Fifty By 50: Windy25 Memorial 5k, Cactus Garden, Chocolate Factory, Ramen, Birria Tacos and Lake of Dreams

Jason had signed us up to run the Windy25 Memorial 5k run this morning and it was starting at the Cosmopolitan.

We had hoped to get down there yesterday to pick up our race packets yesterday but never made it so we headed there a bit early this morning.

The run was starting at 9 but packet pick up was between 7:30 and 8:30 and we got there around 8.

Packet pick up took no time at all and as we were standing there waiting for things to begin, I decided to take some pictures and realized I didn't have my phone (but I knew I'd brought it because I'd already taken a picture earlier).

We'd been to a couple spots in the casino already so I sent Jason to check at the store we'd stopped at and I headed upstairs in the casino to the washroom.

When I walked in the washroom, my phone was sitting there right by the sink.

I'm so lucky!

I have done this very thing so many times and I've always lucked out and gotten it back (usually it's my wallet that I leave behind), but that's not always going to be the case so I have got to be more careful.

Anyway, found my phone, let Jason know and met him back out by where the race was starting.

These are the event details.

Coming from a military family, it's a cause that I certainly feel close too.

Getting hyped up for the Windy25 Memorial 5k.

There were even some drummers here to get the crowd in the mood.

There were some family members there of the soldiers that had lost their lives which was really touching.

At the starting line.

It started so quickly I was completely unprepared.

I didn't have my music turned on or my fitbit ready to go so I felt a bit unnerved by that, plus a woman fell right in front of me right at the beginning too.

She was ok and I got myself sorted and then off we went.

There was a pretty good hill which I wasn't expecting and it felt pretty tough.

I tried to take some footage of myself running, it wasn't pretty.

Jason finished the run before me so he was at the finish line and was able to get this footage of me crossing the finish line which was nice.

Our bling from the run.

I think we are going to be looking for lots of runs to take part in so we need to make ourselves a shelf our something to display all of the bling we are going to be getting.

After run sweaty selfie.

Our bibs were chipped so you could go on this website to get all of the race details.

Jason was showing as 7th place overall which I thought was awesome.

(When we checked back later he was actually showing as 6th overall).

I was in 36th place overall which later changed to 35th.

I felt really good about that.

Jason's individual details.

He was 6th overall and 3rd in his age category.

My individual details.

I was 35th overall and 3rd in my age category as well.

Here is the race route.

It was 5 km's - I had a 7 km run on the schedule for today so I had planned to either run to the race or run back after it but I felt like doing neither so it looks like I'll be having just a 5 k run on the books for today.

It was hot out there today and I felt like I was really pushing it, my average heartrate was 162 bpm so a bit higher than normal but not by much.

My average pace and splits.

6.31 is really good for me so I'm super happy with it.

There was a celebration after the race at the pool at the Cosmo that we could have gone to but we skipped it and headed back to catch up with everyone else and go out for some breakfast.

My video check in for today.

Looks like they had some guys out in the Bellagio lake working on the fountains.

There is just so much nice stuff to see in all of the casinos.

This is in the Bellagio.

A small peak at the grounds at Caesar's.

A bit more of the grounds.

Heading back to Harrah's after our run.

The grounds at Caesars Palace are so pretty.

Just another gorgeous day in Vegas.

We stopped at Duncan Doughnuts for coffee and I couldn't decide what I wanted so I got three things.

Iced Coffee, Iced Matcha and Iced Strawberry drink.

I wasn't crazy about the Matcha drink so Jason finished that off for me and I drank the other two.

Then we met up with everyone and headed to Baby Stacks for breakfast.

The Crew!

I had a scramble for breakfast - I didn't really like it.

I also had carrot cake pancakes with cream cheese icing and those were amazing.

Jason's doesn't look appetizing but it was really good.

He had the Loco Moco breakfast so eggs, a burger and gravy up on top (a version of the Hawaiian dish).

Smoke break.

Next we headed to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Cactus Garden.

Jason had discovered it on Google and it looked like a neat place to check out.

Here's the write up about it from Wikipedia.

The garden was built as a memorial to Ethel M

There is a chocolate factory on site as well.

Following is just a bunch of pictures of cactuses which I thought were neat looking - I'm not going to caption each one but wanted to include them so you could see all of the variety.

A walk through the Ethel M Cactus Garden.

Ha ha - June photo bombing the picture!

Nadine and Karl.

Bonnie and June (John)

Jason and I.

I really like the Purple Pancake Cactus.

I like these round ones too.

So cute but very prickly.

I even just like the sign.

These are the ones that I saw out in Red Rock Canyon when Jason and I went there a few years ago that reminded me of little people.

These ones look kind of phallic.

These ones kind of looked like they were dead.

Think that is how they are meant to look.

I never knew there were so many varieties of cactus!

More of the Cactus Garden.

The Chocolate Factory is just nestled to the side of the Cactus Garden.

We headed in there next.

