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A Week in Las Vegas - Sunday, November 14, 2004
We left home Sunday morning and headed up to PDX. The hotel rates in Vegas (and elswhere) are generally twice as high on Friday and Saturday nights, so Sunday through Thursday gets the best rates. We booked about a week before hotel booking was added to the marketplace here on on Travel-Diaries, but still got a pretty good deal.Anyway, we parked in the blue economy lot at PDX and took the airport shuttle. It was like $48 for the week, but we live too far from the airport to do much else.
The flight was fine, but the shuttle ride to the Luxor (nice mid-range hotel) was a nightmare. The transmission on the thing was about to give up the ghost, so it lurched horribly along. The driver was also nuts! We took a cab back to the airport. Even with tip it was only a few bucks more, and the driver took it nice and easy. With my hangover that day, that shuttle would've been death...
We stayed in the pyramid (big showers instead of tubs) right above and behind the giant obelisk and sphinx head, with a nice view of the airport and mountains in the distance.
The first night we ate at the Mexican restaurant inside the Luxor. It's more Tex-Mex, and a bit over salted, but not bad.
The next day I discovered that somehow my socks never made it into the bag. Next time I'll play a much more active role in packing (was it meant as a hint?), so we wandered up the strip for an age, to the shopping area in the Alladin. The GAP came through.
On the way back we stopped at Smith & Wollensky where I got a pint of nice dark German beer and my wife got a piece of cake that was seriously the size of my head! I ate a huge chunk of it, as did she, and there was still a massive hunk to take with us back to the room. She had chocolate cake for breakfast every morning off that one piece! I wish my beer had been in proportion. ;)
We also ate at the Luxor's buffet, the Italian and Prime Rib places at the Excalibur and the Sacred Sea Room (luxor). The buffett was pretty good, much better than your standard buffet, but the real stand out was the lobster pasta dish (Aragosta Fra Diavolo) I had at the Italian place in the Excalibur (Regale it was called)! It went very nicely with a half carafe of the house cabernet sauvignon.
Speaking of wine... The house wines you get free on the casino floor are mostly dreck. They're a bit better at Mandalay Bay than Luxor, but still not great. Another nice thing about Mandalay Bay is they serve cointreau (my wife's drink) on the casino floor, but order a Sauvignon Blanc at the bar and they'll try to pour their top drop without batting an eye.
We had a great time. Went to the gambling museum at the Tropicanna hoping to see some old coin pusher games, but were a bit dissapointed. I did buy a cool old poker chip (I sorta' collect 'em) from Pussy Cat A-Go-Go. It's a sweet chip! If I ever get my scanner running, maybe I'll post it. We mostly played the cheap slots, though I hit the blackjack tables a few times.
We had one major blowout that was probably mostly my fault, and another more minor (I think), that was apparently ALL my fault. I don't remember it, so will have to assume responsibility... :P
Mostly though, we had a wonderful time together.
This was the first time we didn't take a mini vacation from Vegas in the middle of the trip. I think I missed that a bit. Last time we spent a couple nights in Zion. It's only a 3 hour drive, and is WELL worth the trip! There's a Best Western just outside of town and the park that is actually really nice, and the pizza place in town there has awesome pizza! The Zion Narrows are a gorgeous hike, but be prepared to get wet and wear sturdy shoes. A frozen bottle of water will also earn you jealous looks on the bus ride out of the park. ;)
Anyhoo, I'm winding down here. I'll try to add some pictures later on...
- Created:
- Sunday, November 21, 2004 at 1:38 PM
- Last Modified:
- Sunday, November 28, 2004 at 9:53 PM