Also check out our newly updated Las Vegas tips and reviews webpage if you're thinking of visiting anytime soon!
After a minor panic when two very tired people couldn't remember how to get to the 15 to Vegas (super simple--stay on the 10 till you hit it), we had smooth sailing & made it in four hours flat. We drove straight to Mandalay Bay & were able to check in early, at 11am. 
We parked & headed to Olive's--the LV branch of our favorite Boston restaurant--in the Bellagio for my 25th birthday lunch. It took us a full hour, by walkways & trams, to get to the Bellagio, but along the way we casino-watched, saw the lions at MGM Grand, & marveled at just how slowly some people can walk. Pictured on this page are some of the fruits of our trip: a little girl holding one of the Mandalay Bay lobby parrots; the MGM lion; Christina at the Excalibur; Robert at the main Mandalay Bay entrance; and Christina at the statue of liberty at New York, New York.
Lunch was superb--we initially ordered 2 appetizers & 1 entree to share: a polenta-crusted deep-fried seafood plate, a beef carpaccio, & an ahi tuna salad on flatbread, respectively. Our server made sure to tell us that the beef was raw, & Robert jokingly asked, how about the tuna? She said the tuna was cooked through, but it was a very good dish, & we stuck with it. After a nice selection of bread & two tapenades, the food arrived, & we immediately saw two things--one, the tuna salad was not what we had expected, & two, the two appetizers were large enough to feed us on their own. After one bite, we realized the tuna was even drier & more tasteless than it looked--we set it aside & ignored it for the rest of the meal. The beef carpaccio was heavenly--melty, with savory sauces & as good as a fine sashimi made by Masu. The fried squid & salmon chunks were wonderful as well, moist & crispy, with a nice dipping sauce & fresh herbs--some of the best fried squid we've ever had (&, being part New Englanders, we've sampled our fair share.) Everything was perfect except that tuna dish--so we explained to the manager that we'd been to Olive's many times, & had had many of their tuna dishes & were very unhappy with this one. He was extremely nice, & said he would take it off our check. Thus pacified, we ordered one of the nicest, densest cheesecakes in blackberry sauce for dessert. It was an excellent birthday lunch!
