Month: March 2006

you look at the curved mirrored exterior of the Wynn Las Vegas resort and wonder what the focal length of the building is. Seriously, it was the first thing I thought of when I drove by the hotel.
Today’s our last full day in Vegas and our last chance to cram in a few more things to see. On the docket were the Atomic Testing Museum, Star Trek: The Experience, Chinatown Plaza, dinner at the Stratosphere and Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere at Treasure Island.
The first stop of the day was the Atomic Testing Museum. I have to say, this is one cool place. The museum chronicles the history of atomic weapons testing and has plenty of artifacts and models to go along with the displays. You learn all sorts of neat things like how various things associated with the blast were measured, different types of tests conducted and the tools they used. I could have spent the whole day there, but the in-laws were starting to get munchy, so we headed down to the Chinatown Plaza for more dim sum.
Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton was another place I could have spent a good chunk of the day at. There’s a complete timeline of the Star Trek Universe to browse through along with lots of props, models and costumes to check out. Klingon Encounter was the better of the two rides at the end, although both were pretty cool. When you’re done, the gift shop has some cool Star Trek props to buy if you’ve got some cash to spare, or you can have something to snack on at Quark’s. Lots of fun, but I could only stay there for a few hours.
We had just enough time after that to go check out the fountain show at the Bellagio (very cool. prepare to get misted depending on the wind direction) before rushing back to get dressed up for dinner at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere. Nice place, great food, fantastic view. Make sure you have lots of money to spend, because it’s rather pricey. The food is good though, but the Chocolate Stratosphere we had for dessert was a little disappointing. I though the mousse was a little too dense to be called a mousse. Tasty if you like chocolate, but a little pricey at $10.
The last show of the week was Mystere at Treasure Island (forgot the tickets back at the room so we had to run back to grab the tickets after dinner) which was another good Cirque production. The big dinner beforehand had me a little sleepy though and I ended up dozing off a little bit during some of the slower parts.
We were all pooped at the end of the show, so we headed back and called it a night. Lots of packing up to do before leaving the next day.

We hadn’t driven around Vegas too much, but from what we’ve seen, people seem to like living behind walls and gated communities around here.

Today we decided to try Dishes, the buffet over at Treasure Island. Smaller than the other buffets, but for breakfast/lunch it was pretty tasty and fairly reasonably priced at $12/person.

After breakfast, we made a road trip out to check out the civil engineering wonder that is Hoover Dam. It’s only about 40 miles south of Vegas, so it was a pretty easy trip down a nice scenic route. Aside from some road construction traffic we encountered in Boulder City, the trip was pretty uneventful. Part of the route takes you through this residential area, which seemed kind of odd. Then as you round a corner at the top of a hill all of a sudden you see an expansive valley that looks down onto Lake Mead. The fortunate residents of this area have a very impressive view.

Then it was mostly downhill until you reach the Hoover Dam visitor center. There’s a security checkpoint just before you get there, but they just seemed to be waving people through without doing any inspecting. The drive over the dam was pretty neat and presented some pretty nice views of Lake Mead and the river valley downstream of the dam. Plenty of parking areas off the road allow people to get out and take pictures or walk around a bit.

Hoover Dam is a pretty impressive sight in person. There’s a tour you can take that starts off with a short film that talks about the history of the dam, then a descent 500 ft down to the complex where the generators are. It’s pretty impressive to see the size of these generators. Then it’s back up to the surface for some more tour stops and pre-recorded presentations. The winged sculpture and floor were an interesting display. Laid into the ground beneath the winged statues are stars and constellations as they appeared in the sky at the time the dam was dedicated. We were going to walk across the dam, but it was starting to get a little late so we decided to head back.

After a bit of a nap, we headed out to another buffet for dinner (it was seafood night next door at the South Coast resort) and then to check out Caesar’s Palace. It’s definitely a spectacle from the outside and inside. We even saw some people dressed up in Roman costumes walking around. The Forum shops at Caesar’s were pretty cool. Lots of high end stores to spend your winnings on (or anything you might have left over). The ceiling is painted sky blue with a smattering of white puffy clouds and is illuminated to give you the illusion of being in an outdoor market. It’s an illusion that actually works quite well too. The lighting also changes from being daylight to dusk and finally turns dim to simulate night. All the ceiling needs are some pinholes to stimulate the stars when the nighttime illumination kicks in.

There’s a cool sound and light show over at the Atlantis fountain that happens every hour. We happened to catch the end of it. Around the fountain is a large saltwater aquarium with lots of colourful reef fish.

For car buffs, the collection of cars at Exotic Cars is definitely worth checking out. You can see the insides of Lambhorghini’s, Ferarri’s and even a Maybach 62 (a sweet, sweet ultra-luxury car). If you’ve got $20 000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can even buy a race car simulator that’ll beat the pants off any Xbox 360, or you can just try it out ($20 for 5 minutes).

