An interesting turn of events led me to spend 2 nights in Las Vegas. My sister-in-law from Korea said she was going for a conference with her job. My younger sister & I decided to go to see her there. We got plane tickets & I got tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil (the HIGHLIGHT of my trip – more on that later). A few days before we were to go, she informed us that there was a change in plans, and she was NOT going after all! Then, my sister said that if the sister-in-law wasn’t going (which was, after all, the purpose of the trip) then the sister wasn’t going either! Well that’s all well & good for them, but I already had scheduled the time off from work, had the tickets, & I was GOING!

I had my bag packed & the plan was to leave work, have a taxi meet me at home & go. Well, as I was leaving work the battery on the car was dead. I got a jump start, but between that & traffic, it burned up all my lead time, so I went straight to the airport (luckily I had taken my bag with me JUST IN CASE!)

I got to the airport in plenty of time, got checked in & on my completely full plane. The stewardesses were very humorous, they kept saying things like, “Is anyone listening to me?”, “…Your nude in-flight service personnel…”, “Is anyone going for business, or is everyone just going to play?”, and calling it Lost Wages instead of Las Vegas, etc. The flight was uneventful, I had an aisle seat (which I always try NOT to get.)

Got to the Vegas airport at 4:30PM. It was already getting dark! I had to maneuver past all the slot machines IN THE AIRPORT (I thought, “Shouldn’t they call this the Airport Casino?” Got to the hotel shuttle ($10 for a round trip) & they were full after the person in front of me. ;7( I had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. Got to the hotel – The Four Queens on Fremont Street - about 6:00. They told me it was too late to get over to the Strip to see La Cage at the Riviera. Checked in, threw my stuff in the room & went out on Fremont Street! . There is a canopy of lights built over the street and there is a light show on the hour after dark. At this time of year, it starts at 7PM. All the places on the block shut off the outside lights and there is a FANTASTIC sound system! The 7PM show this night was a 10 minute show on 60’s rock’n’roll – Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Santana, Janis Joplin, Stones, etc. The 8PM show was the history of time from beginning to end (in 10 minutes!) I think they called it Odessey. Then the 9PM show was a 10-minute history of disco – Macho Man, Donna Summer, etc.

Between shows, I cruised the street. I went into a casino that had lots of girls dressed in Carmen Miranda-esque outfits, handing out Mardi Gras beads. I had a Coney Dog (This was the Filet Mignon of Coney Dogs - I may never be able to look at another Sonic Chili Cheese Coney again after eating this one!) I popped into several gift/T-shirt stores (& picked up a couple trinkets). I was slightly amused at the great extent that alcohol is a major part of the culture. For example, everywhere they sold shot glasses of every description. People walk around the streets with huge glasses if various colored alcoholic concoctions – fishbowls, barbell shaped glasses, hourglass shaped glasses, beer bottles, etc. There are Starbucks Coffees & Krispy Kreme Donuts everywhere.

I caught a taxi to the Strip! . I found it interesting that this first taxi trip cost $20, the return trip was $17 and the next night the return trip only cost $11! I guess my point here would be that it might be worth your while, if you are going, to get a map and suggest a route, at least pay attention to the route the driver takes you on! Since the show I really wanted to see (Charo in “Bravo” at the Sahara) is “dark” on Thursday (meaning it has no show) I went to Bally’s to see “Jubilee!” at 10:30. This is your typical Las Vegas showgirl show, about 50 topless girls in huge headpieces and gorgeous costumes with hunky musclemen singing and dancing around them. The production values were excellent, the show was so classy that you hardly even noticed there were 50 pairs of naked breasts staring you in the face! Money & time well spent! I got one of the last tickets. I just walked in & bought it! You have to check your camera before you are allowed to go in. The program was another $20, so I did not get one (I wish I had!) The place is set up where there are several rows of tables & then the auditorium seating. I sat a seat in the front row of the auditorium seating! Two men speaking Russian sat next to me and talked, loudly, the whole time, until they got up & left about ¾ of the way through the show (Thank you God!)

