Las Vegas - Day 6

Inevitably the last day is a struggle between trying to relax because we had plenty of time, to not wanting to do anything too time consuming. So it wasn't the most exciting day but we still enjoyed ourselves. We went to Paris and found dim sum. How couldn't you enjoy dim sum?

 Then we walked and walked more, trying to stay out of the heat, really. We window shopped at the Bellagio and got lost by their banquet facilities. We did see the chocolate fountain and these beautiful desserts. More walking and then back to the room to chill before going to the airport. The last thing we needed to do was get a photo by the sign. I had no idea there would be so many people, but we waited for about 1/2 hour and here you go!

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of travel but this was pretty simple. Everything going home was on time and we actually got in at least 1/2 hour earlier than expected.

Stats: 4 hr 23 min, 8.81 miles (?)

Las Vegas - Day 5

Shara didn't want to sleep late so I was able to get her up about 10'ish. I suggested we go to Hoover Dam and we could get back in time to get to our reservation at Hell's Kitchen. Let's just say the Dam wasn't terribly exciting to Shara. I thought it was fascinating and impressive. The ride there was pleasant. We got to see some bigger hills and valleys and a bit of the state that was very different from Vegas.

medallion on the floor of the engine room - native american design, original floor still there.

So on to Hell's Kitchen, which was one of the more exciting parts of the trip. We had 4:30 reservations, the latest we could make. The atmosphere was festive and the place is quite big, with the open kitchen - one side red and the other blue. Everything is color coordinated with that theme.

 

Our waiter was very nice and helpful. It was no problem to split the tasting menu and the wagyu meatballs - slow roasted tomato sauce, polenta croutons, parmesan cheese, basil. Here is what is on the tasting menu, all the signature dishes.
first course; pan seared scallops - english pea puree, braised bacon lardons, pickled fennel
main course; beef wellington - potato puree, glazed root vegetables, red wine demi-glace
and for desserts, sticky toffee pudding w/ speculoos ice cream
It was good we split this because we couldn't even finish the meatballs. Shara also had a Agua Fresca (watermelon and agave) and I had a rhubarb mocktail with vodka. That is the only alcohol I had the whole trip. Obviously I'd rather eat my calories.




















Since we had an early dinner, we decided to walk up the Strip to check out the Fashion Show Mall. It was a nice mall and one store was having a $7 sale and we looked and looked for a nice dress for Shara but couldn't find one with a back and/or sides. Nope! They were quite cheap in all ways. There was a cute store there called Sugarfina with several alcohol flavored candies. A couple of trends we noticed were oxygen bars everywhere, one place at Linq had rehydration IV's to cure hangovers, lots of bath stores; bath bombs, cute soap that looks like desserts, etc. It was a nice mall. When we left we went to the Mandalay Bay to watch the Volcano erupt and then the long walk to the hotel.

Stats: 2 hr 34 min walking, 4.63 miles

Stats: 4 hr 23 min walking, 8.81 miles

Las Vegas - Day 4

Wednesday Shara suggested we get breakfast/brunch/lunch at Eggslut at the Cosmopolitan. She heard SLUT

about it a while ago on Instagram and since it was near, we were there! She had
cage-free coddled egg on top of a smooth potato purée, poached in a glass jar, topped with gray salt and chives, served with slices of baguette. I had FAIRFAX - cage-free soft scrambled eggs and chives, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun. Both were quite good and it seemed like the thing to do, considering the line we waited in. I couldn't resist going to Milk Bar, which was right next door, and got an Iced Crack. They mix Crack ganache into espresso and milk. It was very good but I had to save it for the next day.

Our next stop in a whirlwind of a day was a trip to the Ethel M chocolate factory in Henderson. May as well make use of the car rental! We sampled the dark chocolate and learned that this is the fancy chocolate division of the Mars company. Personally my favorite candies are Mars/M&M. The chocolate tasted a lot like Dove candies. We of course had to get a box, which we haven't even touched yet. But when we get home I suspect we will. They do have very nice flavors. These are the ones we picked:

We also took a spin around their cactus garden. Shara said she had some Arizona trauma! We cut it a bit short because a storm was a brewin' and we weren't sure if the skies would open up or not, so we headed back to the store.

