Way back in February I decided that I wanted to take Christine somewhere really nice for dinner. In the past we've drooled over some food from the Food Network chefs, so I searched around to see where these chefs had restaurants. The big chefs, of course, have restaurants in big cities like New York and San Francisco, but there are also a bunch of great restaurants in Las Vegas. Additionally, there are direct flights from Fort Collins to Vegas and there is a bunch of other entertainment in Vegas. Vegas wins.
I told Christine to block of the weekend so we could go somewhere for her birthday, but I kept it a secret until the weekend before we left. That was killer. I was excited about the trip, but I had to wait soooo long to tell her.
We left Friday morning from our little Fort Collins/Loveland airport and got to Vegas in the afternoon. The flight was uneventful, but we were forced to go through security 2 times because one of the bright people waiting in the the "terminal" (a double wide trailer, seriously), opened the emergency exit. I guess someone had started drinking early.
I searched the hotels in Vegas to find something that was on the strip, but not wallet-busting expensive. I must admit, one of the reasons I picked our hotel was based on the totally cheesy name: "Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon". It used to be the Barbary Coast, but they changed the name recently when they remodeled. It's in the center of the strip, which gave us decent access to everything.
Friday night we had dinner reservations at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesars Palace. The food was delicious from beginning to end. While waiting for our food, we munched on a basket of bread which contained a jalapeno and assiago cheese bread, and a blue and yellow corn bread muffin. Both awesome. For dinner, we shared a spice rubbed pork tenderloin and tuna steak. As you would expect, both were cooked perfectly and had some great spice. Almost as good as the pork was the sweet potato tamale that came with it.
Even though we were stuffed to the gills, we found room for dessert. I had a chocolate and peanut butter mouse. Christine had a warm chocolate cake, which she is pretty sure was the best chocolate cake ever. I can't disagree. I have a hard time describing the texture of the cake. It was solid enough to hold its shape, but yet it was pudding soft when you put it in your mouth. It was unbelievably good.
My only complaint about the Mesa Grill was that the portions were too big. When you're eating such great food, it's hard to leave some on the plate so we both ended up feeling like we were going to burst afterwards.
Saturday we had dinner at Mario Batali's B&B; Ristorante in the Venetian. I had a pasta with lobster in a spicy sauce. Christine had a traditional Italian dish called "Love Letter". It was sort of a ravioli type thing with a mint filling and served with a spicy lamp sausage sauce. Both were great, and the portion sizes were just enough for us to have room for a little dessert. I can't remember the name of what we had, but it was a tart type thing with pine nuts and served with the most delicious lemon sorbet.
Of the two diners, my favorite was the Mesa Grill.
After dinner on Saturday we went to see Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity. I've only seen one other Cirque show live, but I've seen other on video and many more similar performances (thanks to a former roommate who was a performing juggler). When I see a Cirque du Soleil show, I expect to be blown away by innovative acts. I like it when they take an act that's kind of familiar and then completely blow my mind by taking it to the next level. Zumanity just doesn't do that. It's just "standard" circus acts with boobs. I think the coolest thing was the woman they had swimming in a fish bowl at the opening of the show. Sadly, if you're going to see one of their shows, I wouldn't recommend Zumanity.
Christine and I aren't gamblers, so we instead did a lot of walking around in Vegas. We walked everywhere between the Luxor on the south end of the strip to the Stratosphere on the far north end. We had to work off our dinner calories. :) At New York New York, we rode the roller coaster, which was pretty fun. I haven't been on a roller coaster in years. We thought about doing the rides on top of the Stratosphere, but neither of us was really that into it by the time we walked up there.
By strange coincidence, one of Christine's friends was in Vegas also for her sister's bachelorette party. We didn't get to hang with them too much, but it was an added birthday bonus to hang out and chat with Christine's friend.
I've only been to Vegas one other time, and it was 4 years ago. That's plenty for me. The whole place is a little overwhelming, not to mention the excess is disturbing. I can't help but think of the dams on the Colorado River when I see the whole place lit up at night. There's an interesting mix of people in Vegas. You have everyone from the high rollers who need a place to blow their millions of dollars, to college kids who relish the opportunity to walk around a town while toting a giant mixed drink, to old couples that want to see Barry Manilow one more time. I think we fell somewhere between the college kids and the old people. Next time I'll have to plan on doing more drinking because I think it would make that place and its associated madness more bearable.
Thanks for the details! What did you think of your hotel?
ReplyDeleteI actually liked the hotel. The room was spacious and the price was decent. For a city that does a lot of smoking, the room was clean and smoke odor free. There are some cheaper hotels off the strip, but after doing a lot of walking around, I wouldn't have wanted to be off the strip.
ReplyDeleteMy one complaint about the room was that shower drain was slow. That drives me nuts. I would expect that type of thing at the Paris hotel. (Yeah, that's a jab at the crappy plumbing in Europe.)
Yes, this was a nice hotel!
ReplyDeleteI'm very picky about non-smoking rooms, and this one lived up to it, even though you could smell smoke pretty much every other place in the hotel. That was amazing.