PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[usnuzuloose]

Thanks for sharing, never knew how much cleaning and checking this stuff daily goes on in there. The meal looks amazing! That cake looked so goood!!!!

 

[franandaj]

Another fabulous dinner and presentation!!! Pirates has always been one of my favorite rides, what a treat! Were the props you showed in the beginning from some of the movies?

I can't believe they wrapped the drain so poorly. How is she doing today?

I think they might have been, I'm not sure though.

I know when the nurse took the bandage off, I was apalled at the indentation the tube left. I took pictures of it to document it, but I don't think I want to post them here.

Thanks for sharing, never knew how much cleaning and checking this stuff daily goes on in there. The meal looks amazing! That cake looked so goood!!!!

Yeah, until you hear about it first hand, you take it for granted the amount of work that goes into a Disney attraction. No wonder it is so expensive to get it there, maintaining a place like that costs a lot in labor!

 

[ACDSNY]

Cool stuff and very interesting, pirates is one of my favorite rides.

 

[skiingfast]

Great report of what looks like an increadible experience. I'm very grateful Fran held up the pictures for you to capture them. Was there much picture taking at this event of the food?

 

[rentayenta]

OMG Pirate night! I'd have to say, this might be one of my favorite of your non trip updates. You both look great, the food looks delicious, and the place looks incredible. What a fun evening!

 

[kmedina]

Another cool evening. It must be so cool to have that membership. Thanks for sharing with the mere mortals.

 

[dgbg100106]

Very cool Alison... I am so intrigued with this OT subject...

 

[Leshaface]

All this time and I still haven't answered your herb question! The only thing I can tell you is that I grow herbs that I know I'm going to use. The basic ones are Basil, Chives, Thyme and Parsley, but I've also got Rosemary and Sage going. So far the only one I haven't used is the Rosemary, but I haven't been cooking much since I planted. I try to make sure that they are watered, but not saturated. I let them get almost dry before watering again.

I have a house boy, who helps me once a week with chores and stuff, and sometimes he waters the plants. I need to teach him so that he can take over when we go on vacations, but the first time he watered, he oversaturated EVERYTHING. My Basil never recovered and I had to replant a new plant earlier this week.

I would say that you should just go to the garden store and look at all the various herbs that are available and think about which ones you would use in your recipes. The chives are great the one time we had baked potatoes a week or two ago. I made an Israeli Cous Cous with vegetables and I added Thyme, Sage and Parsley before serving. I've used the Thyme the most.

You can put them in regular pots, just make sure there are holes in the bottom for drainage. You can use any soil although we used Miracle Grow that we got in giant bags from Costco, but I'm sure you could find something equally good at HD or Lowe's. You really only need to buy one pot of each herb from the store. I would grow them in separate pots so as not to crowd them. We have generic plant food that I put on them which is different from the "Tomato Food" and also different from the "Vegetable" or "Citrus" food. Just spend a little time in the garden section of either of those stores on Prosperity Ave and you'll find everything you need. If you can't figure it out, just ask the clerks.

Thanks for this! I'm actually going out tomorrow to buy some containers and herbs You made me completely envious of your garden..so much, that we actually went out on Saturday and bought me a few tomato and squash plants along with a lemon tree I wasn't planning on doing my garden this year (because of all the crap i've been dealing with for this pregnancy) but I started feeling much better so I decided to go for it.

What a fun night you had! I love the pirate boat dessert! And my goodness, all the neat drawings/paintings!

 

[tksbaskets]

What fun! Thank you so much for sharing. I'll probably never get to attend such a great event. It was like being there....plus now I'm hungry from the most excellent food pics

 

[franandaj]

I apologize for the duplicate posting here. I meant to start this TR on this PTR, not the other, but I'm confusing myself with two PTRs! All updates will continue to be on this PTR!

So this little trip is not for jollies, otherwise we would not have gone such a far distance with Fran in such condition. We have various investment properties that were inherited from her father. All these investments were made back in 2005 when the real estate market was a different place. Essentially this meeting is to determine how we can best salvage one our investments. The property management who is putting us up at a nice hotel, wining and dining us and offering us this package has supposedly researched the issues and is offering us the “best package available”, which essentially gives us something like $.18 on the dollar that we invested. You can see why Fran is cranky.