Our next stop was at the pinball hall of fame. We tried a number of $.25 games - very old and no special effects but it's amazing that there was such good action in the bands - these were certainly put back together with care. I found the Addams Family and Terminator, which I used to play all the time at Bogie's, and then played a number of Pirates of the Caribbean games. I really like that one. Shara's favorite was one with a medieval theme.

Our evening event was to check out the Fremont Experience in Downtown Vegas. Oh my, this didn't go over too well. Shara got quite an experience and not the one we were hoping for. It was really raunchy. There were women dancing on bars, loud loud music, weird street performers, and lots of homeless people. And there were other families there, so it wasn't just us who thought this was going to be a family activity. We basically looked for something to eat by going down the street and not seeing anything to eat. Shara wasn't comfortable going into a casino to eat and that was where most of the food was. I don't blame her - they were smoky and loud. So before it got fully dark we went back to the hotel/Miracle Mile and had Chinese fast food, which was actually good followed by a very late gelato from Sugar Factory. Won't do that again.

Stats: 2 hr 27 min walking, 4.61 miles

Las Vegas - Day 3

After a late start and a breakfast/brunch of Hash House A Go-Go leftovers, we headed out to explore more, going south on the strip. Shara wanted to see Excalibur and I wanted to see the MGM Park area that people say is a very beautiful space. We walked up and first stopped at Coca Cola World, or whatever they call it, then next door to M&M World where we weren't able to buy anything because it would melt. That was a disappointment. They were giving out samples, tempting though they were, we passed. The man said to mix the peanut butter and raspberry crunch together to get peanut butter and jelly. That did sound good! He also said the one mint mix was like the Andes Candies where the other one was like the Girl Scout Thin Mints. Good to know!

We made our way across the street to New York New York with a stop at Excalibur. I had never been inside and it wasn't anything special but we were there and curious, so it was worth the ride up the very long moving sidewalk. New York New York also wasn't very impressive but we stopped at one of the 1,000 Starbucks and sat down with a couple drinks to re-hydrate ourselves. It did the trick and gave us the energy to start walking to Bally's for our 4 pm Paranormal show.

I was blown away, trying to figure out how he could do what he did. He correctly guessed serial numbers from random bills from the audience. Come on! He also does a meet & greet after the show and I took Shara's picture with him but it's on her phone and not posted yet. He had her guess a number between 1 - 100 and he wrote it down on a card he autographed and looked into her eyes and said to think of that number. He asked what it was and she said 99 and he had written 99 on the card. (Update: on closer inspection, we're not really sure what was written on the card, which is great fun to think we were so suggestible!)

The only thing that could come close to topping that was another sushi burrito, so back to Linq we went where I had edamame and Shara had the same burrito with lemonade. I ate her leftover scraps and got ice cream from Sprinkles and Shara had to try out their cupcake ATM, which is a very cool concept. 24 hour cupcakes! Not having evening plans, I suggested checking out Circus Circus or the Downtown Experience. Shara wanted Circus Circus so we decided to start walking there and if we needed to get an Uber, we would. We made it there and had fun playing some arcade games. She beat me at air hockey and shooting baskets. The door out of the place brought us to the other side of the building and I had the bad idea to just walk up this road and we'd get to the front. It took a bit longer than that and we had another lovely bonding experience of seeing all the strip clubs in the area. Oh and can't forget the gun shops. Great. Finally Trump International came close and across the street was civilization at Nordstroms in Fashion Mall. I made the traumatizing event up to Shara by getting an Uber back to the hotel. She almost forgave me by the time we got back. A short trip to Red Mango in the mall and then up to watch more Food Network before bed.

Stats: 4 hr 14 min walking, 8 miles

Las Vegas - Day 2

Without anything planned until the evening, we roamed around the town in search of interesting food on Shara's wish list.
Sushi Burritos were near the top and we found a great place, Jaburritos at the Linq Promenade. Wow it was so good. Depending on how you get it made, it's an uncut roll. We got the Rockport; Soft shell crab, spicy tuna, surimi crab, jalapeño, masago, cucumber, red onion, tempura crunch, chipotle mayo and eel sauce in seaweed and we made it a combo with lemonade and miso soup. We split the roll and it was plenty filling. We then walked down to take a look at the High Roller, which is massive and Shara had a boat ride:


