Vegas was terrific! We had a wonderful time. I think a lot of that was due to the fact that Steve finally at some point came to grips with the fact that I really don't like gambling much. So I went to the pool to swim and read, went to the spa every day, and went shopping once. Steve went down to his favorite bar and played video poker mostly. He did play some roulette, too. I played a few rounds of video poker, but I never did well.
We went to the Bellagio for brunch when we arrived on Sunday, and I highly recommend that. Tip -- sit at the bar. You get seated faster, and the bartenders fill up your drinks a lot faster and more often than the waitresses do. We walked past 50 or 60 people who were waiting for tables! While we were at the Bellagio we went to the art gallery and saw the Ansel Adams photography exhibit, which I loved. It was really interesting to see all the photos in person, and read about what he was doing when he took them. They had letters and items from his personal life, which gave you a sense of who he was beyond his photography. There was also an old camera setup of his. It was HUGE! I was amazed that he got all that out into the wilderness and made it work. He must have had quite a crew of people to haul his stuff around. There were a couple that Steve and I both liked, so I went into the gift shop to see if they had prints, but they only had postcard size of the ones we liked. I'm going to try framing those. I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon in the salon, getting my hair colored and cut. I was much happier with my hair afterward! By dinnertime, we were hungry again, so Al recommended the Italian trattoria in the MGM and off we went. Halfway through dinner, we were both trying not to fall asleep in our plates! We finally gave up and went up to the room (Steve got us a bungalow suite which is basically a room big enough for a double size bathroom, bedroom area and a sitting area) to crash for the night .. and it was only about 7 or 7:30. Yes, we felt incredibly lame, but in our defense, neither one of us slept much the night before.
Monday morning I got a manicure and pedicure at the spa. I've never had a spa experience like this one. Every spa I've been to (and yes, it's a very limited number) has been borderline uncomfortable, because I always got the feeling that the girls running the spa didn't think I ought to be there, like I wasn't the kind of person who deserved their attention. That was definitely NOT the case at the MGM spa. Everyone there was incredibly welcoming and nice, and the girls at the front desk who gave me a tour on my first day explained everything in detail. Monday I got my first-ever set of acrylic tips (very fancy looking nails I have now!), and first ever full pedicure. I discovered later that two Bailey's prior to foot treatments makes them much nicer, as I usually can't stand to have anyone touch my feet. However, I was thrilled to have nice-looking nails!
Monday afternoon Steve and I both went to the pool to go float in the lazy river (1/4 mile of "river" pool where all the jets point in the same direction to create a gentle current). It was phenomenaly hot, and there were a lot of people and kids out. It was fun, but not really relaxing as you had to pay attention in order not to run into people! We decided that mornings were probably going to be better for the pool. Monday night Steve surprised me with a limousine, and we had a lovely ride over to old Vegas where we went to the Four Queens. We had reservations at Hugo's Cellar for dinner, but we were quite early, so we played 50-cent roulette ... and I won over $100! I didn't even know the odds until the dealer handed me my first $25 chip, and Steve told me the odds were 35 to 1 to win. There was an old gentleman across the table who had a retired Marine cap on, and I bought him $25 worth of chips when he started running low. Steve thought I was odd for doing that, but the guy reminded me of Pop, and I just wanted to do something nice for him. He was really surprised, so that was fun! We ended up cashing in $150 worth of chips, which put a dent in our dinner bill. Hugo's Cellar was by far the best dinner we had in Vegas. The hostess handed me a rose when we walked in, and they seated us in a very comfortable booth. We had a wonderful bottle of wine, and they had a guy who came to make your salad tableside, with your choice of about 12 different ingredients. Steve had steak, and I had chicken with mushrooms (heartier than regular chicken marsala), and we enjoyed every bite. The service was impeccable -- the next time we get to Vegas I want to go there again! The limo ride back to the MGM was a lot of fun, as we got to see all the lights -- old Vegas as well as the strip.
