The Friday before last I was able to take off from work a couple hours early so I could run down to the airport and catch a 5PM flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas to meet MJ. The first hurdle was the notorious body scanners, which SFO has and I avoided. Half the lanes in that particular security point were still using the standard metal detectors so I went through one of those lanes. I doubt I’ll have as much luck with I fly tomorrow night though. Security conquered, it was off to my plane. In spite of usually flying with Star Alliance, MJ and I decided to book our flights on Virgin America since the miles were negligible, price was acceptable and we wanted to check out their new, sparkley planes. I have to admit that I was impressed, their planes really were new, they had nice leather seats and their entertainment systems were first rate – plus they use Linux, and I got to have a peek at it at the end of my flight when the systems rebooted and the penguiny bootup screen showed it’s very Linux interior.
Upon arrival I grabbed a taxi down to our hotel, the Encore, where MJ met me outside the lobby. The hotel was gorgeous and MJ surprised me with 51st floor room that had a stunning view of the strip. Bags deposited and breath caught, we headed downstairs to have a tapas-style dinner at one of the downstairs restaurants before heading out to the strip. The last time we were in Vegas I didn’t get a chance to see the fountains at Bellagio, so we made that our first real stop. From there it was to see the chocolate fountain! On our walk back we saw the last show of the night of the fountains caught a video. So pretty! We wrapped up the evening with a stop at BLT Burger at The Mirage, where I discovered on my first trip to Vegas they serve amazing spiked milkshakes.
Saturday I had planned to check out the pools, but in spite of the desert location, it actually can get quite cool in Las Vegas – in fact, it was cooler in Las Vegas all weekend than it was in San Francisco. Swimming was out, so we started off our day at the acclaimed champagne brunch buffet at Wynn (the hotel which Encore is an encore to). The food was excellent and the desserts amazing – they even sparkled! I ate way too much.
I spent much of the rest of the afternoon at Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. We visited this last time we were in Vegas, but MJ noticed a sign outside the Mirage declaring that they now had a couple baby white tiger cubs! They didn’t disappoint. The dolphins were a treat (video) and at the far end of the big cats exhibit they had a whole pen reserved just for the two baby tigers. With them was a trainer who played with them and was eager to answer questions that people had. Getting good photos of them was hard, but I did get a couple of short videos, Baby white tigers in Vegas 1, Baby white tigers in Vegas 2.
Saturday evening was spent on another trip to the Bellagio, MJ treated us to my very first Cirque Du Soleil show, O. The show was a real delight, amazing acrobatics, the whole stage turning from a stage to a pool and back again dozens of times during the show. After the show we headed over to Treasure Island to round off the evening with some games in their casino.
Sunday morning we ordered room service and ordered the most decadent thing on the menu, lobster eggs benedict. And enjoyed it along with our view of the strip, yum!
We had to check out by noon, but our flight wasn’t until the evening, so we left the Encore and headed down the strip to New York New York, probably our favorite venue to play at on the strip. I grabbed some delicious New York pizza for lunch and we parted ways. I went over to the Luxor to finally see the Bodies: The Exhibition. I really enjoyed the Exhibition once I got over the gross factor, probably the most fascinating (read: grossest for me) being a human spine, I picked up a spine pen in their gift shop to remember my revulsion. The rest of the afternoon was spent between New York New York and MGM Grand playing slots (I came out ahead this time!) and visiting the MGM Grand lions.
Our flight home was at 8:45 MST, which got us back home by 11:30 PST. Awesome little weekend jaunt, we’ll have to do it again sometime soon! But I was happy that this past weekend was one spent around town getting errands done and doing much needed chores at home.
Tonight’s plan: Pack for trip to New Hampshire tomorrow night and finish up a thousand little loose ends project-wise, since I don’t know how much internet access I’ll have in NH.