In the trip report, when Dan is speaking, I'll use this font and block the sections off.
I stayed home for a few days after Sonya left with the truck for Vegas. I was to get a couple of more days at work, and take care of the cat, as we were worried about leaving him in the apartment for 6 days and nights.
The plan was to take a 2:30 flight on Southwest Airlines out of San Francisco Airport, switch planes in San Diego, and meet Sonya at McCarren Airport at 4:30, and visit with her briefly in the Hotel room before leaving for the 6:30 André Phillipe Gagnon performance. Unfortunately, Southwest Airlines has no direct flights from San Francisco to Las Vegas. I was using Southwest to take advantage of a free ticket, and nearby San Francisco Airport to avoid long-term fees or expensive taxi fair to the more distant airports in San Jose or Oakland.
Sonya called me on Saturday, not feeling well at all. I offered leave as soon as possible for Oakland Airport (where I could get a direct Vegas flight). That would have meant missing my sister's new rock band, which was playing that evening in San Francisco. We agreed that I would move my flight forward to a 10:30 am flight, which would then put me in Vegas at about 2:30.
The SuperShuttle arrived at 8 a.m. sharp. There were no other passengers, so I found myself at the terminal by 8:25. Knowing there was a 9:am San Diego flight that connected to a Vegas flight that arrived at Noon, I quickly arranged to be on that one.
The flight to San Diego was uneventful, although I did enjoy the white-knuckle approach with the downtown high rises seemingly just beyond the wing tip.
I am one of those air travelers who loves to look out of the window if there is anything remotely interesting below. As I boarded the second plane in San Diego made sure I was on the right side of the aircraft. From that side, I was hoping to have a view into Mexico, and I was curious to see if the international boundary was visible in some way. But instead of turning inland after the take off, the plane climbed steadily to the northwest over the sea. I carefully recalled the boarding to make sure I was on the right plane. I sure didn't want to call Sonya from Seattle!
Eventually, the plane did turn inland over Laguna Beach in south Orange County. As we traveled inland toward Vegas, I had great views of the Lake Paris/Lake Elsinor area, Riverside/San Bernardino, and the Arrowhead and Big Bear lakes in the San Bernardino Mountains. After that, it was just unrecognizable desert features, until the curve of I-15 came into view, followed by the Primm Valley Golf Course.
We found it isn't easy to pick someone up at McCarren Airport. From the baggage claim area, there are exits on three sides of the building, depending on where we want to go. With the aid of mobile phones, we quickly found each other with little fuss.
If Dan doesn't check his luggage, our typical plan is for me to pick him up at flight departures. It's usually less crowded up above. Sunday morning in Las Vegas is not place to try this trick though. I called Dan's cell phone from mine and told him that it was a massive traffic jam of taxi cabs and shuttles and people with tons of luggage. It was a zoo! I told Dan to head to passenger pickup and I'd get him there. I had to drive back around, but that was pretty simple and I pulled up to the curb just as he was walking up. Perfect timing!
We hopped into the tunnel and on to I-15 towards downtown. I got a telephone call, so Dan got to look at the sights on the strip as I talked and drove. It only took about 10-15 minutes for us to get to Main Street Station and up to the room. Dan said that I looked like I was doing better while I was in the car, but once he saw me try to get out of the truck, it was apparent I had hurt my back.
When we got up to the room, the maid was there and just starting on the cleaning. I asked her to just do the bathroom if she didn't mind us being there. We sat at the table by the window and caught up on things. Dan had seen his sister's new band perform the night before in San Francisco, so I was eager to hear all about it.
The maid was very nice and finished quickly. I had left out a tip for her on the bed and she found it. I'm always so uncomfortable being in the room when the housekeeper is there. I always feel like I'm some sort of pig having to have someone pick up my towels, and empty my trash. :-)
We spent a little bit more time catching up and then Dan was hungry. He said he was going down to the brew pub for a sandwich and a beer. I stayed in the room to do a little email. I assumed he was going to eat there, but he called me from downstairs and asked what I wanted to eat.