Tuesday we went to the pool in the morning, after we had a nice breakfast at the cafe. The pool was much better first thing in the morning -- fewer people, not as hot, and we enjoyed it more. After that I went back to the spa for a basic massage, and I decided to go a little early and check out their shower facilities (mostly because housekeeping was cleaning our room at the time). VERY NICE! I had a nice relaxing post-pool cleanup before my massage, and then a nice hot shower again after the massage (incredible massage, by the way). Apparently you are supposed to go sit in the sauna for a little while after a massage, but I didn't feel like doing that. The spa facilities are great as they have everything you need in quantity, and it's all placed right where you need it. With any spa treatment, you are allowed to come back at any point during the day and use the spa facilities, like the jacuzzi pool, sauna, whatever ... but I never made it back down to do that. The jacuzzi pool made me a bit uncomfortable on Tues as there was a particularly heavy older woman getting out as I came down the hallway, and she was absolutely stark naked. There are three other sides to the pool, all of which do not face the hallway entrance -- so she COULD have avoided showing her altogether (which was going every which way) but apparently that wasn't what she wanted to do. I had once of those shuddery "eeeuuuuuwww" moments as I tried not to go blind. We went for a short walk down the strip after I finished at the spa and had Fatburgers for lunch -- old time greasy burger joint. The milkshake was really good! Later, we got dressed and took the monorail over to Caesar's Palace to pick up our Elton John tickets and have dinner at Nero's. Caesar's is enormous, and they have a giant shopping mall also. Nero's was by far the worst dinner we had. I'll never go there again. We sat down for dinner at 5:15. I think our wine that we ordered right away finally showed up at 5:45. Dinner didn't arrive until about 6:40 -- when we had basically finished the wine. The food was good, but the service was so awful (the waiter just disappeared and I think visited our table twice in the hour we waited between wine and dinner). We told the waiter when we arrived that we were seeing Elton John for our anniversary that night, and you would have thought that would have made some difference. Obviously not. Aside from the Nero's disappointment, Elton John was fantastic! The band was incredible, Elton John was amazing, and they had all kind of fun props on stage for the various songs. THey also had a giant movie screen behind them, and they showed videos for each song, most of which were "arty" and somewhat strange (several of them had the same gay dancer who needed some serious lessons -- probably somebody's boyfriend). One of the better videos had Pam Anderson doing a poledance to "The Bitch is Back" and that was great! That was definitely Steve's favorite, even though most of the other videos had an assortment of hooters in them. Lots of fun! The two women seated on my other side recommended the spa at the Paris hotel: said it wasn't as expensive as other places and it was still really nice.
Wednesday I went back to the pool in the morning to read and swim a little, and that was nice. I met Steve at the bar and had tweo Bailey's, and then I went to the spa for their "rainforest" spa treatment. That was REALLY cool. I did the arrive early and use the facilities strategy again, and tht was nice. When it was time for my appointment, Laurie came to get me and she took me back up the main stairs, and down a separate set of stairs to a private suite that was bigger than the downstairs of my house. I walked in the main room, which had a huge jacuzzi tub on the right, and sofas and comfy furniture scattered around. The bathroom area had a sitting area, a separate room with a toilet and bidet, a separate room that was the shower (must have been at least 8x8), and off that was a steam room. I never did figure out how big that was because it was so steamy I couldn't see, but I think it was at least the size of the shower room. Laurie told me to go sit in the steam for 10 minutes, and then come out when I was ready. When I did (all wrapped up in the cushy robe they give you), she took me into the treatment room, which was about 3 times the size of all the other rooms I'd been in, there were 2 massage tables. The rainforest treatment consisted of a messy but delightfully aromatic body scrub with crushed cocoa beans, sugar, vanilla and flower oils. It was like getting a massage before a massage. When that was done, Laurie went to start the shower for me, then came back and wrapped me all up in the sheets and towels and walked me into the bathroom area. She told me to take a really good shower and come out when I was done. The shower was amazing -- it was one of those showers with multiple sprays coming from all different directions, and there were several on/off handles. The shower amenities besides the sprays were wonderful: fancy shampoos and conditioners and a couple different body washes. Once I finished that, I went back out (again wrapped in that cozy robe) and Laurie finished with a fantastic massage. The oils she used smelled much like the body scrub, just without the scrubby bits. I smelled like dessert when I got done there! It was such a treat to do that, and it made such a difference for me in terms of how relaxed I was ... all of those spa treats really helped me to unwind and recharge my batteries. I didn't realize just how run down I was until about half way through our trip.
I went shopping at the Fashion Place mall that afternoon and picked up some gifts -- especially for Kathy. Macy's was having a sale with multiple discounts, so I got her a really pretty necklace as a thank you for taking care of the kids for us. When I got back, Steve was asleep in the room, and I went down to see Al at the bar for a little while. I went up to get Steve, and we spent another hour or so talking to Al, and then AL met us for drinks over at New York New York in the 9 Fine Irishmen bar. Great place -- loved the ambience. It was fun: we had a few hors d'oeuvres, and by the time we got back to the room we were too tired to go to dinner! We packed a little, crashed, got up the next morning and finished packing. Steve went down and got breakfast at the Stage deli for us, and then we went out to wait for the airport shuttle. We got tired of waiting in the hot sun, so we ended up taking a cab (tip: it was less to take the cab to the airport than to take the shuttle). We decided that next time we would only get the shuttle from the airport to the MGM as you can check in to the hotel right in the airport by baggage, and they take care of your luggage for you. I highly recommend the JetBlue nonstop from Kennedy to Vegas. IT was a great flight both ways. You do have to eat something substantial before you fly though as they only have light snacks on board.
Kathy and the kids did fine all week, other than Jake refusing to eat anything healthy. He ended up getting sick, and he'd been more of a pain in the butt than she expected (due to his eating crap all week). I had a long talk with him about that and I think he will be better next time. I decided I'll do the Jewish mother thing and remind him of this experience at least once a week until Kathy comes back for another visit (hopefully Christmas, if Jerome is still in Iraq). We'll see. Things on the home front are deteriorating rapidly in terms of M.I.L.'s stage 4 progression and other in-law difficulties that have been brewing for the last couple years. I think this family is headed for at least one nuclear meltdown, if not several.
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