Las Vegas 2006
May 27 2006 - June 2, 2006
May 27 2006 – June 2 2006
Click here to see photos from this vacation
Saturday – May 27, 2006
Landed around 2pm PDT, got rental car and drove to condo to check in. Our room is in the Tulum building, room 5609 with a nice view of the strip (if you ignore the wires).
We drove around to get groceries and the lay of the land. Had wine, made pizza and went to bed early. The day was not without a few mishaps: got a little lost driving around. Sue, being her usual self, missed her mouth and dribbled some wine on her shirt. Mark, not wanting to be outdone, spilled wine because he set the wine bottle unevenly on the coaster and it tipped over, luckily not much wine was lost though. Then because the unit doesn't have good wine glasses wound up snorting the wine up his nose, because the glass was so shallow.
The unit is fairly nice, but it's on the smallish size. As you walk in the door, the dining room (which is bigger than necessary) is on the right with a very small kitchen on the left. The kitchen is fairly well equipped, with a full stove, oven, refrigerator and microwave, but there are no kitchen drawers, so all the cutlery and such is in the cabinets. The master bedroom has a king bed, but is smallish. The master bath is very nice with a 2 person Jacuzzi tub and double sink with marble top. The second bedroom is also on the smallish side with another large bathroom just off of it. The second bath also has an unusually deep (making it difficult to get into) Jacuzzi tub. The bathrooms are unusually large, considering the size of the rest of the rooms. The living room is small. Better furniture selection and placement would help. The television armoire and coffee table seem too large for the space. It is comfortable for 2-3 people, but would be too small for the 4-6 people the room should accommodate. The pool seems nice and large, but we haven't gone down there yet because of the holiday weekend, there are rug rats everywhere. There is also an unusually noisy draft coming through the front door. It is possibly due to the location of the room, as we are right off the elevators. All in all, one must remember this is Vegas and you really aren't expected to be spending so much time in your rooms.
Sunday – May 28, 2006
We drove to Valley of Fire to do some sightseeing and hiking, stopping first at Subway to get lunch for the hikes. Subway is across the street and is open at 8am 7 days a week. Got on the road by 9:30am and was to the State Park hiking by 11am. We took 57 pictures (watch out Art) of various sights throughout the park. Did about 2 hours of hiking, while not really equivalent to 6 miles, it was still not an easy trek due to uphill/downhill sections and the trails that were mostly sand. The heat was actually not too terrible as it was an extremely mild day for the area at the end of May. The rock formations and colors were amazing to see, using your imagination you could really see a lot of different shapes/characters embedded in the rock formations.
We got back to the condo around 4pm, showered and went to the strip. The resort has a free shuttle to/from the strip that runs approximately every hour with multiple drop off locations. Gambled a little in Tropicana, remembered that slots don't pay, switched to blackjack for a little while, then walked over to Hofbraeuhaus – Las Vegas, for dinner. It was a long walk, probably 1.5 to 2 miles each way. Hofbraeuhaus is located near Hard Rock Café Casino and Hotel at Harmon and Paradise roads. As with many attractions in Vegas, Hofbraeuhaus is a replica of the original (e.g. Eiffel tower, statue of liberty, etc). The food was pretty good, I had the special Rinds Rouladen and Mark got the Nueremburg Wuertzl (a sausage platter). I had a seasonal Maibock, Mark had a Maibock and 2 Dunkels. There was also live entertainment – above and beyond the drunk patrons.
Went into the Hard Rock Casino, but there wasn't much room at the tables, so we walked back the 1.5 or so miles to the strip and went to Aladdin and gambled a bit at the blackjack tables. I was doing well until the 14s came to visit and wouldn't leave. Around 11pm we decided it was time to head back home, so we walked over to Bally's to catch the shuttle back. The amount of people on the sidewalks was unreal. It was like Disneyworld in mid summer. Once the shuttle came, it was too full to accommodate us, so we decided to cab it back. It cost $22; luckily, we actually didn't do too bad gambling, only down 35% or so for the day between the two of us.
