Although my company prefers that we use American Airlines for business travel, I decided to book my flights with US Airways instead. Considering that the MD-80 fiasco occurred during the week of my departure, I'm glad that I didn't go with AA! My US Airways flight from Chicago to San Diego (Weds. April 9) went without a hitch. No delays and very short wait times going through security at O'Hare.
I don't want to bore ya'll with the business leg of my trip, so it's on to Vegas! Let the good times roll!
Saturday, April 12: Road Trip from San Diego to Vegas
Although I reserved a Ford Mustang convertible from Hertz, they didn't have one available when I arrived in San Diego, so they upgraded me to an Infinite G35 for no extra charge. That was a pleasant surprise, considering that the rate for the Infiniti G35 is over $450 per week! The drive from San Diego to Vegas wasn't too bad. I left San Diego at 5AM and with a couple of pit stops in between, I arrived in Vegas at around 10:30AM. It was still kinda early for check-in, so I decided to keep up with my old tradition and drove over to In N' Out Burgers for an early lunch.
Since my friend (I'll have to refer to her as "Lady C", since she prefers her anonymity …LOL) was joining me in Vegas for the first week, I reserved us a Spa Suite at the Monte Carlo. We've stayed in one of their Spa Suite a couple of years ago and it was really nice. Of course, if I had a bigger budget for this trip, I would have preferred either the Wynn or Palazzo.
Spa Suite at the Monte Carlo
Since Lady C wasn't due to arrive until Sunday, I drove out to Henderson to visit some relatives. They probably would have killed me, if I didn't stop by to at least say "Hello" while I was in town.
Highlights From April 13 - 18:
Lady C arrived on Sunday evening and after getting freshened up, we headed out to dinner. With so many good restaurants to choose from, we were going crazy trying to decide where to go. I guess we were both in the mood for Italian cuisine, so we ventured over to Il Fornaio Cucina Italiana at NYNY which was recommended by a friend who's a Vegas local. We didn't recognize the name at first, but when we arrived at the restaurant, we both realized that we had breakfast there ca. 2 years ago and the food was excellent. Lady C ordered the grilled Swordfish while I had the grilled Salmon which were outstanding.
Back at the Monte Carlo, we decided to try our luck in playing the slots. Since neither of us are big gamblers, we don't always receive good comp offers. However, the Monte Carlo was very good to me this time (more on that later). It didn't take long before Lady C lost around $200 playing "I Dream Of Jeannie". I told her to check out some of the other machines, but for some reason, she like that particular slot …LOL. On the other hand, I like the ones with the bonus spins, e.g. Party Spin, Wheel Of Fortune, etc., and also MegaMillions. Unfortunately, my luck was just as bad that night.
Monday, we spent most of the day just roaming around the LV strip. We started the day by having breakfast at the Monte Carlo Café. It's not too fancy of a restaurant, but the food is always very good. I wanted to try the Paris buffet for breakfast, however Lady C doesn't like buffets. Unfortunately, we never did make it over to Bouchon's for breakfast that week. So, it's back on my "To Do" list for a future trip. We spent most of the morning and afternoon just wandering through the various shops at Caesar's, the Wynn, the Palazzo, and Venetian.
City Center Construction
For lunch, we did Mon Ami Gabe's at the Paris. Unfortunately, there were no tables available outside on the patio. However, we did get a nice table by the window with a pretty good view of the LV strip. Lady C had to order her favorite, i.e. French Onion Soup, along with a salad. I ordered the Scallops as an appetizer and the Shrimp/Scallop Crepes. Everything was delicious!
Monday evening, we dined at the House Of Blues over at the Mandalay Bay, before heading over to the Wynn to see Monte Python's Spamalot. Lady C loves their "Voodoo Shrimp" appetizer and it's become sort of a tradition to dine there whenever we're in town. For Spamalot,, we had great seats, front row just to the left of the VIP area. If you're a Monte Python fan, I would highly recommend seeing this show. It's hilarious!
Tuesday, we took a drive out to Red Rock Canyon and stop by the Red Rock Resort/Casino to check things out. I've been to both places on a previous trip, but this was Lady C's first visit to the Resort/Casino. If the Red Rock wasn't so far from the strip, I wouldn't mind staying there for a few days. For lunch we ended up at Fat Burgers which is located in their Food Court. Considering how many times I've been to Vegas, this was the first time I've had a Fat Burger. I've always been one of those In N' Out Burgers kinda guys. So, which burger do I like better? Hmmm, I still prefer In N' Out!
