VIVA Las Vegas!

How nice it is to take a break from reality once in a while and go to Vegas. Wow, is it ever crazy and frenetic!

We tried to paint the town RED and I think we succeeded . . . I returned home more tired than when I left. It’s hard to go to bed when you are aware that there are things happening 24/7. Hoping there was money to be made we must have gambled at least 8 hrs. a day, it seemed counting the few hours during the day, in between other happenings and a few more hours at night after shows.

We stayed at the ARIA Hotel which was beautiful. We had a smoking suite on the 23rd floor with a Panoramic City-Scape View that was amazing! The room was lovely. The bathroom had a jacuzzi tub, a separate toilet which had a heated seat and a bidet, which I loved. It even had a blow dryer for your private parts…talk about specialties, oh la, la! Their casino is also very nice. They have a nice patisserie and coffee house inside, too, but get ready for $8 coffee that is not anything special….

Unfortunately, I did lose all my money, but only the allotted funds I brought for that purpose. My husband on the other hand, did nothing but win! God bless him ’cause he’s my sugar daddy and hands me more money whenever I need it. Actually, I only had to go to him for money twice and returned it when I won again. If we had left in 3 days instead of 4 I would have left a winner, lesson learned. I think 4 days may be too long to mess with Lady Luck and expect to leave a winner . . .

We had a lot of fun and ate out often. We dined at Mastro’s Ocean Club, Wolfgang Puck’s Restaurant, Smith & Wollensky’s and a few more I don’t remember the names of. Too much food and drink are the norm for Las Vegas and we did partake often. I’m a neurotic and weigh myself daily under normal circumstances, but I passed while busy and came home with having only gained about 2 lbs. That’s amazing since I usually don’t drink or eat much, so I can get a grip on it now that I’m home and diet the weight off.

We decided to try Smith & Wollensky’s for dinner our last evening. I had a giant lobster tail that was amazing. Our friends new wife and I were going to share the seafood tower for appetizer and meal but as we were drinking and talking waiting after placing the order we saw another customer’s giant lobster tail go by and we both perked up. I don’t believe it’s on the menu, but was it fabulous. After our neighbor showed his to us, we were hooked. She cancelled the seafood tower, which I wouldn’t have done . . . I would have indulged myself and eaten both. There’s never too much seafood for me. As we chatted I did wonder where the seafood tower was, but all of a sudden our lobster showed up — halved, as it was supposed to be about 2-3 lbs. for $78. Let me tell you, I have eaten many a lobster tail coming from the North East and I don’t know if I’ve ever had such a good one. It was magnificent! Cooked just right, fabulous texture and quality, the only bad thing was when it ended!  My husband had the veal chop which he said was very good. The prices were not bad for Vegas, either though actually who really cares when you’re in Vegas, it’s time to live!

As for Mastro’s Ocean Club, a restaurant I’m usually crazy for, the service left something to be desired. We had a reservation and still stood waiting outside for 30 minutes. When we were taken to our seats, there must have been 20 empty tables, so we wondered why we had to wait for our table to “be made up”.  We sat at our table with no service, as if we were in a dead zone, then our waiter came over and asked us about water and left . . . we sat with our water for another ten minutes and waited for some attention to get us a cocktail and when he came over, he didn’t ask what we wanted he assumed, out loud that we were happy with our water.  Needless to say, he assumed wrong, and we brought that to his attention…YES we did want drinks. Finally, the wonderful bread was brought. I must say, I love their fresh pretzel bread and it did not disappoint. They even brought us a second basket fresh from the oven.  As for the food, I had 2 appetizers . . . .garlic shrimp and a lobster roll that were very good. My husband had a Kansas City Strip steak which he said was very good. One of our eating companions had the Ahi tuna prepared seared and almost raw.  Unfortunately the next day he wasn’t feeling well and his wife assumed he was sick because of the fish. I don’t know if that’s true, personally I couldn’t say if that was the cause as they flew in and we all know airplanes are notorious for germs and we were in the casino gambling, so who knows what the cause was, there have to be many germs floating around that could also be the cause . . . she did let the restaurant know of her assumption and I do think they are comping her for her half of the bill which was nice and very attentive of the restaurant.

We also partook of 2 shows while there in Vegas. We saw the Viva ELVIS show at the Aria by Cirque Du Soleil and Penn & Teller another night. I loved loved loved the ELVIS show and would highly recommend it if you are in Vegas. It was fabulous . . . I laughed, I cried and loved every minute of it. If you are an Elvis fan it is a “Do Not Miss”! The Penn & Teller show was okay but unless you are a Penn & Teller nut, it wasn’t something you must not miss.

I highly enjoyed our little excursion to Vegas but I’m good for another while before I would have to go back. I thought the machines were a little tight as compared to our casinos here in Arizona, unless it was just my own streak of bad luck, I never really hit for anything big and believe me I spent enough seed money to receive a little pay back. But then again, how many people really win in Vegas?

So I’m back and raring to go with more blogging . . . keep tuned in I’ll hopefully have some scintillating topics for the New Year.

I hope all of your holidays were wonderful. Happy New Year!

(C) Written by Evelyn Garone 1/3/12