We started off with a spectacularly overpriced breakfast at the Starbucks in TI. Like NYC, there is a Starbucks ever time you turn around in Vegas. Nancy noticed this guy sitting off in a corner there, in a business suit with a green shirt and some papers. She then noticed him again while we were at the mall. A little freaky, but I think it was just a coincidence. I assume so anyway, because I'm still alive and I'm not missing anything. I didn't really notice this guy, but I did notice Kato Kaelin (of OJ houseguest fame) coming out of the elevator at TI as we were getting on it. Yes, my one and only celebrity siting, if, in fact, you could call this deadbeat a celebrity.
Next we took a cab to the outlet mall on Charleston, which is north of the strip. It was raining a bit (wow, a whole 3 one hundreths of an inch--tons by desert standards) so we thought this would be good, but it turned out to be more of an big box outdoors mall. But, the rain didn't last long, so no worries. Although I did pick up two pairs of shoes at this place, I was quite disappointed. I figure that if a shirt says XL on it it should be a bit too big for a Barbie doll, but apparently I'm wrong. In FCUK (French Connection UK--but we all know why they called it that), they had some cute t-shirts that had sequined sayings like "fcuk in las vegas" and "fcuk in sin city", but even the men's XL was too small. And really you'd have to be a pretty thin guy to feel comfortable in it. Alas, I probably wouldn't have worn it in public anyway, so no big loss I guess.
So after we got back from the mall we chilled a bit and then headed out to the Rio to pick up the tickets for Penn and Teller that night. The Rio is interesting. Dancing scantily clad women on gaming tables. Not really my thing. The cashier was labeled "Banco del Rio", which is also a bit scary for those gamblers out there.
We walked across the street to the Palms for dinner as we'd been told this is the place for celebrity sitings. But, as I mentioned, I only saw Kato, so no luck. We ate at Gardunos (more Mexican food, more margaritas, more guacamole) and then headed back for the show.
The doors for Penn and Teller open at 8, but the show doesn't begin until 9. After arriving at 8:10, I saw there was a reason for this. Starting at 8, a guy entertains you with some lovely piano jazz, accompanied by Penn on the upright bass. And if that weren't pleasant enough, in between songs, he beseeches you to come up on stage and participate in the "Penn and Teller box viewing experience". These are the boxes that Teller will be locked in during the bit that opens the show. You can go on stage and open, turn them over, whatever, but he says "Please, please, for your own safety, do not get into the box". This was a cute little part of the show...."Are you sitting next to someone that complains you never take them anywhere? Well why not take them on stage now for the Penn and Teller box viewing experience!!"
At the beginning of the show, Teller actually comes out the box. Which to my knowledge and as far as I can see, never left the stage, and the last person to touch it was actually an audience member. Whatever. I won't give up how he got out of the locked box later on, just to preserve the magic for those of you that follow...
So Penn had an entertaining bit about juggling broken liquor bottles, which he actually did behind plexiglass "because of an unfortunate incident with an audience member in Minneapolis". They also did this trick with bullets that was quite spectacular. I think if it was just the magic stuff it would have been dry, but there was a lot of razzing of other Vegas acts and some biting political commentary in there too, which made it great. I think it was still a bit overpriced, as are most things in Vegas, but it was definitely good.
This was actually the day that the new Wynn Las Vegas resort opened at 12:01 a.m. We went the next day, but did catch the huge line of people waiting to get in. Apparently the place cost 2.7 billion to make, and with 2700 rooms, that works out to about a million big ones each. Lots of news people around, mostly camped out across the street infront of the New Frontier Hotel---which was ironically bought by Donald Trump recently. No doubt, in a few years, they will all be camped out at the Wynn watching whatever Trumped up place is built to replace the New Frontier. It's just one giant pissing contest on the strip. But then again, in Vegas, you can never be too thin or too rich. Or too shiny and big and over the top.
Anyway, so after Penn and Teller we went into the Tangerine nightclub at TI where I had their signature drink, a "Tangerine Octane". No idea what precisely was in it, but it was okay. From the Tangerine, we watched the Sirens of TI yet again. Still not as good as the fountains, but not bad. By the way, I got carded trying to get into the Tangerine. Not one, but two bouncers looked carefully at my ID. Kinda nice to think in my year of the big 3-oh someone may actually think I haven't yet hit 21. Thanks guys.
So by now I'm totally exhausted and we sit down at some slots. Pulling out a few quarters from my pocket, I end up winning 40 bucks. Not bad considering to this point, I'd probably spent a grand total of about 6 bucks on gambling.
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