I'm baaaaack.....
... from IDEX Las Vegas, held at the Rio Hotel, where I spent Saturday afternoon catching up with friends and checking out the eye candy. For more about my time at IDEX, please visit the Teddy Talk forum; click here to view photos of me and my bear world friends, and to read a bit about my time at this beautiful summertime showcase of dolls and bears.
My first visit to Sin City began badly, as you read previously, with a three hour flight delay which prevented my attendance at the very event that brought me to Vegas in the first place. After spending Friday afternoon in the Sacramento airport, we finally arrived in Vegas around 5:15pm and were further inconvenienced -- and frustrated! -- when we sat on the tarmac in our stuffy, crowded plane for fully fifteen minutes after landing because, as the pilot badly joked, "apparently the walkway guy took his July 4th vacation early this year!" See, there was nobody available to drive the walkway/staircase thingy up to the door of the plane, to let us out. AARGH!
By the time we deplaned and got out of the terminal and to the curb to grab a taxi, there were five minutes left of the Teddy Talk event at IDEX. The phrase "career suicide" kept racing through my head surrounding this important missed event, but later, on Saturday, Mindy Kinsey -- Editor of Teddy Bear & Friends and a key player in the IDEX show itself -- graciously absolved me of all my absentee sins... so eventually, I got over that particular panic.
In the end, realizing we couldn't make even one minute of the TT fete', hubby and me simply breathed deep, sighed, and took a cab to our hotel, the Luxor... made famous recently by illusionist/magician Criss Angel of TV's "Mindfreak," who calls the Luxor his third season home. My son Noah loves magic, and he loves Criss Angel; we exchanged words all last year, Noah and I, because "Mindfreak" was on at 10pm, which is Noah's bedtime. Guess which little boy wanted to stay up late on the nights when "Mindfreak" was on???
The Luxor has an Egyptian theme and the main part of the hotel -- entry, lobby, casino -- is shaped like a pyramid. Rooms are also available in two tall, rectangular towers off to the side of the pyramid; that's where we actually stayed.
We didn't make plans for Friday night after the (missed) TT event, so we were free to wander about in the 100+ degree heat and chose to walk the famous Las Vegas strip -- which was surprisingly, amazingly long, and a really, really bad decision on our parts. See, you think you're "just" walking up to the next hotel, or the one after that. No big deal, right? Can't take long, right? But what you don't realize, at first, is that everything in Vegas is ultra, mega, supersized. "Next door" translates to "five huge city blocks distance away." They should slam a sticker on that place stating, objects are farther away than they appear. The strip must be milessssssss long, and in 100 degree heat, even after midnight, walking it feels like you're crossing the desert itself.
It IS beautiful in Vegas, though... kitsch and all. Beautiful buildings, beautiful music; beautiful people. There was more luxury and prettiness than I expected (along with plenty of silicon-enhanced bustlines and some truly awful plastic surgery,) and a huge nightlife of club-bound youth dressed in skimpy, metrosexual finery; a crowd that positively throbbed with energy, lust, and a silky groove to boot . I didn't realize that "real" people actually dress like Paris Hilton, or that eyebrow grooming went hand-in-hand with the wearing of slim-cut black viscose shirts on dark haired men. I should probably get out more.
All that smooth-skinned beauty and suave hipness had me feeling both morally and intellectually superior, full of soul and a deeply profound inner life they couldn't possibly yet know... and extremely and entirely shriveled and old and completely "out of it". Both at the very same time.
Tim and I had a great time visiting The Venetian, which is GORGEOUS with its faux-Venice facade, gondolas (complete with singing gondoliers!), and canal...
... and we really enjoyed watching the fountains at The Bellagio, which danced to the tune of Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain on that particular evening.
At some point, it seems Vegas figured out that it would be a great thing to provide the masses with a quick(er), free way to get from one money-churning casino/hotel to the other, maximizing profits for all. So they built a maze of overhead walkways, trams, escalators, a monorail, and people movers. Amazingly, you can traverse almost the entire Strip without ever setting foot on the sidewalk. You simply travel, instead, from walkway to casino to monorail to tram. It was complicated at first, but saves time -- and effort -- in the end.
There's so much to see in Vegas that we couldn't begin to touch the variety of offerings in the very short time we spent there. Simply because we happened by the MGM Grand on Friday, we dined at the Rainforest Cafe we stumbled into there ... and then saw Cirque du Soleil's KA at that same hotel the next night. The shops and restaurants at the MGM Grand were actually among the best we saw.
Cirque actually has five permanent shows in Vegas -- (1) KA; (2) O, an underwater show; (3) LOVE, with a Beatles theme; (4) MYSTERE; and (5) ZUMANITY, the "sensual" Cirque, featuring nudity and adult themes and meant for the over 18 crowd. With so many options, it was hard to settle on just one!
