A Weekend in Vegas!

Just a warning...this is gonna be a long blog...because I have so much to share :). Hope you enjoy. Our weekend in Las Vegas started with a loose plan. We planned for some hiking at Lake Mead and dinner at the Restaurant Joel Robuchon (one of the two 3-star Michelin restaurants on the west coast!). We have been to Joel Robuchon L'Atalier last year and we enjoyed it lots (one of the best, if not the best restaurant to me; I plan to blog about it at some point). One of my friends went to the restaurant and gave me some tips so we were looking for it oh so much.

Before we headed over to Lake Mead we had our lunch at a pizzeria in Henderson called Settebello. We shared a pizza and salad. They both were great, especially the salad. I would say it was a memorable salad because it was my honey's first time he actually "somewhat enjoyed" the taste of olives. I love olives and he hates them but he thought these were "edible"... Finally! he's realizing the beauty of olives! Yay!

*Insalata Grande with mixed greens, balamic vinagrette, artichoke hearts, fresh tomatoes, roasted mushrooms, kalamata olives, pine nuts, and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese*

*Settebello Pizza with crushed tomatoes, pancetta, wood oven roasted fennel sausage, roasted mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, mozzarella, basil, and EVOO (as Rachel Ray would say it)*

They hit the spot for both of us before we go on to hiking!

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We went to the Lake Mead visitor center--got a couple of maps and got our National Park Passport "stamped" (forgot to bring the actual passport so just stamped it on a piece of paper to be pasted later in the passport). We drove on the Northshore Road to find some hiking trails. We first went to Rogers Spring Trail. Yeap, there was a spring alright...it was quite small but there were some people enjoying the water and hanging out. We had some difficulty finding a trail so we just took some pictures there. It was a nice view of the northern side of Lake Mead (but quite further away from the actual lake).


Then we headed over to Redstone Trail. They sure did have redstones. It was spectacular to see red-colored rocks and boulders in the middle of brown and beige background of hills and mountains. We enjoyed the pure peacefulness and the views while we were there...no one else was around except a few people near the parking lot. We went quite deep in the boulders just to explore and be adventurous. We spent rest of the day there scrambling and taking pictures before we drove into the sin city.






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Our first night's dinner was at the Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay. We were attracted to check it out because it was Hubert Keller's restaurant. We liked him on Top Chef Masters...he seems to be such a nice guy. :) Also we were intrigued by $60 burger (which has foie gras and truffle!). No, we didn't order it. Instead we ordered a kobe beef burger and a buffalo burger.


*American Kobe Beef Burger (with provolone cheese and grilled onions) & Sweet Potato Fries*


*Hubert Keller Burger (buffalo burger with blue cheese) & Skinny Fries*

I enjoyed my buffalo burger but my honey didn't think his kobe beef was "all that". I loved their sweet potato fries! They also have many different kinds of milkshakes but we decided to go with beer. Burger, fries and beer...yum! None of this once we start our half marathon training (which will start on May 24)!

For rest of the night, we roamed around casinos and had a drink at a lounge for a night cap.

*our cocktails*

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For the brunch next morning we went to Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. Yelp reviews said good things about this place so we thought we'd check it out. Wait for the patio seating was too long so we resorted to indoor which was fine. We decided to go for somewhat of a lighter meal so I won't be too full for our highlight of dinner at Joel Robuchon.


*Onion Soup Au Gratin*


*Petite Salad*


*Classic Lorraine Quiche (bacon, cheese, onion)*


*3 Cheese Board (Brie, blue cheese, sheep's cheese)*

After brunch, we checked out the City Center (Aria, Crystal). Nothing spectacular to note but it was fun just walking around like any other tourists. :)

*by the waterfall outside of Aria*

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Now, it was time for the highlight we've been waiting for all weekend--dinner at the Restaurant Joel Rubuchon! First, the limo picked us up. I was kinda bummed though because the limo was 30 minutes late, because the driver was waiting at a wrong hotel, duh! Anyway, I got over it quickly once we were on our way. We were dropped off in front of the MGM Mansion and greeted by an escort who took us through the mansion and to the restaurant.



The restaurant's decor was quite interesting...I liked the colors (pink, purple, green, black, etc.) but I wasn't sure about the bird cages at each table. Oh well, didn't bother me, makes it memorable I guess. We each chose the 2-course meal.


The Courses:

*Bread Cart*
Unfortunately, didn't get a picture. Too busy picking out the breads! My favorite was the basil focaccia. A big punch of basil flavor.

L'Amuse-bouche


*best to describe as crab salad with gelee topped with caviar layer*
This was absolutely fabulous! I really enjoyed the crab with a slight bit of gelee and saltiness of the caviar. My favorite of all the courses, believe or not.

Appetizer


*Le Saumon (Salmon tartar with shiso sprouts and caviar)*

*Le King Crab (King crab, avocado in a heart of romaine seasoned with coral-virgin olive oil)*

Main Course


*La Langouste (Spiny lobster poached in a court bouillon with coral, radish shavings and nori)*

*Le Pintade (Guinea hen stuffed with foie gras, teriyaki skewer with lotus sprouts)*

*Mashed Potato* (or more like butter with mashed potato...very creamy and buttery. Yum!)

Almost done... A little(?) more food...


*LES FROMAGES/CHEESES*

I can't tell you exactly what kind we had as these were some exotic ones that I cannot even pronounce. But they ranged from very soft/runny to very hard cheeses. :)

Dessert and Coffee


*L'Ananas (Tahitian vanilla pineapple, coconut sorbet and elderflower liqueur)*


*French Pressed Coffee*


*Candy Cart*

Wow! Heaven! My favorite was the strawberry cheesecake bonbon and the miniature eclair.

