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.
Matt waits in the station. Aside from railbikes and train rides, you can also rent ebikes to explore Hood River for the day.
Matt on the bike. One person gets to control the level of assist. Matt was in charge of that on the way up. We had about a 45-minute ride up to the fruit company, and then I was in charge on the way back.
Me on the way back down. I got cold and put on my coat, accidentally zipping my safety vest under my coat.
On the way back, we got to stop so our guide could take our picture at the waterfall. She remarked that she hadn’t seen an actual camera in a very long time.
We drove to Kah-Nee-Ta for the day. It gave us a chance to read from the books, an activity that has fallen by the wayside as the number of our streaming services have increased.
It was a good day for Kah-Nee-Ta as it was gray and rainy in Portland, but sun-sun-sunny on the other side of the mountain.
At the turnoff, there was a sign that we were on open range, and indeed, three horses were hanging out in the road. Matt took this picture.
We checked in, grabbed lockers in our respective dressing rooms (lockers were spendy, and also my locker rental kiosk charged me twice) and explored the various water offerings. We made brief visits to the children’s spa and walked through the children’s play area (there were no children playing at the time.) We checked out all three wellness pools, from the nicely warm to the very hot.
We then rested a bit, before trying out the lazy river. This was my first lazy river. It was super fun. We both had pool noodles, and when we stepped into the “river” (actually a pool about 4.5 feet deep with an inner pool that was not part of the river), the current pushed us around in an undulating circular path. It was quite relaxing and fun.
The middle pool had both a volleyball and a basketball net, so we played some ball. We also ate lunch (it was fine, but also I didn’t choose the Indian Taco option, which was probably really good) and then soaked/rested/lazy rivered again before taking a walk.
We played miniature golf, and checked out the lodging and teepees., then went back for one more soak before showing and heading back. I took this self portrait outside the entrance.
And then Matt joined me so we could do a time photo. (Such a classic timer photo!)
On the way back there were more horses.
Overall, this was a good trip. Because lodging is rather spendy, I think this trip would be a great to stop when coming back from Bend. It would break up the drive nicely.
When we visited, there were not many people, but I’m not sure how things go in the summer. There is an option to rent a cabana, or various permutations of deck chairs. We did not opt for that. The free chairs are not padded, but they were nice, and there were a ton of them.
On the way home we stopped at DQ for dinner and a Blizzzard.
We’re having a small summer vacation, as opposed to our extravagant Disneyland trip in March. Our first stop: The Portland Spirit, the boat that runs regular cruises on the Willamette River
After having our picture taken while boarding (regulation, according to them, but also so they could try to sell us the photo for $15) we climbed to the third deck and grabbed chairs near the railings.
We opted for the Happy Hour Cruise which was the shortest in duration and had no food included. It was a good choice.
While you cruise, there is guided narration. Here we pull away from the dock.
Here is the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, the South Waterfront, and the OHSU Tram.
Looking back at the Sellwood Bridge.
We turned around and came back a little earlier than I thought we would, but I guess that’s what you get when opt for the least expensive cruise that is shortest in length. Back at the dock, Matt could touch the dock as we pulled up to it.
