We made a three night trip to Las Vegas
to get away from winter (not that we have had a bad one) and see some shows.
Linda & I have both been to Vegas multiple times, but only once together,
and that trip we just flew in & out of the airport on a trip to see
Utah and Arizona.
Our trip was booked through Southwest Vacation Packages,
which lets the hotel & airline give a bigger discount than they would
if you had a price for each. Southwest has several nonstop flights each
day. We had lunch at Meat Mitch in the Kansas City Airport on a Tuesday
morning so I can review it on my KansasTravel.org
site and took a flight in the early afternoon. The ribs had very good flavor,
though I would like the meat to cling a little to the bones and not have
the bones fall off the meat. A half slab with side wasn't cheap at $27,
but was more than enough for both of us together.
The flight went smoothly and arrived ahead of time, though
we had to wait a little longer to find our luggage because Southwest sent
it to a different carousel than their signs said. We took a taxi to the
hotel, which is a $25 flat fee to the central part of the strip. Our driver
was from Ethiopia and very friendly. We used taxis 8 times during the trip
and I believe every driver was an imigrant.
We had a corner room on the 12th floor of Paris,
with a view of the Bellagio and about half of the Bellagio fountains through
a very dirty window. The hotel is in good shape and we were comfortable
despite a poor floor plan to our room which wasted over 60 sq. feet of
space on a hallway.
After settling in to our room, we did a short tour of
the hotel & nearby strip, then took a taxi to Wynn Casino. We
had about an hour to explore Wynn, Palazzo and the nearby strip before
our reservation at the Seafood Gourmet Dinner at The Buffet at Wynn.
It is one of the top 2 or 3 buffets remaining in Las Vegas. I particularly
liked the chilled dungeness crab & lobster claws, lobster roll, two
kinds of grilled pineapple and pepper bacon cut off the slab to order like
a roast. I finished with a made to order peanut butter chocolate s'more
and Linda had a made to order mixed berry crepe for dessert.
We went to the early show of Awakening. It is a
big production with lots of music, dance & acrobatics. The costumes
and puppetry are wonderful, but I liked the former show in this theater,
Le Rêve, the long running aquatic stage production which closed during
Covid, more.
Looking north on the Las Vegas Strip by Wynn
The Buffet
snow crab, lobster claws, shrimp, mussels, scallops, dungeness crab
claws
Mishima Ranch Wagyu Steamship, Herb Roasted Prime Rib, Kahlua Pork
Belly, Pepper Bacon, roasted vegetables
s'mores made to order
Mixed berry crepe
The life size whale was one of my favorite puppets
Awakening curtain call
Back at our part of the strip, we watched the Bellagio
fountain show and explored the Bellagio. The Conservatory
was being redone for spring and there was a large crew working even late
at night. We still got to see part of it, but it was scheduled to reopen
the day after we return. We finished the evening with a trip to the 46
story observation deck in the replica Eiffel Tower and a drink in one of
the Paris bars.
The Conservatory
Bellagio Fountain from the Eiffel Tower
High Roller (Big Wheel) and Sphere
Rest of Trip