While at the MGM Grand, we also stopped by the lion enclosure -- a free attraction. The lions are always accompanied by trainers who sit inside the cage with them. Please excuse my bad photo; lighting was poor and I'm shooting through glass.
These huge cats like to sleep on an overhead walkway which has a plexiglass bottom, so you can view them from below! Among these viewers is Tim, my husband, doing just that.
Here are just a few more of the many fantastic sights to see on the Las Vegas strip, including the famous rooftop roller coaster at the New York, New York hotel/casino. Which, of course, being a roller coaster fanatic, I rode with Tim. It was completely nauseatingly scary. I loved it!
Next time we visit, I hope to catch Phantom of the Opera, which has played at The Venetian for one year now. Maybe we'll take the boys, later this summer... ?
On the flight home I had a window seat and an unusually clear view of the ground beneath. Here are a few shots of the varying terrain between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Sacramento, California... from desert to snow-capped mountain to evergreen hillsides to suburban America. What a beautiful world!
Last, one of my very favorite pieces of airport art, anywhere; this stack of suitcases, which can be found in the Baggage Claim area at the Sacramento airport.
Despite the many frustrations of air travel -- did I mention that, even though we had advance reservations, Tim didn't have a seat until 20 minutes before our plane left Vegas, because US AIR overbooked the flight and chose HIM to boot off the roster, and me to ticket? -- it was a great trip and I'm having to reluctantly admit that I'd really like to see more of Vegas, especially the event/attraction/show aspect, again very soon.
Oh, and for those of you curious to know... I'm not much of a gambler and in fact am really intimidated by poker, blackjack, and all those table games where being cool and in the know are key to success. But I do allow myself to burn through $20 at the slots every now and again, on the rare occasion I find myself in a casino. This time, it paid off; we won $264 at the quarter slots! That's nothing, though, compared to one friend of mine at the IDEX show, who on this same weekend took home a FOUR THOUSAND dollar jackpot. Now THAT'S striking it rich!
As I was reading your account, I wondered if you had somehow missed those indoor walkways Shelli...I know they are there but have not seen them "in person". I only visited Vegas once, years ago and didn't bother with the downtown area if you can believe it. I was there for a different reason.
We have similar walkways in Calgary (called Plus 15's) if you want to check them out..just Google Plus 15. .. so that in the cold of winter we don't have to put on all the clothing just to get from block to block...we can go on for lots of buildings and never have to go out. There is shopping, coffee shops etc... all inside. Of course, nothing like Vegas,... must go there again some day to see the shows..... some day... probably waaaay down the road.
Posted by:Veronica | July 02, 2007 at 08:20 AM
The indoor walkways are kinda protective from the weather (although not entirely as they're not all air conditioned), but they take you right past, and through, the casinos. Where, if you're me, you get entirely turned around and lost. In fact, I'm sure that's most of the point; to force visitors to wind their way past slot machines, restaurants, bars, and shops in order for them to find the next walkway! Besides, we wanted to see the Strip from the outside. But in the end we took walkways just because, ya know, our feet got to hurting!
I didn't know Calgary had anything like this; how interesting! I'm not very familiar with Canada but am imagining it must be frigidly cold to have inspired something like that. Very nice for the citizens, though, I'll bet! I'll have to check into it.
Posted by:Shel | July 02, 2007 at 11:21 AM
Well, yeh...it does get cold in the winter... like -35C ( -31F) every so often.... but in summer we like to use our A/C too.. like this weekend when it will be +32C (90 F !)
We also have unusual weather when it is nice to walk in the +15's. Say it snows on a cold winter morning....about a foot....then a Chinook blows in... and it climbs 20 degrees by noon and it all melts..then we have rivers of water and deep slush to wade through....oh, what fun to live here.... but we enjoy it and I could not see myself living anywhere else.
Posted by:Veronica | July 02, 2007 at 07:10 PM
ahhh vegas! my brother lives there actually. it is weird and very fun place to visit, and i am not even gambler! :D i am glad you had a nice time despite missing the teddy show. and if you guys decide to go again places i recommend going:
-visit the flamingos at the flamingo
-go inside the barbary coast (it is really cool looking inside)
-mall at cesar's palace is really nice
-the ferrari exhibit at the winn is really neat too.
i hope you go again! i usually drive there from l.a. so i also hit some really good quilting stores in the area too...quiltique is my favorite!
Posted by:teresa | July 04, 2007 at 07:09 AM
That is so funny...I have the EXACT same pictures from the Sacto airport. I also took about 10 pictures from the airplane looking down at the Sac valley, then flying into LA.
Posted by:nimbleknot | July 18, 2007 at 08:55 PM