We ate at a restaurant in the Linq promenade. I was glad they let me order lunch (not always a sure thing during breakfast hours) although my croque monsieur was a so-so incarnation.
After breakfast, we took in the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (along with seven million other people).
They were quite impressive. I liked this portrait made of living things. Which you can’t see because camara self-portrait, not phone self-portrait, so you don’t know exactly what you are getting when you push the button.
From there, we took the monorail (monorail!) to its northern terminus, and walked south.
I liked the view of the linens ready for washing
We stopped at Circus Circus (but not for breakfast breakfast) and arrived a the right time to see this affable gent balance on ever taller ladders.
From there, we checked out the Wynn Botanical Gardens which were not as extensive as the Bellagio’s (and also empty, a plus).
That was it? Matt exclaimed, as we walked through.
From there, we headed for the cab stand for our next destination: Area 15.
We chose Battista’s Hole in the Wall for dinner, and boy howdy was that the right choice. It was an old-school Italian restaurant much like the Old Spaghetti Factory, where your dinner comes with courses.
We got a carafe of wine for our table, garlic bread, a salad, an entree, and homemade cappuccino.
I got chicken alfredo and Matt got manicotti. There was a split charge of $20, and we should have taken them up on that. It was a lot of food. We skipped the cappuccinos.
From there we walked off our dinner touring the strip. I don’t think these pedestrian walkways had been built when I visited in 1996, but they were a good addition. And you can see the consequence I got for sitting on top of the tour bus.
We watched a performance at the Bellagio fountains. Our song was “Billie Jean,” and the water did look like Michael Jackson’s moves from that era.
And then we headed over to see Zombie Burlesque. I wanted to see a showgirls-type show.
It was a fun and raunchy performance. The emcee was great with the audience, and the dancers were amazing to watch. One of them also balanced on unsteady things that got higher and higher in a nerve-wracking manner.
The show was tight and well-performed, and I think I could spend a good month taking in all the different entertainment options, given an unlimited budget for food, lodging, and tickets.
We started our day with a hop on hop off bus tour of Las Vegas. We hopped on and didn’t hop off until we got back to our starting point, but it was a very good choice for our first full day. We had a great tour bus driver, a Las Vegas native, and it was good to hear her perspective on things. I can tell you that she really misses the Mirage.
After sitting in the sun, I needed a nap, so we headed back to the hotel and spent the afternoon both resting and also playing a fun new Exit game.
Despite being only two dots out of five and much closer to novice than expert, we had some trouble solving and ended up with not many stars. It was a fun and inventive time, though, just like we’ve come to expect from Exit.
During our game time, people used a room key and unlocked our door. They had been assigned our room, too. We were on a timer for the Exit game, so we said “occupied” and they went away. After we were done, Matt went to investigate. No one at the desk knew what had happened. But no one else came into our room after that.
After wiling away the afternoon it was time for our evening activities.
We arrived at the Harry Reid International Airport, transferred to our hotel (the Linq) and set out for the Rio, where we would hopefully grab some dinner and for-sure see Penn and Teller.
First learning curve. Things in Las Vegas look like they aren’t that far away, but when one sets out on foot, they sure are. It was a mere 1.4 miles away, but took us much longer to walk that 1.4 miles than I thought. Plus, the casinos did a good job of getting us a little lost. There was no time for dinner! But we did find the theater.
Penn and Teller have been at the Rio since 2001, which is enough time to have some very large pictures of them. Here’s one with us in shadow.
Here’s another one this is probably closer to the beginning of their residency.
We were at the last show before they started their summer tour, so it was a fun night to be in the theater.
We were in the first balcony, and they kept us busy beforehand with filling out a sheet of paper with a random dream, and coming up front to sign an envelope.
Off to the side, there was a duo playing some standards. It was a good jazzy atmosphere.
There was a large screen that would show different views of the stage, and at one point it gave a close-up view of the stand-up bassist. “That looks a lot like Penn,” I said to myself, as Matt was off returning the golf pencils we used to record our dreams on the sheet of paper. When Matt came back and the camera switched to the same view, he said immediately, “Hey, that’s Penn!” And so it was Penn. He plays the opener to his own show!
