Saturday June 29, 2019
Summary: I rode with Kevin to New Orleans on Saturday. We split a room at the W Hotel in the French Quarter, dinner at Irene's and walking around the French Quarter.
The rooms at the W are nice with balconies on the second floor rooms. Plus, it has a large courtyard that would be great for Mardi Gras. I may try them Mardi Gras 2020 (It also just so happens that my birthday next year will be on Ash Wednesday - not sure what I'm gonna do about that party yet but I'm floating the idea of a cruise). We ate dinner at my favorite New Orleans restaurant, Irene's; and then (Chris' new favorite term) bee-bopped round the Quarter. Irene's is a fantastic restaurant that I have been going to for years now. She had another location closer to Esplanade but had to relocate due to her lease running out with the museum. Her new location is closer to Canal and just around the corner from the W Hotel. The menu has all of her famous dishes; plus, the new building, while keeping generally with the layout of the original location, has much more room. This dinner trip was great although we did have to share a dining room with a family birthday party. That's okay. We had mostly finished dinner by the time they all started showing up.
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| W Hotel Courtyard and Pool |
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| We had a couple of drinks at the W Hotel bar. |
This next photo is from me at the New Orleans airport at the self-service check-in which weighs your luggage and you have to pay more if it is over 40 pounds. This is actually from Sunday, not Saturday.
Sunday June 30, 2019
Summary: Noah and Kevin fly from New Orleans to Las Vegas. Noah, Kevin and Maureen go grocery shopping at Vons. Noah, Kevin, Maureen and Mike go to dinner at Spago's and watch the Bellagio water show.
For check-in at the New Orleans Airport, I propped up the luggage with my foot when we checked in as it was a few pounds over the 40 pound limit. This was at the computer self check-in. Kevin then had to weigh the bag again at the desk with a real person and he did not prop up the luggage. The check-in lady waved it through though. She was not worried about a few pounds. The computer, though, would have charged for sure. Fight the Machines!
Mike and Maureen fly from Pensacola to Las Vegas. They arrived first, and we all met at the Luxor Hotel.
Kevin got a big 2-bedroom suite with a kitchenette and bar for him, me, Chris and Tracy. We had plenty of room but the sun was so bad in the late afternoon that we had to close all of the curtains or fry. The suites are really nice, though. And they are so large that it took us ten minutes to find all of the light switches. If you stay at the Luxor, I would recommend a suite in the East Tower facing east. Facing west has somewhat of a view but a lot is blocked by the West Tower.
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| Luxor Hotel |
I went grocery shopping at Vons with Maureen and Kevin. Vegas even has video poker games in their grocery stores. We did not play, but our luck would probably have been better playing there than on the Strip. Stocking up on groceries at a local grocery store will save you a ton of money if you are staying for a few days or more. Mike ordered room service one morning for over $30... it was just for him.
Kevin, Mike, Maureen and I had dinner at Spago by Wolfgang Puck in the Bellagio. We had a table on the balcony with the best view of the Bellagio water show. It played every fifteen minutes so we had plenty of shows while we ate a fantastic dinner. I'd recommend this restaurant for anyone going to Vegas. Go at night as the water shows play more frequently in the evenings and it is slightly cooler in the evenings.
Monday July 1, 2019
Summary: Kevin's birthday; Chris and Tracy arrive; Meet Kelly; Louis Vuitton; Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill
Dinner was with everyone plus Tracy's cousin, Kelly. Kevin picked Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill at Caesar's. Before dinner, we all walked the shops in Caesar's Forum and Kevin stopped in the Louis Vuitton there to buy himself a wallet but they did not have it in stock. They told him they did have it in stock at their store at the Bellagio. We did not have enough time before dinner so Kevin planned to go to the other store later in the week. That is a really great story and Kevin will never forget his first wallet that he bought from Louis Vuitton. That happened on Tuesday (just a little further down the page).
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| Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill |
Tuesday July 2, 2019
Summary: The LinQ; O'Shea's; In-N-Out Burgers; High Roller Wheel; Pac Man; Louis Vuitton; New York New York pizza dinner; Piano Bar; Donny & Marie; Zumanity
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| The High Roller is the lit-up circle in the middle. |
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| Before Boarding |
Chris and Tracy left the hotel early and Kevin and I met them at O'Sheah's at The LinQ, an outdoor entertainment street across Las Vegas Boulevard from Caesar's. Maureen met us and we all had an early lunch at In-N-Out Hamburgers. Then, we all decided to ride the High Roller. Kevin did not. He is afraid of heights and The High Roller is a clear glass bubble farris wheel that goes up to 450 feet. It was pretty good idea that he did not join us as the bubbles do not stop in order for everyone to get on and off and there are no guard rails keeping you from falling forty feet (there is a net, but you do not notice it when you are boarding as all you focus on is a moving door as a target). Our car had a bar and the bartender, Joe, poured more drinks than we could handle in thirty minutes. By the time we got off of the ride and met Kevin on the street, he was like "What happened to you all in thirty minutes". We did have a great bartender, Joe, who had a comedy line from plenty of the great and some-late comedians like Rodney Dangerfield.
