Home Sweet New Home

Well I know its been a while since my last post but we made it to LA safe and sound. The road trip was amazing!! I'm so glad we did it. Since we arrived on the west coast we have been very busy trying to get settled here.  Unfortunately our laptop broke too :( so I had limited access to the internet for a few weeks which also made it difficult to keep up with the blog. 

 

Our first order of business when we arrived was to find an apartment.  My college roommate who lives here was nice enough to let us stay with her until we found a place to live, however her building doesn't allow dogs so Elvis had to be on his best behavior. We were spending every day trying to find an apartment which was proving to be really hard with a dog- most buildings here don't allow them which is surprising considering the number of people that seem to own dogs.  It was much harder than in New York City where most buildings did not seem to care if you had pets.  However in LA many landlords wanted additional pet deposits, sometimes two months rent rather than one, and/or also wanted to charge us an additional pet rent per month ranging from $50 to $100.  We did not want to pay the extra rent but were eventually able to find a very nice and pet-friendly building for Elvis.  He even has a new pug friend, Kevin, that lives next door. 

 

The movers with our furniture came from the east coast on Sunday and we have lots of unpacking to do. Currently I'm surrounded in boxes as I write this but it will all get done eventually!  In the mean time we have all been enjoying the beautiful California weather, especially Elvis!  More posts about our west coast adventures soon. 

 

 

Here is a shot of the Santa Monica Pier at Sunset - We took Elvis for a walk here one night and he loved the walking along the boardwalk as much as we did. 

 

 

Elvis is getting ready for the beach...sort of.  He was not a fan of the sunglasses :(

 

 

Road Trip - Vegas Baby!

We arrived in Las Vegas on Monday but we've been having so much fun I haven't really had any time to write a new post.  We stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is one of the newer hotels on the strip as it opened in 2010.  There were not a ton of pet-friendly options in Vegas but the Cosmopolitan is one of the hotels that does allow dogs as long as they are under 25 pounds, you can show their medical records when you check in and pay a fee for each night you dog stays with you.  Along with the fee though came a welcome gift bag with some dog treats and other goodies for Elvis.  They also have a small dog run near one of the pools so we can take Elvis out there.  Its a good thing they have the run too as we learned dogs are not allowed on the strip after noon and are not allowed in any of the malls or casinos (which makes sense I guess). So Elvis has been enjoying the air conditioned room most of the day but thats probably for the best as its been close to 90 degrees and he does not do well in that kind of heat. 

The first night we decided to try to buffet at the hotel called the Wicked Spoon. The food was really good and I especially liked that most of the items were in individual containers or plates so it didn't seem that buffet-like. As usual the desserts were my favorite part and there was even a gelato bar!! Here's a sampling of the desserts - the toffee chocolate covered strawberrries were the best!

The next day I went to the spa and was able to use the gym, steam room and other amenities after my treatment. The spa was so nice - one of the better ones I've been too - and it was so nice to have a little pampering after all those days in on the road.

Otherwise we did what everyone else does in Las Vegas...eat, drink and waste money gambling. We also sat out at the hotel pools during the day which helped with the 90 degree weather.

Vegas was a perfect last stop on our cross country trip but very I'm sad that it's finally come to an end. We had a blast and saw things and places we never knew existed. To anyone that's able to take a trip like this I would say you should definitely do it! Just bring an open mind and a frenchie! Elvis certainly made it easier to meet people and much more interesting.

We're off to LA. Please keep reading to see more of our west coast adventures with Elvis!!