Day One In Sin City! (Wednesday, 9 May 2007)
It’s 0646 here (although my laptop tells me I’ve missed half the morning at quarter to ten), the sun has not long risen and the city appears to be alive with morning commuters. In direct contras
t to Atlantic City, I have no idea if any are commuters to the casinos for the morning shift… In AC there is a lot of far-away parking well out side of the Boardwalk areas but here in Vegas I don’t honestly know how it works. Then again, I was here a full fourteen years ago… I don’t know what it is like to do anything here. I suppose this is one of many mysteries I’ll try to unravel.
Well, many hours and one sunburn later, I must admit, this is a great place. Not that I didn’t
think it would be, but hey, one always has reservations about these things. Undoubtedly it is the people that ultimately make it great! But the places and events were all that, too.
After waking up and looking out the window, hoping to see the fountains in their full glory, the sight that greeted me was less impressive… The water level was down and there were crews with specially made equipment carriers to fix whatever the problem is. Hmmm. Not very promising. I was not sure what it all meant. I hoped that this was just routine maintenance and that later the sight would be delightfully visible and from a whole new perspective.
I got showered with Luis (it’s nice to have a shower big enough for that) and then dressed and we joined Nick downstairs. We joined other people as well, to make a party of eight at breakfast at Café Lago, which was an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet with everything for $19.59 – even the evil and heinous biscuits and gravy, which Luis went for like an artist to an instrument… It was quite something. (I think I can still hear his arteries hardening!) The company was one couple from Chicago, Illinois, and two business people from Detroit, Michigan. The guy from Detroit, Neil, has an unmistakable Midwest twang, which was delightful. The young woman with him was notable for wearing a low cut dress, which showed off small but slightly sagging boobs – I know that she could wear a bra and look really good – but without, ouch.
The couple from Illinois was nice but I was not crazy about, Jacqueline, the wife. She wore heavy make-up and spoke as though nothing suited her. I found everything to be quite good and well-presented and everyone here is unfailingly polite – but she seemed to have a lot of low opinions about everything.
Nick’s brother Mike was there, too. He seems to have turned out well, and was pleasant company. Certainly very different from sixteen – seventeen years ago. People do often change, and many times for the better.
Luis and I had minor difficulties breaking away from the Chicago people, then from the others he met in the hallway, and finally he managed it so that at no longer 0930, but 1015 – not enough time to do anything before the user meeting. So we came up to our room, and I got my bag more together for my plans to explore Vegas, and Luis changed for his NARCA day.
I went to the Bellagio first – that was well enough my first choice anyway, being as it is both completely fascinating and also what had to be mesmerizing from the ground level. But there was a different guy out there working on the booster or pumps that created the sprays to the right, so clearly nothing would be happening then. I walk around in front a bit and realized that all the casinos are large distances apart. Nothing is close in Las Vegas, that is very evident.
In a nutshell, I went to the Bellagio, looked at the amazing glass ceiling in the lobby, then went to t
he flower and butterfly conservatory to the right – WOW! It was gorgeous, butterflies everywhere in all sizes, shapes, colours, configurations! It was so amazing! I spent more than an hour there, then got on line to get a cab when I discovered the ugly truth about how much walking was involved in getting to the Mandalay Bay.
On line for the cab, I met Gloria, middle-50s woman with twinkling eyes and an open friendly smile who began chatting with me. She suggested with bright cheer that if I’d like, I could jump in with her, gratis, and she would take me to the Venetian! Sold – I was delighted to do so and to meet someone as chatty and happy as I am, well, the pleasure was indeed all mine!
We got over to the Venetian, got Gellato (very much like ice cream – we both had pistachio) and chatted more, then I had someone take our picture together, and then she went her way, and I went mine. I had a lovely time with her.
t to Atlantic City, I have no idea if any are commuters to the casinos for the morning shift… In AC there is a lot of far-away parking well out side of the Boardwalk areas but here in Vegas I don’t honestly know how it works. Then again, I was here a full fourteen years ago… I don’t know what it is like to do anything here. I suppose this is one of many mysteries I’ll try to unravel.Well, many hours and one sunburn later, I must admit, this is a great place. Not that I didn’t
think it would be, but hey, one always has reservations about these things. Undoubtedly it is the people that ultimately make it great! But the places and events were all that, too.After waking up and looking out the window, hoping to see the fountains in their full glory, the sight that greeted me was less impressive… The water level was down and there were crews with specially made equipment carriers to fix whatever the problem is. Hmmm. Not very promising. I was not sure what it all meant. I hoped that this was just routine maintenance and that later the sight would be delightfully visible and from a whole new perspective.
