This Christmas, Ruth and I ( and of course our kids ( Ruth's Dad came along too) ) traveled to Las Vegas to meet up with her sister's family ( Debby, her husband Orion, and their 2-year old son Owen ). Most of you are already aware of this due to my facebook posts ( on both my account and Ruth's account ), but I've decided to create a photo essay ( and send it out via email ) to share our experience with our relatives who don't spend a lot of time on facebook.
With a few exceptions, I won't post too many photos of the landmarks on The Strip ( you all know what they look like ). Instead, I'll focus on what made this trip magical.
The photo above is one of the exceptions to the "no photos of landmarks" rule. I took if from the balcony of our hotel suite ( on 34th floor ) on the first night of our visit ( Dec 22nd ). It's blurry because I tool it with my iPhone ( I still can't figure out how to touch the screen to take a photo while keeping the phone steady ), but I was still really happy with the result.
Dec 23rd was the first full day of our stay. We all woke up between 5 and 6 AM Vegas time ( Our family and Ruth's Dad were still on east coast time and Debby's family has a 2-year-old ), and had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel suite ( Ruth, Debby, and Orion had shopped for groceries the night before ) , before heading down to The Strip at about 9 AM. We did some souvenir shopping to kill time while Ruth waited on line at a discount ticket booth ( more on that later ). While we were waiting/shopping, Owen saw a man dressed in woman's clothing. I wasn't there to see his reaction, but I was told he said "That lady man is scary".
We did a quick visit of "New York, New York" ( We were at the MGM Signature Towers. The Signature is attached to the MGM Grand, which is across the street from "New York, New York". ), and eventually worked out way south down The Strip until we reached Mandalay Bay. The main non-gambling attraction ( The only person who gambled on this trip was Ruth's Dad ) at Mandalay Bay is an aquarium. It was quite impressive, but it didn't have a lot of stuff that I hadn't seem someplace else before. However, the jellyfish tank may have been worth the price of admission.
There wasn't too much excitement during the day, but thanks to Ruth, we had plans for the evening. Ruth had gotten discount tickets ( $51 dollars per ticket for mid-tier tickets ) to see the magician Jan Rouven at The Riviera. If you find yourself in Vegas and want to see a magic show, I highly recommend that you go see Jan. I'll admit that we haven't seen Angel's or Copperfield's show, but I can't imagine how their illusions could be any more impression than the ones Jan performed that night ( We did see Penn & Teller later in the trip. They are incredible showmen and are worth every penny you might spend to see them, but they have nothing on Jan when it comes to magic. ).
One of the great things about Jan's show is you can get tremendous seats at a reasonable price ( from the discount ticket booths on the strip ), especially if you are willing to show up early. With the exception of a few tables and booths in the first tier seating, there are no assigned seats, so if you get on line early, you'll get seated in the best seats in your tier. We showed up at 5:45 for a 7 PM show and got seated in the middle of the first row in the 2nd tier of seats. These seats were fantastic. They were only about 25 feet from the stage, and because the 2nd tier of seats is on ground about 4 feet higher than the 1st tier of seats, there was not a chance that a tall person sitting in front of us could block the boy's view of the stage. I'm sure we would have had to pay at least twice as much to get this close Angel or Copperfield.
The boys really enjoyed the show ( This might be a good time to mention that one of the reasons magic shows were on the agenda is that Peter loves magic. He's been telling us for years that he wants to be a magician when he grows up. ), and after the show Jan did a picture/autograph session with everyone willing to wait their turn. Here are the boys with Jan below:
The next day was the most amazing day of the trip. We started with a trip to "Paris", and went to the top of the half-scale Eiffel Tower. Ruth and I had done this before at night back in 1999, but the boys were eager to see the view from the top. You definitely get a prettier view at night, but I think the boys still got a big kick out of the experience.
I didn't take the photos below until 2 days later, but this seems like the most appropriate spot in the photo essay to show them. I'm sure you've seen plenty of photos of both the real and fake Eiffel Tower, but you probably have not seen too many photos of the Tower with a halo on the top. As we walked across the street from the Tower on Dec 26th, I happened to notice that the Sun was directly behind the top of the Tower, and snapped the shots below.
Note that what you are seeing in the photos above isn't actually the Sun, but rather the bright sky around the sun ( the top of the Tower is blocking the Sun ).
After coming down from the Tower, we headed over The Bellagio with Ruth's Dad to meet Debby/Orion/Owen. During the Christmas season, The Bellagio has a beautiful Christmas display in a large atrium. I don't want to bore you with a bunch of photos, the shot below should give you a flavor of it.
After meeting in the Bellagio lobby, we headed over to the buffet to have a fantastic brunch ( There's one thing I noticed at the Vegas buffets last week which I had never seen at a buffet before. They all seem to cut the crab legs in half length-wise. Never before have I eaten that many crab legs with that little effort. I'm hoping this becomes a trend at other buffets near my home, but if it does, I might soon weigh 300 pounds ( and about 130 of it will be crab meat. ) ).
