Third Time's a Charm PTR - May 2012 - I should give up on planning trips.

[franandaj]

Merry Christmas Everyone!

After dinner we headed over to she showroom for Debbie Reynolds.

It was a small auditorium

We had this view of the stage.

And looking across to the other side of the room

She came out signing up a storm. For an 80 year old lady she could sure belt it out! Excuse the blurry pictures, I took three times as many as I've posted, but she just kept running all over the place moving her hands. I used the ones that had the least amount of blurry.

The evening was a mix of variety show type fun, she sang some songs, told stories about her ex-husbands, and later showed some movie clips and sang along with those.

She had some costume changes, sang Singin' in the Rain, Good Mornin', a lot of others, but just don't remember which ones. Those of you who have seen her movies I sure would have remembered. Fran kept poking me with the titles and shows they came from.

Said goodbye and we all packed it up and went home. I had my two drink "minimum" so I was good to go! Hit the sack and that was it!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great pictures of Debbie....although I know she wasn't in White Christmas, it was nice to see those shots of her singing along with it.

Sounds like it was a good show and you had great seats and view of the stage.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I really like Debbie Reynolds. South Pointe is a very nice casino. Thanks for sharing those.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I just browsed through some of your pics, but I will look more later. WOW!!! Looks like an awesome trip to Vegas! Thanks again for some more wonderful food porn too! I want that lobster grilled cheese sandwich right now!

 

[franandaj]

Great pictures of Debbie....although I know she wasn't in White Christmas, it was nice to see those shots of her singing along with it.

Sounds like it was a good show and you had great seats and view of the stage.

It was a lot of fun and with such a small room it was hard not to have a good view.

I really like Debbie Reynolds. South Pointe is a very nice casino. Thanks for sharing those.

I wish we could have spent some time there gambling. We did in January and had a blast!

I just browsed through some of your pics, but I will look more later. WOW!!! Looks like an awesome trip to Vegas! Thanks again for some more wonderful food porn too! I want that lobster grilled cheese sandwich right now!

Oh just wait, the best is yet to come!

 

[rentayenta]

Oh just wait, the best is yet to come!

 

[PrincessInOz]

 

[franandaj]

Maybe tonight, the next one is in progress, but limited food porn.

 

[rentayenta]

Maybe tonight, the next one is in progress, but limited food porn.

Limited porn?

 

[franandaj]

Sorry I haven’t had an update in a long time, but I could not get pictures to upload to photobucket the last two days of the trip. I would start an upload when we left the room and I would come back and NONE of them would upload. I started this morning and PB is still giving me a hassle. It stalls on my last picture every time! But here goes….picking up where we left off.

So the morning after Debbie Reynolds was Christmas Eve. We weren’t in a big hurry to get dressed, but we decided that we wanted breakfast from a real diner and not a buffet. I searched online for a place that Guy Fieri had been to, but no luck. I finally turned to Yelp and found a place that we had remembered passing on the way to the hotel. Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant.

It was your typical coffee shop kind of place. The menu was bigger than that margarita! No seriously, it took us about 15 minutes just to read through everything and another 5-10 to decide! After some bargaining Fran and I decided what to get. I ordered the one egg, two bacon with hash browns and English Muffin.

And then she gave me one of her pancakes and I gave her some hash browns.

Arline got the Potato Pancakes with eggs and gave me her bacon.

After breakfast (which started well after noon! ) we decided to take a drive down the The Strip. We started at the South end and headed north. Beginning with the Mandalay Bay.

The Luxor.

You would never think that this is Las Vegas Blvd from the emptiness of this street!

The New York, New York Casino is ahead in the distance.

Little Lady Liberty

And the Lion

The Monte Carlo where we would be dining that evening

Them er some tall buildings there. Part of the new “City Center” Complex

This is Crystals the new shopping mall, where we would be dining the following night.

Not everything on the strip is all glitter and glamour

You have your cheap souvenir shops

I remember when there was nothing near the Harley Davidson Café

But they have Medical Marijuana, and it’s at a chain drugstore! You don’t see that back home!

At least the caped crusader is here to save the day.

We could spend the day in Paris

Or the Bellagio

Or Caesar’s Palace

[Continued in next post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from previous post]


We joked about what if Bugsy Siegel had a thing for Penguins instead of Flamingos, Vegas would be a lot different!

You might think this blurry image is just a Mirage, but it is the Mirage!

There is a Ghiradelli on The Strip!