I got showered with Luis (it’s nice to have a shower big enough for that) and then dressed and we joined Nick downstairs. We joined other people as well, to make a party of eight at breakfast at Café Lago, which was an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet with everything for $19.59 – even the evil and heinous biscuits and gravy, which Luis went for like an artist to an instrument… It was quite something. (I think I can still hear his arteries hardening!) The company was one couple from Chicago, Illinois, and two business people from Detroit, Michigan. The guy from Detroit, Neil, has an unmistakable Midwest twang, which was delightful. The young woman with him was notable for wearing a low cut dress, which showed off small but slightly sagging boobs – I know that she could wear a bra and look really good – but without, ouch.
The couple from Illinois was nice but I was not crazy about, Jacqueline, the wife. She wore heavy make-up and spoke as though nothing suited her. I found everything to be quite good and well-presented and everyone here is unfailingly polite – but she seemed to have a lot of low opinions about everything.
Nick’s brother Mike was there, too. He seems to have turned out well, and was pleasant company. Certainly very different from sixteen – seventeen years ago. People do often change, and many times for the better.
Luis and I had minor difficulties breaking away from the Chicago people, then from the others he met in the hallway, and finally he managed it so that at no longer 0930, but 1015 – not enough time to do anything before the user meeting. So we came up to our room, and I got my bag more together for my plans to explore Vegas, and Luis changed for his NARCA day.
I went to the Bellagio first – that was well enough my first choice anyway, being as it is both completely fascinating and also what had to be mesmerizing from the ground level. But there was a different guy out there working on the booster or pumps that created the sprays to the right, so clearly nothing would be happening then. I walk around in front a bit and realized that all the casinos are large distances apart. Nothing is close in Las Vegas, that is very evident.
In a nutshell, I went to the Bellagio, looked at the amazing glass ceiling in the lobby, then went to t
he flower and butterfly conservatory to the right – WOW! It was gorgeous, butterflies everywhere in all sizes, shapes, colours, configurations! It was so amazing! I spent more than an hour there, then got on line to get a cab when I discovered the ugly truth about how much walking was involved in getting to the Mandalay Bay.On line for the cab, I met Gloria, middle-50s woman with twinkling eyes and an open friendly smile who began chatting with me. She suggested with bright cheer that if I’d like, I could jump in with her, gratis, and she would take me to the Venetian! Sold – I was delighted to do so and to meet someone as chatty and happy as I am, well, the pleasure was indeed all mine!
We got over to the Venetian, got Gellato (very much like ice cream – we both had pistachio) and chatted more, then I had someone take our picture together, and then she went her way, and I went mine. I had a lovely time with her.
I did prowl around the Venetian for some time, although it is a lot like shopping in the Short Hills
Mall – everything is too expensive to even go into the store and browse. But I did find some great little items and so I did do some shopping. After that, I guess about 1345, I grabbed a cab and went to Mandalay Bay for the aquarium, which I loved and was exactly – exactly – as Tom had described. The fish were amazing, and they had a long thing you carried around, punched numbers corresponding with the various pools, and heard information about the animal(s) contained in each area. I loved.
Around 1500 I was tired and returning to Caesar’s for some R&R. I changed into my bathing suit, got my books and shoes and headed downstairs. I went right into the water to sooth the very slight redness on my arms, and then I made three or four circuits around the big statute in the middle and finally had had enough swimming – especially on an empty stomach! I read for a while in the sun, yes, wearing SPF 30, and when I came in, I was a crispy critter! It was not pretty!Luis has a weird schedule so we were consistently off base. I came back from my swim around 1730 (it was a good, long, refreshing swim), then ordered room service – I was no longer hungry but starving! I had chipotle chicken quesadillas – YUM.
Luis was changed again and left and I took a long, hot bath in the huge tub, and then called Ray to see how the kitties were before crashing for the nap. I felt more than just tired, but then the beet-red heat radiating from my shoulders and legs was wearing me out, too.
I took a two and a half hour nap until Luis came in and woke me from it. We went out to dinner in the Caesar’s area. We went downstairs to a club called Shadows, where there was a huge screen on the wall and behind it is a woman dancing – naked. It was an interesting place, but it was blasting music, far more than I wanted to hear. So we went to a couple of other places, looking for crab legs (I wasn’t, but Luis and Floyd’s girlfriend (I cannot recall her name) were so we went to a few different restaurants). They really did not have what we wanted, or had a wait or were so outrageous in cost, it wasn’t worth it. We did finally find a good restaurant, and although I was very tired, I did enjoy my meal. Luis and Floyd’s girlfriend had crab legs, Floyd had steak and I had a very good shrimp dish. It was very, very good! Then Floyd’s girlfriend had a peanut butter pie slice and that was very good, too, but filling, and we were pretty full.
We walked some of it off to go see the last Bellagio fountain show. We missed it – just bits and
pieces at midnight, but then it was done. We’d hoped that there was a later show, but none. We did see a lot of trucks go by that carry billboards with very scantily clad women and in huge letters, the number 696-6969 (no area code, but it happens to be 702. It was a really shocking sight. On the other hand, it wasn’t all that surprising in Las Vegas. In Parsippany it would be outright incredible. Anyway, by 0030, we were done…And so was I!
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