The Friday Five, 1/28/22: 5 things I've been up to this week

This whole week was basically Vegas—I was there Sunday through Wednesday, and it was a lot of fun—but this weekend is busy and should be fun as well.

Blackberry crostata + honey-marscapone gelato at Amalfi, Caesars Palace
Blackberry crostata + honey-marscapone gelato at Amalfi, Caesars Palace

What I've been up to this week:
  1. Dining out. Mostly in Vegas, but last Friday I got my Green Lantern birthday freebie (small one-topping pizza) too. On Saturday, I picked up a chicken pot pie and a meatball pot pie for my parents and I at Great Lakes Pot Pie, in Clawson—I had a gift card and they also have a Groupon going on now too, only about $6.40 for a small chicken pot pie, which is a great deal ($9.50 normal price). In Vegas, we had a lot of really good dining experiences, ranging from In-N-Out (my absolute favorite burger in the U.S.) to Amalfi, at Caesars Palace, for my $100 Diamond Celebration credit (I have Caesars Diamond status, but only till the end of Jan. 2022, hence why I wanted to get to Vegas this month). The best meal was surprisingly this fettuccine I had at Wolfgang Puck at MGM ... WP always has great food but the fettuccine was hand-cut and delicious, with pine nuts and mushrooms in some sort of cream sauce, I think. I also got to stop by Black Tap, at the Venetian, since I had been wanting to try their "freak shakes," and we got the Sweet & Salty shake, with peanut butter ice cream, which was really good, although I will say Garrido's (Grosse Pointe Woods) has better freak shakes.
  2. Seeing friends. I left for Vegas on an early flight on Sunday and we came back on Wednesday around 6:30pm. Sunday was my "friends day"—we had lunch at In-N-Out with two Yelper friends from California, Jennifer and Dean, whom I had met at Yelp Spring Break San Antonio in 2017. For dinner, we ended up getting sushi with my friend Sydney and her boyfriend Bobby; I usually meet up with Sydney every time I'm in Vegas, as she lives there, and usually for unlimited Korean BBQ, but I ended up doing that on Tuesday instead. We were going to do unlimited sushi but all of the restaurants were a 1-2 hour wait, so instead we just did regular sushi. 
  3. Seeing shows. I had *four* shows booked for when I was in Vegas. On Sunday at 4pm we saw Nathan Burton at the V Theater at PH (also a Groupon show; only $20 per ticket, which was reasonable) and on Sunday night at 9pm we saw Penn & Teller at the Rio. I had seen P&T before, in 2013, but it had been a while. We had balcony/mezzanine tickets, I believe, but they were only using the main floor, so we got a nice upgrade there. On Monday night, we saw Jabbawockeez, at MGM, which was fun and a bit unexpected, and on Tuesday night we saw Beatles' LOVE at the Mirage, a Cirque du Soleil show, which I also saw in 2013, but which was very good. 
  4. Doing lots of walking. We walked about 19,000 steps on Monday and Tuesday, which was probably good since we were eating so much! Not even sure how because we didn't really walk the Strip (Las Vegas Blvd.) that much, so maybe it was just walking in/around the hotels and casinos. 
  5. Flying Comfort+. I'm normally a coach girl but I paid about 14,000 Delta miles each way to upgrade to Comfort+. The main differences I noticed were the free alcohol, more snacks, and they also offered you complimentary earbuds. The seats are supposed to be bigger with more legroom, too, but I usually get an exit row aisle seat anyways, so I didn't notice it as much.
Chihuly ceiling at Bellagio Las Vegas
Bellagio ceiling - we stayed there Sun. night

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