Vegas, Baby! Part 1: Circus Circus

I'm hoping to keep you updated on our trip to Las Vegas, and share the treats we've gotten along the journey. Blistering hot weather calls for MANY cool drinks and refueling to keep us energized.

We're not exactly what you'd call "morning people" here, so our first official day started around 11 am when the sun was a roasting 35 degrees Celsius. Thick layers of sunscreen for everyone!! The plan was simple: make our way down the strip and see as many hotels as we could manage, starting from our end of the strip: Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. It's a fair walk to the next hotels, so we ducked and dived in and out of shops along the way to get cooled off, and at some point I had to buy sandals with thicker soles because mine were actually burning! This was serious, and it meant we just had to make more stops and enjoy some tasty Las Vegas beverages to cool down our poor sun-scorched bodies (not counting the bottles of water on us at all times)..

Our first casino stop on our journey was Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, which is a fair distance to walk when wind is blowing in from the 7th circle of hell. Let me tell you. Vegas is an assault to the senses. I was like a child running around looking at everything, pointing at things, and saying "Look at that!". It's an awesome feeling! Vegas hotels are HUGE, so, of course, we took a pit stop for a little sippy. Our first stop was a little coffee and pastry shop in Circus Circus called Barista Bagels & More. I got an iced coffee and my husband a regular black. I don't know if it was because we arrived right before closing, but it just wasn't that great. The coffee was really weak and comparable to industrial-brewed coffee, where 20L at a time is brewed, and the vats are never cleaned (yes that's a thing). Disappointing for a place that calls themselves Barrista. The staff were pleasant, though, and apparently we share a last name with the cashier's daughter, so there's that. Watery, bland, and I didn't get the hazelnut syrup I asked for. Not a great start, but we can't get down over one coffee. Onward!

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Circus Circus has an absolutely HUGE arcade and midway. We stopped in and played some Mario Kart where Michael came 1st and I came 3rd, which isn't bad for someone who can't drive, right? We wandered around the midway, which goes in a ring on the floor above the casino. If you look way up, you can catch some high-flying acrobatics where they fly around on trapezes! Pretty cool. They had every type of carnival game imaginable to win all sorts of prizes, but we had our eyes on mini minion plushies. Minions were everywhere, and we found a horse racing game to win our prize. Unfortunately, we sucked, so no mini minion, but it could be were all our Vegas cash is invested in the future. With the shame of defeat, we moved on from the big top to the next hotel and casino.

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High-flying trapeze acts at Circus Circus

Horse racing game with lots of minion prizes

Roulette game in the Circus Circus Arcade

Circus Circus Arcade