He brought up a chicken foccacia sandwich for himself (he'd been hearing me talk about it and remembered how yummy it was so he had to have one) and a quesidilla for me. He also had a big pilsner glass of their pale ale.
We had a nice chat over lunch in the room and I was able to sit in the chair with pillows behind my back for support. It was nice of him to bring up food because he hates eating in the room. I sort of like it. It's quieter and I enjoy the view.
After a late lunch, it was pretty much time for Dan to head to the Strip. His birthday treat had been tickets to see Andre Philippe Gangon at Venetian. More info on that in Dan's part of the trip report. Also, we use the Visa Las Vegas from FirstUSA bank for all Dan's business travel. We get 1% back in Vegas bucks vouchers that can be cashed at any Mandalay Resorts hotel. (Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Gold Strike and Nevada Landing) They have another card that can be cashed at the Station Casinos or Tropicanca as I recall. By the time this trip came around, we had accumulated $170 in vouchers. It's free money!
Dan wanted to swing by Mandalay Bay to cash in his vouchers before going to Venetian. By the time he got to Venetian it was time for the show.
I wanted to see at least one show this
trip. The shows I considered included Lance Burton and the Rat Pack is Back.
I also checked out which rock bands were playing at the time, but found no one
I really wanted to see. I choose impressionist André-Pilippe Gagnon as
he had gotten some excellent reviews, and I felt that the acts such as Lance
Burton would still be available during future Vegas visits.
André-Pilippe Gagnon (pronounced ganYAWN) performs Wednesdays through
Sundays at the Venician's C2K venue. André-Pilippe does musical impressions
of more than 100 performers during his show, and had been receiving good reviews
in the online Vegas areas.
I arrived at C2K about 15 minutes early, hoping to finish my first drink before the show started. The nice hostess seating me discovered that my seat was already taken. She politely checked the tickets of each of the 6 people sitting at the table my ticket told me I should be at, and told me the table had been oversold, and asked me to sit temporarily at a different table while she found me a different seat.
I had purchased a "cheap" $45 seat in a section to the side of the stage, thinking that a musical comedy act would not suffer too much from this angle. When the hostess returned, she sat took me down to the front section and sat me at a table in what I later learned was the $75 seat section!
Not that it would have made a whole lot of difference. There were flat-panel large wide aspect-ratio video monitors hanging above each of the side sections, two more on either side of the stage, and a large projection screen above the stage. Still, I wasn't complaining.
Looking up, I noticed that the fog machines were creating a mist that the lights could be shown through. I thought it ironic that since smoking was no longer permitted in these areas, they brought in a substitute for the visual effects of cigarette smoke in an auditorium.
André-Pilippe opened his show with his version of the Rolling Stone's "Start Me Up." This brought me back to when I was 18 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, pressed up with a few thousand other people against the stage watching Mick Jagger prance around. I wondered whether I should throw a shoe onto the stage.
André-Pilippe's impressions of African-American singers tend to be excellent, while he does not do white singers as well. One notable exception if Frank Sinatra. André-Pilippe does a great Frank.
Since this is a comedy show, I'll try not to give away too much. I will say that he did do a Beatle anthology, most of which is weak, since he doesn't do the Beatles well. However, the last song contained a joke hilarious enough to make the whole set worth it.
There was one joke that had me ROFL (that's Rolling On the Floor Laughing for those of you who haven't been online long), yet I was the only one laughing. Since I was the only one who thought it funny, I'll tell you it was his impression of any American singer trying to sing the Canadian National Anthem at a sports event. Now, I'm an American who has only visited Canada once in my life, so I don't know why the other Americans sitting nearby didn't get it, but maybe that was the point of the joke.
In another segment, audience members select whose voice André-Pilippe will use, whose movements he'll make, and what song to sing. At my performance, it was Barry White singing "Little Polka-Dot Bikini" while moving like Michael Jackson.