After the show, I wandered around for nearly 3 hours. I saw several of the places from the outside (Paris looks stunning!) While walking around outside of Paris, I was following 2 young (like high school age)DRUNK(!)girls. I was thinking how much fun they seemed to be having - loud, singing, stumbling around, laughing, taling nonsense - and thinking how much fun it was when I drank like that. Then, they both took a tumble down a flight of stairs - & I thought, HMMM, I guess I remember how much fun it WASN'T, too, to be that drunk! It was kind of a nasty way to get that reminder, those poor girls!

I caught a taxi back to The Four Queens. Since I had to call home to leave a message about the roofer that was coming out that morning, I decided it was easier to stay awake then wake up to call, so I hung out in the casino and played about $15 in the nickel slots. I earned about $12 back. It was kinda cool, perhaps had I won big I would better understand the addictive thrill.

The Liberace Museum opened at 10AM, so I caught a taxi out there. It is out around the airport. I found this to be a delightful outing, the cars, the pianos, the jewelry, the CLOTHES!!!!!!! The rhinestone-studded cars, the rhinestone-studded piano (& don’t forget the world’s largest rhinestone!), just the history (his TV show was around the time I was born) was simply amazing. There were several costumes that boggled the mind. One was the costume he wore when he came out of a Faberge egg – 250 pounds of pink turkey feathers! There was the “Matador” outfit he wore in Mexico, and his red, white & blue jumpsuit. I bought a ring & “The Legendary Liberace Original PBS TV Soundtrack,” some postcards & was given a couple packs of cards kids who had received grants from the Liberace Foundation to study art had made. My plan was to go to the Breakfast buffet at Monte Carlo, but there was a FREE shuttle that was taking a group to the Treasure Island, so I rode with them. The Venetian is right next door, as is Mirage, both places that were on my agenda!

My friend & I!

I started with Treasure Island, but the pirate ship battle would not start for several hours so I dropped a few quarters in a quarter slot machine (actually came out a couple dollars ahead here!) and headed across the elevated walkway to the Venetian. I wandered through the shops & bought a magic trick at the “Magic Museum.” I took some pictures of the Gondoliers, however most of the ones my camera DID let me take (darn temperamental camera, how does it know when it is too dark to get a good picture – No, really, I LOVE my camera – a Canon Rebel, an excellent camera!) are too dark anyway. Those darn Gondolieros, whenever they saw a camera pointed at them they would wave, I wanted to get a shot of them singing their little muscle-bound hearts out for their riders(!). I went to view the paintings at the Guggenheim Museum - there are 40 stunning pictures by Titaian, Picasso, Durer, Van Eyck , Tintoretto, Velazquez, Delacroix, Rubens, Van Gogh, Monet, & others (&, in my mind, some NOT so stunning pictures by Miro, Kadinski, - & the worst of all, Mondrian(!), etc.).

I went to the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum! – loved the one in NY, NY, had to try another (maybe some day I will make it to the one in San Francisco too!). Took several pictures at Madame Tussaud's! (NOT as many as I did in NY, but then I already HAD shots of a lot of the people!) Oh, also, my camera seems to KNOW when I am on vacation, the battery died (just like it did when I was in LA & in Washington DC!) It was pushing 6PM & I noticed I was feeling a little queasy. I realized I had forgotten to eat, so I got a sandwich at this little deli in the Venetian.

I headed over to the Mirage. I wanted to see Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden. Well, it just so happens they started winter hours LAST WEEK, so my carefully laid plans were dashed. I think they felt sorry for me (a little, they still charged me $15!) and let me into the dolphin habitat. There were 3 pens with 3 dolphins each, but it was so dark my camera would not allow me to take any pictures. I wandered down this dark deserted pathway, into a tunnel, there was an employee all alone watching the dolphins play through an underground window! She showed me a video of one of the baby dolphins being born, then showed me the Mama & the baby. As soon as she was called away, another employee chased me out!

