New Series! Winter in Las Vegas

THIS view.

Despite the allure of all the celebrity chef restaurants, impressive Cirque du Soleil shows, and staggering availability of world class food and entertainment along Las Vegas's famous Strip, my all-time favorite single experience in Las Vegas is still to watch a Bellagio fountain show (which is free!).

Eight (!) years ago we stopped in Las Vegas for one night en route to Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and Capitol Reef in Utah. I was able to book Bellagio's fountain facing rooms for the family at a bargain. You can often find amazing hotel deals in Las Vegas during the summer, when the city feels like a sweltering desert with temperatures over 100 ° F. We were only there for one night (and yes, it was uncomfortable hot!), but I distinctly remember sitting in my room, mesmerized by the fountain shows. We watched them for the whole night - every fifteen minutes until midnight when it ended.

It's been a long time since then. Even though we have returned to Las Vegas every winter to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January , we never stayed at the Bellagio again . . . . until this year!

This year, we registered for CES early and I was able to grab one of the few conference-discounted rooms at the Bellagio (market rate is ridiculous during that week). Yes, it meant we had to switch hotels halfway through our trip, but it was totally worth it.

Staying at the Bellagio was phenomenal, and we did the exact same thing again. We sat in our room peering out the window, just enjoying fountain show after fountain show until midnight.

Rest assured that this entire blog post isn't just about fountains. I did have ample opportunity to check out several really great restaurants this trip as well. Here's a preview of our Las Vegas trip and some of the restaurants you will see in this upcoming series!

CES 2015 was full of similar fanfare as past years, with huge, ultra-high definition TVs, curved TVs, 3D TVs, and lots of smartphone stuff.

We noticed a much bigger emphasis on health technology, which for me was really exciting. I enjoyed my Fitbit for months before I got that silly nickel rash, causing me to have to return it. I love the idea of technology for health, and I'm excited by all the new apps, tools, and even hardware (treadmills, virtual reality games where you run in place and shoot, etc).

Our first evening, we enjoyed an excellent dinner in the Las vegas location of Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant in Los Angeles. {Update! Link to post here}

Staying with the Wolfgang Puck theme, we also checked out his high-end steak house (a place Bryan has wanted to visit for years), which offers a variety of really good dry-aged steak from different regions of the U.S. {Update! link to post here}

We went off Strip a couple time this trip - once to visit our favorite Thai restaurant where we ordered seriously nice wine at ridiculously low prices along with some phenomenal Thai dishes.

We also stopped by Jose Andres's new hotel, SLS Las Vegas and his new restaurant which focuses on all things MEAT.

A steak tartare course from the new restaurant by Jose Andres. {Update - link to post here}

Finally, we visited a Las Vegas outpost of a famous Asian fusion restaurant in Chicago serving everything from pork belly buns and ramen to tofu doughnuts and cocktails on draft! {Update! Link to post here}

As sad as I am to bid farewell to the Hawaii Series (it was so fun to write it and reminisce about paradise during Boston's snowiest February ever), I'm excited about starting a new series. Stay tuned for future posts, which will have many many more photographs and details about our meals at the restaurants described above!