After the buffet, we checked out the fake canals of "Venice" and eventually headed over to The Mirage. After debating a bit, Ruth and I decided to take the kids to Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. Back when we visited Vegas back in 1999, Ruth and I thought the Secret Garden was one of the best parts of the trip. I don't think we had ever seen dolphins that close-up before ( there was an underwater viewing area and the dolphins would swim up to the glass quite frequently ), and the tour came with an audio track in which Siegfried & Roy explained the history of all the large cats. The ticket prices had doubled since 1999, but we figured it would still be worth the price if it was as good as it was back in 1999. In short, it was nowhere near as good as 1999 ( no audio track, no way to view the dolphins underwater anymore, and only half as many large cats ), but we were really glad we decided to go.
After watching the dolphins for a while, Ruth started talking to one of the guides/trainers/keepers ( not sure what to call him - basically one of the people who was explaining the behaviors of the dolphins ) and asked him if trainers would be interacting with the dolphins soon. He told us there would be some interaction in about 10 minutes. Ruth and I seriously considered just waiting around for 10 minutes ( I was in favor of just waiting around, but thankfully Ruth convinced me otherwise ), but instead we decided to look at the big cats for a few minutes. As we approached one corner of the "Secret Garden", Ruth grabbed my arm and said "Is that who I think it is?". I couldn't believe my eyes at first either, but sure enough, it was Siegfried. Sure, we got to hear an audio track of Siegfried back in 1999, but now the genuine article was just standing there a few feet from us.
As far as I could tell, Siegfried was not a part of the official tour. There wasn't a line of people waiting to meet him, and I doubt very much he would want to spend his time taking photographs with tourists all day long ( and unless he is the worst investor of all time, he couldn't possibly need the money. ). He was just standing there taking to one couple, and there was nobody else gathered around him. I don't know why he was there, but I can only guess that now that his career is over and the bright lights have dimmed, he probably enjoys meeting his fans for a few minutes every once in a while ( We checked again about 30 minutes later, and he was nowhere to be found in the Secret Garden. ). Making a few fans smile probably brightens his day as much as it makes the day of his fans.
In any case, after he was done talking to the other couple we walked over and introduced ourselves and the boys. One of the first things has asked me after the introductions was "Are you German?". I guess German folks are really tight. Jan Rouven is German and he knows Siegfried & Roy well enough that they gave him one of their tricks, along with the original equipment ( Jan mentioned this during his show, and Siegfried confirmed this when we talked to him. ).
After Ruth took the picture below ...
... I told Siegfried that Peter wants to be a magician when he grows up. Siegfried then talked to Peter a bit more and did the following ...
This is the "magic coin" Siegfried used in the trick ( and gave to Peter afterwards ).
After that, we headed back to our hotel suite for a while, where we learned that Ruth's Dad had hit a $1400 jackpot earlier in the day. After the boys got their dose of video games, and we posted Siegfried stuff to facebook, we headed out to watch Penn & Teller.
Before heading over to The Rio to watch the show, we stopped at The Bellagio to watch the fountains.
I think the ideal place to watch the fountains is from the sidewalk adjacent to the street ( and facing The Bellagio ). We didn't get there early enough to get one of those prime viewing spots, but it was kinda nice to watch the fountains with the fake Eiffel Tower in the background.
It took a while to weave through the crowd after the fountain show, but eventually we got ourselves to The Rio, where we had dinner prior to the show. We were all hoping the Penn & Teller show would be the highlight of our trip ( Ruth and I had seen a Penn & Teller show on Long Island about 20 years earlier ). We had wanted to see at least one magic show while we we in Vegas and we had bought the Penn & Teller tickets almost immediately after we had arranged for the plane trip and the hotel. When looking over the available seats online, we had noticed a block of 4 seats that were right next to the aisle in the 2nd and 3rd rows ( 2 seats in the 2nd row, and 2 right behind them in the 3rd row, with an aisle directly to the right of the seats. All the other available seats were at least 20 rows from the stage. ). We snagged the seats immediately, knowing that we might never have a chance to be this close to the stage in a magic show again.
We settled into our seats ( with Michael and Peter sitting in front of us ), and got ready to enjoy the show. The show was everything we expected and more, with the "more" happening about halfway through the show.
Penn & Teller have a few acts which require a volunteer from the audience, and as Penn started to introduce and an act based on TSA security, Teller walked into the aisle next to us and offered his hand to Michael. The next thing you you know Michael was up on stage while Ruth giggled and said stuff like "Oh my Goodness!".
It would be wrong to say the Michael stole the show, but he certainly enhanced everyone's experience that night. The simplest way I can put it is that Michael was being Michael, except that we was doing it in front of 1500 people. Michael is one of the least self-conscious kids you're ever going to meet ( Just the opposite of Peter. Peter was actually sitting in the aisle seat, but Teller choose Michael instead of Peter because Peter probably looked terrified while Michael almost certainly looked eager to go on stage. ).
