Celebrating 3 Years in Las Vegas

Nearly the end of my summer in Las Vegas. Not only is that special in its own right - I never stay anywhere in the world for two consecutive months anymore - but I got to celebrate something even more unique. It's been exactly 3 years since I met my boyfriend and began our journey across continents. Crazy how time flies by, it seems we met just months ago!

Our story starts when my sister decided to spend her 21st birthday in Las Vegas. On our last day of partying, she got so drunk that she spilled her drink on another table. The table happened to include my boyfriend (who decided to come out to party for the first time that summer) and after a quick exchange of 'do you guys want to drink with us' he stared at me for a bit and asked for my phone number in fluent Korean, which I gave in astonishment. The rest is history.

We decided to celebrate it on a 24-hour 'date day' since we didn't have much time to spend this entire summer.




A long spa day and quick lunch later, we picked up our tickets to Zumanity. It's called the 'sensual side' of Cirque du Soleil with provocative themes and combines acrobatics with nudity and sex.

No photos allowed during show, though.

We got the VIP seats which allows you to have a plush private couch hidden in the corners of the theatre. It's a fun show even without, but it did give us more privacy since most seats in the section were empty.

Lighting isn't that great for photos. Note taken.

Even with flash! It makes it worse :(

For dinner, we decided to skip our usual Joel Robuchon 18-course dinner and headed over to Giada. We'd just had Robuchon in Tokyo not long ago and Giada was one of the places I wanted to try for the romantic atmosphere as well as the reputation as celebrity chef-owned restaurants.

There are A LOT of people dining. It does get a bit too loud to talk, but everyone behaves and it's nothing chaotic. It was difficult to get reservations the year before when it opened, but the crowed has thinned and it was possible to get a spot on a Saturday. We were seated in the window corner where the private rooms are and it was a bit more private than the main dining area.

Facing the main room

Facing the private dining area

The menu is Italian with various options, but we opted for the signature 4-course menu. The food was a lot better than we expected, but what really shined was the service. We never had to wait long for any order and even with food difficulties (I don't like cheese when nearly ALL the signature dishes had cheese, I offered to choose another menu but they created special dishes just to accommodate me) they made suggestions with a smile and spoke to the chefs to make sure everything was in smooth order.

Menu

Breads and the sauces

Appetizer samplers: cheese stuffed peppers, beef sandwiches, bacon wrapped dates.

Morel mushrooms and cheese

Special concoction without cheese: spaghetti with vegan tomato sauce and shrimp

Steak cooked to perfection

Corn with cheese and sausage, crushed potatoes with no cheese. 

I really didn't mean to be difficult, but nearly everything had cheese! I can eat duck tongue and cow brain with no issue, but I just can't do cheese. Even half of the desserts contained some sort of cheese.

Dessert cart

Chocolate cake, cookie, chocolate tart. They were all amazing.

The food was amazing and much better than our expectations. But the best part about the dinner? That amazing view of the Bellagio from the window, of course. It was the perfect ending to our date night.