All you need is Love

Sunday morning rolled around and Jim thought it would be a good idea to get up at 9am. Um, no. I lazed around in bed until we both fell back asleep and when we woke up for good, it was after 11am. Much better.

We changed into our suits and headed down for some food and pool time. We opted to eat at Riva, a casual dining cafe by Wolfgang Puck, next to the pools at The Venetian. The only downside to waking up that late is that even in Vegas, the poolside cafes stop serving breakfast at noon. Boooo. We had to settle for lunchtime goodies, a club sandwich for Jim and a burger with balsamic onion marmalade for me. Both came with a heap of fries and mini condiments - so cute! Jim enjoyed his sandwich and my burger was awesome. The white cheddar and onion marmalade gave it so much flavor, much more than I was expecting.

After lunch, we made our way back to the Palazzo pools and settled in on lounge chairs for a few hours. We read, we had a couple of drinks, we went in the pool - basically it was just a lazy afternoon in the super hot sun. Around 3pm, we headed in to get ready for the evening festivities. Since we were skipping lunch and it would be awhile til dinner, we stopped for a snack. Gelato is so yummy!

We have talked about seeing a show in Vegas forevah and this trip we finally made it happen.

The lobby of the theater was very cool.

I would have taken pictures inside the theater, but the big warning on the tickets made me think twice. In hindsight, I'm glad I wasn't worried about taking pictures and instead just sat back and enjoyed the show. It was fabulous! If you've ever seen a Cirque show, you know they're a bit wacky and this one was no different. But, since the real focus was on the music (of which, the arrangements were done so well) the wackiness was toned down a bit. There was a ton of different dance styles - everything from hip hop to modern - and tons of rope tricks. Our favorite number was to "Something (in the way she moves)" with 1 guy in the middle doing modern dance with 4 girls dressed in white on wires doing lyrical dance all around him. Just stunning. Our favorite trick was 4 girls that were pulled up from the bottom of the stage on ropes. The catch? They were sitting in a perfect lotus style with nothing but a rope wrapped around one leg to keep them upright. Even Jim turned to me and said that he didn't think people got just how difficult/cool that really was. We both highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of The Beatles or Cirque de Soleil.

We danced our way out of the theater with the rest of the crowd and headed back across the street to The Venetian for dinner.

I had heard that the restaurant was good, not outstanding, but I still had to try it. I mean, it is a Keller restaurant, after all. The place wasn't packed when we got there for our late reservation and yet somehow, they still gave us a crappy table. I should have asked to be moved, but I just chickened out. Oh, and we are fairly certain that our waiter had a faux french accent. It took all we had not to call him out on it. Lame-o.

But, what about the food, you say? It was a mixed bag. To start, Jim ordered the Squash Salad (a special for the evening) and I had the mixed greens salad with goat cheese and herbs de provence. Jim's salad was just meh at best. My salad was awesome though. Simple, yes, but executed really well and the flavors were delicious.

For the main course, Jim went with another special - smoked sturgeon with cippolini onions and fingerling potatoes. Just okay. I guess the sauce was throwing things off, but once he took that off, he thought it was better. The bite I had was alright, but nothing special. I ordered the salmon with sauteed chard, red onion confit, english cucumber and buckwheat crepes. There was a lot going on, but it all worked really well together. The salmon was cooked perfectly and it all just tasted really good.

For dessert, we opted for the profiteroles, which were yummy. But really, can you screw up cream puffs with chocolate sauce? I guess someone could, but these were done really well.

All in all a good dinner. But our best dinner (and a pretty damn amazing snack) was yet to come.

Dinner ended and it was still before 11pm. I checked my phone while Jim used the restroom and saw that Vino, Spurs, Dressing Queen and some of their family were at the Wynn having drinks on the outdoor patio and that if we had time we should join them. She also mentioned something about seeing Daniel Boulud and that she hoped we had dinner at his brasserie and that we got to see him, too. (What a crummy night to eat at Bouchon!)