Monday – May 29, 2006
We slept in today, 'til 9:30am, then spent a leisurely morning watching the White Sox vs Indians (Sox won 11-0). We decided to spend the day exploring the strip. We took the noon shuttle to the strip and decided to take the drop off at The Venetian. We walked through The Venetian, but the lowest table was $15, so we decided to have lunch. After browsing all of the restaurants, we settled on Pinot Brasserie. Mark had mushroom risotto and I had the Cobb salad. We washed our lunch down with a 2004 Domaine Chandon Pinot Noir. We both enjoyed our meals and the wine was very good (albeit typical restaurant prices). After lunch, we walked over to Wynn. We had no better luck there, as all the tables were $15 or higher. So we decided to walk down to Frontier and spent a couple of hours there "entertaining" ourselves at the Blackjack tables. I had no luck with my money, but when I took out Julie's $20, it didn't take long for it to become $100. We decided to move on to the Stardust, where we continued to "entertain" ourselves at the Blackjack tables. Then we headed back to the Frontier for a little more "entertainment". We decided to try to catch the 7:20pm shuttle at Bally's, so we walked through Treasure Island, took the tram to The Mirage, then hoofed the rest of the way to Bally's. We made it with a few minutes to spare (thanks to Memorial Day traffic). After we got to the condo, we watched a little TV, drank a little wine, then went to bed early.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Happy Birthday Mark! We woke up kind of early (6:30) and decided it was a good time to do some laundry, so we hung out at the condo for a while. After the laundry was done, we decided to get on the road and head out to Lake Mead Recreational Area to do a hike. We made our usual stop at Subway then headed out. We decided on the Callville Bay hike. Before starting out on the hike, we ate half of our Subway at the nice picnic area at the base of the hike. We started at the wrong spot, and wound up going up an extremely steep hill, but were rewarded with a great view of the bay and the marina. We hiked a little further, but the views were similar, although at least the going was much easier. We headed back and took the right path this time which was much less steep. All total it was just under an hour. Since it was lunchtime now, we finished off our sandwiches before heading home.
After a little "afternoon delight" in celebration of Mark's birthday, we headed to the strip. As promised to Steve, we made a first stop at Hooter's hotel and casino, where Mark and I both left with more money than we started with. We decided to walk over to Paris, since Mark hasn't seen that hotel yet. All the tables were full and the minimum bet was $10, so we decided it was time to eat dinner, since it was almost 5:00pm. Since we were in Paris, we decided to try their Mon Ami Gabi restaurant. The food was better than decent, but not phenomenal. For a French restaurant, their Bordeaux selections were not very well known. We chose a partnership Bordeaux called Quest from Margaux. It was pretty good, although it would have been better had it been decanted. The waiter poured a little bit bigger servings than he should have and the wine was also a bit warmer than it should have been. While it was nice, it could have been better. I guess that's just proof that we really are becoming big wine snobs.
After dinner we walked over to New York, New York to see about tickets for Zumanity, a provocative cabaret Cirque du Soleil production. We were able to get really good seats (3rd row) and still had about an hour before show time. We decided to go ahead and gamble while we were waiting for the show. I wound up winning, but Mark didn't, although he didn't lose much. As we headed into the show, we were greeted by cast members in a way that befit the show: Mark was slapped on the butt by a Dominatrix with her cane. We bought some drinks before settling in. I had an X-rated Vision and Mark had a French Passion. Both were pretty good. The show was also really good. It's amazing what some of those Cirque people can do. It's definitely an adults only show with nudity, profanity and sexually suggestive content. The show ended around 9pm and we decided to head over to MGM for a little more gambling before catching the shuttle back home. It's a good thing we did, because Mark and I both won. One of the nice things about MGM, is they had a smoke free pit, so that's where we sat. We set a 10pm time limit and headed over to Tropicana to catch the 10:10 shuttle home.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
I've got a pretty big blister, so today will be a loungy day. We hit the pool for about an hour and a half, then showered and headed to Fremont Street and downtown Las Vegas. We started out at Main Street Station with a visit to their brewery for lunch. Then we played some blackjack. It was 2 deck blackjack in what is called a pitch game, since you actually played the cards face down and were able to touch them. We played for a while, but still lost money. Then we headed over to Fremont street, I'm sure it's much more spectacular at night now, given the Fremont street experience, but it was still neat to be down there during the day. The nice thing about the Fremont Street during the day is that it's now covered because of the "experience", so that helped to make it cooler. It was also much less crowded than the strip. Also, I finally got to see the famous cowboy at the Pinoneer casino. We did a little more gambling at the Golden Nugget then decided to come home, since we really weren't doing all that well and it was almost 5pm. Because of the rush hour time, we decided it would be best to take side streets. It still took a while getting home and the heat was pretty strong. It was in the mid 90's today. When we arrived back to the condo we found out we STILL were having trouble with internet access, so I went down to complain to the front desk. Not that I thought that would do me much good, since it's contracted out, but I have called the customer service desk 3 times, each with a promise of a call back, but never receiving any. It's extremely frustrating especially since we've paid for the week. I even tried calling their billing department and the same person answers the phone as if I call regarding technical support. Really has me suspicious.
