Legal Monopoly
I woke to a stunning desert sunrise after waking several times during the night to the sound of loud voices in the hallway. It’s not infrequent in Vegas that I hear couples fighting late at night outside my hotel door. I’m not sure exactly what the fight was about but I heard one voice saying something like “lost the nest egg!”
I played some Monopoly and Pai Gow Poker to no avail then picked up Dave at Bally’s. I had a coupon for free lunch at Rio so we drove over there and visited the former king of Vegas buffets, the Carnaval World Buffet. We parked on Level 3 and walked through the casino to the other end of the hotel to the buffet. Two years ago there was a one-hour line to eat lunch at this restaurant but now we were practically the only ones there. The food had gone way downhill. Everything tasted sort of the same. Rio was a cool hotel-casino built in a bad location. When it was hot and new people came but now that there are coot hotels built in great locations no one comes.
After lunch we decided to go for another drive in the desert. We got on the freeway and headed north, then took US 93 into the desert wilderness. The temperature had fallen so low since yesterday that I turned the heat on but left the top down. The scenery was breathtaking. Stout stubby cacti punctuated the barren plains of scrub brush, dividing the valleys between the rocky foothills into miniature fiefdoms, each ruled by a bushy-topped green Napoleon. We drove about 45 minutes then turned around.
I continued to get hoovered playing Pai Gow Poker at Bally’s while Dave went for a swim. Then we headed over to the great black pyramid, Luxor, for a show by Blue Man Group. We had both heard great things about this show from several people so we paid the $71.50 each for last-minute tickets, third row center. Frequently the best seats come up for sale at the last minute and this was no exception. We were so close we were in what they called the “poncho” section. That meant everybody was issued plastic ponchos in case we got sprayed with parts of the show. The ponchos looked like large dry-cleaning bags. After a lifetime of being told not to put these things over my head I did just that. Ah, sweet release. As it turned out we kept dry except for a huge blue Sphinx-shaped glass of margaritas I ordered at the bar. The show was superbly original, like Cirque de Soleil without so much Soleil. Three blue aliens express themselves through rhythm, music, and comedy in an extremely interactive show. Highly recommended.
As we walked through the casino to find the series of walkways and trams to take us to Paris for dinner, I once again noticed the unusual thing about Vegas: smoking is allowed here. People smoke indoors! Coming from Washington State where everyone is too healthy to smoke, and moving the California where when you cross the border the sign says, “Welcome to California. No Smoking,” it seems almost alien. One thing that didn’t seem alien was the enormous line at Excalibur for Krispy-Kreme donuts, Hot Now. We passed it up, though, with Le Village Buffet awaiting us.
As we walked through MGM Grand we saw a premiere party for the new movie Battlefield Earth with John Travolta. Apparently the mayor of Las Vegas was set to give Travolta a key in the middle of the MGM lobby in about 15 minutes but we didn’t stay for it as we already had keys.
The Paris buffet was extensive but uneven. Picking and choosing we certainly got enough to eat but several dishes I tried were overdone. I filled up on king-crab legs and passed up the made-to-order crepes in favor of bananas Foster for dessert. The waitress spoke French to us but didn’t understand the French I spoke back. Just like the real Paris.
I retired to Mandalay Bay to lose even more money at Pai Gow Poker before retiring.
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