Day Two - Viva Las Vegas! (July 28, 2013)

So when you go to sleep around what your body thinks is 4:30 am, you are not going to be up with roosters.  Or with anyone who gets up before, say 10:30 am.  I mean seriously.  That was one LONG day.  I did get up before Steve and Michael and made my way down to the small coffee shop/gift shop downstairs.  This hotel did not have gambling (I didn't know that was legal in Vegas) so it was your basic nice Hilton Hotel.  No hookers standing outside waiting for cabs.  (Okay, that was kinda disappointing...I love me some good people watching)

I got a couple of coffees, some breakfast things and some juice.  Don't ever say I don't make breakfast for my boys. We got ourselves together and got out of the door by noon.  Yep.  That was the best we were going to do for having been up 22 hours the day before. 

Mandalay Bay Hotel

My trusty guide book (I get one for every place we are going just to make sure we don't miss anything) told me that we needed to start our at Mandalay Bay at the south end and make our way up the Strip.  So we drove our trusty car(t) to the Mandalay Bay self-park and proceeded to go through the hotel and out the other side.  My plan was to take stock of each hotel and casino just to see the different themes, styles, architecture, etc., but that was pretty much thwarted from the outset.  I knew that Mandalay Bay was known for its reef aquarium, but once we saw the charge to get in, it was a no-go.  After all we have the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  We don't need to see this one in a hotel!  Suffice to say we never really saw Mandalay Bay at all.

Excalibur

It was about 100 degrees in Vegas and walking was like taking a stroll through a very large crematorium.   Hot, hot, hot!

The guide book told us to saunter down to New York New York next.  Which meant skipping over the Excalibur and the MGM Grand.  That was fine with me.  The Excalibur looked like something out of a '70s movie about King Arthur and the MGM Grand was undergoing major renovation.

The Luxor

We also skipped over the Luxor.  These were all of the older hotels.  How old?  Well, I think they were all there when I was in Vegas last.  And that was when I was fifteen.  Okay, enough with the old jokes.  Yeah, they've been there awhile.

So we went into New York, New York.  And we finally got a reaction out of Michael.  When he saw the expanse of the slot machines, craps tables, roulette, blackjack, et al, he just stood there.  In a hushed voice he said, "Whoa."  Yep, that is the height of praise from our fifteen-year-old.  It was pretty impressive. We all really wanted to ride the famous roller coaster that wraps around the hotel/casino.  The line looked daunting, though.  But the line attendant assured us that, in fact, the line was only about 20 minutes long. 

See the roller coaster tracks?

Indeed our line attendant was quite right.  And if the lightning hadn't started up right when we were about to board it probably would've only taken 20 minutes.  But they closed the ride down and started to issue refunds.  Timing is everything.  Mine is AWFUL.  However, I was savvy enough to ask if we could just keep our tickets and skip the line if we came back later.  They agreed to that (Mistake #2 - explanation later). We figured we would ride maybe later that day or the next day since we would still be in Vegas for a short time before leaving to drive to the Grand Canyon.

NEXT!

 

The baguette

Next on the Lonely Planet's list of things not to miss in Vegas is the Paris Hotel which was fashioned after --- wait for it -- the City of Lights, Paris!  Clever, huh?  The guide book suggested that after we looked around the hotel we eat at the French bistro, Mon Ami Gabi, which was located right at the very front of the Paris hotel.  It had started to sprinkle a bit so this was a perfect time to stop what we were doing and grab something to eat.  What an absolute treat this was!  Our waiter was amazing.  I don't often (ever) say that, but this guy was really, really great.  We got fresh long baguettes wrapped in paper with crocks of REAL butter.  As an appetizer we got the warm brie with black pepper, honey, hazelnuts, and croutons (more like crouton crackers).  Yummy!!  Doesn't it just slay you when a chef puts together things that sound like they'd be disgusting (black pepper/honey/cheese) and they turn out to be absolutely fabulous?  It's actually kinda weird.  Just don't know how they do that.

Paris hotel

For lunch Michael and I ordered the Croque Monsieur (which is actually just a fancy melted ham and cheese sandwich) but, oh, was it delicious! Steve had the warm chicken and brie sandwich with caramelized onions and green apple (there they go again -- onions and apples?)  It was fantastique!!

La Tour Eiffel

Plus, we were pretty parched from marching up and down the strip in the heat of the day and we all three ordered iced teas.  Well, our waiter must've brought about 15 iced teas to the table during our meal.  He was efficient without being obtrusive--a very rare trait in a waiter.  Our table was right by the window so although we weren't outside, we could see outside but remain nice and dry.  The shower was over very quickly anyway.

Don't worry, I won't go into agonizing detail about every meal we had.  I just had to rave over this one which was perfect from beginning to end!  We even talked to the manager to compliment the waiter.  We have never had the pleasure of doing that before.  So lunch was a complete success.

