Last weekend Linda and I made it to Vegas for a quick two nights to celebrate her 16th 39th birthday. It was as advertised and we had a great time and were just exhausted when we made it home for the Super Bowl game. I napped into the second quarter.
The reason for this trip was Van Morrison. He is a bucket list show for us and he did a couple shows at Caesars Palace and we scored some tickets last July. The fact that the show was the day after Linda's birthday just made the show that much sweeter. Van delivered with a 100 minute show with great sound and the band and vocals were really entertaining. His show is a very bluesy. This bucket list item did not disappoint.
FYI-- the Faith Hill song lyrics echoed thru my head all weekend. "Hey baby, let's go to Vegas, bet on love and let it ride,...."
We stayed at the Venetian, which is a very large suite hotel right on the strip and within walking distance of Caesars. The hotel was a classic Vegas design, you need to go through the casino for anything, and after a while it becomes habit. The Venetian has a casino on the first floor and on the second floor has dozens of shops and restaurants and most places are open 24/7. Saturday morning I went down to the first floor to get some coffee and was stunned at 7:00 AM it was still very full of people. Nobody goes to bed! Everybody was still up and the look of exhaustion was very common. I think almost everyone was drinking a beer as well... Welcome to Vegas Baby!! I guess getting sleep is just an option when in Vegas.
Saturday was concert day and in the morning we walked the strip to check out the street show. For example we saw--Dr. Evil, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Chewbacca, Yoda, Mickey Mouse, a lot of show girls trying to get you into the show, and the normal other crazy stuff big cities produce. The city was very clean and busy and since everyone was a tourist, it was very friendly as well. If you want to see a show, shop, high end dining, lay by the pool or gamble--Vegas has you covered. We enjoyed the strip a lot. Do not bring any change for gambling--they do not use coins anymore. Save the weight!
We did a lot of window shopping and Harry Winston had a very nice diamond necklace in this window for $410,000 retail.. I know we all have a special girl, but that is definitely high end stuff. All the high end designers have shops in town and the stores have some really really nice stuff. Like I said, we window shopped. While in the Crystal Mall we took a walk about and Linda sat on a little sculptured seat and I took some pictures of her. As we completed the Southern swing of our strip tour we stopped near New York New York at an outdoor Irish Pub to get some lunch. Linda was interested in looking up something on Google while we waited on our food, and she soon discovered she did not have her phone!! CRAP! Ok where could it be-- and the answer from both our lips was the Crystal Mall. You are in a strange town and lose your phone --that just plain sucks. How do we get it back??
This story ends well--relax for a second. With my phone, we used the Find My Phone function by logging on with Linda's info and started the recovery process. Linda activated the "Lost Phone" function on the Find My Phone screen and added my phone number. When you do that, the lost phone indicates it is lost and gives a contact number. Once we activated the function, we got a call from the security at the mall from Linda's phone in a minute or two. Whew! Problem solved and rather quickly. We finished our lunch and returned to the Crystal Mall and chatted with their security people who returned the phone. Linda showed an ID and we were off again. I think this may happen quite a bit, they had a routine procedure in place. The Find My Phone function saved the day on this deal. Thanks Apple.
We had a wonderful meal at the Eiffel Tower restaurant that overlooks the strip and the Bellagio water show in the late afternoon. We even had our picture made, just like the good old days in night clubs.
Great food and service and just a fun place to eat. On to the show!
We wandered over to the show from the restaurant. Linda played some poker on a quarter machine and we were getting close to show time and she took a voucher for $5 to cash out. I lost my $10 real fast, I just could not get any cards you know.

Now the story becomes way more fiction than fact. After the show, Linda had the $5 credit to play. You go through the casino when you leave the show--it is Vegas-- so she was playing another quarter machine right down the steps from the show exit as a large crowd files by to their machines. I was out of gambling money already and was checking out the crowd and actually took the normal crowd shots with my phone-- the place was full. Without any warning, two of Linda's of cousins appeared out of the crowd and recognized me!! How did this happen?? Immediately there was hugging and screaming and acting a fool all around. Patrick and Lisa, who are brother and sister, were at the show as well. He lives in Atlanta and she lives in Denver, wow! No idea they were in town....
