Day Six: For King And Country
Day six was bittersweet. We absolutely weren’t ready to say to goodbye to Vegas and being on vacation, but we missed our bed, our son, and our bodies missed rest. Since it was the last day, we wanted to end this perfect honeymoon right. To start the day, we took the advice of one of our cab drivers and went to the Peppermill for a big breakfast, an apparent staple on the strip. The plan was to have that be our only meal until dinner, but you’ll see we couldn’t wait that long. I’m a huge fan of diners, as is our son, and we thought of him the entire meal. We truly hope to come back to Vegas one day with him, and the Peppermill will for sure be one the places we go to with him. We absolutely loved the design of this place. I especially loved the lamps and the giant booths. This felt like a diner. For food, I had a classic breakfast with scrambled eggs with cheese, hashbrowns, sausage patties, and toast. It was all incredible, but once again, Gabby won the meal with her pancake combo. Those pancakes were some of the best plain pancakes we’ve ever had. They had a very strong vanilla flavor and had the perfect amount of sweetness that made each pillowy bite a sweet pleasure—truly a pan-shaped cake. Speaking of vanilla, we both shared a vanilla milkshake and that thing might be the best milkshake I’ve ever had. You could see the flecks of real vanilla bean and the flavor was perfect. I also love a thick milkshake and this was thick, but not so thick we couldn’t drink it. I don’t remember if we finished it or not, and that’s a shame, because I want more of it right now.
After our final breakfast in Vegas, we decided to do some shopping. I once again wanted to hit up the Coke store to get some souvenirs I’d been debating on getting since day one, but beyond that, I was excited to finally try the Around the World Coke tasting. Gabby and I agree at the two best were the Fanta Melon Frosty (that’s the bright green one) and the Sprite Cucumber, which is just Sprite with some cucumber flavoring added. Honestly, I don’t know why they don’t sell the Sprite Cucumber in the States because it was incredibly refreshing and would be perfect on a hot day. Another stand out for me was a ginger beer tasting drink, and reminded me of all the amazing mocktails of the trip. The oddest of the drinks was the Coke famous in China, and that’s the Fanta Sour Plum. We both went into it expecting to taste plum, but what we got tasted like BBQ sauce. It was a shock getting a smoky, savory note, but it wasn’t bad. Just odd to our pallets. We both could imagine it pairing well with some ribs, but on it’s own, after a lot of sugary tasting drinks, it was strange. After the Coke store, we hit up the M&M store, and while M&Ms are my favorite candy, this store didn’t wow us like the Coke store or the Hershey store. Still, we enjoyed ourselves because we were together.
The plan had been to not eat again until dinner, but Gabby was hungry and really wanted another Cubano from the Chef Truck, so I agreed to get some food to snack on as well so she wouldn’t be alone. I decided to get some pretzel sticks that were incredible and had a great chew to them and were fantastic when dipping in their cheese sauce. I also got a Mojo Pork Burrito. The burrito was fine, and too much for me to eat all of, so I wish I’d gotten a rice bowl instead. Oh well.
After a quick rest, it was time to do our final shopping before Tournament of Kings, our final meal and show of the trip. Gabby regretted not getting any Blue Man Group merch after their show, so we took a tram to the Luxor in the hopes that their Blue Man Group gift shop would be open. Before walking into the casino though, Gabby took a quick picture of the sphinx outside without paying too much attention to anything else, which gave birth to the best picture of the trip and explains why I’m making that face (I didn’t know I was in the shot and who knows why I was making that face).
We secured our Blue Man Group merch and walked to Excalibur for Tournament of Kings. Now, we found out about the show, like most of our other planned activities and restaurants, from Safiya and Tyler’s YouTube videos. They had a blast, so we figured we would too. Just like the night before at the burlesque show, and magic show before that, Gabby and I were prepared to scream the loudest to get the good vibes going. When we bought our tickets we had to decide on a section. The arena is broken up into different countries, and anyone that knows us can guess what country we picked, because it had to be Ireland. Since we were screaming for the king of Ireland, it was easy to get into the theatrics of the show and give it our all. Unfortunately, most people in our section didn’t see the show that way, so Gabby and I (along with a very sweet, young couple next to us) found ourselves screaming louder and longer and banged our hands harder to make up for the patrons sitting cross armed. We were as close to the arena floor as possible, so our king passed us multiple times and made sure to point us out and thank us every time. We even got to cheers our tankards with him. What a kind king he was.
Honestly, this show was incredible, and Gabby and I felt like kids watching it. We totally got into it all and legit got excited when cool things happened and upset when kings fell (RIP king of Ireland). The food was fine, some basic roasted chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob with a roll. All cooked well, but it wasn’t why we were there. Plus, we found it hard to eat when we needed to scream and bang our hands constantly. I’m so glad I could suspend my disbelief with Gabby and be a kid, because it was so much fun and the perfect end to our fantastic honeymoon. By the end, I lost my voice, but it was worth it. I was purely in the moment, nothing else mattered, nothing else was wrong, and it was all excitement and fun with my new and perfect wife. This giant trip ended in a blaze of dragon fire and glory. I’m so grateful for an amazing night and need to thank my oldest and best friend Josh and his wife Rebekah for paying for it. It’s because of their generosity we had the perfect end to our trip. Thanks guys!
Time to get back to our room one last time and get some sleep before our very, very early wake up time tomorrow. It was hard to get tired with all the adrenaline pumping, so I gazed out at the Vegas lights one last time, and waited for my eyes to droop.
