I love Vegas. It doesn't matter that I lived there for 6 years. I still love Vegas and go back often. This time it was a girls trip for me and Skippy! Skip drove down here to Park City a few days ago and the first night we went and saw Rum Diaries with Johnny Depp. If it weren't for Giovanni Rabisi (Who I love and was surprised to see him!) This movie would've been a 1. (out of 10). But, there was a really pretty girl and Giovanni and the movie was spared.The next morning we headed out after filling up the kids with food and cleaning out litter boxes. We drove down Provo Canyon which is one of my favorite places, it is so beautiful. It was incredibly windy and it slowed us down quite a bit, but it didn't prevent me from yapping the whole way. Skippy provided me, the fearless driver, with treats and entertainment and it was a fast trip down! Once in town, we exited at Flamingo and turned the corner to hear my favorite Bellagio Fountain song, Con te Partiro, which in Italian means, Time to Say Goodbye. We drove right past the fountains with the windows open and then pulled into the Bellagio parking lot, because that is where we stayed!!!! We stayed in a beautiful room that had a "lake view" so every 15 minutes, Skippy and I would set the tv to the Fountain channel which pipes the music into the room, curl up on our strategically placed chairs with our glasses of wine and watch the beautiful Fountains of Bellagio. It is nice to be loved :)
That night we went to dinner at Circo, the Italian restaurant in the Bellagio. Skippy had some big hunk of meat (a rare occurrence for her!) and I had lobster gnocchi. It was wonderful! While there, a photography came and took our picture, and of course, we had to purchase it, because it was so cute and we were already having such a good time!
After that.....we went to see O!!!!! Seeing this show again was on my life list and I am so lucky to have been able to see it again. Skippy, Donna and I saw it 10 years ago when I was a Freshman at UNLV and I have been wanting to see it ever since! It was the same music, with some of the same features, but there were new pieces too. It exceeded all expectations and it was absolutely wonderful!!!
The next day was warm and inviting so we ate outside and watched the fountains from the deck at Olives, also in the Bellagio. I had a bellini for lunch, because....I was on vacation! After that, we went to my favorite store, Q Mode and Skippy held all my clothes as I dashed around picking them out. She then accompanied me in the dressing room and also was kind enough to hang them all back up. I had an enormously success trip, which I usually don't, and was able to pick up all kinds of cute stuff!
From there we went to the Mirage where we sat in the front row of the sports book in big leather chairs and watched BSU beat San Diego and the massacre that happened to some of the top ten teams! On my trip to get salads, a man walked by me a few times and then on his last way past gave me 5 drink tickets. I went back to my seat and excitedly presented my free ticket and a tip to our busty, ratty haired cocktail server and ordered a margarita. She came back about 10 minutes later with as Skippy called it, "soapy water". I have no idea what that thing was. I am almost positive that it was Captain and Pina Colada. I couldn't let Skippy go thirsty, so I ordered her one too! It was pretty funny. I love how she humors me and lets me make fun :)
After the games we went out and watched the Mirage volcano, which has undergone some neat improvements and then we went to see JAY LENO! I have loved Jay since his first day on the Tonight Show, 25 years ago. Skippy and I went to a taping of the Tonight Show in California a few years ago, but he was exceptionally funny at our show. My favorite line was (he was talking to his wife's cat) "You do not meet the minimum requirements of a pet" and my favorite joke was; "So, what about Christmas at Jesus' house? Can you imagine the Christmas newsletter; "Our son Jesus, our Lord and Savior and then there's Jesus' brother James, who attends Bethlehem Community College." I was laughing so hard I was crying and snorting. SOOOO funny!!!!!
On our last day we stopped by my favorite place, Panera, on our way out to the Hoover Dam to inspect the new bridge that was built for $240 million in order to divert traffic from the dam. I liked being able to straddle Nevada and Arizona. We didn't get home til about 1 am and celebrated our fun weekend with another glass of my favorite wine. We made it home in record time and saw deer but thankfully didn't hit any.
I love traveling with Skippy and it was really fun to reminisce and rehash some of our adventures over the years. We still laugh about my currency conversion debacle in Switzerland, and how stifling the pyramids were in Egypt and I thought I was going to die. Or how she thought she was going to die in Moab when I was driving a 4 wheeler. Or the time I couldn't light the campfire in Malibu. I think about bouncing along in the Myron mobile all the way from Minnesota to Vegas and she remembers when I drove her into Tijuana. I liked when she snow shoed up Sun Valley only to see a woman twice her age skiing and realizing that she was young and fit enough to ski. I enjoyed watching her run in the waves in Laguna and she liked when I wrote her name in the sand at Lincoln City. Through bloody noses, snow storms, sand storms, near death, sunburns, camels, melting $45 icecream, stinky Arab breath, strawberry juice, snowblades, grappa, missed trains and busses, stolen airline blankets, tight dresses and matron dresses, glitz, lamb guts in a bucket, closed gas stations, near death on the Provo river, licorice and Donna's wheel chair---- I couldn't ask for a better travel buddy, friend or mother.
