My little sister turned 21 on August 3rd so we went to Vegas to celebrate the fact that she can finally “drink” with the big girls!!!!! So, most of you all know that I actually don’t have a little sister. As a matter of fact, my parents only gave birth to my older brothers and myself! However, I have sisters and brothers in spirit and Taylor is one of them! Taylor is the baby sister to my best friend of 20+ years, Shelby! I’ve literally seen Taylor grow from a young girl who hated getting ready for school to a young adult who is a recent college graduate!!!! Truly, we had more to celebrate than just 21 years of life. We were celebrating life successes as well. Graduating college is a big deal and I’m super proud of her! That said, let the turn up commence! 

Before we get into the details, let’s recap Vegas 2017. I went to celebrate graduating from the Master of Healthcare Administration program from Texas Southern University. I was accompanied by my two besties with guest appearances from my mom, grandmother, and my friend’s Dad!!! Needless to say, each group did their own thing until it was time to come together. We got together for one dinner, one brunch, and a trip to Hoover Dam! Vegas 2017 consisted of late nights, early mornings, no sleep, poolside drinking, gambling, meeting new people, Freemont street, the Chris Angel show, Madame Tussauds, and so much more! See pics below!!!!!!!

Now let’s get into the deets of Vegas 2019!! #TayTakesVegas

The Flight

I’ve accumulated so many points with Southwest that I actually only paid $11.20 for my flight, but had I paid regular price it would have been anywhere from $450 – $600 dollars. Especially since I waited until the last minute to purchase my flight. If you get your flight early, you’d pay anywhere from $300 – $500, depending on when you purchase and which airline you choose. I left Houston on Friday at 10:30am and arrived in Vegas at 2:00pm and departed from Vegas on Monday at 4:45pm and arrived in Houston at 11:40pm.

Additional Flight Info: I typically fly United Airlines and Southwest so these prices are based on those two airlines. However, there are so many airlines that can get you to your destination at a much lesser price. Be mindful of baggage fees and etc. that will ultimately add up. So, just pick the option that is most affordable for you. Also- I like to use search engines like Google Flights and Sky scanner to find flights that work best for me and then resort to purchasing them through the airline’s website.

Staying at Caesar’s Palace

The last time I came to Vegas, my friends and I stayed at Caesar’s and literally loved it. So I’m glad we got to go back! I honestly may not ever stay anywhere else, particularly since Caesar’s has everything you need. If I need to run and grab a new outfit, the mall is right there in Caesars Forum shops! If I’m hungry, there are so many eateries right there in Caesars. If I want to take a dip at the pool, I can just run down to the Garden of the God’s breathtaking pool. It’s just really the perfect hotel to me and it aligns perfectly with my taste as it relates to hotel aesthetic. I stayed in the room with 3 other ladies so it was fairly inexpensive to split the room four ways! I am sooooo happy that I can give you the rundown about three of the five (I think) towers in Caesars palace.

The last time we stayed in Octavious tower and this time we stayed in the Palace tower, but got a chance to experience the Forum tower for about 2 hours. To my understanding, Julius and Forum towers are those that are the least aesthetically pleasing internally and do not offer pool or city views. The Augustus, Octavious, and Palace towers are those that are most aesthetically pleasing and offer the best views of the city, the strip, and the pool. Caesar’s Palace also has a Nobu hotel available for booking. I’m not saying that my friends and I are bourgeois, but I will say that we had a running joke about Forum tower being the Spirit Airlines of Caesars Palace. We were placed in the Forum tower as a minor mishap, but we quickly relocated to the Palace tower. Here are some comparison pictures. 

Disclaimer: The Forum doesn’t seem that bad in the pictures, but the baseboards were dirty, the dresser was scratched/marked up, and the view included pillars of a bigger and better palace. Also- the hallways were dark, narrow, and depressing. The good thing about the Forum is that it is located near the Forum shops, which is basically the mall. So what was easily a 6-8 minute walk from any other tower was just a 3-5 minute walk from Forum. However, it is located a bit away from the swimming pool which is conveniently located across from the elevators at the bottom of the Octavious and Palace towers. 

LATE NIGHTS, EARLY MORNINGS

Bare with me as I walk you through our days and nights during our time in Vegas. For one, what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas (and a good amount of it will). However, there is still so much that was done that can actually be told – I just have to remember first. All I can hear playing in my head is, “take a shot!!!” I also have slight memory loss from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Vegas in August is a no-go.

Friday

I think it’s safe to say that Taylor enjoyed her 21st birthday! The days went by so fast that when Monday came, I actually thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I got to the hotel at about 3pm on Friday and we were still waiting for 2 of our 7 girls to arrive. We didn’t want to do anything that would leave the other girls out so, we spent Friday getting settled into our rooms, going to the pool at Caesars, taking hella shots, having dinner at Yard House and roaming the streets of Vegas. The 7th person of our 7-woman party arrived at approximately 1 am so we spent the remainder of the night drinking, playing games, having girl talk, and being really extra. It was the most that I could get out of the girls since most of them had jet lag and wanted to go to bed.