Matt went down to sign his name on the envelope.
Eventually Penn went away, leaving the piano man to finish the set. And then it was time for Penn and Teller!
It was a very fun and funny show. One of the volunteers messed up which card was hers, which led to some ribbing. There were tons of fun tricks. At one point, balloons were passed through the audience, and we managed to snag one. We were instructed to pop them all at the same time on the count of three.
The result was many pop pop pops rather than one loud bang.
Inside our balloon was a playing card.
Matt’s playing card in the balloon wasn’t the card of choice.
Matt’s favorite trick was this balloon one. Three people were on stage who said one random thing about themselves. They were each given cards. After the balloons were distributed, three people with balloons came on stage. Once everyone popped their balloon, it turned out the three randomly chosen balloon people had the cards of the randomly chosen people on stage. Magic!
My favorite trick was one that was kind of weird and involved scarves and kind of ended without much falderol. It was a little weird, but became clear at the end of the show when Penn and Teller returned to the stage with a drum kit (Penn) and other percussion (Teller) and played the video of the trick backward while narrating it, and it became a very cool sequence.
I also enjoyed that we got to hear Teller’s voice. He was playing the part of a psychic gorilla.
It was a very fun show. Then we had a long walk back to our hotel.
I took this picture on (yes, you guessed it) a rainy day while waiting for household hazardous waste to be unloaded from the trunk of my car.
I love the bright display of fun things Metro workers have assembled. And I love even more that my tax dollars go toward funding a service like this. Cleaning out a 72-year-old house comes with a lot of household hazardous waste. (From the future, I can tell you that it took six trips to clear it all.) I appreciate that I have a place to bring so many things that would otherwise end up in the garbage.
There is a 35-gallon per day limit. I can attest that the trunk of a Honda Civic will fit less than 35-gallons. The signage at the transfer station is great, and when you pull into the covered area, workers remove and sort everything as you sit in your car.
And when it’s time to leave, there are no fees to pay. Good government at work.
Matt and I put together my LEGO car. I like when assembling LEGO things to have two people, one to hand over the needed item and one to place the needed item.
Matt was the hander, I was the placer.
It was pretty cool to see everything come together. And when we were done, we disassembled the car, packaged everything back up, and then I dropped it off in a free box for someone else to enjoy.
It was another fun night at the Movie Quiz. There were lots of things to do with the number two (names of sequels, for instance) and the word “and” (Thelma and Louise, for example)
Battleship Cinematic Universe did pretty well considering we were a team of two.
In the realm of names, I enjoyed that the roster included “All Out of Bubblegum” (regulars) plus “I Have Come Here to Chew Bubble Gum and Kick Ass, and I’m All Out of Ass Kicking Ability”
Firehouse advertised a special Valentine’s Day prix fixe menu, and Matt and I took them up on their offer. It was quite good.
We had eaten at this restaurant before (and check out that post to see if you can find the fun typo), and I was glad to see roasted carrots were on tonight’s menu. While we didn’t opt for the wine pairing, I had a nice red, and Matt had some ginger beer.
We ordered one of each item and traded. This served us well until the dessert course. The sorbetto was good, but not nearly as good as the chocolate brownie.
It’s a magnet, and to see the size of it, look at the next picture.
We had a busy December, and fell behind on our puzzle advent calendar. But February 1 was the day we got it done!
This had the usual combo of fun and frustrating puzzles, this time all were themed to movies. Each room was a different movie set on the “Werner Sisters’s” lot. And at the end we found out who the Werner Sisters were!
Battleship Cinematic Universe was a team of two this month, but we had a great movie quiz! We got 12th place! I think that might be a record.
The team names were fun as usual. I enjoyed A Complete Known and also the three plays on Nosferatu: Yesferatu, Nosferatu Fast 2 Furious; Nosfera3 Tokyo Drift
Matt was a big contributor to the score. It turns out the only time travel objects I can identify are the time turner (though I wouldn’t have known from which Harry Potter movie it came; Matt knew) and the magic mailbox that allowed Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves to communicate with each other. Unfortunately, I thought the name of the movie was the Beach House, not the Lake House,so we missed that one anyway.