Tuesday evening, we saw the "Fab Four Mania" at the Sahara. If you're a Beatles fan, this is a must see! Those guys are really good. The fellow who does John Lennon is absolutely fantastic. If you close your eyes and just listen to their tunes, you'd think they were the real Beatles performing. I have to say that the show was much better than I had imagined. Many of those old Beatle's tunes brought back some fond memories from when I first saw them on the old Ed Sullivan TV show back when I was kid …LOL. Oh, and they had an Ed Sullivan impersonator MC'ing the show too.
For dinner, I wanted to check out "CUT", which is Wolfgang Puck's new steakhouse in the Palazzo. I made reservations for 9PM, however when we arrived the place was packed and we didn't get seated until ca. 9:30. The hostess was very nice and kept apologizing about the wait. She even gave us a couple of free appetizers and drinks.
CUT is a very upscale restaurant with an excellent wait staff. The ratio of staff to customers was at least 3 times greater than at most upscale restaurants that I've been to in Vegas. They have a nice variety of items on their menu, mostly steaks, a few poultry, pork, lamb, and seafood items as well. However, everything on the menu is ala carte (right down to the various steak sauces). Shortly after being seated, our waiter came by with a huge tray showing the different cuts of steaks which are available including several varieties of both domestic and imported Kobe beef (Note: beware of sticker shock when you see the prices of their Kobe steaks). I neglected to ask whether the "show items" were real or plastic imitations …LOL. Actually, there was a group seated at the table next to us and one of the gals ask the waiter if she could take a photo of him with the tray of steaks …LOL. Hmmm, I wonder if she's a member of any of these Vegas boards?! LOL!
Anywho, I decided to order a simple filet mignon (Illinois corn fed, aged 21 days) and Lady C had the Rotisserie Duckling with Lavender & Thyme Honey Gastrique. For sides, we shared orders of the Yukon Gold Potato Pureee and the Sauteed Baby Spinach, since the portions are rather generous.
The food and service are excellent, however considering that the cost of dinner for 2 with drinks will easily run well over $250 (not including dessert and tips), I believe you're paying more for the Wolfgang Puck name, the unique atmosphere, and service. Although I wouldn't make CUT a regular stop on my future trips, I would probably recommend CUT for those who enjoy fine dining, great service, and where cost is not an issue.
Considering that we get very little sleep when we do Vegas (no big surprise, eh? LOL!), we must have been pretty tired since we slept right through the breakfast hour on Wednesday. Anywho, we made our way over to "Diablo's Cantina" which is relatively new addition to the Monte Carlo and is located right in front of the hotel overlooking the Vegas strip. They serve excellent Mexican cuisine and if you're seated outside on the upper deck, it's a fantastic place for people watching! I think we must have spent over 3 hours that afternoon dining on crispy rock shrimp tacos, munching on chips and salsa, and just enjoying the music and of course partaking in our favorite past time, i.e. people watching!
Night view from our Spa Suite
As I recall, I believe it was when we return to the casino area that the building evacuation alarm went off and an announcement was made that it was being investigated. After a couple minutes (which seemed liked hours!), it was announced that it was a false alarm! That was a big relief!
Later that night, we were in need of a sushi fix. Since we're both sushi fanatics, we decided to try "RA Sushi" which is located in the Fashion Show Mall (street level) right across the street from the Wynn. We ordered Miso Soup and 3 different sushi rolls: Viva Las Vegas Roll, Tootsy Maki Roll, California Roll. I have to rate the Miso Soup as being very good and the overall quality of the sushi as just "okay". I've had much better sushi at my favorite spot back in Chicago. However, I have to say that the atmosphere and service at RA Sushi was top notch.
Thursday and Friday, we spent most of our time casino hopping to see if we could recoop some of our earlier losses. I had pretty good luck at NYNY playing the $1 Quick Silver machines and netted close to $400, however I ended up loosing it all over at the Wynn playing their MegaMillions slots. I actually hit one combination on MegaMillions for $600, but ended up feeding most of it back into the machine hoping to win the big one! Oh well, I stopped when I was down to my last $100, so at least I came away with something. Lady C also came out ahead before leaving Vegas on Saturday. I believe she netted ca. $200 or so playing MegaMillions at the Monte Carlo.
In between casino hopping, we stopped by Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum which is located by the Venetian. Lady C and I had a blast shooting photos with all of our favorite stars and celebrities. My favorite is the one that Lady C took of me and Jenna Jameson!
Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum
Well, this was the end of our first week in Vegas and Lady C had to return home, since she could only finagle a week off from work. Needless to say, I wished she could have stayed longer.
Highlights From April 19 - 26:
Considering that my TR is turning into a novel of epic proportions, I hope I'm not boring everyone to death by now …LOL. For the second week of my Vegas adventure, I took advantage of the special offer that I received from the Monte Carlo: $49/weekday rates for a deluxe room, $35 in freeplay, 2 VIP tickets to Lance Burton, and $25 dining credit. I hated to move from that spacious Spa Suite into a Deluxe room, but since I was doing Vegas "solo" that week, I really didn't need a suite …LOL.
However, what really surprised me was that a day before my departure, I received a call from one of the casino hosts saying that the Monte Carlo is going to comp my entire week. Wow! That was fantastic news! I stopped by her office before I departed to personally thank her for the comps.
Deluxe Room at the Monte Carlo
Anyways, it turns out that my aunt and uncle in California found out that I was in Vegas, so they decided to drive out to Vegas for a few days before heading over to their final destination, i.e. Laughlin. They actually prefer Laughlin over Vegas, since they told me that it's less crowed and they've always had better luck with the slots and playing blackjack at the various casinos.
So, after I finally got rid of my relatives on Monday afternoon …LOL …it was back to partaking in more Vegas style mayhem with no ones agenda to follow except my own. I think it was Tuesday morning, somewhere around 2-3AM when that building evacuation alarm went off once again! Yeah, another false alarm! Luckily, I had just returned to my room and wasn't asleep when it happened. Hopefully when all of the construction, etc. is completed, things will get back to normal at the Monte Carlo.
Tuesday night I had 2 complementary VIP tickets to Lance Burton's show at the Monte Carlo and no "date"! I didn't want the extra ticket to go to waste, so I invited my friend who's a Vegas local. I've seen Lance's show many years ago and he's still one of the great magicians/illusionists around.
Wednesday, I decided to check out that discount ticket booth to see if I could get a ticket for Trent Carlini (The Dream King) over at the Sahara. Being an Elvis fan, I just had to see his show, since I've heard that he's currently one of the best Elvis impersonators. Anywho, no luck in getting cheap tiks …LOL. So, I stopped by the Sahara box office and was able to get a center row seat in the 3rd row. I wasn't disappointed, Trent Carlini is fantastic as Elvis!
So, has anyone seen the "Bodies" exhibit at the Tropicana? Curiosity got the best of me and I ventured over to the exhibit on Thursday. Being a scientist in real life, I actually found the exhibit to be very well presented and interesting. I would not advise anyone who's squeamish about seeing real, dead bodies to go to this exhibit, but it's worth checking out if you're into this sorta stuff …LOL.
Having seen a few posts on the Vegas boards inquiring about restaurants that are good for "solo" dining, I thought that I'd give my recent experience on a few places that I've tried. Koji's Sushi Bar at the Orleans is still one of my favorites. The sushi is good (but the portions seem to be getting smaller) and it's always fun chatting with the sushi chefs. I've found Diablos's Cantina at the Monte Carlo to be a great place for lunch for either dining solo or with a guest. I would highly recommend getting a table on the upper deck, so you can "people watch". RA Sushi is another good place for solo dining, especially if you get a table outside on the patio.
Well, no trip to Vegas is complete without some notable events taking place …LOL. While visiting the MGM Grand, I literally got run over by a very rude lady pushing a baby carriage. She was racing through the casino in big hurry and ran over my foot, as well as knocking the purse out of the hand of the lady standing next to me. We both shouted at her as she went by, but she didn't even stop to apologize. I guess security heard us, intercepted the lady further down the aisle, and was having some "words" with her ...LOL.
Yet another incident at the MGM Grand, when I went to check out the new restaurant "Shibuya" on Friday. It was still a bit early for dinner, so I decided play the slots for while. Someone bumped into the cocktail waitress standing next to me and guess where her drink tray landed? Yeah, right in my lap! Well, I never did make it back to Shibuya's that night, after heading back to my hotel to change clothes.
Leaving Las Vegas…
After spend 2 fabulous weeks in Sin City, I really hated getting on that plane for the return trip home on Saturday morning. Having to leave Las Vegas always makes me sad, but it's always nice reliving those great memories while composing these trip reports!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.