Mike met us for a couple of drinks. Chris and I played Pac-Man on a seven or eight foot screen. Maureen and Mike went back to the hotel to get ready for their Donny and Marie show. Tracy agreed that she and Chris would go with Kevin and me to Zumanity although we knew it was a bad idea. Here are two short videos of us in front of the video wall at one of the casinos at the LINQ.
Chris, Tracy and I followed Kevin over to the Bellagio's Louis Vuitton store to buy his wallet. We were all drunk except for Kevin. It went down like this:
Kevin leads Chris, Tracy and me into this fancy Louis Vuitton showroom. Everyone in the store is dressed really well (except for us four). Even the security guards are dressed fancy. Kevin goes up to one of the many display cases and talks with a sales lady. Tracy goes with him. Chris and I sit in two chairs a little behind Kevin next to a window looking out over the Bellagio's water show lake. Kevin tells the lady the wallet he wants and she brings it back to him. It is $490. Kevin knew this as he researched it all online before he ever got to Vegas and we all knew the price as he told us all the previous night. Tracy, drunk though, must not have remembered this and was all a fluster about it. She went into a whole long diatribe about how expensive that was, did they take Groupon discounts, did Kevin get a free keychain with it and that the price was generally outrageous. Meanwhile, Chris had grown restless sitting with me so he decided to get up and - about the time Tracy asked about Groupon discounts - did an old/drunk man cartwheel through the showroom under the big chandelier just behind Kevin. Kevin, since his back was to Chris, did not see it; neither did Tracy, but I'm sure the sales lady did and put two and two together that we were all one group. Kevin, just with Tracy's barrage of discount questions, was exasperated on his first buying visit to Louis Vuitton. It had not at all worked out the way he had imagined it. At one point, he turned to me and mouthed "Come get her". I just laughed and laughed. The sales lady did, after Tracy's barrage of questions, offer a free bottle of water to which Tracy quickly replied, "We'll take two." Those were some nice Evian bottles of water, not plastic either. Kevin will never forget any of this, I'm sure. In fact, I think his quote for the entire thing was "I'm mortified". Chris and I laughed and laughed. Tracy thought we were asinine.
Mike and Maureen went to see Donny and Marie Osmond play at the Flamingo. The rest of us went to see Zumanity at New York New York. We had a great dinner in the atrium of New York New York on what was made to look like a cobblestone street between a bar and a pizzaria. We made good use of both.
After we ate, Tracy wondered off and snuck into a piano bar. We found her sitting with the piano player as he played and sang. We eventually managed to convince her that the show was going to start soon and we had to get to our seats. She reluctantly agreed and left her new boyfriend playing piano.
Zumanity is a Cirque du Soleil show filled with high-flying acrobatics and plenty of suggestive situations and revealing costumes. It was too risqué for Tracy so she and Chris left the show before it finished. Admittedly, Zumanity has a few pieces that can make anyone a little uneasy. Both of them were already in bed by the time we got back to the room and sleeping soundly.
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| Zumanity Aerial |
Donny and Marie Osmond, Vegas
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Wednesday July 3, 2019
Summary: Luxor Poolside Cabana; Bavette's Steakhouse; Mike and Maureen try out the new driver-less Lyft rides
Maureen and Mike set us all up with a pool cabana. We all stayed there pretty much all day, except for Mike who worked in his hotel room all day. The water was chilly, but okay once you got in. It was a very hot day as we lounged in the cabana and watched the horse races on TV. We all thought it odd that Luxor did not have gambling tables and slots around the pool and cabanas. We would have lost a fortune. Thanks Mike! Thanks Maureen! You saved us a fortune!
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| Our cabana pool at the Luxor |
Dinner was in a swanky, private room in the back of Bavette's Steak House at Park MGM. Pastor Dan had recommended it to Chris. Chris got all dressed up like Papagiorgio from "Vegas Vacation". The food and the service and the ambiance were impeccable. Plus, we all won a little bit of money in the Park MGM casino after dinner.
