I can’t believe I’m 27. I can tell I’m old now that my outlook on time is “Where has it gone?” as opposed to when I was much younger and it seemed like time dragged on and milestones were a forever away.

27 has been pretty amazing so far – Mom came to visit; saw Bruno Mars in concert; ate an amazing dinner at Craftsteak; lots of shopping; dinner at Mesa Grill; and my first ever experience with coin slots!

One of the nights we were out, Mom and I stopped at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill (because I could never get Nick to go – he’s not interested in “Southwest flavors”) and I had rabbit as a main dish for the first time! (Tastes like chicken. Seriously.) It was the Cascabel Chile Crusted Rabbit with spring pea cous cous, green chiles, mint, Marcona almonds and a smoked red pepper sauce – if you want to get all technical. It was pretty tasty and I especially loved the cous cous. Note to self: smokey pepper flavor is not my favorite. I like my peppers unsmoked – thankyouverymuch.

Another night we ventured downtown (eek!) and I had done some research and found that the new hotel, The D (don’t even get me started on that name), had an area of the casino that still had real coin slots. Mom and Grams always talked about coming to Vegas and playing the slots and using the buckets for their coins, getting their hands all gross and filthy from the dirty money, but by the time I was 21, those slot machines were pretty much history. I was so excited to experience a part of Vegas history myself – it was even more exciting that I ended up leaving with more money than I put in. PS – $27 in nickels is pretty dang heavy. (I didn’t say I was a high roller.)

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday extra special! I’m excited to see what the rest of 27 has in store.