Last day in Vegas

Even after staying out super late, we were still up by 11am. Ugh, what is wrong with us?! We were determined to have breakfast which led us to the Canyon Ranch Spa Cafe at The Palazzo. Although the descriptions sounded good, we should have gone somewhere else as soon as we saw calorie counts on the menu. See, the food looks pretty, but the taste? Yeah, not so much. :/

After a less than thrilling meal, we headed back out to the pool. When we originally booked the trip a few weeks ago, we had planned on visiting the spa on Monday afternoon. But, after having such a good time at the pool the day before and not wanting to spend most of the day in separate rooms in the spa, we canceled our appointments. I think we made a really good choice. The afternoon was pretty much a repeat of the day before. We did manage to go back upstairs at a decent hour so we could do a little shopping and have a snack before dinner.

The shopping was mostly of the window variety, but let's talk about the snack. I didn't realize there was a Bouchon Bakery in The Venetian until reading the blurb about it on the receipt from dinner the night before. And once I saw that, we had to stop there. There were a ton of options to pick from and they all looked soooo good. The best part was the taste totally trumped their looks! Absolutely, positively delicious!! Jim opted for a cheese danish and I had a carrot cake cookie with cream cheese filling. ::drool:: Even the coffee was out of control yummy. For this die hard Starbucks girl, quite frankly, it blew Starbucks coffee out of the water. I would seriously keep the place in business if there was one close to us.

We finally made our way to dinner around 8pm. And what was the choice for the third anniversary dinner? Carnevino! We really enjoyed the restaurant when we ate there in February during their soft-opening, but this visit confirmed it for us -- it's our favorite restaurant in Vegas, hands down!

While making our reservations, I let them know that we were celebrating our anniversary (no, I didn't tell them it was dinner #3, ha!) and we were greeted warmly when we initially checked in. We were presented with menus and as were were figuring out what to order, the sommelier came by, asked us how we were doing (great!) and then said "Well, why don't we make it even better." And yes, prosecco does in fact, make everything better!

We noshed on rosemary bread and fresh out of the oven asiago cheese puffs while we waited for our appetizer and they were delish.

For our appetizer, we split a half portion of the Gnocchi Bolognese. Best.bolognese.sauce.ever. I've already downloaded the recipe for it. Yeah, it'll take me all day to make (and then some), but at some point this winter, it's gonna happen.

The main entree was a no-brainer for us -- steak! Jim's New York steak last time was deemed the best steak either one of us have ever tasted, so we both ordered it this time. And yeah, it didn't disappoint. I actually watched Jim take his first bite and his eyes literally rolled back in his head. For sides, we ordered spinach with hot peppers (still looking for that recipe) and "Tuscan Fries", basically fingerling potatoes that are roasted, then quickly fried, then tossed with garlic, parmesan and parsley. They were even better than they sound.

We spent the mealing moaning and groaning our approval. It was one of those meals that you just couldn't eat in silence. After we stuffed ourselves to the brim, our waiter came over and wanted us to try a special muscat dessert wine that they offer. Just a sip, no obligation to buy. The color was much deeper than most muscat wines I've had and the flavor was so smooth. I took one sip and Jim said "Yeah, she'll have a glass." Ah, he knows me so well. :)

In addition, we also ordered a trio of fresh sorbets - huckleberry, grape and pear - that came with a special message from the kitchen.

The bottom line is the meal was absolutely fabulous! We really love everything about this restaurant including the staff and the space itself. It's pricey, yes, but so worth it. <3 <3 <3

The rest of the night was spent playing on the casino floor. We split another cigar (not as good as the first one, but still enjoyable) and playing some slot machines. Jim likes video poker while I prefer the penny slots. We even went back to a hot machine Chaz had played earlier in the trip and I took a $25 slot credit and turned it into $50 on the machine. Wheeee!

Once we tired of being on the casino floor, we wandered back over to Lavo and had a drink at the bar. We learned that they are now serving absinthe in the US, but it's different from the one in Europe as it doesn't have the same hallucinogenic properties. After we finished our cocktails, it was time to call it a night. The trip was so much fun, but it was time to head back to reality the next morning. :(

Bye Vegas, we'll miss you and can't wait to visit again soon.

Note: I was so obsessed with Bouchon Bakery that I insisted we go back Tuesday morning to get breakfast and a box of goodies to go. I had a chocolate croissant that rivaled once we had in France. As for the goodies-to-go, I worked on those for several days at home. The brownie bites were fabulous, the macaroon was good (not great), but the foccacia was the real winner. Topped with tomato, basil and goat cheese it was huge and so delicious! I cannot wait to go back!!