• 

• 

Saturday

Saturday we woke up super active and ready to get lit. So much so, that I had to text someone to remember what we did Saturday morning before the pool party. We grabbed some grub from some pizza place on the strip and then we hit the GoPool day club located at the Flamingo. The performing guest was Flo Rida, Gorilla Zoe, and Flavor Flavvvvvvvvvv (and a group named 99 percent)! We had a real lituation; I’ve never been the type to enjoy having water splashed in my face, but I literally did not care at the pool party. It might be due to the fact that it was super hot, but it could also be the Remy and Jack shots that we had for breakfast. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Price Breakdown

Pizza Place: I honestly don’t know because I don’t remember eating or paying, but Shelby says I did so I did. 

Pool Party: $10 entry after sis at the register saw all of the “it’s her birthday” excitement. They saw a bunch of brown skin girls in red bathing suits that was going to turn the party up and gave us a generous discount. However, the original price would have been $30.

After turning up at the pool party it was almost time for us to begin getting ready for the birthday dinner. Some of the girls went to the room to chill a bit before we got the night started. Myself and two of the other ladies wandered the streets for a bit (because you can never do it enough in Vegas). After doing a little more drinking and some shopping, we finally rushed back to the room to get ready for the night. Taylor’s birthday dinner was at the Sugar Factory. I personally love the Sugar Factory and I recommend it to anyone celebrating a birthday! However, it can be overrated depending on what you order and the $40 drinks aren’t as strong as you’d expect them to be. For dinner, I ordered “The Drake” as my drink (whiskey) and ordered the sliders (Pretty Patties *spongebob*) as my entree. The meat was a bit tough so I sent it back and got a pasta bowl instead. 

Price Breakdown

Sugar Factory: The Drake drink- $39; Pretty Patties – $25; Shrimp + Chicken Alfredo – $25; Dessert bowl – $99 + $5 for sparklers and music.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Saturday night was topped off with bottles, twerking, and a 2 second Torey Lanez club performance. We went to Jewel nightclub at Aria and MY PEOPLE were there so you know it went up (if you know you know). I think that’s all I’ll say about Saturday night, hahahahahahaha. 

Sunday

Sunday morning started with patron shots and brunch at some place in Flamingo where we purchased bottomless mimosas and participated in way too many mimosa chugging races than we should have. The races didn’t take place until the dining was complete, but the whole point was to get it in before we left! LOL 

After brunch we proceeded to explore the strip. To my knowledge, there was a good amount of people who had never been to Vegas or had never experienced certain parts of the strip. So we went to the M&M store, NewYork NewYork, did an Oxygen bar, and other things along the strip. It doesn’t sound like these things would take a long time, but they did. We had a group who had different interests, which means making a lot of stops along the way. With a group this large, you have a lot of unexpected hold-ups. These hold-ups vary; you have people who need to use the bathroom at different times, people who want to stop and look in different stores, or people who want to take a picture with every single thing they see on the strip. That said, exploring took up the majority of our day.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once we got back to the hotel (I’ll speak for myself), I was exhausted, famished, and dehydrated. I grabbed some pizza from one of the places in Caesars and went to the room to chill before we went out that night. Thinking back now, if I would have remembered that I had pizza Saturday morning then I wouldn’t have gotten it Sunday night. Anyways, to make a very long story short, I ate and passed out. Later, I woke up from my nap and went to shower (to attempt to wake myself up), got out of the shower and attempted to wake everyone up so we could go out. After multiple failed attempts, I fell back asleep. Shelby then woke up (at about midnight) and attempted to do the same, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed, let alone to even move a limb. Later that night they returned to the room at about 4am and I was so relieved to see them.  Mainly because at about 2am I felt sick from dehydration. 

• 

• 

Monday

Monday was our last day in Vegas so I was up early to pack my bags and take shots. I felt defeated from Sunday night so I had to wake up with a winning attitude. Liquor doesn’t take me out, I take liquor out – so I had a point to prove! After checking out and checking our bags with the bell desk, we went to Madame Tussaud’s at The Venetian. Following that we walked through The Venetian, but for a very short amount of time before I separated from the group to head to the airport. 

• 

• 

All in all, this trip was pretty cool. The primary thing is that Taylor enjoyed herself and that’s all that matters. We were there for her and what anyone else did or did not want was a NON-FACTOR. It also may seem like we just drank our lives away during this trip, but do not be fooled. We did a lot of exploring, walking, and getting lost. Compared to my last trip to Vegas this was actually a very toned down version. We didn’t even pull an all-nighter! Whereas, last time in Vegas we never went to sleep! Hahahaha. Lastly, if you’re judging – that’s sad; live life unprocessed. If you read through this, you’re amazing! The vlog from this trip will be dropping soon so be on the lookout for it and check it out when it drops! It’s simply a compilation of videos with very minor edits because I’m not hip to any of those skills, yet.