2003 Las Vegas Day Four

After getting up and packing, Pat Funk picked us up at the hotel and the three of us went to breakfast. Pat dropped us at the airport and we caught a late morning flight back to Sacramento.

Some random thoughts on Las Vegas. I would not stay at New York New York again. The room was nice, but the hotel and casino seem cramped and uninspired compared to many of the other hotels. I would probably choose to stay at the Venetian or the Paris. The Mandalay Bay is nice, but too far to the end of the strip. Sharon liked the Bellagio. As an aside, we also visited the city of Bellagio on Lake Como during our Italian trip in the fall of 1996.

I was dumbfounded by the number of people. There were people everywhere, including lots of families with small children. Las Vegas appears to have become a major family destination resort.

We will probably go back again. We did not get around to doing several things that we had on our list including the Napoleon and Red Square Bars and hiking at Red Rocks.

2003 Las Vegas Day Three

Sunday morning, we had a light breakfast in "Times Square." Afterwards, we walked past the Excalibur and the Luxor to the Mandalay Bay Hotel to pick up our show tickets. In January of 1996, we stayed one night at the Luxor and one night at the Mirage. We took the tram back to the Excalibur and walked through the casino on our way back to New York New York. The Excalibur would be last on my list of places to stay; in my opinion, the atmosphere is cheesy.

We then took a cab to the Venetian. The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum is within the elaborate structure of Las Vegas's Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino. We toured an exhibit titled American Pop Icons. The exhibit featured 28 paintings and sculptures from eight of the precursors and participants in the Pop art movement of the 1950's and 1960's—Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann. Except for maybe one of the Warhol's, I would not pay a nickel for any of the items.

The Venetian includes gondolas, canals and "St. Mark's Square."


Sharon and I visited Venice, Italy in October of 1996. Although I like the Venetian, it is impossible to duplicate the character of a city like Venice.

Sharon had seen a Food Network show on the Cheesecake Factory. We headed over to Caesar's to find the Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch. After lunch we returned to Bellagio where Sharon did some shopping while I checked the NFL scores...

Sunday Night, we went to see Momma Mia! at the Mandalay Bay. We took a taxi back to Venetian for a late dinner at Postrio. After dinner, we actually walked all the way back to New York New York from the Venetian, stopping at the Mirage to watch the volcano and the Bellagio to watch the fountain show.

Las Vegas Day 4

2003 Las Vegas Day Two

In spite of a late night, we were up early. Before about 9:00 a.m., you could fire a cannon off in the casinos and not hit anyone. We walked over the to the Monte Carlo for breakfast.

Afterwards, we walked north up the strip and wandered through the Aladdin into the connected shopping mall called Desert Passage. Several of the hotels and casinos have very elaborate shopping malls connected to them.

After the Aladdin, we went into the Paris Hotel. The Paris Hotel has a two-thirds replica of the original Arc de Triomphe and a half size replica of the Eiffel Tower.



Those people who know me well know that I am not a heights person. Nevertheless, we went up to the top of the replica. Sharon and I are talking about a trip to France and Holland in 2004 and I thought that going to the top of the replica would be a good warm up for the real thing. Sharon took this picture from the top looking south down the strip.



We headed back to New York New York for lunch. Sharon wanted a pastrami sandwich. We had lunch in a section of the hotel called Times Square. Sharon and I stayed on Times Square in 1998; this section of the hotel bears no resemble to the real Times Square.

While Sharon took a nap, I ran on the hotel treadmill and watched the mayhem of the Yankees and Red Sox in Game 3.

We had an early dinner at Drais in the Barbary Coast. The Barbary Coast is a small, older hotel in the middle of the strip. We had walked by it earlier in the day and were even more skeptical we went got out of the cab and walked into the Casino. We were pleasantly surprised. Drai's was named one of the top 5 Las Vegas Restaurants in the 2001 Zagat Survey. I rarely recommend restaurants, but this is a place I would recommend (warning: it is pricey).

We went to Zumanity at New York New York. Zumanity is billed as another side of Cirque du Soleil.

Las Vegas Day Three

2003 Las Vegas Day One

Sharon and I have tried to make a tradition of taking a trip for our anniversary. In 1997, we spent a week in Grand Caymen scuba diving. After taking two years off after Jack was born, we started up again in 2000. We spent the anniversary weekend in Napa in 2000, Mammoth Lakes in 2001 and Cambria and Hearst Castle in 2002. This year we went to Las Vegas. Although Sharon and Jack spent a couple of days visiting Pat in Las Vegas in July, Sharon and I have not been to Las Vegas together since January 1996.

We stayed at the New York New York Hotel. Afer we decided on Las Vegas in late August, we had a difficult time finding a room. New York New York was definitely not our first choice.

After getting to the hotel in the early afternoon, we had a light lunch at Il Fornaio.

After lunch, We wandered around the hotel and then headed over to the Bellagio. From the there, we headed to Caesar's Palace .

We met Pat Funk and Bernard for drinks at the Shadow Bar in Caesar's and then the four of us went to dinner at 808.

After dinner, Sharon and I took a cab to a late show at the MGM Grand called La Femme.

Las Vegas Day Two