SO, what was I to do now, I had 3.5 hours until Cirque Du Soliel started at Treasure Island across the street. I asked at the ticket counter if there were any tickets to see Siegfried & Roy’s 7PM show, of course they were sold out. However, there was a standby line that I could wait in in case anyone did not show. “Yeah right,” thought I. There were 9 people in this line. A crotchety old man told me, “The end of the line is over here” (behind him.) As I eavesdropped on him bragging about how he was the engineer that had designed the Belaggio & the Mirage, &, &. All I could think was, “Yeah, right, so why are you standing in the Standby line then!?” The ticket man came by and asked the people, “ how many in your party?” “3.” How many in your party?” “3.” How many in your party?” “3.” And to me “You are all alone? Come with me!” I got the only seat!

This theater is set up with a bunch of tables, then the auditorium seating, then another row of tables, and then a row of booths. I was at the second grouping of tables. There were 5 men from Italy, only one of which spoke English who sat at my 6-top table with me. No cameras allowed, naturally. One of the Italians TRIED to film the show with his video camera, but the dim lights on the camera showed bright in that dark room & he gave up. The English speaker kept asking me, “How you say…?” This show is flawless. If you like magic, if you like large cats, if you simply like great entertainment, loud sounds, and non-stop action, this show is for you! Family entertainment (but leave the little ones at home, it might be too scary for them!) I don’t know if I ever picked my jaw up off the table until the end of the show. There were the usual magic tricks like cutting a woman in half, a woman & a tiger jumping out of Roy’s stomach, cutting Roy into 3 pieces, raising Roy & a tiger in boxes into the air & making them disappear. Roy reappeared seconds later in the middle of the audience –thank goodness the tiger was not with him, even though they joked that that happened ‘last night’! Then they brought Jumbo the elephant on stage & made HIM disappear! Now that’s magic! 2 drinks & a program came with the ticket price.

I caught the tram back to Treasure Island. I stopped in Starbuck’s for a cup of coffee and waited for Cirque Du Soleil’s Mystere to start. They began letting us in at 10PM. I had a second row aisle seat. No cameras allowed, naturally, so I have no shots of this. The show started out with a “wiseguy” harassing audience members – leading them astray, spilling popcorn on people, ripping up their tickets, etc. Then a “baby” did a little skit, involving an audience member who she named “Papa,” and used as a prop several times throughout the show. The acrobats, the bodybuilder/yoga/acrobats, the drummers, the … I just cannot do it justice. This alone was worth taking the trip for! If you can go, DO IT!!! I think “Mystere” is coming to the end of its run soon, “O” has several more years to go, a new show is slated to start soon. go, Go, GO!!! I had a lady take a picture of me in front of the marque, someone walked in front of the camera at the exact second it clicked (the last shot on the roll.)

I had to be at the airport at 10:30AM so had the shuttle scheduled for 8:45. I was up at 7AM, and ran out to Fremont Street to see if the gift shop was open that had the last little trinket that I wanted was open. It was. I went back to the hotel, dropped about $1 in the nickel slot (won about $.40), ran across the street to get an Egg McMuffin at the McDonald’s that had a clear view of the front of the hotel so I would be sure not to miss the shuttle. I sauntered back over to the hotel & waited, it was running late due to some parade that had the street closed off. Got to the airport in plenty of time, got on the plane (a window seat this time, like I like!). They told us there was a problem they had to check out, then it lead to another problem, to another, finally after 90 minutes they got us off the plane, backed that plane out, and a new plane in. We got back on (I got my window seat again, thank you!) and we took off 2 hours late. Which meant we landed 2 hours late. But I was home, tired and hungry. The car started right up ($17 parking costs – just a little more than a taxi would have cost!) I got home, ate, and slept for the next 12 hours.

This was a fantastic trip, and when I think about all the things I did NOT get to see or do ( ride in the space needle, go up the Eiffel Tower, go to New York New York, eat at those fabulous buffets, the Secret Garden, the Lion Habitat, the Pirate Battle, The Shark Reef, The M&M Factory, the Volcano, the moving statues at Caesar’s Palace, etc , I am simply blown away!