Back from Vegas!

A week of almost no internet access! I feel refreshed. Here's the rundown:

Food
First morning out we hit the Original Pancake House. I THINK the prices are cheaper at the Decatur location vs. the Green Valley Ranch casino location. I've been to both and that's my impression. I could be wrong however. The only good thing about the Green Valley Ranch casino location is it's open until 8pm vs. 3pm and it's a fancier place, although you pay a bit more for that luxury. Anyways, we share a veggie omelette with crusted cheese, french bread which for some reason wasn't that great since they used a sliced baguette roll instead of sliced bread, and thin Swedish pancakes which I greatly liked, and regular round pancakes. The juices are fresh and real. Everybody had large orange juice while I had the tomato juice which tasted like an unsalted, uncommercialized V8. On my previous trips, I;ve had I've had the eggs benedict (you get two) which are quite good. I've tried the apple pancake, which I think of a big round apple cinnamon cake, and the dutch pancake, which I think of as a sugared lemon pie with a thin lemon jelly layer inside on top of a thin crust.

So anyways, most days, I was dragging my American Casino Guide chock full of coupons around. I felt cheesy cheap walking around with a coupon book, at least in front of staff and visitors that recognize that book. That dang thing is nearly useless if you are by yourself and looking for lunch. The prime rib / ribeye $7.99 deals are not served until 4pm. The steakhouse at El Cortez (I had a 50% off coupon) doesn't open til 4pm. I found out the hard way that day by visiting downtown at 1pm Tuesday.

AND WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THE 7/8/9PM SHOWS, THE BUFFETS CLOSE AT 9PM AND EL CORTEZ STEAKHOUSE CLOSE AT 10PM!! I tell you, you can either eat or watch shows but not both on the same day! And when I did show up to The Orleans at 6pm for a quick dinner (my show was at 8pm), there was a huge line Tuesday! Half off senior day Tuesday! So I got back in the car and headed for the show. That night I hit the Grand Lux cafe in the Venetian. Since it was after midnight, they didn't serve the salad with the nuts and pears. Grrr!! Plus they were out of chicken for the night so I asked them to check if the Palazzo had chicken and the full menu. The did so I walked over there only to find out they didn't serve the full menu. Oh well. I had the salad with corn, half of which I ate the next evening. The salad had good bbq type dressing and crunch tortilla strips which made the salad entertaining. It still couldn't beat Trader Joe's though.

Next day, which was Wednesday, I figured I didn't want to starve again, plus I was sick of eating breakfast type food, plus I wanted something of good quality, so I hop out of bed early and try to hit the $18.95 Wynn breakfast before 11am. I make it there at 10:15am to find out the sons of bitches jacked up the buffet to $38 for a brunch for the whole two weeks around the holidays. Grrrr! So I call Bellagio and confirm their breakfast is still $14.95 and haul it down there. The angels are singing all along as I make it around 10:30am to Bellagio. THEN I SEE THE BUFFET LINE AND IT'S HUGE!! Those dang casinos are frequented even during weekdays! So I hang around in the buffet line thinking I can make it before 11am before they change it to lunch pricing. Then the guy behind me starts talking about which is the best buffet and how Bellagio and Wynn have the best buffets and he's eaten at Bellagio numerous times and it's 1 hour to get in from that point in line because the guy in front of me asks him these questions. Grrrr! I get out of there and make my way to Orleans, pissed. It's $7 for breakfast and I have a 50% off coupon. The line is not that big and I'm in for $4! The food aestetics is quite good. I hit all the cheese items like enchiladas, pizza, eggplant parmesan along with some salad type stuff on the first go around. Then I pick up an egg roll and I don't quite remember on the second go. Lastly, I hit the dessert area and pick up a little mousse cup, a slice of chocolate type cake, and some varieties of small pieces of cake. Lastly, I get a few scoops of ice cream which I can't finish. I leave a dollar tip and leave. The food had really good presentation. The food, however, had a bit of additives like shortening. It wasn't as bad as other buffets though. It just wasn't clean food. That night I ate the leftover salad from Grand Cafe Lux.

Next day, Thursday, it was time to head home. I used the 2 for 1 coupon to get 2 grilled veggie panini sandwiches with bell pepper, onion, and slices of bread from San Gennaro Grill which were quite good. Thy came with a big side of french fries. We then headed over to Whole Food where the 215 and 15 meet. That offramp is horrible! It took at least minutes and 5 light changes to make it through the intersection. NO SAMOSAS AT THE WHOLE FOODS HOT BAR! They changed to a christmas menu. No problem, I picked up some spiced and awesome kheer, some potato with sauce type items, some turkey with gravy, some green beans and some delicious bread pudding. Of course things get slightly mixed up in the cardboard container I used. Later, around 3 pm, I ate the food inside the container at Primm Valley, and I must say, THAT WAS THE BEST FOOD I HAD ON THE TRIP!!!

Shows
Here's the rundown of the shows I watched. Once again I got all the tickets from TIX4TONITE:
Amazed - $25 - It was a subpar show at Planet Hollywood. They had 3 performers. One was a juggler. He was funny but the jugging was aobe average but not superb. The second guy was supposed to be a magician but the acts were kiddyish. Not entertaining at all. The last guy was a musician with a guitar that played music in funny ways like singing popluar songs in country, etc.

The Fercos Brothers Untamed Illusions - $53 - What a great show for %$53 at Planet Hollywood! I saw it on opening day and it was great because all the performers put out all their best! There were some hiccups but it came out great! The magic was (almost..) as good as Lance Burton or David Copperfied. The magic included lions, tigers, and panthers. There was a lot of dancing by the 10 or so gal dancers. They had 3 breakdancers. One of the brothers showed us trick juggling. There was a demonstration of the ricochet of 9 bow and arrows. There were a few short films on the brothers and the animals. They perform in the same theatre as America's Got Talent Live. I highly recommend it as it had more variety than a pure magic show!!

Louie Anderson: Larger than Life - $32 - Hilarious and up close! He was funny and he seems like a great down to earth guy. He's easily heckalable, and I think he might actually invite it to break his monotonous performances day in and out. He seemed to encourage audience participation.

Nate Burton - 27 - I had watched him before when he was at Planet Hollywood. He's a much faster paced magician than others and that's what I like. I did notice he didn't turn around the boxes and show the audience like David Copperfield. David Copperfield knows what your suspicions are and cuts you off at the pass by showing you that there's no escape hatches, no hidden chambers, no strings, etc. Anyways, it seemed like Nate did only disappearing/appearing in a box magic tricks, unlike Lance Burton and David Copperfield who also do card tricks, levitation, sleight of hand, etc. Compared to his previous performance, this time around, he cut out a lot of the presentation like arm waving, banging the boxes so they show solid, running around and moving the boxes, etc. It was one act of out hundreds during the year and the repetition will kill the performer eventually. He had a really funny comedian and juggler in between, just like Lance Burton. Overall it's a good show if you want an inexpensive magician with magic.

[Youtube] Louie Anderson (Same exact bits live)


[Youtube] Fercos Brothers


Woah! It took me a whole hour to create this blog entry. I've got to make room for time to work on other things so I won't be blogging for the next few weeks. Take a look at the previous entries in the meanwhile.