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| Our table at Bavette's |
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| Pre-beta Driver-less Car |
Thursday July 4, 2019
Summary: Chris' Birthday; Earthquake; Mike and Maureen fly to Los Angeles early (pre-earthquake); Eataly; Top Golf; Hofbrauhaus; Hard Rock Casino; Fremont Street; Speakeasy; Voodoo Rooftop Nightclub for fireworks; Pizza
Chris, Tracy, Kevin and I eat a late breakfast at Eataly; then we gambled at Park MGM. We did not win money (we gave back all of the money we won the previous night and a little bit more); but we did feel the 6.4 earthquake that hit halfway between Las Vegas and L.A. It was not too bad in Vegas but the chandeliers and tables shook. There were many aftershocks that we never felt and there was a 5.4 aftershock the next morning around 4am, but we were all asleep and it did not wake us.
We walked to and through MGM Grande to get to Top Golf. It was a long hike through the shops, casinos, pools and parking lots. We should have taken an Uber.
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| Eataly for Breakfast |
~~ Insert Earthquake Here ~~
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| Top Golf |
Top Golf was great. We played on the third floor. I held the leaderboard until the end, but my last three shots went on Tracy's scorecard as we had a problem with changing player names. Tracy beat Kevin. In his defense, he hasn't played golf since college and he's 47 years old now.
After Top Golf, we took an Uber over for lunch at Hofbrauhaus, a German restaurant and beer garden. Since it was his birthday, Chris got a spanking from the waitress. You will love the video.
We gambled at the Hard Rock Casino next. We all lost money, but we did run into Sebastian who won thousands of dollars playing at a roulette table next to the one Chris and I played. Chris and I should have moved to Sebastian's table. Our table was run by two zombies who we think may have died last week and were still showing up for work. I hope Sebastian took a lot of money home. We chanted "Sebastian! Sebastian! Sebastian!" as we walked past him to leave.
Chris had reservations for us all on Fremont Street at a speakeasy. It was a tiny, fancy bar in a backroom of another bar. Chris had to text for a reservation and then they texted him back a time to show up. A lady met us at the front bar and asked us to follow her through an 'elevator' that was really a hidden entrance to the speakeasy. We were encouraged to take our time, enjoy our drinks which were 'purposefully slow' in order to allow us to enjoy the relaxation and ambiance and to keep our voices low while we talked. Even though I was born well after prohibition, I cannot imagine this is how a speakeasy was back in the 1920's. I think speakeasies were loud, boisterous, drunken and very shady back then. I do not think there would be any slow drink service as I think everyone wanted their drinks before the speakeasy was raided. I'm pretty sure this is a Millennial version of a speakeasy.
After the speakeasy, we rushed over to Voodoo Lounge on top of the Rio.
We were running a little late, so we rushed over to the Rio for the July 4th fireworks display. Everyone else had the same idea because when we got to the rooftop bar at the Rio, we were the last ones to arrive. I saw NONE of the fireworks show as everyone in front of me was taller. I was furious so I, of course, spent a ridiculous amount of money on a VIP seating area with the best view of the Strip and all of the random fireworks that kept lighting up the skyline for a couple of hours. The four of us partied the rest of the night away with our bottle service and strangers from Poland that Tracy invited over (looking for her next husband).
We wrapped up the night at a pizza place. Tracy did the 'do you accept Groupon' bit again plus asking for free gimme's including a beer tap to take back to the Purple Parrot and for the bartender's bottle opener. There were no gimme's though. Chris was convinced that our pizza was not 31 inches, but we did not have a tape measure. Nevertheless, we ate it and called it a late, late night.
Friday July 5, 2019
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| Me leaving Luxor for the airport (not spaceport) |
Chris and Tracy flew out mid-afternoon. Kevin and I did not depart until 7pm. We lounged around the casino main bar, slot machines and roulette table until we left around 4:30pm for the airport. The Vegas airport was packed with people. I lost yet another $20 on a Game of Thrones slot machine before our flight ever started boarding. It was a full direct flight to New Orleans. The couple in front of us had an argument early on about him not being able to pay her enough attention to know when she felt bad. Kevin and I texted back and forth about them until the door shut. We hoped we did not have to listen to them argue for the entire four hour flight.
About an hour and a half after our plane took off from the Las Vegas airport, an even bigger earthquake than the Thursday morning earthquake hit between Los Angeles and Vegas. We did not know about it until we landed in New Orleans. There was not a great deal of damage for such a large quake. It registered as a 7.1 and struck at 10:19pm CST from Ridgecrest, CA. Maureen and Mike had already landed in Los Angeles so they felt it first hand.
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