Most of the drive was uneventful, but slow. There were lots of wrecks on the road, nothing that we were involved in, but that clogged up the roads. We encountered a few showers, and saw this as we were passing Baker.

Fran drove the whole way even though she should have crawled in the back of the car and taken a rest. We arrived at our first stop by 8PM, the Gold Strike Inn at Jean. Sorry I have no pictures of the sign, it was a long day and we were both tired. This is just a basic hotel, unfortunately with the recession there has been a lot of downsizing. They used to have a Burger King in the hotel, a coffee shop, a quick service type snack shop in addition to the Buffet and Steakhouse. Now the only choices were the Buffet or the Steakhouse. We chose the Buffet. You can see that even this sole remaining restaurant is hurting.

“Life is short start with Dessert!” This is often Fran’s motto and that’s exactly what she did. (Good thing I only got part of our credit card in the picture, otherwise, we might have some unexpected charges)

It was your basic dinner buffet…salad stuff

Corn on the Cob, rice, mashed potatoes, chicken and beef gravy and seafood pasta

Baked Potatoes and BBQ Meatballs

They were carving Ham and Prime Rib (we made it just in time as they stopped the Prime Rib at 9PM)

Fried Chicken and Baked Fish

Salisbury Steak, some sort of Mexican pork, Spanish Rice and Meat Lasagne

I started off with some salad

Fran continued with a Fried Chicken Plate, with all the trimmings

I went for the Prime Rib next. I got both Fran and I slices, she gave me her red/pink parts and I gave her the cap/more well done stuff, perfect trade!

They had various desserts, but I was too full

After this I sort of wanted to play a little Blackjack but Fran was too tired so we went to sleep. A decision that we found we would regret later in the trip (not playing Blackjack was the regret, sleeping was a good thing). The rooms here are pretty basic, but clean enough and you can get a good night’s sleep.

No bathtub, however…

Day 2

We woke up fairly early in the morning (at least for us). I DISed on my phone for a while because I was deprived on the drive up due to crankiness. We went down to breakfast around 9:30AM I got everything all packed up and ready to go as Fran didn’t want to have to come back up to the room after breakfast.

So we were off to the buffet again….

There was plenty of fruit

There was some pretty standard breakfast fare, sausage and peppers, corned beef hash, sausage, bacon, potato pancakes.

Rice, refried beans, chorizo, tamales

Me, I headed directly for the “create your own omelet” station

Here is the beginnings of my omelet cooking

And my first plate

I returned for a “made to order” waffle

Which I split with Fran

Continued

 

[franandaj]

I tried inconspicuously to get pictures of the casino, this is the only one that came out almost decent.

It took a while to gather up a luggage cart and get our stuff in the car. Fran decided to hit the tables while I packed the car. It was only about 10:30AM and all the tables had signs, open at 11:00AM. I found Fran at a video blackjack table. This was an omen of things to come.

We got on the road and decided to stop off at our favorite Disney Outlet in South Las Vegas. We both found stuff we wanted, but Fran knew that we could find a discount coupon to save us some money so we decided to come back later.

There are other outlets nearby and Fran discovered a Skechers (one of the places I wanted to hit) and I got two pair of sneakers. Satisfied, we decided to head toward Henderson. It was still a couple hours before we were supposed to be at the hotel so we punched up the location of Costco on the GPS. Fran and I are definitely two of a kind. I don't think too many people enjoy checking out different Costcos around the country, but we do! We enjoy the free samples and today there were a lot. Almost enough to call lunch! We discovered a few items that we'll buy at our store if we see them. For those following my garden on the other PTR, I had bought out our local Costco of the large pots that our fruit trees are planted in. However, this Costco still had the pots, so we bought a couple more of them. She got a couple magazines and a pack of raspberry, chocolate, and cinnamon loaf slices, which the bellmen at the hotels have admired!

By now it was about 2:00 and the DISboards had closed down for server upgrades, so we got some Costco gas and headed for the resort. Now I know that Henderson is out of the way and I remember when Boulder Highway was the only way to get there. So we headed out on Boulder Highway and I got a real blast from the past back twenty or more years ago when we used stay out near the Hoover Dam and not in town. I had forgotten just how remote this area is. We turned on Lake Mead Parkway and started driving and driving and driving until we came to Lake Las Vegas Road and turned down that. No wonder they were having these business meetings out here. 1) they must have gotten a deal on the place since no one wants to drive all the way out here. 2) We were captive. The people without cars wouldn’t be sneaking off to the casinos!