Wait wait! There's more. We couldn't pass up celebrating something so we celebrated my birthday (only one month away...heehee).



OMG! As if all that was not enough, ladies are given a box of chocolate to take home.


The night ended with a limo ride back to the hotel and very full tummies. I don't think we will return anytime soon because it will break the bank but it was a fabulous part of our culinary journey.


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Before we returned home the next day, we trekked ourselves to the treadmill at the hotel to work-off some mega-calories we consumed the night before. We may have burnt maybe only a bread roll...but we were proud that we at least got our butts off. :)

I do have to tell you about our last meal in Vegas before we left. You would think we'll have rabbit food for the next two weeks but noooo....! We went to an Italian place away from the strip called Nora's. It was an excellent meal to end the weekend.


*Antipasto Salad*


*Creamy Pesto Pasta with Jumbo Shrimp (special of the day?)*


*Tomato & Basil with Capellini* (Okay, so I thought I'd go for no-meat, hahaha. It was one of the best tomato and basil pasta!)


*Red Sangria*

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As you can tell, we ate our way through the weekend! We had a blast doing it! Now we have more of a reason to work it off with our half marathon training coming up in August!!!

Love at First Sight...

It was love at first sight. The moment I saw the two kittens, I fell in love. Carmela and Patches...my two kitties. I thought I'd live up to my blog title and share about my kitties. Many of you already know that I have two kitties but some may not know. I adopted them in 2000 since they were a few months old. One is a calico (Patches) and the other an orange tabby (Carmela). To be honest I was never a cat lover, I was more of a dog person, until I "baby sat" a cat one time and I thought it was kinda cool. And I thought keeping a cat would be easier than a dog, so I decided to look for a kitten. After a long look out for a cat I stumbled upon these two kittens at an adoption corner in a pet store. I was looking for only one but I was told that these are sisters...oh man I thought...I don't want to split them up. Long story short, the adoption lady convinced me to adopt both because having one more is not much more difficult.

So here I am, a mommy of two spoiled kitties. I think they think they're human. They like sleeping with me, they nag at me, they talk back to me...but it's so much joy to have them because they keep me company, they know when I'm sad and happy, and they greet me when I come home. I love my spoiled kitties. Here are some pictures of them...

Red Rock Canyon Trail

Okay, finally an entry on hiking! We went on a great hike past Sunday at the Red Rock Canyon Trail near Calabasas. The drive on our way there was cool. Instead of the 101 freeway, we took the twisty road via Las Flores off Pacific Coast Highway 1. It was a nice sunny day (but not hot) so it was a perfect drive with the sun roof and windows open. It was kind of scary though with so many motorcyclists buzzing by really fast. Oh well, can’t blame them for enjoying the ride on such a nice day too. Anyway, it was adrenaline-filled, speedy fun on our way there. Oh watch out for coyotes on the road. We saw one strolling in the middle of the road.

We parked on the side of Stunt Road across where the fire road starts. The very beginning of the fire road is quite steep but levels out soon. The fire road led us to a “Y” of the road (a bench on the left side). I think it’s the Calabasas Peak if you go to the left, which supposedly is more strenuous. We decided to take it easy and go right which is the Red Rock Canyon Trail. The dirt trail was pretty wide and well maintained. On the side of the trail, there was a set of steps that took us to some big boulders so we scrambled up to the top of the boulders. It was quite fun. We went scrambling the first time in Joshua Tree a few months ago so we got a taste of the fun of scrambling. “Scrambling” is basically climbing rocks without any gears. We enjoyed this mini scrambling session.

*being silly...*

*view from top of a boulder*

After that we continued on the wide trail…then we hit the end/start (?) of the trail with public parking area and a private residence. Huh? Uh oh…we didn’t know if this was the end of the trail or what?!? So we went back where we came from and found along a sign saying “trail”…hmmm I guess this is the “real” trail head. Once we entered the “real” trail head, the trail got narrower (one person width). Now this is what we were there for!

This was a fabulous time of the year to hike here because the spring flowers were in full bloom. The grasses were tall and there were many different colored spring flowers. Don’t ask me what they’re called because I have no idea. But see the pictures! The only bad thing around this time is that there’re lots and lots of bees. Don’t know about you but I’m not too fond of them.



It continued to be sunny, overcast and breezy at times so it was nice to be out in nature. Not too many people on the trail but just a few. Total distance should be approximately 4 miles (out-and-back). Most people would finish in about 2.5 hours. It was longer for us because we took lots of pictures; and scrambled here and there.


Wait, one more excitement… When we got back on the wide trail on our way back we encountered one of our most-feared things…a rattle snake! It was a hunky one. It was sunbathing on the side of the trail in the grass. But when it heard me freaking out it slowly slithered into the woods. Oh man, that was close. My honey did not see it until I panicked with muttered words/sounds, he said “oh sh*t! give me the camera!” He didn’t get a good picture but just peek. A good thing we saw it on a wide trail. If it was on any narrow trail, I wouldn’t be writing this right now, instead I’d be catatonic somewhere. Hahaha. But no worries, my honey has been preparing for all kinds of adventures…got a kit for bee stings and snake bites; fire starters to start fire anywhere in case we get lost into the night; got water purifier in case we have to drink stream water; getting fancy knives to do whatever he needs to do; and learning ways to survive anything (?) (watching TV shows...). Hmmm, I don’t know… Whatever it is, I’m hoping that we don’t have to use any of these anytime soon.