(no subject)
Nov. 24th, 2004 03:30 pmwent to vegas with stark and jessica, didn't die, didn't go broke, came back.
it was pretty fun. a lot bigger than i expected. i thought it would be a row of large hotels crammed into a few blocks. instead, it was a bunch of huuuge hotels sprawling roughly in a row. mostly we did sightseeing:
-we stayed in the las vegas hilton, and ended up not doing any of the star trek stuff. it was a little... overpriced. the hotel was pretty nice, though.
-new york new york, where we ate upscale pub food at the nine fine irishman. it was good, although i'd been hoping for cheap and faintly greasy normal pub food.
-luxor, which is cool and pyramidal on the outside, and interesting on the inside but not as pretty as some of the others. drank two days worth of margaritas in 3 hours here, before seeing the blue man group concert. that was very cool - a little more humor and theatrics than i was expecting, but it was still cool. i didn't realize until i saw them in the lobby after the show that the backup band was live, not recorded and projected onto screens.
-excalibur we stayed away from, because the costumes would probably have me frothing at the mouth.
-mandalay bay, where we saw bond in the house of blues. they're an electric string quartet from the uk. pretty good music, but a little too bouncy for me. the cocktail waitresses' outfits here were *horrendous*. upholstered leotards with hip wings.
-bellagio was pretty. very pretty. however, not much else to it as far as i could tell.
-we spent a lot of time in the mgm grand. a brief visit the first day during which stark and i got our picture taken with a 3-month-old lion cub. so incredibly cute. we came back on the last day after some of our other activities were rained out, and jessica and stark played blackjack while i drooled at the kitties. so cute. they were cleaning out the cubs' area and the trainers played with the cubs for a while afterward. they were fuzzily ferocious. a trainer would walk into the room, and a cub would bearhug her leg and chew on her pants, hanging on while the trainer walked around the room. they were very bouncy. eventually i hope to scan the picture we got and post it.
-the desert passage mall in the aladdin was neat - fake sky worked really well, especially going between areas. the "rain" was a bit disappointing - it fell a bit like they'd installed shower heads or something - there were obvious gaps in the rain as it hit the water. maybe they need to clean out the pipes or something.
-paris was neat, but not outstanding. they had a fake sky like the aladdin, except they broke the illusion by having multi-story buildings get chopped off as they hit the sky.
we went to the mirage so i could have more kitties, but the white tigers had just left for the day when we got there, and the secret garden (more tigers, and other animals) was outside and it was raining. so that was scrapped.
-treasure island looked neat from the outside. we didn't get to see the inside, nor did we get to see the free show they put on, because it was always at inconvenient times. (ie conflicting with blue man group or bond)
-the venetian was the same as the bellagio except much, much cooler. the gondoliers in the mall were skilled boaters and singers. there was artwork everywhere, and so much gilt that i felt poor just walking in the place. we didn't go in the guggenheim hermitage museum, but then again i wasn't in an arty mood and we were a bit short on time.
it was a lot of fun and a lot of walking. i got a headache a few hours into every day that didn't go away until i went to sleep. a lot of good food, to. we didn't go to any of the obscenely expensive restaurants, but the gourmand in me still went home happy.
it was pretty fun. a lot bigger than i expected. i thought it would be a row of large hotels crammed into a few blocks. instead, it was a bunch of huuuge hotels sprawling roughly in a row. mostly we did sightseeing:
-we stayed in the las vegas hilton, and ended up not doing any of the star trek stuff. it was a little... overpriced. the hotel was pretty nice, though.
-new york new york, where we ate upscale pub food at the nine fine irishman. it was good, although i'd been hoping for cheap and faintly greasy normal pub food.
-luxor, which is cool and pyramidal on the outside, and interesting on the inside but not as pretty as some of the others. drank two days worth of margaritas in 3 hours here, before seeing the blue man group concert. that was very cool - a little more humor and theatrics than i was expecting, but it was still cool. i didn't realize until i saw them in the lobby after the show that the backup band was live, not recorded and projected onto screens.
-excalibur we stayed away from, because the costumes would probably have me frothing at the mouth.
-mandalay bay, where we saw bond in the house of blues. they're an electric string quartet from the uk. pretty good music, but a little too bouncy for me. the cocktail waitresses' outfits here were *horrendous*. upholstered leotards with hip wings.
-bellagio was pretty. very pretty. however, not much else to it as far as i could tell.
-we spent a lot of time in the mgm grand. a brief visit the first day during which stark and i got our picture taken with a 3-month-old lion cub. so incredibly cute. we came back on the last day after some of our other activities were rained out, and jessica and stark played blackjack while i drooled at the kitties. so cute. they were cleaning out the cubs' area and the trainers played with the cubs for a while afterward. they were fuzzily ferocious. a trainer would walk into the room, and a cub would bearhug her leg and chew on her pants, hanging on while the trainer walked around the room. they were very bouncy. eventually i hope to scan the picture we got and post it.
-the desert passage mall in the aladdin was neat - fake sky worked really well, especially going between areas. the "rain" was a bit disappointing - it fell a bit like they'd installed shower heads or something - there were obvious gaps in the rain as it hit the water. maybe they need to clean out the pipes or something.
-paris was neat, but not outstanding. they had a fake sky like the aladdin, except they broke the illusion by having multi-story buildings get chopped off as they hit the sky.
we went to the mirage so i could have more kitties, but the white tigers had just left for the day when we got there, and the secret garden (more tigers, and other animals) was outside and it was raining. so that was scrapped.
-treasure island looked neat from the outside. we didn't get to see the inside, nor did we get to see the free show they put on, because it was always at inconvenient times. (ie conflicting with blue man group or bond)
-the venetian was the same as the bellagio except much, much cooler. the gondoliers in the mall were skilled boaters and singers. there was artwork everywhere, and so much gilt that i felt poor just walking in the place. we didn't go in the guggenheim hermitage museum, but then again i wasn't in an arty mood and we were a bit short on time.
it was a lot of fun and a lot of walking. i got a headache a few hours into every day that didn't go away until i went to sleep. a lot of good food, to. we didn't go to any of the obscenely expensive restaurants, but the gourmand in me still went home happy.