More shopping and walking the strip followed. We checked out the shops at the Venetian and did not have a gondola ride or get ice cream or get bath products, but we did get candy. They had an It'Sugar and of course we spent much time there. What a bonding experience looking at a wall of porn candies with your 14 year old. We then had the difficult decision of what to have for our afternoon snack, since we had a small brunch and it really is so hot it takes a while to get hungry, even with all the walking. It was a toss-up between Sprinkles, the cupcake bakery, and Ghirardelli's. My most favorite sundae was from the Ghirardelli's in Disney so many years ago and I've even had a couple since, trying to get that same perfect sundae, but without luck. We decided to try this one and it didn't disappoint. I did cut some calories by getting the sugar-free vanilla and I'm glad I did because it was so rich. Shara only ate 1/2 of hers and I just couldn't do it. She got the "Ocean Beach" salted caramel & hot fudge on vanilla and I got the "Treasure Island" hot fudge brownie sundae. We had fun people watching from seats at the window counter. Again, good bonding times with the teen, watching the various drunk girls go by. Since they looked far from cool, I'm not worried that Shara will be itching to imitate anytime soon. Though I couldn't finish her sundae, I also couldn't throw it out so I carried it in the 110 degree Vegas heat. We got near our hotel and I asked one of the many homeless people if he'd want it and he enthusiastically said yes, so I felt better not having to waste it and hopefully it gave a bit of nutrition along with the sugar.

Our evening event was a trip to the Neon Museum for the tour of old Vegas signs and their immersive show called "Brilliant". It really was an interesting history lesson on Las Vegas and how it all started and evolved into what it is today. We also got a bit of an education in advertising techniques. The Brilliant show was great. I was skeptical that it would be corny but it wasn't. It was certainly nostalgic though!

so excited

Where Liberace got his dry cleaning done. A small family owned business. They had to remove every sequin before cleaning. Took 2 weeks to clean one of his costumes.

From the old Treasure Island

From the "Brilliance" show

It was about 9:30 when the show ended and we were then hungry and found a great Chinese/Thai place in Chinatown called Kung Fu Thai Restaurant. It was very old school and very good. Shara had Duck with noodles in broth and I had Tofu Panang Curry. The waiter was very nice. When asking how hot I wanted it, on a scale from 1 - 10, I said 6 but then asked what he orders and he said they go over 10, they eat hot as babies, so I upped it to a 7 and it was perfect. When we were done, it was back to the hotel for a relatively early bedtime. Shara still managed to sleep until I woke her at about 11am.

Stats: 2 hr 54 min walking, 5.05 miles

Las Vegas - Day 1

Lack of sleep didn't affect our first day in the City that Never Sleeps. Shara started her morning by going down to the lobby and having her frappuccino breakfast. It took me longer to get ready but we headed out to the Miracle Mile shops and before getting anywhere, got accosted by a kiosk and face cream that would fix my Rosacea and make my skin healthy and look like it should. Yup, got it, though the mini-facial and haggling took about a 1/2 hour. With clean skin, we wanted outside and checked out the Strip.

It was hot. First stop - the Bellagio fountain to see water dancing to Uptown Funk. Very cool. Then to the Bellagio lobby and Conservatory and then back out to Caesar's Forum Shops. Went the wrong way and must have ended up at the Cosmopolitan where we saw the Chandelier Lounge, a bar within an enormous chandelier. And in finding the link to it, see these restaurants that we may have to check out. Shara was excited to see EggSlut, a place she heard about a while ago and I was excited to see Milk Bar, which didn't get the rave reviews I assumed it would have, so if we don't get back to there, I'm ok.

So we finally got to Caesar's, and boy the perspective here is hard to get a handle on. When we got there, the lobby was not at all impressive as I had hoped it would be but we did have fun walking to the Forum Shops, witnessing an employee with three dogs deal with one having quite an accident. Apparently the rule of "don't move a peeing cat" and also be applied to "don't move a pooping dog". And the worst part was he didn't even clean it up. He may not have noticed, but that's pretty bad in itself. Guaranteed he was struggling with these dogs, but still, we saw a couple people step in it. After that excitement we went to the shops and Shara was less impressed with the architecture than I was hoping she'd be but still thought it was nice. Then I got hungry, since I didn't have a Frappuccino for breakfast and had a hard time finding a place that sounded good to both of us, so onward!

