Our Weekend In Sin City

We just came back from a weekend in Las Vegas, and let me see if I can give you a feel for what we spent most of our time doing:

• Monte Carlo Street of Dreams
• The Shops at Bellagio
• The Fine Arts Museum at Bellagio
• Desert Passage Shops at Aladdin
• The Forum Shops at Caeser's Palace
• The Shops at the new Wynn's Resort
• The M&Ms store on the strip
• Other shops at Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and New York, New York
• The Fashion Square Mall
• The shops at Paris Las Vegas & Bally's
• The Canal Shops at the Venetian
• The Guggenheim Museum at the Venetian

Did I miss anything? Yes, as promised in my previous post, this weekend was largely spent shopping. As you can tell, I was not in charge.

We planned the trip for this weekend because both the kids were going to be gone on a marching band trip to Fresno and Magic Mountain. Rather than sit around the house, we headed over for a quick weekend trip. The last several times we've been there it was in the peak of summer when the temperatures, both day and night, never dropped below 100. This time it was in the low 80's and very comfortable.

Our flight out was delayed about 30 minutes thanks to Air Force One. Although we were at different airports, because they were scheduled to leave about the same time we were and were going in the same general direction, all traffic was groundstopped while Air Force One got out of the way.

We stayed this time at Excalibur, which means we've now completed the South strip trifecta, having previously stayed at Mandalay Bay and Luxor. Excalibur was fine for what we needed, but certainly not as plush as Mandalay Bay. Here's the Mrs. at our weekend castle

We walked up the street through New York, New York, had dinner at the Monte Carlo, and then took the tram over to Bellagio. The new tower has been built since we were last there, and they've added a bunch of new shops (oh joy!). They have a chocolate store which includes a very interesting chocolate fountain.
The Bellagio is also known for another fountain, and we caught this one in the middle of Elvis' Viva Las Vegas.
After crossing over and hitting all the stores at Aladdin, we walked back down the street and stopped at the M&M's store where I got a picture with the 38 M&M's Ford dressed up in Star Wars colors. This car is located on the 4th floor of the store. I'm not sure how they got it up the escalators.
It wasn't until fairly late that we limped back to the hotel (we always walk our legs off in that town). This was the view out of our 15th floor room overlooking Las Vegas Blvd. That's the Tropicana across the street, and the green hotel is the MGM Grand.
Saturday we were off again, this time hitting the new Wynn's resort, which was still under construction during our last visit. Stevie Wynn knows how to build 'em, and his newest venture is very, very nice. Here we are out by the waterfalls near the entrance to the resort.
For dinner we decided to eat "outdoors" in the faux St. Mark's Square at the Venetian. Behind us was a very talented trio consisting of a flautist, accordian player, and bass player. While they were playing Italian classics (including one which mysteriously transformed into "Roll Out the Barrel"), on the nearby bridge over the canal, a Jewish wedding was taking place. I'm not sure what they thought of "Roll Out the Barrel" being played for their wedding. We had a nice dinner at a great Italian restaurant in the square.

Sunday we hit the last few shops in town we hadn't hit yet, and had lunch at my wife's favorite little cafe at Paris Las Vegas. It's right in the middle of the "Parisian" street, and I always enjoy watching the people scurrying around.

Other than walking about 100 miles, we had a great time and it was nice to get away, albeit briefly. Now that I'm home, I don't have to shop if I don't want to.