Friday evening the four of us had dinner at the Strip House at Planet Hollywood. We enjoyed tasty steaks but the best part was the 24-layer chocolate cake!
Birthday decadence....
We spent our weekend at Planet Hollywood. Our guest room was the "Ghostbusters" room while my sister had the "Susan Lucci" from "All My Children" guestroom. I always travel with a "curtain clip". It comes in darned handy when you can't seem to get your curtains closed and the light always shines in and wakes you earlier than normal. Our first night we couldn't get the damn coffee table to turn off.
What a terrible night light!
On Saturday we hoofed it around the strip. We started out from our hotel and walked over to MGM's CityCenter; an entirely NEW area of the strip that consists of hotels and towers to include Aria Resort & Casino, Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, Vdara Hotel & Spa, Crystals Retail and Entertainment Center and Veer Towers. CityCenter touts itself as an urban community filled with fine art and spectacular architecture. When you view it from the strip you can see by the glass and height that it has completely changed the landscape of traditional Las Vegas. Prior, the Paris Hotel and it's replica Eiffel Tower was the main focal point. Now with this enormous structure of CityCenter, it towers literally over all the other points. While it's beautiful in it's structure and design, it somehow manages to make Las Vegas look like any other city, USA. It's unfortunate but I think it's the future of Las Vegas.
It's also the home of Viva Elvis; a Cirque Du Soleil production.
Here are some random shots of modern art and design of the buildings.
A short clip of the interactive artwork.
Also, this was the same weekend as the Chinese New Year; year of the tiger!
All of the hotels were decorated in full "tiger" theme. After walking through the the shopping center over to the Aria and then to the Vdara, we made our way to the Bellagio. I've always loved that hotel and their gardens are phenomenal! Here are photos of the gardens.
Rawr! There's a tiger coming out of my head...
Another unique thing about the Bellagio Hotel is that they have a beautiful lobby with the ceiling filled with Chihuly glass. There's also this incredible mirror mosaic horse!
Ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio.
NOTE: photo credit: Chihuly installations/Bellagio
NOTE: photo credit:Jeweled Horse Head, Bellagio on Flickr by disneymike
We then made our way over to Mandalay Bay where we were going to try to get in to their Shark Reef Aquarium but the lines were outrageously long and we decided to pass.
My sister had never been to the Wynn or his newest, the Encore so after Mandalay Bay we walked the strip again and went over to both. Encore and Wynn have so many decorative touches as well.
Landscape of both his hotels:
Umbrellas in the ceiling at Parasol Up and Parasol Down bar.
There are two bars which are located at the top and the bottom of the escalator; a curved escalator at that! There are enormous two story windows offering excellent views of the huge man made lake.
Wynn's twin, the Encore is decorated completely different. It's practically bathed in reds and there's butterflies everywhere. Here's a shot of the tile floor.
After a full day on foot Dave and I decided to rest by sitting for a while at the tables.
On Sunday we hoofed it some more. Again we walked through the CityCenter to get to the tram.
Colorful outside.
We then walked through the Monte Carlo Hotel then over past New York/New York Hotel then into another tram over to the Luxor.
My girlfriend Lisa's brother works in Las Vegas and was able to get us tickets to see Carrot Top!
Note: if ever in Vegas he's a MUST see; he's so funny!
We had vouchers we had to trade in for the actual tickets so we went to the ticket line at the Luxor and thankfully it wasn't too long of a wait. After another afternoon of walking, shopping and gambling we made our way back to our rooms to rest our dogs then went to Carrot Top's show later that evening. We had a late dinner after the show then called it a night.
Since my sister Sherri wasn't able to join us; Dave extended his stay and was able to make a business call on Monday. We rented a car and drove Tracie & Jim to the airport on Monday. After we dropped them off Dave and I drove out to his call and he toured a warehouse. We were getting hungry and when we asked where a good "local" place to eat would be; we were told to eat at Hash House A Go Go. Let me tell you; this place puts the Cheesecake Factory portions to shame! The pictures just don't do it justice but this biscuit was darned near the size of a softball!
Go to the one on Sahara; not the strip. It's more intimate.
Dave and I spent the rest of Monday evening trying to recuperate our losses but it was to no avail. We definitely helped fund the building of whatever is next to Las Vegas!
On Tuesday we walked in the sunshine to warm up a bit then grabbed a quick lunch and departed for the airport. Here are some last minute shots of our day before leaving.
The fountain in front of the Paris Hotel.
And of course....street performers!
My sister Sherri and I were to arrive in San Antonio Tuesday night around the same time. I waited for her after our flight arrived first and Dave and I and she went out to dinner.
It was a pretty quiet week in San Antonio and the weather wasn't the greatest so we didn't do many touristy things. Wednesday seemed to be the best weather day and she was able to walk along the River Walk museum reach extension. I had a committee meeting I had to attend so she explored the grounds of the Pearl Brewery and the River Walk.
She was also gracious enough to support me that evening. I had my first softball game of my short, six week season and she sat through that.
The San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo was convening last week and we had tickets for all three of us to see Toby Keith in concert! We were pretty high up in our seats in the AT&T Center so it seemed that monitor shots were sometimes better than the others.
We had a great time though. Here we are afterwards.
My sister is a saint. She came all the way to San Antonio for her winter break and on her last day I spent the majority of it transferring data to my new cell phone. I accidentally dunked the old one into a beverage and fried my motherboard; ugh! After HOURS on the computer transferring information over we finally left the house for some last minute shopping. Her last day in town wrapped up with dinner out and I took her to the airport the next day.
February's darned near over with folks; it's scary how quickly the months go by. While we don't have anything lined up for next month; remember...in San Antonio they dye the River green for St. Patrick's day on March 13. Come on down! Pin It Now!
1 comment:
That canoe sculpture is by Nancy Rubins. My pal Spooner's brother Chas, who is a welder and a musician, makes the armatures for her various sculptures. He worked with her on a massive one made of parts of airplanes.
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