Wednesday (8/30): I slept through most of the Ted flight from Dulles to Las Vegas. If there is any difference between United and Ted, I missed it. Both airlines are horrible, both effectively have a lock on flights in and out of Dulles. Only difference I could see is that Ted is a much dumber name than United. Fought dry-mouth the entire flight because they could not bring water out fast enough nor frequently enough. Waited nearly an hour to see our luggage pop up onto the conveyor belt after the flight. At least the company was good. ‘Gelca, Stacey, and Erci all make excellent travel partners.
More about the trip after the fold…
We got very lucky and the Monte Carlo let us check in early (about 12:30 pm), nice rooms, fabulous pools and patio (lazy river, wave pool, cloverleaf pool, kids pool, shade, fake rock grottoes and caves, rental cabanas with excellent service). Clean, and relatively smoke-free casino (important even for non-gamblers, as most casino resorts make you walk through the casino as often as possible to get to any restaurants or shopping). Stacey and I grabbed a bunch of over-priced booze from a liquor store on the strip (turns out it would have been cheaper to rent a car, drive off strip a ways and buy the same stuff, or even taxi both ways), but at least the suite will be well stocked later.
We had dinner at Emeril’s seafood in the MGM Grand, and it was very good food. On the way to dinner we passed sleepy lions in MGM Grand’s indoor habitat for them. Poor lions were being flash photographed into oblivion.
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Thursday (8/31): Stacey was brilliant and suggested we day-rent a cabana by the lazy river. With a large group of wedding guests in Mike and Joan’s party, this turned out to be a great idea. We had shade in the heat, and excellent wait staff, lots of food and drink. It was nice visiting with everyone. I was a bit unwise with exposure to sun, but at least it was not a horrible burn. |
For dinner Mike suggested dinner at the Pub and Brewery, and it turned out to be an excellent suggestion. What looked like a bad sports bar from the hallway turned out to have surprisingly great food; especially the chilli, I think that may have been the best chilli I have every had anywhere! Several of the ladies went off to see Thunder from Down Under at Excalibur; and then came up to meet the guys in Mike and Joan’s palatial suite on the 32nd floor of the Monte Carlo. Their shower was larger than our entire master bathroom at home. Their bathroom (not even including the shower and loo – which are both separate rooms) is larger than most people’s living rooms. I am guessing the suite was about 2800 square feet! Nice kitchenette, second (guest) powder room, and A/V system worthy of any home theatre. Mike used his Airport Express to wirelessly play his laptop’s iTunes music through the entire quite. Decadently nice.
Friday (9/1): Erci and I enjoyed smoothies and full breakfast at the Monte Carlo Cafe (which is actually quite good). We hooked up with Stacey and ‘Gelca again for a hot walk over to Aladdin where Dave and Heidi were staying and to walk around Desert Passage a little. Ran into Dave in a cafe. Sadly Aladdin has been bought or traded to Planet Hollywood and is undergoing extensive renovations. A lot of stuff was closed off or hard to get to. We continued on to check out Paris and have a crepe for lunch, then on to Caesar’s Palace to shop at Forum Shops and Appian Way. Something about the extreme dry-heat and concrete and I was exhausted, so we caught a taxi back to Monte Carlo.
Relaxation in the lazy river made up for the long walk, and mojitos may have helped.
A large group (14) of us went to try Isla for dinner, Joan’s idea. Isla’s complimentary chips were dry and unappealing, but the entrees were excellent, especially a succulent pork loin in pumpkin sauce (awesome!). They have a full tequila menu if that interests you. I guess the strip finally has decent Mexican food, hurrah!
The same group (minus Kurt) headed over to see the new Cirque du Soleil show “Love” (beautiful, moving music, fewer stunning acts, but more beautiful dance choregraphy, and awesome Beatles music). I’ve got to get my brother to see this show. It is amazing to me that 40 years after most of the Beatles’ music was released, it is still poignant, pertinent, and still sounds fantastic and fresh. Gotta dig up my Beatles CDs again.
We headed over to Red Square in Mandalay Bay for vodka and to experience a packed crowd of people, then next door to Rum Jungle for rum and dancing. I knew Rum Jungle had great rum, decent dance music, and go-go dancers, but I was surprised by the aerial gymnasts and trapeze artists! Some of our group got rejected at the door for wearing sneakers and shorts, but it took us a while to figure that out.
Saturday (9/2): I am forming a habit of starting my days at the Monte Carlo with a coffea and light breakfast out by the lazy river as soon as the pool opens. It really is beautiful here, and it’s one of the places I can’t hear any slot-machine noise. Peace in which to finish reading William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” for the first time.
| The whole crowd gathered to see Mike and Joan get married at the Little Church of the West, Las Vegas, which is where Kurt and Maria got married a few years ago. It was pretty, but very hot. Mike thoughtfully organized a bus to make getting to and from the church easy, and after a 3 minute and 5 second ceremony (yes Dave and Heidi, I think they broke your record!) we got bussed back over to New York, New York for the reception dinner at Gallagher’s Steakhouse. At dinner we played a little “name that celebrity” with all the old-fashioned portraits on the walls. |  |
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While we were waiting for dinner, the bride threw dice at a craps table and Erci made a little money on that, though I lost a little playing video black jack. We are not real big gamblers – heck, this was the first gambling we did on this trip. |
After dinner we walked back to Monte Carlo, found a $5 minimum BlackJack table and played with Stacey and ‘Gelca for a bit. I was up $2 (blackjack special tokens) but otherwise even and Erci made a few dollars again. After that we went up to Mike and Joan’s palatial suite again for more conversation and socializing.
Sunday (9/3): I continued my morning by the pool habit and finished “Neuromancer” while by the pool. Got a quick movie of the wave pool, then headed back in to pack and get ready for the flight home. We shared a taxi with the angriest cab driver we’ve ever met; poor guy is likely to have an aneurysm from all the stress he carries when he is driving. He made both ‘Gelca and Erci sick from all the gunning and then sudden braking in slow moving heavy traffic at the airport. Thankfully it was a short ride.
TSA seized our water bottles at Las Vegas airport, though they were letting them up to the boarding gate at Dulles last Wednesday. I am very frustrated by this stupid and pointless ban on liquids. It is not about safety at all – it’s all about votes during an election year and fear. If they were really banning liquids – how could they justify people? People are essentially walking bags of water. Batteries are (chemically) small bombs – but they are not stopping batteries. Grrr! Another dry mouth flight. At least this one was shorter and the stewards made a valiant effort to get water to passengers frequently.
Sadly Dulles baggage claim through Ted/United was it’s usual chaos. 8 flights sharing one carousel. Bags all mixed up. Stacey’s and our bags did not show for a full hour and ten minutes past arrival… sigh. Stacey wants to investigate using National airport as an alternative; the extra hour of ground travel just might be made up for by quicker baggage lines and lower parking fees (which makes no sense at all to me).
Now if only I could get work to realize that vacation is vacation and they shouldn’t page me the entire time I am gone about stuff I didn’t plan anyway…
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