Las Vegas, 2003

Las Vegas was probably one of the last places on my travel destination list. So when long-time friends invited us to help spend one of their 40th birthdays there, we jumped on it! I was definitely curious enough about Vegas to look forward to the trip; not to mention hanging out with good friends. Not surprisingly, we ended up having a ball.

Here are some highlights:

Hotel:

The Tropicana. It’s not the most upscale; in fact, it’s likely the least upscale on the Strip. But it is on the Strip and it worked just fine for us, and it was reasonable as rates go. Our friends stayed across the way at the New York, New York. They got a great package deal (air + hotel) midweek in April; very nice hotel.

Sightseeing:

Andy Warhol Exhibit at the Bellagio: This was a wonderful exhibit; all Polaroid portraits, and some of Andy’s “artifacts” at the end. What a fascinating life he had, albeit much too short.

Steve Wynn’s Art Gallery: A small collection on the Strip – small, but worthwhile. We liked the audio tour, nicely narrated by Steve Wynn. We especially appreciated Warhol’s tryptiche of Wynn.

The Guggenheim at the Venetian Hotel. We enjoyed this gallery, but it was a bit crowded when we were there; good collection.

The Grand Canyon Tour of the West Rim offered through Grand Canyon Tours (www.grandcanyontours.com). We all loved this tour. A shuttle picked us up at our hotel at about 6:30 and drove us to the bus depot. We barely touched the Western Rim of the Canyon, but that’s what was amazing about it. There was hardly any commercialization (we were fed lunch by a Native American tribe, and they sold some jewelry there.) We were warned that the ride would be bumpy and it was. Beautiful scenery, very unspoiled – and we were back in Vegas by 4:30pm! We loved the bus driver/tour guide – very entertaining.

The Scintas at the Rio: The one show we saw, and we really loved it. You gotta do a show in Vegas. I think we were a little partial to the entertainers since they were originally from Buffalo! Anyway, they put on a great show – singing and dancing and carrying on…

Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio. I am a Cirque person (I’ve seen just about all of their traveling shows) and this was a good show – great set, very unique.

We really liked the dualing pianos at the New York, New York – lots of fun.

Restaurants:

Our blow out meal was at Picasso in the Bellagio. We almost spent as much as a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Paris. Was it worth it? Yes, for that once in a lifetime experience. We did the wine pairing/tasting menu – 4 courses, each one exquisite. To start, poached oysters with caviar, and a quail salad. 2nd course: seasonal vegetables with foie gras and salmon; 3rd course: venison in a zinfandel sauce and a beautifully presented veal chop; dessert was warm, molten chocolate fondant with chocolate/caramel ice cream (yum!) and a poached pear. One of the wines we had was a very good Spanish Ribera. Great service - not stuffy at all.

We lunched at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris hotel. I loved this place! We sat outside on a lovely, spring day and felt like we were in Paris. Tom had a salad Nicoise and I had a chicken, brie, apple and onion sandwich with frites. Good food, but even better ambiance and a nice wine list.

We had a pretty good dinner at Tuscany, the Italian restaurant at the Tropicana. We mainly ate there for the convenience, but it wasn’t half-bad.

We ate pizza A LOT at the pizza place in the New York, New York. It tasted so good to me! Very much in the New York style…