One more note about the C2K venue itself: André-Pilippe live band sounded wonderful. The C2K venue's acoustics are simply delicious for electrically amplified music. If I'm in town again and anyone I like is playing in C2K, I'd definitely go to see them there.
I'd recommend the André-Pilippe Gagnon show for any music fan looking for 90 minutes of fun.
I went downstairs and played some triple play video poker and some other VP at Main Street Station. I was getting double points on my slot club card and felt bad that I hadn't taken advantage of that at all. I wanted to put in some play. I pretty much stayed even for a long time.
I tired out around 7:30 and headed up to the room for rest. Dan called around 8:15 and was on his way back. He had wanted to see the two shows at Fremont Street Experience that he hadn't seen yet. He met me in the room, changed into more comfortable clothes (read: shorts) and we headed down to Fremont Street.
We got there not too long before 9pm and it was hot outside. It looks to me like Golden Gate has redone its façade on Fremont Street. If they didn't, I obviously haven't been paying attention. :-) They had misters going full blast, but on the other side of the street by Las Vegas Club it was just humid. The Motown show started not too long after we arrived and we watched the show together. I didn't enjoy it was much as I did the first time, but it was fun to see it again with Dan.
Click Here to Download Dancing in the Street Show mpg - 2.8 mg - 1 minute 11 seconds
After the show, we went into Golden Nugget. I played a little Spin Poker while Dan played some blackjack. We had agreed to meet up about 9:45 and at 9:40 I went looking for him. I found him at a table and he said he wasn't ready to leave because he was waiting for his drink. Of course he lost the next two hands, so that was a $10 irish coffee. We all know how that goes!
We went back outside and taped the Heartbeat of a Planet show. It was creepy and weird, but I sort of liked it. It's more "artsy" and "interpretive" than any of the other shows I've seen. The theme is the evolution of the planet Earth. It goes from big bang to a volcanic mass to jungles and ooze to population to space travel.
Click Here to Download Heartbeat of a Planet mpg - 3 mg - 1 minute 14 seconds
I was too tired for anything else and wanted to go back to the room. Dan wanted to walk down to Race Rock and check it out and we agreed to meet back in the room in about 30 minutes. Dan also promised to stop at that great ice cream shop in The California to get us ice cream cones.
Later that night I went out to look at Race Rock, an auto-racing attraction at the east end of Fremont Street, just before Fremont turns into a seedy downtown street. The restaurant/museum is built into a parking garage, and a couple of shiny racing support trucks appear to be pulling out. Going inside, the most interesting items on display downstairs are a group of motorcycles capable of reaching speeds of 175-200+ miles per hour! The rear tires on these bikes are thicker than most car tires. There is also a large display of motorcycle racing leathers. As you take the escalator upstairs, check out the dragsters standing on end.
Upstairs, the dominant display is a monster truck with wheels big enough to stand in, and many people do as the pose for pictures. But this only applies to one side of the vehicle. The 10-foot tires are so wide, two of them are mounted outside over the sidewalk.
There are several other racing cars on display upstairs. About half of the upstairs area is accessible only to paying dining guests, so plan to have a meal at the restaurant if you are a big racing fan.
Click Here to Download RaceRock mpg - 2.7 mg - 1 minute 7 seconds
You can find information and a menu on the Race Rock website if you visit http://www.racerock.com
We had planned on watching a movie together on the pay per view channel in the hotel room. I wanted to see American Beauty so I got the TV ready to order it. When I clicked on the movie it said to click on the order button to pay for the movie and join it in progress. It said that it was 4 minutes into the movie. We called the front desk and they said that we shoul dturn off the tv and wait 2-3 minutes to allow it to reset.
We did that and then TV said that the movie was 8 minutes into it. After several phone calls and having them manually reset our TV from the lobby, the movie was 28 minutes in progress and we all agreed we should have just started watching when it was only 4 minutes running. Instead we decided to get some sleep as by this time it was after midnight.
