Loud Music is a $40 Fine

Last Saturday night, our last night in Las Vegas, we went to see LOVE at the Mirage. Through an incredible coincidence, we were able to get $125 tickets to this show for only $50. We were on the first row of section 207, which was at stage level. It looked like the $150 seats were actually below stage level, albeit closer to the stage.

The show started promptly at 7:00 pm and for the next 90 minutes we were bombarded with everything from roller roller skaters, trampolinists, acrobats, and and dancers, all set to the music of the Beatles.

It’s hard to describe the show. If you go to the show’s web site, they have a miniature preview. Check that out for just a small idea of what goes on during the show.

What struck me during the show was the almost seamless stage changes. One minute there’d be two half-pipes with roller skaters on the stage, and the next minute they’d be gone.

Last year when I heard about this show, and the remix that George and Giles Martin had done on the music, I was somewhat taken aback. My feeling is that once a song is committed to the mastering process, that’s it. I didn’t like it when Alan Parsons messed with his first Project album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, for the CD release. And Children of the Sun by Billy Thorpe sounded better with the vinyl version as well.

I’d heard the remix last year when the CD came out. It was ok, I thought, but not something I’d go out and buy. But after hearing the music in conjunction with the show, all I can say is, wow. They’ve done things that they couldn’t even think of when the music was recorded. For example, using the original master tapes, they’ve taken a demo of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and used it as the beginning of the song, later merging in the more familiar version.

Now I may end up getting the 5.1 surround sound DVD version of the music.

If you ever get to Las Vegas, by all means try to see this show. Especially if you’re a Beatles fan.

As part of the Las Vegas Power Pass, we took the mini-Hoover Dam tour. We boarded a mini-shuttle bus outside the Excalabur, which took us to the Planet Hollywood hotel, where we got our tickets, paid our $4 fuel fee, and got on a big bus.

We had a driver from a former communist country (can’t remember which) who’d been in the US since the mid-70’s. He was a wealth of information about Nevada, Las Vegas, and the other cities we passed through on the way to the dam. For example, he warned us to not cross the street unless we had the “hand or the man”; that is, unless we had the walk signal. He said that Las Vegas police had stopped 1000 random cars and ticketed almost 450 of them for drunk driving.

We finally got to the dam about an hour after we left. Right before the dam is a government check point. A law enforcement officer came on board and did a cursory look around to see if anyone had brought a WMD on board. Luckily, everyone left them at home, so we were passed.

The road curves and switches back a few times, and it’s hard to imagine driving a car on the road, much less a bus. And our bus driver was driving with one hand and holding a microphone with the other, so I don’t see how he did it, but we didn’t get killed.

He took us across the dam to the Arizona side to a little store where we stopped for a few minutes (I wonder how much these places have to pay to be a “stop” on the tour?). Then he turned the bus around and went back across the dam and to the visitors’ center.

As we got off the bus, he gave us the tickets for the tour, and we were told that for another $3, we could get the guided tour down to the generators. We opted to do that.

When you do the power plant tour, you get on an elevator that takes you about 600 feet down. The guide walks you through some tunnels until you come out to the generator room. The Nevada side has 8 or 9 generators (the whole dam has 17 total), but only about 4 of them were actually running, due to the low water depth of Lake Mead.

After a few minutes down there, they send you back up for the “self-guided” portion of the tour. They had a few exhibits but if you’ve seen any of the Discovery Channel shows about the building of the dam, then you’ll know more than what the exhibits show you.

We reboarded the bus and left for our final tour stop, Ethel M’s Chocolate Factory. The M is short for “Mars.” We took a short tour through the factory, bought a few things, then it was back on the bus.

We arrived back at Planet Hollywood around 3 pm, after having left Excalibur that morning at 9:15. If you drive to the dam, you’ll want to leave early; as we were retuning and passed by the check point, the traffic was backed up for at least 4 miles. They’re working on a bypass that will route traffic away from the top of the dam and cross over the Colorado River just downstream of the dam, but that won’t be ready for another few years.

Overall it was in interesting tour.  I’m glad we got to see it. I wish they had tours going down into the dam, but I guess that won’t ever happen again. If you go to Las Vegas, set aside a day to see Hoover Dam.

On our recent trip to Las Vegas, we stayed at the Luxor Hotel at the south end of the strip.