They had a chocolate with passionfruit in it so you know I had to try that!

Just checking out all the chocolates.

Jason.

The factory itself had a whole wall of windows so that you could watch the process but as it was Saturday, there wasn't too much going.

From Bean to Box.

Making souvenir pennies at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory.

There were four different designs you could choose from so they had to make one of each.

Posing by the giant chocolates!

So long chocolate factory.

Our vehicle rental for the trip.

It was a nice vehicle, roomy.

It had a built in GPS too which was nice and came in handy even though it had a mind of it's own sometimes.

After the Chocolate Factory, we headed back to Harrah's and while the rest of the crew got ready for their dinner tonight, Jason and I took the opportunity to check out the pool area at Harrah's.

Checking out the pool area at Harrah's.

Cooling off at the Harrah's pool.

The water felt so nice.

It was a really shallow pool - would have been perfect to just lounge in for the afternoon.

There was a little fountain in the center as well.

I was actually surprised that there weren't any kids in there.

I wonder if you have to rent the chairs and cabanas?

Something to look into for next time!

I think Jason would have like to go for a dip too but we just didn't have the time today.

The pool area is on the second floor roof area and sandwiched between other buildings but not a bad spot.

I would have liked to go for a swim actually, maybe next time.

After checking out the pool, we met up with the rest of our group and dropped them off at Excalibur for the Tournament of Kings and Jason and I headed out for some ramen.

There were a few places Jason wanted to try but he ended up picked Ramen Sora.

Just waiting for our food.

They seated us at one of those community bar height tables at first which aren't really my favorite but then they had a regular table free up so they let us move.

Ramen Sora

It was a pretty busy spot.

Just in the kitchen working away.

We ordered the garlic edamame for an appetizer.

Garlic edamame at Ramen Sora.

Trying the garlic edamame.

I got the miso ramen with black garlic sauce, corn and bean sprouts added.

Miso ramen at Ramen Sora.

It was good but I prefer black tonkotsu ramen.

Jason had the deluxe ramen.

All together I thought that the prices were very reasonable.

We had some time on our hands so decided to go check out the new resort on the Strip - Resorts World.

Lobby at Resorts World.

Food court area at Resorts World.

One of the restaurants had a full pig on display.

The food court even had an outside eating area which I thought was really awesome.

I think I have a thing for cool light fixtures.

Looks like Steve Aoki has a place here with his brothers.

Jason and I sat next to him at a noodle place in Edmonton at the T&T Market in the WEM one time.

We didn't really know who he was but Jason googled it up and figured it out.

These are all places in the food court in Resorts World.

If we weren't already so full we likely would have tried a couple.

I really liked the chairs at the slot machines.

Not only did they look cool.

They were comfy too.

A bar inside of the casino, I like the light fixtures.

We went to check out the shopping area.

There was lots of interesting decor just like in all the other casinos.

There was this giant rotating globe thing that was kind of like a screen.

This statue right in the middle of the mall.

A close up of the top of it.

More tree branches and butterflies.

Not hard to tell this is a sports/games bar.

I love the flowers hanging over the entrance to this restaurant.

Lets go checkout what's upstairs.

The picture on the giant globe had changed.

Giant globe at Resorts World.

We went to a super expensive sneaker store and saw these atrocious looking things.

Who in their right minds would wear these?

Another restaurant covered in flowers and vines - I love how garden-y it looks.

This great mural was on a wall upstairs.

The globe changed again, it's a giant emoji now.

I love it.

This was outside a breakfast spot in the casino.

Cute.

This dog was in a swanky bar in the casino.

Looked like such a nice spot but nobody was in there.

The ceiling was neat.

More interesting light fixtures.

We sat and gambled a little before we left, neither of us had any luck.

Then we headed back to the vehicle.

It was a gorgeous evening.

It's a pretty cool place, I'd stay there.

We were feeling a little peckish by this point and one of the other things Jason really hoped to try on this trip was birrieria tacos so he found the place he wanted to try and we headed there next.

Birreria y Taqueria.

We drove around a bit to find a spot to park and ended up having to park at a nearby strip mall and walk over but it was pretty close.

We thought it looked busy and we'd have to wait but they were able to seat us right away.

Waiting for our tacos.

Jason got the tripe taco - I had a bite but it wasn't my thing.

Then we got two beef and one goat birria taco.

I had a beef one and it was absolutely delicious.

I would 100% recommend them!

We left there and picked the others up from Harrah's then headed to the Wynn to watch the Lake of Dreams show.

We decided to cancel our reservations there on Sunday night at the steak house, it was a bit late and a bit fancier than what we wanted so we made reservations at Binions for Sunday night instead.

We found a good spot to watch the show from.

Just the screen itself with nothing on it is rather beautiful.

First show we saw at Lake of Dreams - it was a little disappointing.

We found out though that there are several different shows that they play and they rotate through them plus they play every half hour so we figured we'd hang around and watch the next one to see if it was any better.