Las Vegas

Las Vegas 2023

May 7th, 2023

We were staying at the Nomad Hotel which is a hotel in the Park MGM.   It was a nice hotel but as I said before, I am not a huge fan of Vegas and although temperatures were warming up (low 70’s) it wasn’t warm enough to lounge by the pool.  I noticed that there was an ABC store across the street.  I sent a picture to Cindy as we are always joking about the ever-present ABC stores in Hawaii.  I guess it makes sense to have one in what the Hawaiian’s call the ninth island. We stopped in and they had pretty much the same things they would in an ABC store in Hawaii.

Although they have built trams to get around you still do a lot of walking and we did a lot of walking.   One of my favorite hotels is the Bellagio, I remember the first time I saw the glass flower ceiling.  They put in a botanical gardens which wasn’t there the last time I visited.   It was very nice and I could smell the flowers as I went through it!

That night we saw Cirque Du Soleil’s “O”, it was very good.  I kept cracking up, the woman on the other side of us kept saying “Holy Crap!” and “Oh My God”, it was funny and the show was amazing!

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Las Vegas 2023 – Retro by the Voltaggio Brothers

Retro by Voltaggio

May 6th, 2023

There isn’t a shortage of celebrity chef restaurants.  While searching through them, I saw that the Voltaggio brothers from Top Chef were opening up a restaurant called Retro. I had seen these chefs at a Hawaii Food and Wine Festival a few years back and one of the brothers had a restaurant in Los Angeles and I had dinner there a times and loved the experience.  This new restaurant was a modern takes on 80s classics.

My biggest problem was deciding what to have.  Everything on the menu looked good and I wished we were there with more people so that we could share and order more.  We decided on Cheese and Crackers or rather pork rinds whipped brie, chicken pot pie, and VoltaggiOs which was served out of can just like SpaghettiOs.  I couldn’t help but notice that we weren’t the only ones looking around to see what other people ordered.   and how it came out.  For dessert, it was a molten lava cake!

There was plenty of memorabilia throughout the restaurant and they played 80’s hits.  As we left, I noticed the payphone in the elevator.  I found myself thinking, it doesn’t seem that long ago when payphones were everywhere and yet now, they are almost extinct.  I left feeling full while trying to figure out if I could go back a second time to try some of the things that I didn’t get to try.

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Rockies to the Red Rocks at Leisure -Las Vegas – 2023

 

Las Vegas

May 6th, 2023

A few years back, I took Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train from Los Angeles to Seattle.  Although the scenery was great, I wasn’t sure if I would do it again. It was more than a 30-hour train ride in an old and not so well-maintained train.

I heard about the Canadian Rocky Mountaineer and saw that they offered rail-tours, where you get on and off the train.  I liked the idea and was looking at a few Canadian trips when I noticed they offered a trip here in the USA through some of our national parks.

This trip starts in Las Vegas, but we won’t board the train until later in the week, we start in Las Vegas and by van, go through Bryce Canyon, and a few other stops and end in Moab.  After a couple of days in Moab, we we board the Rocky Mountaineer to Glenwood Springs and the following day, we go to Denver.   I would have loved to have spent more days on the train but this served two purposes – I would get to see some national parks that I have always wanted to see and I would get to ride the Rocky Mountaineer.

The downside of the trip was that it started in Las Vegas.  I am not a huge fan of Las Vegas; I am not a gambler.  Over the years, I have spent countless weeks at various conventions and I watched Las Vegas transform itself from a run-down hotels and casinos to what it is today.  As much as I am not a fan of Las Vegas, there are plenty of dining options and shows to see.   We are planning on having dinner at the Voltaggio brothers new restaurant called Retro and seeing a Cirque Du Soleil show called “O”.

I have flown through Salt Lake City, but I have never spent any time in Utah.  I was really looking forward to seeing Bryce Canyon and Moab!

 

 

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