults away from the casino for a few hours and gives the kids a day of roller coasters and thrill rides.
After a day of fun we all worked up an appetite, so my sister took us to her favorite all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. Yama Sushi is now one of my favorites as well, from the ambiance to the food… it won 5 stars from me. This will be on my must-do’s in Vegas from now on. After dinner, we hit up The Dispensary for some goodies.
On the third day of our trip, we drove from LA to Las Vegas. We entered some chilly weather and had lunch at In and Out Burger (we don’t have one in Hawaii so that was pretty exciting for the kids). We also stopped off to see the 7 Magic Mountains, but it was so freaking cold that I took pictures from in the car. Our room wasn’t ready when we got to the Excalibur so we walked over to the Luxor to check out the Titanic Exhibit… this was my second time there but I still enjoyed it a lot. The kids were a little tired and bored but I’m glad that they were able to see it. .
On the second day of our vacation, we went to Knotts Berry Farm… I love this theme park! It was so much more open and empty than Disneyland. We were able to get on rides with less than a 20-minute wait and it was so much nicer to walk around and take in the sites without rubbing shoulders with strangers. Even the kids loved it so much more and now prefer to go to Knotts over Disneyland.
For lunch we were able to go to Sizzlers, this was so exciting to me because growing up we would always go to sizzlers with my parents before they closed down all of the Sizzlers in Hawaii. It was exactly like I remember! Our day at Knotts was my favorite day of our entire vacation. Here are some photos from our day.
We landed in Los Angels after a 4 1/2 hour flight, it was 12 am and we headed to the rental car lot only to stand in line for 3 hours to get screwed on the car that we were supposed to get. It’s a long story and a nightmare that I’m so happy to report didn’t snowball into more situations like that… thankfully that was the only stress on the vacation. We got to the hotel at around 4 am and got a few hours of sleep before heading across the street to Disneyland.
It was my youngest daughter’s first time at Disneyland and her reaction was so precious. The rest of us were just as excited because it’s been a few years since we’ve been.
I hope everyone had a great weekend. This weekend went by a little too fast, luckily I can look back on it and say that it was a pretty good one. On Friday night St. Louis challenged Kamehameha for the ILH football championship and WE WON!!! It was such an intense game that I went a little overboard on the alcohol intake and didn’t feel how drunk I was getting until the game was over and the drunken feeling took over.
On Sunday my dad’s girlfriend took me out for a girl’s day, as my belated birthday present. We went to get massages, stopped by Wholesale Unlimited to buy some snacks, and then followed with lunch. I really wanted to go to Kaneohe Pancake House (the old Koa House). I was craving crab-cakes eggs benedict and just needed to have it. We arrived about 45 minutes before closing time so we were one of the only ones in the entire restaurant, it was perfect! Here are some pics from the weekend…
tairaxo 