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Thanksgiving report (Ka Review)

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by bekkiz, Nov 29, 2004.

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  1. bekkiz

    bekkiz Tourist

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    My Trip Report

    Las Vegas Anniversary/Thanksgiving Trip Report

    Players:
    Myself- I?m scared to gamble, not a huge drinker and have a hard time staying up past 10. Basically everything you go to Vegas for, is not meJ I still love it!

    Hubby/Adam- Fan of Blackjack and poker, plus a total night owl

    This trip served 2 purposes: a) to celebrate our 1-year anniversary and b) to get the heck out of dodge for T-Day (too many family members, not enough time)

    Day 1 (Nov. 25, Thanksgiving Day)

    I had to get up super early to take my sister to the airport and our dog to the kennel. Our flight was at noon, and as expected the airport wasn?t too busy. Our flight was on time and uneventful, I think. I was asleep the whole time. Damn those 5 am wake up calls!

    We arrived at McCarren in due time and checked into Paris at the Airport. I asked about ?P? rooms, and the guy didn?t sound to hopeful, but he kept checking and discovered one that would be ready later that afternoon?Score! I actually didn?t know what a ?P? room was, I just knew it was a good thing, and hoped it would be clear upon arrival.

    We took the shuttle to the hotel and left out bags with the bellman. We headed over to Bellagio to have thanksgiving dinner at the buffet. Here was mistake #1 (in retrospect, it wasn?t a big deal, and was the only kinda bad part about our trip.) We got to the line at 2:15, and they weren?t serving until 3. The line was already enormous. At that point I should have said screw it (although I know the line would be long ahead of time,) I had visions of all you can eat dessert in my head, and didn?t want to find another place. We were finally seated at about 4:45?yes I waited 2.5 hours for a buffet, I?m insane and certainly won?t be making that mistake again. The food was good when I made intelligent decisions about what I chose (beef stroganoff is not a great idea, no matter where you go). Desserts were great, we both had bananas foster that were outstanding.

    After dinner we headed back to Paris to check into the room; we just had to pick up our keys, no big deal. We were in 1997P. Funny coincidence, 1997 is the year we started dating. Anyway, we walked down the long hallway to our room. It was largish, with windows on two sides. We had a kick ass view of the Bellagio fountains. A show was starting right as we came in, so we watched it and the next one. I had been up for quite some time and ended up falling asleep around 9 (I told you that I wasn?t designed for Vegas). Adam rallied and headed out to find a poker room. He came across Harrah?s, as they had a 2/4 table and played for about 4 hours on 100 bucks.
     
  2. bekkiz

    bekkiz Tourist

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    Day 2 (Nov. 26)

    Having fallen asleep early, I also woke up early?it?s a vicious cycle. I read for a while, showered etc. I headed downstairs for some breakfast. I ended up at the little bakery and had a muffin, and brought a danish up for Adam.

    We had a few plans for the day. We needed to pick up our tickets for the David Spade show later that night at the Mirage. We also had a flight out to the Grand Canyon planned that afternoon. The bus was to pick us up at 2ish from Mandalay. I wanted to eat lunch at the Burger Bar in the new Mandalay place mall.

    We walked out to the Mirage, then down to Mandalay. We poked through the shops until we were hungry for lunch. Burger Bar was great! We were sat in a booth with a flat screen TV showing the World Poker Tour on ESPN. We both had black angus burgers, although with different fixings. The idea is you pick the meat, the bun and all of the stuff you want to put on it. Then you add sides. I had a ½ order of sweet potato fires and ½ order of onion rings. Adam had a vanilla shake. All of it was delicious, albeit a little pricey. I also had to get dessert as I head about their ?sweet? burgers. It?s basically a glazed doughnut cut in half, a circle of chocolate fudgy stuff and strawberries, mint and passion fruit making up the tomato, lettuce and cheese. It was so cute and really good.

    We were picked up for our Grand Canyon flight and headed out to a little airport past the Texas Station. We took Scenic Airlines and really enjoyed the trip. Due to the timing, we got to see the sunset, which made it even cooler. It was a great way to spend 3 hours. Adam took about 100 pictures.

    We went back to the hotel to change and freshen up before dinner and David Spade. We ended up at Mon Ami Gabi for dinner, sitting outside. It was a little cold, but we were near a heater. I had a great cup of onion soup, which also helped to keep me warm. Adam had a steak with blue cheese and French fries. I didn?t take a bite, but he ate the whole thing, so I assume it was goodJ

    We walked down to the Mirage for the show, making it there about 20 minutes before the show started. We sat down, 5th row, but on the right hand aisle. It was a comedy show, so the seats weren?t a huge deal, but being 5th row was pretty cool. The opener, Todd Glass, was really funny?lots of potty humor, but that?s good in a warm up act. David Spade was also great. He took a little while to get his rhythm, but had me laughing the whole time. A couple of times I was laughing so hard it hurt my chest! I was so glad we caught it. Nothing too exciting later that night, just grabbed a pastry from the bakery and watched the fountains.
     
  3. bekkiz

    bekkiz Tourist

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    Day 3 (Nov 27)
    I had a lazyish day planned. We had dinner plans and then were going to see Ka (the new cirque show at MGM) that night. We took our time getting up, but wanted to pick up some glassware we had seen at Mandalay the day before. We walked down that way, stopping for lunch at the Rainforest Café. Nothing special, we both got salads and it was just to hold us over for our dinner.