As soon as Michael got up there he started fidgeting as he's prone to do ( Thanks goodness he didn't stick his finger in his nose or his hand in his pants! ). He looked around with his eyes as big as saucers and was making all sorts of crazy facial expressions as Penn spoke. Michael was wearing a hooded sweat-jacket, which he took off soon after arriving on stage. While he was fidgeting and looking around ( and audience was giggling at each little fidget ) he put the sweat-jacket back on inside-out. The audience reacted with hearty laughter when Michael did this and then exploded with laughter when Penn responded by taking off his suit jacket and putting it back on inside-out.
Soon after that Penn handed Michael a TSA wand ( one of the hand-held metal detectors that TSA uses at airports ). He asked Michael to swipe the wand over his suit jacket, and when it beeped he pull a credit-card sized piece of metal out of the inside pocket of his jacket ( which was actually on the outside at that point ). Penn explained it was a metal version of the Bill of Rights. He told the audience that he always has a metal Bill of Rights with him when he goes through airport security and that when it sets off the metal detectors he pulls it out and shows the TSA agent the 4th Amendment ( The 4th Amendment prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures". In case you were not aware, Penn & Teller are big time Libertarians, and after magic, Libertarianism was the biggest theme of the show ( there was also an act with a flag-burning theme )).
While Penn was talking about the TSA and the 4th amendment and Teller was pulling huge items out of his jacket ( First a big metal dish with something on fire on top of it, then a huge fire extinguisher, and finally a large shovel. He eventually made a women appear out of thin air underneath a walk-through metal detector. BTW, Michael told us he couldn't tell how Teller managed to do all this, even though he probably had a better angle than anyone. ), Michael kept fidgeting and waving the metal detector. He kept waving it over metal things ( like the zipper on his jacket and metal Bill of Rights Penn gave him ) to make it beep, so much so that you could hear several obtrusive beeps during Penn's speech. Michael swung the wand like a baseball bat once, and at one point started waving it over his own private parts ( Penn: "That's not made of metal Michael, and you should be glad that it isn't." ).
After the show, Penn & Teller each signed the metal Bill of Rights they used in the act with Michael.
They also took pictures ...
... and signed autographs.
Yes, you heard that right - we got to hear Teller speak! In the video above, he was signing a photo of Penn & Teller and drew and arrow pointing to himself to help the boys remember which one he was.
Penn & Teller signed autographs and and took pictures with anyone who was willing to wait after the show. When Teller signed the Bill or Right for me, he told me, "I didn't write it, but I wish that I had." When we spoke with Penn he told us, "I still don't understand what was going on with the sweat-jacket." ( Unfortunately, we don't have that on video. ).
After that night, the rest of our vacation was gravy. We enjoyed the next 2 days ( plus Friday morning ), but there really isn't anything else exciting to report.
Considering the boys were there with their cousin Owen, and Owen had both sunglasses and a baby doll, we attempted to replicate the poster from "The Hangover".
We made little sunglasses for the baby doll and put my glasses on Michael ( I regret that I didn't give him a towel to hold - I'm getting so blind that even with my reading glasses on, I didn't notice the towel when I looked at the photo of the poster on my phone ). I would have liked for them to be closer together ( and for Owen to stand while the boys kneeled ), but it is never easy to get a 2-year-old to pose the way you want ( and I didn't want to be an overbearing "director" of the photo ), so the photo below was the best we could do.
In any case, Ruth says she'll be doing some Photoshop post-production in order to improve it.
The Hangover shot was appropriate, because it really is like a buddy movie with those three. Owen loves having his older cousins around. When we visited Debby's family in California in August, Owen followed the boys around for the entire vacation. He wanted to do whatever they were doing. At one point, he insisted on having the hood of his sweatshirt over his head because the boys were walking around with their hoods on. Owen was fighting Debby and Orion when they tried to brush his teeth until we sent Michael into the bathroom to brush in front of Owen. After that, Owen was happy to have his teeth brushed. After we left California, Owen kept asking "Where Michael go? Where Peter go?". So, Owen was very happy to see his cousins when we met in the hotel lobby to check into the hotel. Unfortunately, he got upset any time he was separated from them, so there were times when our family and Debby's family were forced to stay together, even when we each felt like doing our own thing. Still, I've got no complaints, because it was so sweet to see how happy they were together.
We left Vegas at 2:45 PM on Friday Dec 27th, and drove back home from Philly ( There were better flight options in Philly than at Newark, so it made sense to drive to Philly for our flight. ). We landed at about 10:15 PM local time, but due to a series of mishaps ( flat tire on the mobile walkway that was supposed to get us from the plane to the terminal; luggage was on a completely different carousel than the one linked to our flight number on all the video screens; there were signs leading to every parking garage except the one we were parked in; the parking garage couldn't read my ticket ) we didn't get home until 1 AM on Saturday. Thus, our Christmas morning took place at 1:30 AM on December 28th.
A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Rich
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