taking a trip to omega mart

so...back to our spring break adventures in vegas.  for our last full day we decided to try siegel's bagelmania, which i'd heard of but had never visited.  and since the bean is obsessed with bagels these days, i knew it would be a winner.

there was so much carby goodness in there, it was hard to focus and figure out what i wanted to order.  from a plethora of bagel and cream cheese flavors to a bakery case full of freshly baked cakes and cookies to a nice assortment of pinkbox donuts, there was something here for everyone.

it really was sensory overload, and that's how i ended up with a salt bagel stuffed with delicious slices of corned beef and an iced latte.

you know i had to take this:

but it was only the beginning of a full day of sensory overload.  as soon as we were done with our bagels we headed over to area 15, just a couple of miles away, for our next adventure.

we'd secured tickets to visit omega mart - something i didn't know a lot about, but had heard was a must-see while in vegas.  all i knew was that it was some kind of art installation disguised as a grocery store but with secret passageways and other mysterious things to explore.

i'd heard that there was a card of some sort that you could buy for a couple of bucks that would activate some extra added bonus experience, and once we secured one we headed to the back of the store to get started.

we wandered around the store for a few minutes before we came across this outdoor exploring setup.

the bean and i peeked into the tent and found an opening to a tunnel inside, so we crawled through.

when we emerged on the other side, we found ourselves in a huge back area, with these stairs off to one side.

the hub had found an easier way to get back there, and we started wandering around back there, checking out all of the rooms and walkways.  i really can't explain what it all was, but there seemed to be some sinister backstory to the whole thing that involved executives and employees of the store who had vanished suddenly, and a bunch of references to a dark underworld that i really didn't understand.  i took a bunch of pictures, but i suppose none of it really makes sense unless you're there - and honestly, maybe not even then.

we lost the hub at some point, and then the bean and i found this little walkway that dumped us right back into the grocery store.

we browsed through the "produce" section, which was just as super weird as the rest of the place.  almost everything on display was also available for sale, like this avocado coin purse and banana-shaped flask.

as we wandered through the store, browsing all of the aisles, the products on the shelves reminded me of those old school wacky packages - the collectible sticker cards that were parodies of real-life grocery store items...do you remember?  they looked just like this stuff.

the dairy case looked like it was glitching:

and i found this bag amusing.

the door to what looked like an ordinary refrigerated section actually led you back to the weird area behind the store:

we ended up spending close to four hours at omega mart.  the hub had gotten his fill and found a bar oh-so-conveniently located right near the exit, where we met up with him after picking up a couple of souvenirs.  and because it was still pretty early, we headed on outta there and hit the strip one more time to do touristy stuff.  this is what we had in mind:

but once we got there and i got a look at the pricing for tickets ($25 per person? for a freaking ferris wheel?) we decided to just walk around and browse through the shops at the linq.  no one wanted to pose with me here, so i settled for this shot:

and this one:

and then we hopped back in the car and snagged a booth here.

we spent about an hour or so taking turns hitting golf balls and having a great time.

and that's how we wrapped up our quickie spring break trip to vegas.  we'd packed as much as we could into the few days we were out there, and had a great time.  it'd been a very different vegas trip compared to how it would normally be if it were just me and the hub, or if we were out there for cheer competition.  it was relaxed and low-key and a whole lot of fun - what more can you ask for?