Marty & Mrs.' Vegas Vacation (Vanity That Surpasseth All Understanding)

Vanity Central | 12/25/05 | marty_fierro

[martin_fierro]

Photos & vid clips from Marty & Mrs. Fierro's Las Vegas trip:

12/18/05: Left for Vegas

• Ate breakfast at the airport Burger King:
  
• SkyMall catalog sure sells some weird stuff:
  
• Had dinner at the Golden Nugget's buffet. Food and service were very good, and they had a KILLER bread pudding.
• Filmed the Fremont Street Experience in the old downtown (broadband recommended to view)
• Went and saw Tony Bennett perform at the Golden Nugget. For a guy who's been at this for almost 60 years, he put on a heck of a show! He was able to make the stories he told -- which I'm sure he's recounted thousands of times already -- sound fresh. He even turned in an EXCELLENT rendition of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Highly recommended show.
  
  This really is him, honest (cellphone camera in low light).
• Drove down The Strip and marvelled at how much things have changed (grown) since we were last there 5 years ago.

12/19/05

• Filmed footage at Hoover Dam. Pre - 9/11 they offered a couple different levels of tours, some with much more acce$$ than others. Nowadays there's just one standard tour. The tourguide had no love lost for the L.A. Times.
• Here's the New Mexico state seal, shown as one of the states directly benefitted by the Hoover Dam
  
  "Crescit Eundo" must be Latin for "WTF"
• Sign on top of the Hoover Dam:
  
• Jackelope for sale in Ye Olde Hoover Dam Gift Shoppe:
  
• Ate lunch at the Irish pub "Fado" at Green Valley Ranch, where the Travel Channel reality show "American Casino" is filmed. Food and service were very good, but the place was DEAD (due to the time of day/year).
• Donned some Elvis sunglasses and posed by the Las Vegas sign.
  +
• Headed over to the Rio and watched their "Carnaval in the Sky" show. Not bad! Mrs. F. was complaining about not catching any tossed necklaces when one landed right in her hands.
• Drove up to the North Strip to check out the Bonanza Gift Shop (found nothing of interest) and the Stratosphere Tower. Didn't try any of the carnival rides up there.
• Ate dinner/watched an abysmal Monday Night Football game (Green Bay at Baltimore) at this pub in the pub of the hotel where we stayed.
  
  Food & beer were so-so; service was AWFUL. The volume on the forest of TV sets was turned up so high that you couldn't hear yourself think. Not recommended.

12/20/05

• Mrs. F & father-in-law took a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon; I went and checked out the Impressionist art display at the Bellagio.
• Walked around Mandalay Bay and saw the sharks/fish at their Shark Reef exhibit.
• Ate lunch at the Pharoah's Pheast Buffet at the Luxor. The food wasn't real fancy, but there was virtually no waiting to get in and the service was very good. Marty LIIIIKE.
  
  They even had Galumphkies 'n'at!
• Saw the live lion exhibit at the MGM Grand
• Noodled around in New York New York:
  
  Out front in a 9-11 Tribute, the above t-shirt was displayed. Could it be from the Pittsburgh area?
• Inside New York New York was this recreation Art Deco mural:
  
  Does it read "NEWS BLDG" or "NEWS BLOG"? Hmmmm....
• Went back and saw the Christmas displays at the Bellagio's Conservatory.
• The Water & Light show in the lake in front of the Bellagio is also a must-see.
• Walked across the street to Paris and checked out the view from the replica Eiffel Tower.
• Staggered down the street to the Fatburger restaurant and had some pretti nasti fast food.

12/21/05

• Went to the Venetian to arrange a gondola ride for later that evening. Bumped into a guy dressed in a Borg costume on the Las Vegas Monorail.
• Walked up to the new Wynn Resort/Casino to check it out and to try its buffet. While the food there ended up being very good, the experience was degraded by the long wait in line, awful decor (it's UUUGLY) and snarky help.
• Hiked back down to the Imperial Palace and checked out their Classic Car show.
• Went back to the Monte Carlo, rested, changed, and then returned to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group (good stuff!).
• Took a gondola ride at the Venetian.

12/22/05

• Checked out the "Titanic Artifacts" exhibit at the Tropicana. On display were actual items retrieved from 2.5 miles beneath the North Atlantic, including a large segment of the ship's hull. Very moving/poignant.
• Walked around The Flamingo just to be able to say we'd been to Bugsy's old place. The grounds are illuminated in a weird pink light when the sun reflects off the buildings. The flamingo and penguin habitats were very good.
• Spent a couple of hours at the Forum Shops at Ceasar's Palace. Took in an exotic car display while there and saw joesixpack1's ride:
  
• Had dinner at Il Fornaio inside New York New York.