So we finally pull up at this swanky resort

Here’s a shot from the Lobby

And this is the way to the room

They had all these things on display, that you could evidently purchase from the stores in the little village.

The elevator landing

The hallway

And finally the room

That's it for now, I'll have more later

 

[PrincessInOz]

That room looks nice.

And I caught up on the delectable Pirate night as well. Looks like a good time to be had by all.

 

[usnuzuloose]

What hotel was that? I remember going out there when that stuff was being built up. It is beautiful. But it is a heck of a drive...

 

[skiingfast]

Headed to bed, and now am hungry. Breakfast looked better than dinner. Maybe because of the temptation of bacon. In the end all those pillows looked the most delicious and I have some nearby to snack on.

 

[Leshaface]

Hello, my name is Alicia, and I enjoy going to different Costco's

 

[Pinkocto]

The hotel is beautiful, I especially love the landscaping. I hope you got back to the Disney store.

Alicia you are too funny!

 

[kmedina]

I know what you mean about investing in real estate at the wrong time. It is on a smaller scale, but we bought our house in 2005. It is currently worth $200,000 less than we owe on it. We want to move into something bigger but are stuck here.

That dessert looks amazing, so Fran had the right idea. What a great motto! Life is short. Start with dessert. I have never seen that Disney outlet before. I need to check it out! Where is it?

Lake Las Vegas is beautiful. I almost got married there.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I know what you mean about investing in real estate at the wrong time. It is on a smaller scale, but we bought our house in 2005. It is currently worth $200,000 less than we owe on it. We want to move into something bigger but are stuck here.

That dessert looks amazing, so Fran had the right idea. What a great motto! Life is short. Start with dessert. I have never seen that Disney outlet before. I need to check it out! Where is it?

Lake Las Vegas is beautiful. I almost got married there.

I forget the street, but it is the one headed toward the airport. We always go there. I found nothing when I went.

 

[kmedina]

I forget the street, but it is the one headed toward the airport. We always go there. I found nothing when I went.

Thanks. I will check it out.

 

[franandaj]

Once we got our luggage in the room, I got Fran settled with her leg up and I decided to check out the lay of the land. Fran was bummed to walk into the lobby and not find slot machines dinging, lights flashing and tables hopping. I did see a sign for a Casino, so I told her that I would check it out and report back to her.

I took a few shots out the window. Evidently this place was designed after an Italian Mediterranean Hotel

If you look off into the distance you can actually see the Casino from our room.

Here are some more views from the ground floor.

Our room is two rooms to the left of the gray panel, two rooms from the top floor. Our curtains are partially pulled.

So this is a little courtyard up from the gardens at our hotel. It is just off a little Marketplace that was next to the hotel. Evidently there were several hotels in the area.

So I took this picture of Lake Las Vegas next to a directory sign. That will teach me to take more pictures even if I don’t want them. Now I wish I had a picture of the Directory. I sat there looking at it for a long time. The hotels listed there were the Ritz Carlton and the Portofino. I kept wondering where our hotel, the Ravella fit in? To take one of the punches out of the discoveries, we learned at dinner that the hotel we were staying at was once a Ritz Carlton, but they realized they couldn’t make it work and backed out. These other operators took it over. No wonder everything was so nice. I’m not sure I’ve ever stayed in a hotel with as nice a thread count, and the tub was as nice as almost any hotel I’ve ever been in besides a DVC resort.

So this is the “Marketplace” near the resort, it wasn’t hard to get a deserted shot, I’m not surprised why the Ritz people pulled out of here!

I went to the Casino, in the interest of checking it out. I played a little blackjack, but unfortunately it was one of those video black jack thingys. In fact the entire casino was almost “unstaffed” it was weird. The only staff were cocktail waitresses and a couple cashiers. It was a really strange place. I left after about 20-25 minutes of play and down $5.

Once back at the room, I worked on the first installment of the TR and uploaded pictures at lightning fast Wifi speeds. We headed off to the “reception” at about 5:25 and the two of us sat huddled in a corner with my glass of wine and her Diet Pepsi. They finally opened up the doors of the room of the Dinner meeting. There were probably eight different properties represented at this meeting and we were all seated at tables by our respective properties.

[Continued in Next Post]