This event has some long odds, but we are in Vegas! That was just nuts how that went down. We chatted for quite a while and then headed back to our room, we had an early flight out of town.
What a great trip and it was definitely a birthday to remember.
The reason for this trip was Van Morrison. He is a bucket list show for us and he did a couple shows at Caesars Palace and we scored some tickets last July. The fact that the show was the day after Linda's birthday just made the show that much sweeter. Van delivered with a 100 minute show with great sound and the band and vocals were really entertaining. His show is a very bluesy. This bucket list item did not disappoint.
FYI-- the Faith Hill song lyrics echoed thru my head all weekend. "Hey baby, let's go to Vegas, bet on love and let it ride,...."
We stayed at the Venetian, which is a very large suite hotel right on the strip and within walking distance of Caesars. The hotel was a classic Vegas design, you need to go through the casino for anything, and after a while it becomes habit. The Venetian has a casino on the first floor and on the second floor has dozens of shops and restaurants and most places are open 24/7. Saturday morning I went down to the first floor to get some coffee and was stunned at 7:00 AM it was still very full of people. Nobody goes to bed! Everybody was still up and the look of exhaustion was very common. I think almost everyone was drinking a beer as well... Welcome to Vegas Baby!! I guess getting sleep is just an option when in Vegas.
Saturday was concert day and in the morning we walked the strip to check out the street show. For example we saw--Dr. Evil, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Chewbacca, Yoda, Mickey Mouse, a lot of show girls trying to get you into the show, and the normal other crazy stuff big cities produce. The city was very clean and busy and since everyone was a tourist, it was very friendly as well. If you want to see a show, shop, high end dining, lay by the pool or gamble--Vegas has you covered. We enjoyed the strip a lot. Do not bring any change for gambling--they do not use coins anymore. Save the weight!
We did a lot of window shopping and Harry Winston had a very nice diamond necklace in this window for $410,000 retail.. I know we all have a special girl, but that is definitely high end stuff. All the high end designers have shops in town and the stores have some really really nice stuff. Like I said, we window shopped. While in the Crystal Mall we took a walk about and Linda sat on a little sculptured seat and I took some pictures of her. As we completed the Southern swing of our strip tour we stopped near New York New York at an outdoor Irish Pub to get some lunch. Linda was interested in looking up something on Google while we waited on our food, and she soon discovered she did not have her phone!! CRAP! Ok where could it be-- and the answer from both our lips was the Crystal Mall. You are in a strange town and lose your phone --that just plain sucks. How do we get it back??
This story ends well--relax for a second. With my phone, we used the Find My Phone function by logging on with Linda's info and started the recovery process. Linda activated the "Lost Phone" function on the Find My Phone screen and added my phone number. When you do that, the lost phone indicates it is lost and gives a contact number. Once we activated the function, we got a call from the security at the mall from Linda's phone in a minute or two. Whew! Problem solved and rather quickly. We finished our lunch and returned to the Crystal Mall and chatted with their security people who returned the phone. Linda showed an ID and we were off again. I think this may happen quite a bit, they had a routine procedure in place. The Find My Phone function saved the day on this deal. Thanks Apple.
We had a wonderful meal at the Eiffel Tower restaurant that overlooks the strip and the Bellagio water show in the late afternoon. We even had our picture made, just like the good old days in night clubs.
We wandered over to the show from the restaurant. Linda played some poker on a quarter machine and we were getting close to show time and she took a voucher for $5 to cash out. I lost my $10 real fast, I just could not get any cards you know.

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| Just a crowd shot when we were spotted! |
What a great trip and it was definitely a birthday to remember.
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| The Grand Canyon that we hiked in November. Looks different at 35,000 ft. |
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