Fortunately we had mostly indoor things planned for today. We had planned to go to the Lost City Museum today, but decided to change that to later because of the rain. The original plan had us checking out Chinatown Plaza to check out another place for dim sum. On the way we encountered a bunch of students walking down the street escorted by police demonstrating for immigration reform. They were between us and Chinatown Plaza, so we ended going back to Chang’s. The rest of the morning was spent doing some shopping at one of the outlet malls. One of the things we ended up buying was another suitcase to fit all the other stuff we bought.
Yesterday’s horseback riding had the wife still a little wiped out, so we ended up spending most of the afternoon just resting and hanging out. For dinner we decided to check out Rumjungle over at Mandalay Bay to see what their rodizio Brazilian grill was like. Food was pretty decent, although the flavours of some of the meats seemed a little confused. At $40/person it’s a little pricey, but go hungry because it’s an all you can eat thing. Then when you’re done, stick around for the nightclub action (if you can still make it out of your seat).
After dinner we headed over to catch Folies Bergere over at Tropicana. It’s a very entertaining variety show with lots of dancing, singing and pretty costumes. A comedy routine in the middle provided a very humourous intermission. Pretty good show, although if you’re looking for something a little more risqué, you’re probably better off looking somewhere else.

Even if you’re just wandering through a couple of casinos to sightsee, it’s not difficult to put on 8 or 9 km worth of walking around. Finding a place to rest your feet and take a load off can be a bit challenging too. Most of the time the only seats around are either in front of slot machines, at the gambling tables or inside restaurants. You can sometimes find benches scattered about, but those are usually few and far between.
Horseback riding was on the schedule for the afternoon, so we took it easy in the morning and didn’t do much. After a bit of some miscommunication (either they didn’t record our reservation or forgot about us), we ended up making the 50 mile drive north of Vegas to Sagebrush Ranch (not much of a ranch…just a few trailers and storage buildings and some horse pens) for their Sunset trail ride and dinner. It’s actually not too far off I-15, but feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. A few more riders than they were expecting showed up, so the trail ride got off to a bit of a late start because they had to saddle up some extra horses.
The ride itself was pretty cool. Rode down through some dry stream beds, up to the top of some hills, back down through some flat areas and saw lots of desert with the mountains for a backdrop. Clouds obscured the sun setting behind the mountains, but it probably would have been really cool. Because of the late start, we ended up spending the last third of the trail ride in the dark. There was no moon in the sky either, so it was really dark, although you could still see the dark shapes of the brush and other riders nearby. Good thing the horses knew where they were going.
After being on a horse for almost two and a half hours, most of the riders were glad to finally make it back and get off the horses. The evening ended with dinner (either steak or chicken) and marshmallow roasting over a campfire.

One interesting thing about Vegas (at least on the Strip anyway) I’ve observed is that lots of people come here just to go to a replica of somewhere else. Just about everything on the strip seems to be a replica, down to the fake stone benches outside in the valet pickup areas.
This morning started off with dim sum, something we look for everywhere we go since there isn’t any in Charleston. The one we found, Chang’s Hong Kong Cuisine, wasn’t too far away, so we headed out there mid-morning and fortunately weren’t disappointed. The selection wasn’t extremely large, but they were good and had all my favourites. The prices were decent too.
Then, with full bellies we headed off to the Luxor, that large pyramidal behemoth of a resort. We wanted to check out the King Tut exhibit and the Lion Habitat. Both were a little disappointing and didn’t quite measure up to our expectations. The Lion Habitat consisted of a smallish glass enclosure housing two lionesses, both of which seemed to be pretty domesticated. At least they weren’t trying to eat the handler in there with them at the time anyway. Inside, you could shell out $25 to have your photo taken with a lion cub if you wanted and if the cubs were in the mood for it.
We wandered around the rest of the Luxor to check out the scenery, shops and restaurants. Like Mandalay Bay, Luxor had lots of pricey upscale restaurants with famous chef’s names attached to them.
Then it was off to MGM Grand to have a look around there. MGM Grand seemed to have about the largest casino floor of all the ones we’d seen so far. It also seemed to have the largest sports book area of the four resorts we’d been to so far. For the more budget conscious diners, MGM at least had a food court area where you could get some McD’s, a Nathan’s hot dog or even some Haagen Daaz. MGM also had its share of upscale restaurants too, including a couple of places with Joel Robuchon’s name on them, although most of them were priced a little more reasonably than the ones at Mandalay Bay or Luxor.
We finished off the afternoon with a much anticipated trip to M&M’s World just up the block from MGM. Four floors of just about every conceivable item you can think of related to M&Ms. Pillows, key chains, magnetic letters, dominos, cookie jars, candy dispensers and more. The place was packed too, particularly around the M&Ms Wall of Colour. It’s hard to resist a wall of M&Ms even if they are $9/lb, so we ended coming out with about four pounds worth of them.
The wife’s parents made it back from their side trip to LA, so it was dinner at the Bayside Buffet at Mandalay Bay. There was lots of tasty food with a couple of carving stations and a pasta bar where it’s cooked right in front of you. Not quite as large as the buffet at The Bellagio, but I thought the food was better. At $25/person for the dinner buffet, it’s a little pricey, but you can stay pretty much as long as you want and eat as much as you like.
The evening’s entertainment was La Femme at MGM, a topless cabaret style show brought over from the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris, France. Interesting show and very entertaining.