International Plastic Modelers’ Society National Convention: Rio All Suites Hotel Casino August 17-2

Can you make a plastic horse lighter in weight and more aerodynamic than the regulars at the D? We could make a fortune my friend. (We’ll need 2)

 

That's brilliant!

 

So, for dinner last night we headed back to the Arts District to Esther's Kitchen. Having read a lot of rave reviews on Trip Advisor, we had high expectations. Esther's lived up to every one. Service was on point, everyone was super-nice, and the food was amazing. We had :

CAMBOZOLA
blue cheese + walnut + pickled grapes
BURRATA
chives + basil + sea salt
CANNELLINI BEANS
lardo + speck + pistachio oil
AGNOLOTTI
seared scallops + corn + lemon butter
STROZZAPRETI
truffle sausage + mushroom sugo + kale

The first three are spreads we got with our fresh-baked sourdough bread (which is to die for). Both of our pastas were cooked to perfection, and had the exact tooth expected. The scallops in J's dish were small bay scallops. Again, perfect. I really can't say enough good things about Esther's Kitchen.

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This is a really interesting report...loving the pictures, too!

 

Sorry for the delay...yesterday was a busy day. Saturday evening was the awards banquet, which consisted of a cocktail hour and no dinner service (Yay!). We decided to heat up our left over Good Pie in the room. J picked up a couple of little, aluminum pans at the good dollar store before our trip. Placing the pizza in these, then placing the pan on the rooms' iron for 10 minutes resulted in left over pizza with a warm and crispy bottom, and cold everywhere else lol. Still delish, though.

Burnin' down the couch...
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The ceremony itself was fine (boring as usual). We sat through the categories I was entered in, then left. Packed up my shit from the contest room, then we retired to the room for a late happy hour. After packing out yesterday morning, we had Sunday brunch at Honey Salt in Summerlin. Fantastic food in a beautiful, casual setting. J had monkey bread and a yogurt parfait, and I had fried chicken Benedict. Yes, it was all amazing. Highly recommend this place.

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After brunch, we had a few hours to kill before returning the car and checking into the airport. We decided to end our trip with a scenic loop through Red Rock Canyon, which you can never go wrong doing. We find this conservation area to be a gorgeous, ethereal experience.

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Final thoughts forthcoming....

 

That food looks amazing

 

Excellent tip on using the iron. Thanks.

 

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You're killing me playing dollars one coin at a time. Please consider quarters x 5.
Great TR, thanks for posting.

 

Great photos and I enjoyed your off strip restaurant choices.

I used to make Monkey Bread using the frozen dough from the grocery store, really simple to make and it goes fast.

 

Earlier, I promised room photos. Not exactly the Garage Mahal, but here they are:

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I’ve heated up many a pop tart on irons both at drill team camp and summer camp!

 

Yeah but you’re a girl of the female persuasion. A guy did this…..and I’m impressed…..

 

Given he's at Rio, it likely is only costing him 0.15% to one coin 9/5 vs max betting 8/5 quarter DDB because I doubt you'll find 9/5 DDB for quarters there. But yeah I would still max bet quarters for the bigger royal payout personally.

Good luck the rest of the way @Syringe Monkey!

 

That sign hahahahhaahhaha!

 

That carpet is trippy. Love the Red Canyon pics. One day I’ll check it out.

Thank you for the TR, Iron Chef.

 

For what it's worth, that's one of the most / most recently "upgraded" masquerade suites. They dont get better than that, but they do get much worse. That carnivale patterned carpet was only installed in their latest round of renovations (which was still about 12 or 13 years ago) but they didnt do all of them. And the furniture was replaced in those rooms along with the carpet, but not all of the Masquerade suites were included in that renovation, so you got the best of them

 

That actually could be a very nice room if it had been maintained. I hope the new owners dump some money back into Rio.

 

So, here I am, a full week after returning home, providing my final thoughts on the trip.

• This trip was very different for us, which I will try to describe below.
• The Rio was nicer than I thought it would be, although I'm not surprised by how worn the rooms are. I would describe it as the nicest dump I've ever stayed at.
• The Rio's food options are very limited. Both of the Asian places were open, and I heard they're good, but they're not really our jam. All-American Grille was OK, HHAGG is a place I'd never return to, and the Voodoo Steak house is closed.
• Casino was really busy Friday and Saturday, and pretty sedate the rest of the time we were there.
• Most people following the mask mandate. A lot of chin-strapping seen though, and some not wearing one at all. Masking was strictly unenforced,
• It did seem to me "Vegas is back", which makes me happy.
• The shops in Masquerade Village are largely shuttered.
• We never made it to the Strip.
• We left Rio for breakfast, a lunch, and several dinners, but really not for much else. However, seeing the people out and about in our travels, Vegas is definitely very busy.
• My favorite meal: Marche' Bacchus. The scallops in J's dish were the best we've ever eaten, the sauces on our dishes were 5 stars, the pastas cooked to perfection, and that place just excels at everything they do.
• All the other meals we ate out for were outstanding too.
• We had daily housekeeping make up our room, which was an unexpected surprise.
• Planet 13 really has to be seen to be believed.
• I'm pretty passionate about my hobby, so naturally, celebrating it at the convention, in my favorite city in the world, should make for the Best Trip Ever right? Right, it should. But it wasn't. In fact, I returned home feeling unsatisfied on different levels. When I was in the convention, I felt like we should be "doing Vegas". When we were out, I felt like we should be spending more time at the Convention. As a result, I didn't enjoy either aspect as much as I think I should have. Weird....
• We'll be back in April for an Anesthesiology conference, and I am expecting it to be a full-on typical Vegas experience. So, there's that.
• I never enter the National competition expecting to win or place. Sometimes I do, this time I did not. Kinda bummed, because the Vegas trophies were really sharp.
• I didn't spend a penny in the vendor room, which is highly unusual for me. I did order a bunch of shit online when I got home though, lololol.
• There were 900+ modelers registered, totaling 2077 entries with 3044 models.Still not the biggest turnout ever, unbelievably.
• International vendors (Eduard, Tamiya, etc.) were absent from the show this year, due to COOF travel restrictions. May be why I didn't spend any money.
• Thanks for taking the time to read probably the nerdiest TR in VMB history.

This piece won the George Lee Grand Judges' Award for Best in Show. It's a 1/32 scale Sikorsky Sky Crane, which is 100% scratch built from raw materials.​

 

Thanks for sharing and the pictures! Next time at Ester's Kitchen try the fried cauliflower, it's fantastic.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed your report. I never thought about a modeling convention, that's neat. As with some others I was all over that modeling as a kid: airplanes, battleships, air craft carriers etc. I never mastered painting the models. But you've inspired me to get a modeling kit.++


Also loved your description of Rio room