Day 3 -- Los Angeles Trip

11/23/2018 Friday

Itinerary:

• Newport Beach
• Huntington Beach
• South Coast Plaza shopping

We woke up late as we had an tiring day yesterday at California Adventure Park and we didn't have a full day activity planned for today. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove to Newport Beach and spent some time walking on the beach and watching people surfing.

After spending some time at the beach, we went to grab some lunch.

After lunch, we went to do some shopping at South Coast Plaza before returning to our hotel so that the kids can have some fun swimming.

After swimming, we went to grab some dinner and ice cream at Joe's Italian ice cream which is really tasty.

Day 2 -- Los Angeles Trip

11/22/2018 Thursday

Itinerary:

• Breakfast at the hotel
• California Adventure Park

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel before taking Uber to California Adventure Park. It's been about 2 years since we came to California Adventure Park. This time, the kids are older and was able to get on all the rides. First, we went to get the Fast Pass for Radiator Springs as it is one of the most popular rides.

After getting the fast pass for Radiator Springs, we went to the Monster Inc ride.

Day 4 -- Los Angeles, California/Las Vegas, Nevada

12/26/2015 Saturday

We had breakfast at the hotel and since Mason and I finished our breakfast early, I took him to the lobby to look at the koi fish and turtle.

After that, we started our journey to Las Vegas. The traffic was fairly smooth until we reached the outlets at Barstow on Interstate 15 (I-15). Although we didn't plan for a stopover, we decided to stop at the outlets since there was a lot of traffic, we thought we might as well take a break and enjoy some shopping especially since it was the day after Christmas, there was a lot of sale going on.

We stopped at the outlet to do some shopping and had our lunch before continuing with our drive to Vegas. We were stuck in traffic for about an hour or more and reached Vegas in the evening. It was already dark when we reached our hotel in Vegas.

As usual, Las Vegas Boulevard was packed with cars and pedestrian. We even saw 2 guys fighting on the street while driving through.

After we check in to our hotel, Cosmopolitan, we decide to venture out for dinner. On the way, we saw many cute dog statues and took some pictures with Mason since he is born in the year of a dog.

Cosmopolitan has these beautiful crystals hanging from the ceiling, so we took some pictures as well.

We stopped by the Rainforest cafe and had our dinner. Then we went to check out Aria since it wasn't built the last time I was there many years ago.

Aria is really pretty and is highly recommended by my coworker. He stays at Aria most of the time when he is in Vegas and he also likes Cosmopolitan, thus we decided to book Cosmopolitan this time.

Next, we walked towards Bellagio and on the way, we could see the beautiful Paris hotel. I have stayed there once with my parents and probably won't stay there again. The rooms are really small and the room that we stayed last, it was blocked by the "Effiel Tower", so we couldn't see the Bellagio water fountain show clearly.

When we reached the Bellagio lobby, we saw the beautiful glass sculpture that hangs on the ceiling. This glass sculpture is called "Fiori di Como" created by artist Dale Chihuly. The sculpture is ~2100 square feet and consists of 2000 hand blown glass blossoms which weigh ~40,000 pounds. The picture that I took below doesn't even do it justice but that's the best I could take.

Then, we went to check out the conservatory and botanical garden. Since it was Christmas, the conservatory was decorated with Christmas theme.

After checking out the conservatory, we decided to go to Caesar Palace. Caesar Palace is one of the hotels that I like in Las Vegas and it is one of the older hotels there. I have never been to Europe, so going there felt like I was in Rome with the beautiful columns, statues, fountains and also the faux sky with painted clouds.

I spent my 21st birthday there and was upgraded to a suite. It was my first time staying at a suite and I totally enjoyed my stay there.

I could have continue walking around but the kids were tired, so we made our way back to the hotel. On the way back, we decided to walk outdoors as there were many people inside the hotels and it was getting a little stuffy especially with people smoking indoors.

While walking outside, we saw a few artists performing and also saw the water fountain dance in front of Bellagio. It was a nice ending to our first day in Vegas.