Continuing with our Las Vegas trip, on our third day we woke up bright and early to hit up the Excalibur buffet. We needed a quick breakfast since we had to be at Area 15 by 10 AM for our timed tickets.

I remember eating at the Excalibur buffet when I was last here with my family. We had gotten discount coupons and it was one of the cheapest buffets on the strip. I think it’s still the cheapest? But they have mussels, shrimp, and smoked salmon so it’s solid by my standard 😛 There was already a lineup when we got there at 8 AM and we finally got in at half past the hour. We ate for an hour and then had to Uber to Area 15.

A huge factor of us choosing Las Vegas for our trip had to do with Meow Wolf’s Area 15. We had previously heard of the crazy art exhibit experience and we had to see it for ourselves. I’m unsure if it’s just for covid or if they usually do this, but they made you select your entrance time when you bought your ticket online. So we had to be punctual!

The main thing we were visiting in Area 15 was Omega Mart. On the surface, it seems like a strange supermarket. They had some pretty crazy products on the shelves:

But if you dug deeper and went through all sorts of secret passageways, things are not as they seem. We managed to finish the storyline in about four hours, but even then there was still lots more to dig into and see. The details and intricacies inside Omega Mart are amazing. I really could visit a few more times and likely find new easter eggs and understand more of the fascinating story hidden within this exhibit.

We spent way too much money over souvenirs at Omega Mart (most things on their shelves are actually purchasable!), and I also visited the secret bar twice during our time there because I was just so thirsty. It was the most money I’ve probably ever paid for Coca Cola at a place.

At about 4 PM, we called it a day and got an Uber back to our hotel. We were suffering from a lack of sleep and wanted to take a quick snooze before meeting up with my coworker for an escape room!

The escape room was at Trapped! Escape Room Las Vegas. I’ve never met my coworker A and her partner B before, despite having worked with her for the past half a year on the daily. I was super excited to meet her and she’s awesome in person. The four of us ended up doing Trapped’s Pandora room. The room was quite interesting. It’s small, but well themed. They also had cool effects that went off as we completed different portions of the puzzle! We beat the room with time to spare and they let us know in the end that we had completed the “bonus” bits too.

After saving the world from the terrors of Pandora’s box, the four of us headed to Park MGM to visit Best Friend for dinner. I’ve always wanted to try Roy Choi’s restaurant! Having seen him in Chef, the Chef Show, and Broken Bread, the fiancé and I were definitely fans. We got to try his signature Kogi tacos and also had their kalbi, kimchi carbonara, and oh my goodness–their street corn was delicious. A is vegan so she ordered the eggplant schnitzel and also got noodles that we could sample as well.

After dinner we went onto the casino floor. We all threw some money at slots and somehow the fiancé and I left having won $6. Beginner’s luck? We later called it a night and went back to our hotel happy and satisfied.

The next day we had a more relaxed morning. So we got adequate sleep and then headed off to the Cosmopolitan’s food court to grab some Egg Slut and try out the Bāng Bar. Bāng Bar is by Momofuku so we were very curious what their take on flatbread wraps would end up tasting like. We got their chicken U wrap and it was delicious! Loved the combo of sauces and veggies bundled neatly into a U-shaped wrap. Egg Slut is my favorite place to visit every time I go to LA. It also happens that the fiancé had never been! So we got a nice breakfast sandwich, the Slut, and truffle hash browns to share.

Later that night we had reservations for The Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace. This was another element of the trip we were super excited for! It’s important to get reservations since the line ups get pretty crazy. We had somehow found one free slot for the Saturday we were visiting at 7:15 PM which was very lucky. Here’s a short video of some of the stuff I ate there: https://www.tiktok.com/@kalyrical/video/7105798032536423686

We were stuffed and it was nice to go on a walk around the Strip afterwards. Since it was our last night we hit up the Mirage Volcano. I’m sad to learn that Mirage will be closing forever soon as they were bought out. I hope Hard Rock International replaces a free show on the Strip after taking this one away!

We also visited the Bellagio conservatory, their record-breaking chocolate fountain, and then watched the fountain show. With all that done, we walked back to our hotel and called it a night!

Our last day in Las Vegas was the Sunday and we took a chill day. We woke up at around 10AM, checked out, left our luggage at the front desk and headed off to eat some Shake Shack. We then decided to properly check out the hotels on our end of the strip and thoroughly explored the Mandalay bay and Luxor. We lost some money at our hotel on slots and then headed off to the airport!

We wanted to arrive with plenty of time to spare since covid has apparently caused some queue issues at the airport, but it really wasn’t that bad. On top of that, our plane got delayed for almost an hour so we were super bored just waiting around. We made it back home to Vancouver well past midnight and I was glad I took the Monday off as well to rest back up.

It was a really fun trip and I felt we squeezed in a good amount of activities without going overboard. Next time we visit, I imagine it’ll be even more chill since we’ve explored most of the hotels already and can focus more on a few key activities!