The Venetian was one of the few casinos that had Holiday decorations.

This massive hotel seems to be affiliated with the Venetian. I’ll have to check out more about it.

More of the decorations

The Wynn Hotel

And her sister the Encore

I’ve never taken a picture of the iconic sign, so I figured this was close enough!

The Riviera is one of the few hotels from the past that is actually still here!

The Stratosphere is still out in the boonies!

Next we headed downtown to check things out. We parked at the Golden Nugget and lisaviolet has clued me in to the beauty of the light fixtures. I thought these were exceptional.

Now we are on Fremont Street

Arline kept asking about this chap, throughout the trip, we finally found him

I thought she was a little more interesting!

We decided that it was time to play a little blackjack so we went inside Binions and found a table playing single deck 21. Fran likes single decks, 1…2…3

After a few hours we decided it was time to head back to the room. I had to shower up for our next adventure, Dinner at Andre’s at the Monte Carlo!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Aww, I was hoping you'd have a pic of the hotel my parents will be staying at in February when they go for Valentine's Day They'll be at Excalibur

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for sharing the view of the Strip. It's been about 10 years since I was last in Vegas. Lots the same, lots with changes.

I think it might be time for a trip back there...but DH isn't all that keen.

 

[rentayenta]

I haven't gone past the first photo. Over easy eggs with hashbrowns are one of my all time favorite foods ever! However, I am trying to get back into not after dinner as I ate everything and anything over the holidays. I fear this update Wish me luck- I'm going in!

 

[usnuzuloose]

Well after the talk of the menu, I thought you were talking fancy. Not a chance. I love eggs and hashbrowns. Yummy! There was a hotel that was not finished in between the palazzo and the Wynn. Did they bring that down? They were talking about it a few months ago. The guy went bankrupt and started selling off everything inside.

Nice to see the pics, we wont be going this year. Cant wait to see dinner.

 

[Pinkocto]

Wow, I had no idea Vegas had so much. Very very impressive. Love the breakfast photos, those pancakes looked magnificent!

 

[rentayenta]

Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Batman!!!!

 

[franandaj]

So I had the highest expectations for this night’s dinner. It was by far our most fabulous dinner, but I got the worst pictures. I finally looked at them yesterday and they hardly represent our meal, but perhaps they represent the “time” we had. Persons in our party were less than “festive” and made for a tense evening, though we are getting used to it.

Andre’s at the Monte Carlo is a fabulous restaurant that I discovered on our last trip. Before Las Vegas became a Fine dining destination, Chef Andre evidently put his restaurant on the map, this was back in the 70’s. His original restaurant was downtown, but he had to close it down, probably due to construction and expansion. I thought he had two restaurants, but I can’t find the other, so perhaps he just has the one in the Monte Carlo.

This is one of the few pictures that I snapped of our hotel.

The Monte Carlo is a swanky joint and had some nice decorations up that you couldn’t see unless you were in the hotel.

We arrived at the restaurant

We were seated at our table

This was my first experience with an iPad wine list!

This was our Amuse Bouche, I emailed myself what it was, but in our current internet situation, I can’t access my email to find out what it was, but it involved a salmon mousse and I think caviar as well.

The bread was pretty good.

I got the lobster sausage which was awesome

Fran got the lobster bisque, and I assume it was good, we weren’t talking a lot, so she didn’t say how it was. My picture was so blurry, you couldn’t even tell what it was. Arline got the Butternut Squash Soup.

We ordered the Lobster Thermidor split between Arline and I, and the plating was different from when we had it back in January.

I couldn’t finish all of mine so I gave part of it to Fran. Arline and I ordered soufflés, I got the Grand Marinier and she ordered the chocolate.

While the meal was wonderful, the evening was incredibly strained as Fran was in a terribly cranky mood. Perhaps we should have postponed this trip!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Despite the pictures, that sure looks like a FANTASTIC meal. I love lobster thermidor. Well....I just ADORE lobster...so that bisque and sausage also look pretty fantastic to me.

Did you have that chocolate souffle last time? I seem to recall seeing a mighty fine souffle picture at one stage....

Thanks for sharing.

 

[rentayenta]

The meal looks delicious despite a cranky partner. Been there, done that, no bueno. I want that lobster sausage. And how neato, an iPad wine list.


In 2005 we stayed at the Monte Carlo on our way to and from Disneyland. The holiday decorations were terrific. It's a nice hotel.