We high-tailed it over to the Wynn and settled in for drinks. Conversation was had, alcohol was consumed. Quite the typical scene for us all. Spurs and Vino looked so happy, but also tired. And who can blame them? It had been a long week for them. We had a good time watching the crazy watershow and making time for a quick pic.

Around this point, Jim and I got a second wind and decided to check out the new club at The Palazzo called Lavo since we had a card for ladies to get in free. They tout themselves as a "restaurant, bathhouse and nightclub." Mmm, okay. We got in quickly and made our way through the "restaurant" portion before going upstairs to the "nightclub". On our way up, we saw parts of the bathhouse:

Yes, those sinks had running water the whole time. We hoped they were just like a fountain system and that somehow the water was recycled. We also couldn't get over how that set up was just begging for someone to use those sinks for unintended purposes. I mean, seriously, how often do you think they'll have to "sanitize" those bad boys? [/rant]

Once we got up to the dance floor, the place was hoppin'. The DJ was awesome, the crowd was energetic and our drinks were yummy. Even though we're old and didn't really dance, instead opting to hangout on the side, we still had fun.

At this point, I was pretty sober, so it was fun to watch all the super drunk folks and how quickly security would descend on them and whisk them out the back door. We also found the addition of a saxaphonist on the go-go dancing stage during one set interesting.

Later in the night, as they were running out of songs, they played "Footloose". This resulted in all the white folks dancing like crazy people and everyone else just looking around with a "WTF? How the hell do we dance to this" expression on their face, go-go dancers included. Jim and I were cracking up as they played this at Vino and Sporty's weddings and everyone went nuts. :P

Finally, around 3am, we called it a night.

The day after/Start of the mini-vacation

Surprisingly enough, we actually woke up at a decent hour and stumbled our way to the hotel cafe for breakfast. I was too busy nursing a hangover to worry about taking pictures, but really breakfast wasn't all that exciting to begin with. The upside is that Jim and I both felt better after a lot of greasy food and copious amounts of coffee.

Vino and Spurs had reserved 3 cabanas for everyone to hang out in for the day and we were some of the first guests to arrive. Spurs and Vino were looking quite chipper and happy and like they were in much better shape than the rest of us.

Blondie and Chaz walked out to the cabanas with us, where Jim and Chaz immediately took over the couch with Vino's dad. Blondie and I were twinsies again because we're crazy.

Much of the afternoon was spent drinking tons of the complimentary strawberry water provided to pool guests, talking and hanging out.

We did manage to wander over to the activity pool at one point to take advantage of the waterslide. Highlights included Chaz and Bif almost flying out of the slide during one of the turns and Sporty, Vino and Dressing Queen going down the slide in a chain, then coming to a dead stop at the end of the slid and gracefully plunking down into the pool one at a time. Sadly, there are no pictures of this as my camera is not so much waterproof and I didn't think to bring the camera cover for it. Boo to me.

Blondie and Chaz had planned on driving back that day, but as the afternoon wore on, we managed to convince them to come spend the night on the strip with us. They found a cheap room at Imperial Palace - aka "IP" or "hell hole" as they'd later find out. We finally said our goodbyes to Vino and Spurs around 4pm. It was so much fun hanging out with them and while it was sad to say bye, we also knew that we'd all be getting back together for Spurs' birthday in a few weeks.

The drive to the strip was uneventful. We checked in to The Palazzo and then proceeded to get ready for our night out.

By the time Blondie and Chaz met us at our room, they had already discovered that the IP was a POS, especially seeing as how they had a room right next to the elevator. They were going to be lulled to sleep by the lovely "ping!" "ping!" of the elevator all night. :/

To take their mind off the crappy room, we headed out to Morel's for a yummy steak dinner. Jim and I have been to Morel's a couple of times at The Grove, but the decor at this one really takes the cake. Paintings of nude folks in various, um, compromising positions filled the walls. I mean, it is Vegas and all, but yeah. It's out there.