We finished at the shops and went across the street to Linq and after seeing the signs to Guy Fiere's place and saying, sure let's try it, went further and saw it is also where Hash House A Go-Go is located. Found it and went up to see many people milling about. The wait was only 25 min so we said sure and I got us a couple drinks to have during the wait. We looked at a menu and ended up getting a red velvet waffle with side of sausage and the mushroom hash w/ grilled mashed potatoes, biscuit, and 2 eggs. The service was a bit lax and the food was pretty good. We have leftovers.

So then where? Back to the hotel for a swim. Back took us about 45 min, having to walk through the shops at the Flamingo and seeing Dragon's Breath, a dessert made using liquid nitrogen, and then into CVS and then back through the Miracle Mile shops to get to our hotel. The pool was very nice. Shara enjoyed watching the somewhat inebriated adults have a good time and also the little kids swimming around in the 3' 9" deep pool. It was a nice place to get out of the heat and just veg.

The evening's entertainment was to go a bit away from town so we could get into the dark to see the meteor shower. Before we had to have a snack and I found the Dragon's Breath right in the Miracle Mile mall but when we found it tasted like froot loops, Shara was out. We opted for cookie sundaes at the Toll House Cookie stand. The guy making them had no idea what they were and no one seemed inclined to offer him much help. We each got a scoop of our choice of ice cream topped with a cookie of our choice. Not much of a sundae but it was good! We then got the car and drove to Red Rock Canyon visitor's center. It closed at 8 pm and my thought was to get there before and hang out in the parking lot for the shower. They said when the park closed, the gates were locked and sorry. We turned around and found a place to hang out on the side of what appeared to be a quiet side road. Well this was the busiest remote desert road I've heard of. Cars were coming at least 1/5 min and there were actually 2 other cars that seemed to have the same idea we did. We relaxed for about an hour until it got dark and as it got dark it got a bit cloudier and we could actually see the lights from the Strip this far away. It was 20 miles away, but that wasn't enough. So we went back, stopping at a market for dinner - sushi for shara and a salad for me. Got a good night sleep! Shara is still sleeping and it's 10am.

Stats: 3 hr 49 min walking, 7.38 miles

Las Vegas - Travel Day

We took logan express to the airport and good thing we left 1/2 hour early because we ended up waiting in line about 90 min. to check out bags. And also good thing the flight was delayed about 1/2 hour. That let us get something to eat at the airport in time to board. Shara had a chicken sandwich and fries from McDonalds and I had a "cuban" panini from Ufood. It was good we ate because Shara had a sushi roll I had picked up for her and I had an apple and cleaned out the refrigerator by having my last eggplant veggie wrap of the week.

At home, we had weighed the suitcase and it was very close, coming in at 42 lbs. But my scale isn't reliable so I took out a couple things and we went with it. At the check-in kiosk we weighted the case and it was 42 - i grabbed a couple of shara's shorts and said, put these in your backpack, put it on the scale, and it was just at 40. We get to the counter to check the bag and I said to the guy, it said 40 at the kiosk, it can't be over?! He said it's 40 but even if it were a couple pounds over, he would let it go. I wasn't sure how much authority they had to do that.

The flight was long and we sat next to a larger, stinky man. Shara and I had some fun talking about how scared she was to fly (not) and how she'd be so scared she'd have a heart attack, then grabs her right arm. We heard they were having a storm in Las Vegas and that the wind was 60 knots? Enough so they ended up having us circle and when we went in, it was quite bumpy. We then heard it was a really bad storm - and we had to go through a big intersection near the strip where the lights were out. I waited for another car to come and go with me - turned out it was a cab and i slide in next to him.  We got off the plane and were shocked that the airport was full and much because of delayed flights. Shara got her first taste of vegas - slots everywhere and the stores/restaurants were still open at 11 pm. There was so much energy, it was hard to be sleepy, and it was really 2 am eastern time. Got to the car rental place, got the car, and got directions to the hotel. It was interesting, aside from the sans lights intersection. There are lots of lights and lots to look at, I concentrated extra hard on driving, and people were just walking across the street - and not just on the strip! We got to the hotel and were told to park - we use the Miracle Mile parking garage. Then got checked in, got in the room and decided we were hungry to went to find something to eat - after much walking around and seeing several drunk people, decided we better get sbarro before it closed. Planet Hollywood was super loud and that whole end of the mall was a party. we got pizza and went to the room to eat and relax. We got to bed about 2/5 am. I woke and was up at 4:30/7:30 and Shara got up at 8/11. Seems like we're still on eastern time.