After checking out of the best hotel deal around in Whiskey Pete's at Stateline, we arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas too early for check-in. This gave us time to wander around the hotel and casino which I had discovered on my last trip to Vegas as the place the younger "beautiful people" hung out. I was afraid they would not let me in. ;) The Hard Rock's top feature is its pool - large with many areas to sunbathe, sand beaches as well as standard poolside chairs, poolside bars, slides, and more. Our good deal at the Hard Rock was justified to us on our walk of the facilities - the pool was closed for the winter. Granted, it was not bathing suit weather in late December, even in Vegas, but a swim in a heated pool and hanging out with laptops by the poolside were near the top of our list of things looked forward to. Sadly, it was not to be.
To drown our sorrows about a closed pool, we used our first 2-for-1 coupon to get a couple of salty margaritas at the Mexican food restaurant called the Pink Taco. Only in Las Vegas could one get away with naming a restaurant Pink Taco and flaunt bumper stickers reading "Pink Taco: Eating out never tasted so good".
The gym at the Hard Rock was rather nice, and I took the opportunity to use it once during our stay. I am now thoroughly convinced that when I have a house large enough to accommodate it, I want to have a personal climbing wall - the kind of belt-driven rock climbing wall that uses your weight to roll, letting you climb never-ending walls.
One
of my favorite activities in Vegas is wandering around casinos seeing their
opulent or gaudy decor. Another is checking out shows - some excellent and some
laughable. This trip had a fair portion of both. We wandered around New York
New York, Hard Rock Hotel, Bellagio - where it's wondrous fountains were playing
holiday tunes, Rio, Paris Las Vegas, the Venetian, and others.
The show that seemed most appropriate to us was "Legends in Concert" at the Imperial Palace. It is a cabaret of impersonators that filled an evening in a large lounge, and they sounded pretty good, especially after the two free drinks everyone was given. We saw the show one day early to see the real 5th Dimension, a group I had to admit not to have heard of. Apparently, their big hit was the Age of Aquarius. The ones we ended up seeing were Ritchie Valens, Madonna, Michael Jackson, the Temptations, Liberace, and Elvis all doing a special Christmas show. I knew our Vegas experience was complete now that we got a chance to shake Elvis's hand while he was walking on tables through the crowd. Seeing Liberace roller-blading around the place in glittery green and red outfits was the frosting on the cake.
Chevall was the real reason we had come to Vegas. Amie's folks were nice enough to get us a couple of tickets to the horse show put on by the creators of Cirque du Soleil. Seeing the horses in the stables before the show was a highlight of the show, with one horse being about the biggest Amie or I had ever seen. The show was a good one with acrobatic feats on horseback that rivaled or exceeded anything I had seen in an equestrian show before, but it was still disappointing considering my Cirque du Soleil quality expectations. The show is scheduled to stay in the tent until February - I'm curious if it gets renewed.
Amie's folks and grandma were in town for the same days as we were, and our first meeting with them was at PF Chang's in the Aladdin casino. Here are a couple of pictures: Amie's folks Kathy and Leo in holiday colors and Amie with her mom and grandma at Bellagio, where they were staying.
In addition to our first shared dinner at PF Chang's and Chevall, we had an extravagant Christmas Eve feast at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, and a departing brunch at Bellagio, where they managed to get us in and avoided the hour-long line of folks waiting to get in. The Eiffel Tower was a lavish dining affair that could be appreciated while gazing at the views of the Strip from above. To get a sense of what it was like, here's a single portion of the sorbet in front of a chocolate pie:
As
hard as it is to believe, Amie has lived in California pretty much all her life
and had never eaten at the Cheesecake Factory. And yes, she does like cheesecake...
;) When by luck we figured out that our stay in Vegas would intersect with my
friends Joe and Morgan on their way to San Diego, we decided to meet up for
dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar's. Joe looked half-dead after driving
for 10 hours straight from San Francisco, but a little food perked him back
up. It was great seeing them - especially since I had barely done so in San
Francisco since their return from Canada. By the way, if you have a chance to
try the pumpkin cheesecake (it's seasonal), Amie and I gave it two thumbs up!
From the above, one would get the sense that we did little other than eat in Vegas. Well, one would be almost correct. We also drank. In fact, after dinner the 4 of us walked over to the Rio to track down the biggest wine-tasting cellar in Vegas (Joe's quest - it was closed) and a drink atop the bar on the 51st floor (Amie's find) which afford the best views of Vegas. They have an outdoor seating area that would have been a lot of fun on a hot summer night, but we only braved the cold for a few minutes before returning inside.
The real reason we chose the Rio, however, was that it was reputed to have the best dance club in Vegas. It was on our calendar for quite some time as Amie is quite a danceaholic. After all that buildup, when we hit the dance floor a little after midnight, it was far from packed, and we were in the severe minority - white. Their music was nonstop hip-hop with a little rap thrown in, and while it's fun for a song or two, neither of us really felt like making an evening of it. Lesson learned: check what music is on tap when planning what night to go dancing there. We had a lot more fun impromptu dancing on our way back from the Legends show, walking by a fun band in a random free lounge at Harrah's.
One thing that we did not do was gamble. Not a penny in three days. I'm not sure whether this is a point of pride or shame. It's not like we were strictly opposed to it, there were just too many other things that we wanted to do. Who comes to Vegas to gamble anyway?
After visiting the Guggenheim in New York and their downtown branch - Guggenheim SoHo, I knew that a stop had to be made at the Guggenheim in the Venetian. Their exhibit sealed it - it was "The Art of the Motorcycle". The building itself was a silver and glass sculpture with 30' ceilings, and the 120 or so cycles on display were in amazing condition. I learned quite a bit about the evolution of the cycle and it rekindled my desire to ride one again. I took the class to learn how to ride safely, got a beater bike, but never really got beyond that. The image of touring the country on some of the masterpieces on display is hard to resist though.
While not truly a show, the Gamezone in front of the MGM Grand is an attraction nevertheless. They have two stories of arcade games of all kinds. There is even a room for old-timers like me with classic games, still playable for a quarter.
It's amazing that after traveling together 24/7 for several days, we didn't get on each other's nerves more. There was some of it Vegas, but fortunately, distractions and activities fixed it pretty well as we got into Death Valley. That was our next destination, so on Thursday morning we did our last-minute shopping for forgotten camping gear and groceries, checked out, and headed to Death Valley, having gambled precisely $0 during our stay. Here are some more pictures from Vegas.