Las Vegas: Off the Strip

As you may or may not know, I attended the first ever Mega Massive this year in fabulous Las Vegas! It was also my first trip to Vegas. I figured we could start with the non-dance reviews first and share my belly dance post a little later. <3

Lucky for me, my husband, Eric was able to join me for the trip. We got in late on Saturday so I had a few days to be a tourist before my classes started on Wednesday morning. We were staying at The Golden Nugget Hotelright off of Fremont Street in what they call "Old Vegas", about a 20 minute trip from the air port and the bottom of "The Strip". 

First order of business on Sunday, coffee and food! Enter Nacho Daddy. I kid you not, they brought a personal french press to each of us. We opted for a shot of espresso added as well. We both got the huevos rancheros, a favorite of mine since my first solo trip to San Francisco, and they were massive. We ended up going back later in the week and Eric did their scorpion shot; a shot of tequila with an actual scorpion in it!
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We spent the rest of the day checking out Container Park, a short walk from the Fremont Street Experience. It's a great local hang out made out of old shipping containers! There are shops, a play ground, a stage, restaurants and bars. Below is the large praying mantis statue that was once a part of Burning Man. 

We finished the first day back on the Fremont Street Experience. We stopped in at Banger Brewing and tasted their beer flight outside on their patio. It was a gorgeous 70 degrees, compared to the teens happening back in NY! Finished the day with Elvis!

We started our next day at the famous Las Vegas Donut Bar, because when in Rome... We shared the Nutella donut and the donut that put them on the map, the Pop-Tart donut (pictured to the right). They were HUGE, but really tasty! 

We spent the day down in the Arts district to check out the random guerrilla paintings and street art like the giant cat head below! I took a ton of pictures of the street art (more at the end of this post). 

We made our way to the Burlesque Hall of Fame, which I had been super excited to see! Turns out it's only one room with a few costumes and you read your way through the captioned images on the walls. Good news though, they just purchased the building across the street and are remodeling so they can expand and incorporate more costumes!

We stopped in at the Cornish Pasty for lunch, a recommendation from "Tater", at Oak & Ivy in Container Park, recommended the day before. The portions were huge, but really good. I had the rosemary chicken--so good! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the vintage clothing and antique shops, just south of the Arts District. 

That's our first 2 days in Vegas-off the strip. We spent the other day exploring "The Strip", but wanted to share some of the more "local" gems we found. I'll have a post soon about the Mega Massive!

I'll leave you with a few more photos of street art!
​<3 - Jenn