My daughter's boyfriend is lucky. No, he's not lucky because I've yet to have a reason to take him for "a ride out to the desert". He's lucky because he does things like win front row tickets for the iHeartRadio Festival at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Now, I have to admit to not knowing exactly what iHeartRadio really is, and I'm not entirely certain I have the time to care, but I do know that the festival attracted performers as diverse as Rhianna to Bon Jovi. I wasn't there for the show, though. I was there just to hang in Vegas and meet up with some old friends.
We got to Vegas on Thursday, and made our from our hotel (the bitchingly swanky Candlewood Suites) to Paris, which is on "The Strip".
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| The Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas... |
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| The Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas... |
We made our way to the bar where we were soon joined by my old friends Ed and Lisa. I hadn't seen them in 20 years, and it was just a matter of coincidence that we were going to be in Vegas at the same time:
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| Old friends Lisa and Ed, in town for Ed's 58th birthday... |
After a few cocktails with Lisa and Ed, we said our goodbyes and parted ways. Jess, Dom and I were getting a bit hungry, so we decided that we'd start to make our way down to New York New York to get some pizza.
Surprising to me was the fact that this was Dom's first trip to Las Vegas. On a first trip to Las Vegas, there are just certain things you must see, including the Fountains at Bellagio. At the end of the movie "Ocean's Eleven", George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle and the rest of the crew can be seen standing along South Las Vegas Boulevard, enjoying a seemingly uncluttered and uncrowded view of the Fountains. Well, that just doesn't really exist. The reality is that this is probably the single most popular attraction in Vegas, and thousands of people watch it every fifteen minutes between the hours of 8:00pm and midnight, and every half hour between 3:00pm and 8:00pm:
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| The Fountains at Bellagio... |
Walking down Las Vegas Boulevard is a treat. It's amazing to see so many grand hotels, each one with hundreds, if not thousands, of hotel rooms. One of those hotels is the Monte Carlo. I can't recall if I ever stayed there (my memory may be questionable because it was so damn hot), but I do know the elevators are quite nice:
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| The Monte Carlo... |
We managed to find our way down to New York New York, which really a "must see":
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| The Statue of Liberty outside New York New York Hotel & Casino... |
One of the cool features is a roller coaster which spends sometime flinging you around outside, and some time flinging you around inside. For whatever reason, it wasn't running while we were there, but I don't know if we'd have taken a ride, anyway. We were hungry, and we wanted pizza. And, if you happen to want pizza while you're in Las Vegas, getting it at New York New York isn't a horrible idea. And, if you're going to get pizza at New York New York, allow me to suggest that you get it at Sirrico's:
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| Sicilian slices at Sirrico's Pizza... |
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| Sirrico's Pizza inside New York New York... |
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| The other side of Sirrico's Pizza... |
After a bite to eat at Sirrico's, my daughter made the command decision that we would not be walking back to our hotel over on Paradise Road. And, to be fair, we had done quite a bit of walking. So, consequently, we called a cab, and called it a night...
**All photos in this entry were taken with the Canon G12, including the HDR image of Sirrico's in New York New York**
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