Ate some fine meals, had some fine company (happy birthday again, Ellie), very light on the gambling, and the flights were more or less normal. We stayed at the Stardust, my second visit there in 16 months and almost certainly my last. Our party had three rooms, all booked together well in advance. Sure, they assigned us three rooms near each other–but all on a smoking floor. Since none of us smoke we were peeved and ended up with rooms on three separate floors. Next, the Stardust does not supply hair dryers, they must be the only name hotel on the Strip that doesn’t. Anyway, enough complaining; I did enjoy the gambling and food at the Stardust, although I lost a few dollars at craps and blackjack but had a good time explaining the details of craps to Viv. Let’s just say Viv is a very quick study, very smart lady.
After arriving and freshening up, we met up with Ellie, Diane, and Andrea (yes I was in Vegas with four wonderful women!) for a walk down to Treasure Island to see the ship battle. Very convincing and realistic–not! But fun and entertaining. Then we walked down and across to the Venetian to see the gondolas in action. Viv and I left the ladies to their shopping and dancing and returned to our hotel for a romantic dinner William B’s, fresh, very flavorful Australian Lobster Tails for Viv and Steak Diane for me.
Sunday late morning was group brunch and then an excursion down to the other end of the strip. We started at New York, New York, which has a really touching memorial to the FDNY outside where the fire boats ride. Then across to the positively huge MGM Grand to see the lion habitat. As usual the creatures were languid if not outright sleepy mid-afternoon. The ladies stepped over to M&M World and the Coke store while I played a few hands of 21.
The Venetian is a gorgeous hotel, this trip I finally went in for a look. Which reminds me that next trip to Sin City has got to be a day or two longer and include visits to the two museums at the Venetian and a stop at the new Wynn Collection gallery. Sunday night we celebrated Ellie’s birthday with dinner at the Venetian at the WB Stage 16 Restaurant; the ladies had some especially tasty alcoholic openers though I stuck with beer. This restaurant is a little pricy (the special martinis are $10 a glass) but a nicer setting than expected and tasty food (the salmon and BBQ chicken pizza were particularly recommended).
Monday was just a comfortable, romantic Bill and Viv travel day. No rush getting out, then over to the airport were we faced a potentially lengthy weather (wind) delay but fortunately it was cleared and we lifted off only a few minutes late. I love flights that are low hassle, don’t you? We even lucked out driving back from SFO and didn’t hit a single jam on 101 even though we were in afternoon rush hour. And then safe and sound back here at home.
Pictures should be posted tomorrow.
BillSaysThis 