Las Vegas: Beyond the Beer

Here is a summary of what we did in Vegas, besides drink beer.

We flew out to Vegas on Thursday night, stayed all day Friday, and left Saturday afternoon -- real quick trip. Really, in essence, we had one whole day there: Friday. As I mentioned last post, we stayed at the Mirage.

As you enter the Mirage, beyond the front desk, there is a tropical garden. Here is a picture of Julie there.

Here is a picture of me leaning against a railing, next to a waterfall, in the garden area.

Julie, next to the same waterfall.

Because we were at the Mirage, we spent Friday morning wandering around that end of the strip. We'd never been to the Wynn, so we wandered over there. Like the Bellagio, another of Steve Wynn's properties, which he has since sold, it is an elegant hotel, not as gaudy as some of the other hotels on the strip. Here are a few of pictures we took there:

As you enter the Wynn, there is a tile walkway with trees and plant life on either side. Here is a picture of Julie there.

Another picture there, this time of both of us.

Julie and I, at a bar called Up Parasol, Down Parasol. Strangely enough, next to the bar, there was a bunch of large funky pillow-like umbrella thingies that moved up and down slowly. Here we are enjoying a glass of wine.

After the Wynn, as I also mentioned in a previous post, we went to the Hofbräuhaus for lunch. Since I talked about that previously, I won't cover that in detail here.

Afterward, since the Hofbräuhaus is next to the Hard Rock, we wandered over there for a bit. The music was too loud for us -- geez, I must be getting old -- so we made a wide roundabout there looking at memorabilia and hightailed it out of there. Sorry, no pics.

Back at the Mirage, after a nap, we went to Samba for dinner. Samba is a Brazilian BBQ restaurant specializing in rodizio. Bascially, rodizio is an all-you-can-eat deal, where they wander around the restaurant with various types of meat on sword-like skewers, and cut off pieces for your plate. You have a little wooden peg that sits at your table with red on one side and green on the other. Green up means bring it on. Red up means that you have had enough.

Here is a picture:

Mmmmm, meat!

After dinner, we went to Love, the Cirque du Solei Beatles show. It was amazing: acrobats in the air on trapeze and ropes, acrobats bouncing around on trampolines, acrobats on roller-blades, dancing, music, props, Yellow Submarine, Strawberry Fields. The whole thing was quite a production. Obviously, we could not take pictures of the show. However, we did takes some pics outside:

Julie, near the entrance to the Love theater.

There were some funky colored lights on the wall and floor on the way to the theater too.

After the show we went to Revolution, a Beatles themed club at the Mirage. It was not worth it. They played mostly bass-heavy dance remixes, not the Beatles, like you'd expect. We also spent like 36 bones on two drinks, one for each of us, and a little tiny bottle of water -- outrageous.

That reminds me: Vegas has gotten expensive. Everything is way overpriced. You just can't look at the bill when you sign your life away. It just is not the cheap getaway that it used to be.

The next day, after breakfast, we flew back home -- like I said, real quick trip. We didn't even stick one quarter in a single slot machine.