Mon Ami Gabi - notice the misting water they had to combat the heat.

The sky cleared (as we knew it would) and we walked from Paris to Rome (in a manner of speaking).  We went from the Paris hotel to the Bellagio to watch the water show.  it seems like we were always in between times so we walked on having not seen the show.

As we walked on to the next hotel we spotted a "Half Price Tickets" place.  It looked like the TKTS place in Times Square where you can get discounted tickets for Broadway shows, usually for the day you are waiting in line.   We figured we'd check it out and see if it was the same kind of deal.  Turns out it pretty much was.  The discounts weren't quite as steep as the ones you see at TKTS but it was still good.   So what did we pick from the vast array of choices we had?  Penn and Teller.  At the Rio.  The Rio?  The Rio.  The Rio happened to be a bit off the Strip.  And one catch about the tickets is that although you pay for the tickets at the booth, you only get a voucher for them, and so you have to go to the hotel where the show is located to pick up the actual tickets.  The sooner you get to the hotel to pick them up, the better your seats.  So, naturally, we decided to immediately get to the Rio to pick up our tickets.

We noticed that the Rio was behind Caesar's Palace so again we ventured to Italy as we walked to Caesar's Palace.

Now Caesar's has been around for a LONG TIME.  It was there when I was there in 1974 and I'm sure it was there long before even that.  Wasn't that where Evel Knievel jumped the fountains?

Anyway, I thought it would be kind of a dump by now.  NOT SO.  Not in the least.  It was GORGEOUS.  Absolutely magnificent.  I would say that it rivaled The Venetian in its elegance.

But enough gawking at the splendor, we had to get to the Rio for our tickets!  How to get there?  You see, it was behind Caesar's, but not like RIGHT behind it.  It was behind Caesar's and past the interstate!  It was a hike and a half.  At first we decided maybe we could take a shuttle (Mistake #3). So we walked to the shuttle stop.  Who was there?  A 300 lb. woman in a string bikini (yes, did you get that visual?) giving Michael advice on not using the "F" word.  He hadn't said one thing (as I'm sure you'll realize if you know Michael), but she'd used it about thirty times and decided that she needed to warn this young teenaged boy of the dangers of getting in the habit of "using that F***ING word!"  Michael just nodded and tried looking anywhere but at her.  Couldn't blame him.   Las Vegas is the epicenter for crazy.

Trevi Fountain (uh, INSIDE Caesar's!)

Deciding that perhaps the shuttle wasn't really the way to go Steve volunteered to hoof it while we waited in the air conditioned paradise of Caesar's.  Who am I to say no when he obviously wants to show off to his lovely spouse his amazing ticket-procuring prowess?  So Michael and I walked back into Caesar's while Steve walked off into the sunset.  And our 300 lb. Barbie railed on about "this f'in transit system and why the F does it f'in have to take so f'in long to f'in get here?"  I think you'll understand why we declined the privilege of public transport.

Look at that beautiful ceiling, wouldja!

So Caesar's - they must've done a major renovation at some point.  The Forum Shoppes were simply beautiful and the walk through them was like strolling through Rome.  They have a Trevi fountain which, if it isn't exactly the same size, is pretty darn close.  Statues and tile floors.  Beautiful layout and gorgeous architecture. 

Even the sky was beautiful - the PAINTED sky 

So, to make a very long story (day) short(er) Steve met up with us at Bally's after his very long trek to pick up the tickets.  At this point we looked at our options for what to do until the show.  We decided we really didn't have time to go to back to the hotel before the show which started at 7:30.

So our next daunting task was getting back to our car which was ALL THE WAY back at Mandalay Bay.  We'd been walking for close to six hours so the idea of hoofing it back to the first hotel was--well, not too attractive.  So there were a couple of options - walking (out), the monorail (the route is not well defined and wouldn't get us to where we wanted to go), bus (uh, they wanted $8 per person for an all day pass--NEXT!), or taxi.  Taxi it is.  The cab got us to the hotel and within just a few yards from our car.  DEFINITELY the best option.

From there we drove to the Rio.  We were early for the show, but we figured we would hang out and look at the hotel for awhile before the show started.  Well, in one of the ballrooms, the 2013 Junior National Billiards tournament was going on.  We just stumbled onto it.  Outside that ballroom we happened to run into the father of the girl who was currently playing in the championship game.  And BOY was he nervous.  He must've said the same things about five times each.  It was either nerves or he had Tourette's.  In any event, his darling daughter came in second in the Nationals, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Penn and Teller on the side of the Rio

From there we went to the theater and watched the show. It was fantastic!  I highly recommend you go to a Penn and Teller show at some point, if you have the chance.  They are magic.  And they do it, too!

P.S.  Walked ten miles today.