Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Las Vegas, pt. 2 (The Trip Continues...)

[This was originally started on 2/28/08.]

When last we left our escapades, we were skirting around on skates, being mindful of the toepicks.... wait, that would be the Icecapades... Let's get back to Vegas! Right...

We were beat when we went to bed that Monday night. Since our bodies were still on Eastern time, we were awake by 7am onTuesday. (Actually, it took us until Friday, I think, before we even managed to start really functioning in "Vegas" time.) We were up and dressed by about 7:30 - and hungry! We made our way downstairs, trying to decide a) what we wanted for breakfast, and b) what we wanted to spend the day doing.

As the elevator doors opened, and we were walking into the lobby, Mary Catherine was amazed to see folks still perched at the slot machines - not a lot of people, but enough to make one go, "Hmm". The depressing part, or the image that has stuck with me, was seeing a little old lady, nursing her alcohol - it looked like it might be a scotch or a darker mixed drink - puffing away on a cigarette (holding it between her fingers, a slight trail of smoke snaking away from a half-inch of ash, hanging from the end of the half-burned cigarette), her hands moving between pushing the "bet"and "Spin" buttons on the machine. Part of the Vegas stereotype, for sure, but a bit erie to see it at 7:30 in the morning.

We made our way around the lobby, grateful for the lighter traffic (and lighter cigarette-smoke cloud), and decided to have breakfast at Kahunaville. It was still early (they did not open until 8am), so we walked around a little more. Up a flight of stairs (or an escalator ride), there was a "$10 or Less" shop, and a tram to the Mirage, located next door. The tram didn't start running until almost 10am, but we figured it would be a good thing "for later". We went back downstairs, and had a very good breakfast at Kahunaville - and the interior setup (with a fountain wall, etc.) gave us a great vibe to start the day.

After breakfast we returned to the room, and got ready to go out for the day - getting cameras, etc. We made our way back to the tram, and shuttled over to the Mirage, where we toured through the "Sigfried & Roy: Secret Garden and Wildlife Habitat". We spent a couple of hours hanging out, watching the few dolphins that they have swimming, or walking through and seeing all of the cats (white tigers, a panther, etc.).

From the Mirage, we made our way over the Caeser's Palace, where we wandered around the Forum shops. The detail work was cool to see, and was very interesting when thinking that most of it was probably done almost 30 years ago! After wandering the shops, we headed back to our room, os we could get ready for dinner and our show - tickets to Cirque de Soleil: Mystere. Dinner was excellent food from the Steak House (inside the hotel) - we ordered a "skewer" meal (a meat skewer, packaged with two sides), with an extra side, and a dessert. Splitting the meal between the two of us, we still had some left over (but no fridge to keep it with, ach!) We then went around to the theatre for the show. Overall, it was pretty good, as an experience (and to watch some of the technical elements, putting on my "Theatre D&P" hat, were just plain awesome!), but not a style of storytelling that I felt comfortable following (in otherwords - no discernable plot, or through story, that was easy to follow). But it was a cool experience, nonetheless.

We called it a night after the show, and preparedfor the next morning...




We woke the next morning, still close to 7am, and prepared to do everything over again. We decided we would try something different for breakfast, so we walked down the strip, heading back towards Ceasar's. We wandered through, checking out the interiors, and seeing what they may have to offer, but we were not really impressed until we were in Bellagio. During the planning of our trip, one of the doctors that Mary Catherine works with had suggested a place in Bellagio called "Noodles"... which is where we ended up having "brunch" when it opened around 11am. The food was good, and fuelled us through our walk and explorations of other properties, as we made our way back towards our hotel from the other side of the street.


We journied through a large, indoor mall near Paris. We strolled through Paris to findout where we needed to go to get to the Eifel Tower restaurant. We checked out the Venitian, to both pick up the tickets for our shows, and just to explore a little. In the process, we wandered through some of the shops at the Venetian - it was, honestly, a neat property to walk through.


We went back to our hotel and got ready for our evening out. Since we were going to be seeing Blue Man Group at the Venetian (hence, our explorations earlier), we decided to go for dinner over there, to make it a little easier on getting to the theatre. Blue Man was a great show - very different from what I was expecting, but a great show overall. I was a bit confused in the beginning, when they were passing out streamers of paper to everyone, pulling them from spools at the end of a row, and feeding them all the way across. I would recommend checking them out if you are into rhythm/drum based music.


After Blue Man, and a stop in the gift shop, we made our way back across to our hotel. It had gotten very cool, and there was a heavy wind blowing, which made crossing part of the street very interesting. We have since joked that it felt like we could have easily been blown over if we had baggier clothes on! Once we were safe (and wind-free) inside our room, we called it a night, for the next day was V-Day (and her birthday)...


But that's another story...

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