    We made back to Mandalay to buy the glass candleholders, but they had to go get them from storage and told us to come back in an hour. We walked over to Luxor where Adam found a $5 Blackjack table. He bought in for 60, while I wandered around. I won 2.74 on a penny video slot. Woo hoo, that got out my gambling urgesJ An hour later, Adam was up five dollars, and we headed back to pick up our stuff.

    We took the trolley back to Paris (actually Bally?s, but it?s a short walk). It was so cold and windy outside. I was nervous about that night because I didn?t have a jacket, only a wrap, and I hoped that would keep me warm. We rested for a bit, and then got ready for out 6 pm dinner reservations.

    We took a cab down to MGM (like I said, it was cold!). We walked to Nobhill, and were about 25 minutes early, so we sat at the bar. I had one of their famous Mojitos?it was stellar! We were seated, and brought water and bread. Our waiter knocked over our water before any food came, so we scooched to the next table. This restaurant was very cozy and warm feeling, I liked the light fixtures a lot. We started with the cheese fondue, which was very good, but not the best we?ve ever had. (We eat at a fondue only place near our house a few times a year.) I also had a cup of butternut squash soup that I loved, but in retrospect shouldn?t have ordered because I was way to full for the rest of my meal. Adam ordered the Steak Rossini, he like it a lot, but wouldn?t try the fois gras on topJ I had the ?chicken tetrazzini:? a chicken breast on awesome macaroni and cheese and a delicious onion sauce. I was so full, and it was so rich, I could only eat half. I also a glass of the most delicious Riesling, which I didn?t get the name of, but was sweet and fruity. I was determined to get dessert and ordered the peanut butter chocolate cake; Adam had a white Russian. We were cutting it close to get to the show, so I had about 3 bites of dessert, and we hightailed it out of there.

    Stop reading now if you don?t want spoilers for Ka?I?ll just say it was the best Cirque show ever!

    Okay, if you?re still with me: Ka was the best Cirque show ever! The staging and theater were amazing. There are speakers in the seats so you get loads of ambient noise/music, but they were so natural, we didn?t even notice until ½ way through. Again, the staging left me breathless; I just couldn?t believe what they did, and how well integrated everything was. The show has an actual, easily followed storyline, which is a nice shift. There were no crazy obnoxious clowns, another nice change. This was the first Cirque where I walked out wanting the soundtrack. The show was outstanding in so many different ways. I want to fly back just to see again. If you are only planning on seeing one Cirque, see this one. If you want to see more than one, see Ka last so the others do not disappoint you. One thing, the individual feats aren?t as intense as in Mystere, but the overall effect of the human stunts is way better.

    We walked home (the cab line was huge, there was a big fight that night at MGM as well, so it would have taken an hour.) we grabbed starbucks and trudged home in the wind. I went to bed; Adam played poker over at Aladdin until 4:30 in the morning.
     
  4. bekkiz

    bekkiz Tourist

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    Day 4 (Nov. 28)

    Just the departure day. I ate at the Paris buffet alone; I didn?t want to wake Adam up. We shuttled back to the airport and made it home fineJ


    Let me know if you have any questions!

    Pictures from the trip (Grand Canyon's not up yet, but will be soon) Includes pics from the Ka Theater, so don't look if you want to be suprised
    http://www.adamlyon.com/gallery/Vegas2004
     
  5. bekkiz

    bekkiz Tourist

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    Just to clarify, my typing doesn't suck, but I guess some characters don't translate from word well

    a random J= [​IMG]
    some ? are actually "
     
  6. ncgirl

    ncgirl Guest

    bekkiz
    happy anniversary! Your pics were great, especially the night one's. God I love that place.!!
    Sounds like you had a great time and you ate very very well.
     
  7. Vegas Tonya

    Vegas Tonya Margarita Connoisseur

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    Great report. Sounds like you have fun even though you are an early to bed/early to rise person.

    Thanks for sharing.
     
  8. SamFenton

    SamFenton Tourist

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    Great report, Nobhill sounds delicious! Just a question about the weather, was it cold as in sweater weather or sweater and jacket weather?
     
  9. yellfore99

    yellfore99 Tourist

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    Good report......AMAZING pictures of the Grand Canyon! [​IMG]
     
  10. bshowell

    bshowell VIP Whale

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    That was a great report. I wanted to try Nobhill when I go back in January, so it's good to know you had a good time w/good food there. Those Grand Canyon pics...wow.
     
  11. LearningVegas

    LearningVegas Tourist

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    ....

    Nice pictures of the Strip as well. I didn't realize until now that the Wynn resort had a warped roofline...

    ....
     
  12. 39forevr

    39forevr Guest

    Bekkiz thanks for the report. Those pictures were awesome. What kind of camera did you use?
     
  13. doctor_al

    doctor_al VIP Whale

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    Very nice pics, bekkiz, just not enough Vegas ones. ;)
    Going to have to get to NobHill, at least for the Mojito. Not exactly sure what goes into it other than rum and lime, and that's good enough for me.

    p.s. curious that Word's characters got mussed, I swear I've cut and pasted from that before... ah well.
     
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