After I settled down a bit, I did some laundry and made dinner. We stayed in and watched The Breakfast Club on ABC Family, the movie sorta' loses something with all the curse words dubbed out, but it's still a good movie. Then we went to bed. Talk about an exciting day.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
We went to the Spring Mountains today to do the Bristlecone hike. This was a very nice hike, reminding us both of the Lake Tahoe area, minus the Alpine lakes. The hike is actually at a high elevation (over 8,000'), which made it a little difficult for us, but we made it. We started at the lower trailhead, which meant the beginning of the hike was going to be uphill. It wasn't horribly steep, but a steady climb for the first 3 miles. Total elevation gain is a little shy 1,100'. The views of the nearby forest and mountains, including the ski area, were spectacular. It is very peaceful and beautiful up there, a great place to go to get out of the heat of Las Vegas. While Vegas was pushing 100 degrees today, this hike was a comfortable 75 or so. The second half of the hike was mostly downhill. In a few spots the trail is narrow, but easy to follow. The official trail ends at the upper trailhead, from there it was about a mile walk along the road and downhill. In total, the hike is over 6 miles, although because we lost satellite reception, we don't have the exact length.
We returned home around 2:30pm, since it was a little late to eat lunch, we finished off the cheese, sausage and wine. Then headed to the strip for a little gambling and then over to Marrakech for dinner. We stopped at Bellagio's, but there wasn't much doing there at the tables, then we went over to Barbary Coast and played a little blackjack. We both won a little. Then we went to the Westin, where Mark won a little and I broke even. We walked further down to Tuscany. I lost $3 and Mark almost doubled his money. From there we walked over to Marrakech. We arrived about 15 minutes early for our reservations, but being a Thursday, it wasn't too busy so we were seated right away. The inside of the dining room is set up with flowing fabric from the ceiling to give you a feeling that you are in a tent. All of the tables are low to the floor to give you a feeling that you are sitting on pillows on the floor. It actually reminded me a little of a kindergarten room, because all of the chairs were small. They actually weren't uncomfortable because they were very cushy.
The food was very good. It is a fixed prix menu with 6 courses: shrimp scampi, lentil soup, vegetable salad with hummus and garlic, beef kabobs, Cornish game hens with cous cous and ending with Pastilla, a flaky pastry filled with fruit and covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon. All of that for $32.95 a person. Oh and did I mention the belly dancer? We were there about an hour and half and she came out twice. She encourages the patrons to dance with her, but she doesn't push. Mark was too full to dance with her, so I got up instead. It was kind of fun and the restaurant wasn't very crowded so it wasn't too embarrassing. And yes, we were drinking wine. We actually had a Moroccan wine, which was a blend of Carignane, Cinsault and another grape we hadn't heard of. We think it was called Anzira, but we can't remember. I would definitely like to go back there when we come back to Vegas. I think it would be more fun with a bigger crowd, but it was still fun just the two of us.
After that we walked back to the strip and met Marina from El Sombrerito for some drinks. We sat at one nightclub for one drink, then moved on to another one called Napolean's which had dueling piano players. It was pretty fun. I think I had a little too much to drink, but hey, it's vacation, what's 4 Cosmopolitans on vacation? The show ended at 1am, which was too late to catch a shuttle so we cabbed it back. All in all, a pretty fun night.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Slept in, especially after the long night we had yesterday. We leave today. Well we finally ate lunch at Memphis Barbeque and weren't very impressed. Mark had a half slab of baby back ribs and thought they tasted processed. He got red beans and rice and hush puppies as his sides and thought they were better than the ribs. I had the barbeque pork shoulder that only had a drizzle of barbeque sauce on it. The taste wasn't bad, although it was a little cold and I wasn't crazy about the flavor of the barbeque sauce, as it had a strong mustard flavor. I had cole slaw and fries as my sides. The cole slaw was vinegar based but had a good flavor, the fries were pretty much as expected. We were both disappointed in our lunch experience, especially since we were expecting great things. The Texan blows this place away!
When we returned to our unit we discovered that our keys didn't work any more, so we had to go to the Cancun building and get them fixed before we could get into our room and pack. Luckily we weren't in a terrible hurry, but it seems like we had a lot of hassles with this place. While we will be coming back to Vegas, my guess is we won't be staying in a timeshare, but instead on the strip in one of the hotels and probably only stay 3 nights. If we want to hike, we can always just rent a car for one day as opposed to a week.
All in all, it's been a pretty good vacation and we didn't lose much money, less than 17% of what we had brought to gamble. We did spend money on a show and drinks and dinner, but that's stuff that would happen on just about any vacation, especially considering that the show was part of Mark's birthday celebration.