12/23/05: Came home

[grey_whiskers]

My give a dam is busted.

BTW, this reminds me of going with the family & the cat to the Grand Canyon. The cat enjoyed hunting for mice & such--until we noticed the birds of prey circling 'round her.

Back in the car, kitty!

Cheers!

...and Merry Christmas, glad you liked Vegas.

[grey_whiskers]

And the best part...? NO POLITICS!

Is that why you're in URUGUAY?

Cheers!

[Fausto]

The Exotic Car display doesn't look too exotic (I've not been). Seemingly I see those cars on the street here everyday. It's amazing what cruises around this place.

Good report for us non-tourists which might want to impersonate tourists down on the Strip some other night than NYE.

[Budge]

What a great tour, Martin! Thank you!

[Tijeras_Slim]

"Crescit Eundo" must be Latin for "WTF"

It means "It Grows as it Goes", a bald faced lie unless you are talking about State Government.

[traviskicks]

glad you had a good trip! I hope you didn't loose to much $$$$$!

[melt]

You mean to say you didn't gamble? Yikes!
They'll never ask you back again.
Glad you had fun.

[mikrofon]

NO STEP ON TOP OF DAM, either...

Nice travelogue! Having worked on hydroelectric facilities in the past, Hoover Dam would be a must-see if'n we ever get out that way. It may sound techy-geek, but as much as I enjoy gambling and glitter, that would probably stick with me more.

[martin_fierro]

You mean to say you didn't gamble? Yikes!

All told, Mrs. F. & I lost < $10 in the penny slots.

Father-in-law is losing at the $.25 Elvis slots in NY NY when some guy sits down at the NEXT MACHINE and wins something in the neighborhood of $325.

[martin_fierro]

Didya check out the Dam footage? DAM COOL!

I have some additional footage from the Dam generator room, you Dam Hydroelectric Geek. Will upload the dam thing later.

[mikrofon]

Didya check out the Dam footage?

Dam straight.

I have some additional footage from the Dam generator room, you Dam Hydroelectric Geek. Will upload the dam thing later.

That's dam nice of you...

[martin_fierro]

Whoops -- meant to ping you to #27

[martin_fierro]

Hoover Generator footage for you Dam Engineers.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Pretty dam cool! thanks for the ping!

[Millee]

How fun! Love Tony Bennett, thanks for sharing the pics!

[mikrofon]

2005 12 19 Hoover Dam Generators small"

Yeah, 560 tons apiece .... puny

[ssaftler]

Martin, Glad you had a good time. As I may have noted to you, we spent a few days there in November with the wife, her folks and younger brother.

Headed over to the Rio and watched their "Carnaval in the Sky" show. Not bad! Mrs. F. was complaining about not catching any tossed necklaces when one landed right in her hands.

ROTFL! Reminds me of our visit to the Rio. I was standing watching the show myself, with my hand lazily draped over a slot machine. A necklace came towards me, bounced off the hand of the guy sitting at the slot machine, bounced up and hooked onto my hand. The look that bozo gave me as I trotted off to hand it to my wife was priceless, wish I had my camera handy.

---

Missed the 9-11 exhibit at NY/NY. We went down to see Rita Rudner (still funny, but she's not as good when she was single and living in NY/LA, I thought). Of course, when there are other people in the party more interested finding bathrooms or whether we let my father-in-law walk back to the Mirage, it's hard to do the kind of lazy sightseeing I wanted to do, oh well. My F-I-L has an arthritic hip, but is generally too stubborn to admit that he is in a lot of pain and needs to take it a little easier.

About all we saw of the Wynn was a blackjack table. My brother-in-law and I each put down $100 and about 30 minutes later we EACH walked away with $250 in chips. We also did that in the Imperial Palace Thursday night and once more(!) at O'Sheas Friday afternoon! We even scored some tacky beads there, as the table convinced the dealer to award Black Jacks with beads as well as the cash. Needless to say, we played, saw shows and ate on what we won. Best and longest hot streak I've EVER had there.

[martin_fierro]

2005 12 19 Hoover Dam Generators small

FRIEND GOOOOOOD.

[ssaftler]

Yeah, I noticed that the politics was kept to a minimum. Saw Rita Rudner, and for a comedy act to leave politics out was quite refreshing!

Saw "The Scintas", a family song and dance group at the Rio on Saturday night and the only politics I recall was PRO-TROOPS! Between the shows and the tables, I'd say we had a pretty "lucky" time. It was Veteran's Day weekend, though.

[VegasBaby]

Glad you enjoyed yourself, Martin! Sounds like you covered a lot of territory--even seeing a few things I've never seen in the 5 years I've lived here. And to top it all off, the weather was gorgeous this Christmas, so you really lucked out (since it actually snowed a tiny bit last year).