We were seated on the patio, overlooking TI and Mirage. We were even treated to the TI stageshow twice during our meal, which not surprisingly, is not nearly as cool as the Bellagio Fountains. Our waiter, though, was hilarious! I wish I could bring him with me to all of our meals out. Great service all night long.

Blondie and I started with a picture and then split a bottle of Cabernet. The boys opted for Chimay in fancy glasses.

For appetizers, Jim had butter lettuce salad, Blondie and Chaz had the potato leek soup with truffle chips and I opted for the onion au gratin soup. All of them were very good, although their soup still doesn't hold a candle to the crazy good french onion soup I had at Boulud Brasserie earlier in the year.

[I should note that my closest friends know about this blog and read it, even if they don't comment much, if ever. And since I've been on a bit of picture rampage, they now wait to start eating until I've photographed their meal. It's hilarious to me, but also awesome that I don't have to explain what I'm doing. Yeah, they think I'm nuts, but then again, they did before the blog, too. So really, I'm just maintaining the status quo.]

Since it is a steakhouse, everyone except for Jim opted for the 10oz filet mignon, while Jim went out on a limb and ordered the lamb. For sides we had artichoke hearts and potato puree. Thumbs up all around.

At this point everyone was completely stuffed. So, no dessert. Instead, dessert wine! Blondie and I ordered the Muscat, while Jim had a glass of port. We had just finished sharing our experience with Grappa in Italy with Blondie and Chaz - that basically rubbing alcohol goes down smoother than that stuff. Which led Chaz to have to try this stuff for himself. It's really really strong. Even the smell of it will put hair on your chest. He took one sip and breathed fire. Yup, we weren't lying to ya ;) Blondie barely tasted it and a look of complete horror crossed her face. And somehow, I know there are a few of you that will read this and think "okay, now i have to try this." Just. Don't. Seriously. It's no bueno.

After rolling ourselves away from the table, we weren't ready to call it a night yet. So, off we went to Dos Caminos in The Palazzo for some more liquid fun. The boys opted for a flight of tequila, which included Don Juan, Corazon and Patron. This came with flavored salts, lime wedges and a bloody mary mix shooter. I'm not usually one for straight hard liquor, but I sipped the Patron and it was quite yummy. Blondie and I opted for a pitcher of white sangria.

The place was dead, which makes us worry for their future survival. Alhthough, one way to up the crowd would be to have better music. They had a DJ playing Spanish-influenced music that was supplemented by someone playing the drums and someone on the trumpet. Drum guy was cool, but trumpet guy was too loud and annoying. Chaz showed us all his disapproval.

After finishing our round of drinks, we headed off to The Venetian to gamble a bit before Chaz and Blondie had to head back and get a little sleep. (They were heading out really early Sunday morning to beat the rush back to SD.) Along the way, I saw this cute little guy and insisted on a picture. The people behind us look thrilled, don't they?

At The Venetian, we found some penny slots to play on for a bit. Chaz found a hot machine that even paid a $60 jackpot after putting in a mere 30 cents. Score! Eventually though, Chaz and Blondie decided to call it a night. It was so much fun hanging out with them and I was really happy they decided to stay one last night to play with us. :)

At this point it was maybe 11:30ish and I was hoping to be able to catch up with some OC gals that were in town celebrating Jessica's birthday. After a few text messages back and forth, Jim and I headed over to Planet Hollywood to hang out for a bit and wish her a happy birthday! When we got there, we found Jessica and Claire and some of Jessica's other pals at the Extra lounge hanging out. Of course, this meant picture time.

It's pretty funny that they really only live a few miles from me and yet somehow it's easier to meet up in Vegas than it is to meet up in California. Jim and I stayed and chatted a bit with Jessica's friends and then a little after 1am, the last few days started catching up to me and I needed to get to sleep. Fabulous day in Vegas, if I do say so myself.