We got there on a Wednesday afternoon (around 4 pm) and had to wait 15 or 20 minutes in the line to check in. Before we got in that line, we were approached by what we thought was an employee, who asked us how long we were staying and if we were going to see any shows. As it turns out, to get the “free” show tickets, we only had to sit through a three hour presentation. This proved to be the first of many attempts to get us to see some kind of timeshare or something.

So, we finally registered and were given a room on the 11th floor. You get up to your floor via an “inclinator”, which is basically an elevator that goes at a 39 degree angle up the corner. It takes a little getting used to, since when it starts, you move sideways a little.

The Luxor opened in 1993, and is showing its age.  Our room had two queen-size beds that were comfortable enough. The bathroom didn’t have a bath tub, just a shower and commode. The air conditioning unit was similar to the ones you see in the cheap motels that’s installed on the outside wall, except this was on the inside. While we were there, the daytime temperatures reached over 100 degrees each day. The A/C unit wasn’t up to the task of keeping the room cool. But, since we were usually out of the room by 9 or 10 each day and back in the evening, it wasn’t too big a deal. But I couldn’t imagine staying in the room during the day (and that may be the point; the casino floor is very comfortable temperature wise).

On the Atrium level they have several attractions, including a replica of King Tut’s tomb as discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. It’s $15 to get in, and if you spend more than 20 minutes in there, you’re being slower than normal. The admission to us was included in the Power Pack we got, so we saw it at a discount. It’s not worth $15.

We also “rode” their IMAX ride “In Search Of The Obelisk”. This is a motion simulation ride that has a film with actors that couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag. Again, it’s not worth the admission price (but if you get the Power Pass, try it out anyway).

There are several restaurants  and shops on the Atrium level as well. Our first night there we went to the Mexican place, and had their big nacho deal. That and three soft drinks was almost $20. Not a good deal. They also have a food court with a McDonalds (which I never got to eat at, due to the long lines), a Lil Caesar’s Pizza, a Quiznos, and maybe one or two more places. The shops run the gamut from high end to tourist stuff.

We went down to where the buffet was, but never ate there. The buffets on the strip are way too expensive ($12 or $14 for lunch).

As far as the casino goes, it’s ok. They’re remodeling the night club that was apparently in the middle of the casino, so everything was a little confusing. I finally figured out the best way to get to the poker room on Saturday. The signage was terrible (but then I found that to be true in most casinos). They had a couple of $30 tournaments a day, which was the cheapest I saw while there. I played in the Saturday tournament, and found out how bad I am at live poker.

Overall, I’d give it maybe 2.5 stars out of 5. Would I stay there again? Probably not. We really only picked the Luxor because of Criss Angel, and never saw him the first time. There was even an empty spot out front where one of his cars was supposed to be. I guess he made it disappear.

We flew into San Diego from Nashville on a Thursday, rented a car, and checked into the Holiday Inn by the Bay. It’s an OK hotel, and at least they had free WiFi in the room.

On Friday, we went to the “World Famous” San Diego Zoo. It’s a huge place. We took the bus tour for the first 45 minutes there, then walked around looking at the individual animals that the bus wasn’t able to get close to. I think the San Diego Zoo is “world famous” mostly because of Joan Embry’s appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Maybe I was expecting too much, or maybe it was because they had relocated some of the animals to the Wild Animal Park to renovate a section of the park (to, believe it or not, place fake animals in their place), but I was not that impressed.

Saturday, before we drove up to Oceanside, we walked over to the Midway Museum. That’s actually the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that first sailed just after World War II ended in 1945 and last saw combat action in the first Gulf War. Just across the bay we could see the Navy’s newest carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan.

So, we drove up to Oceanside and visited with family for a few days. On the way back to San Diego on Wednesday, we took the scenic Highway 101, which goes by the coast. We saw some incredible ocean views.

Next up, Vegas!

We got into Las Vegas Wednesday around 3:30 in the afternoon. That’s the first airport I’ve seen with slot machines. We had a pretty packed time planned for Las Vegas. We took advantage of the Las Vegas Power Pack, which gave us three days’ admission into a lot of attractions. I also got a deal on tickets to see the Cirque Du Soleil show Love on Saturday night.

The Power Pass included a two hour visit to Hoover Dam. That’s a pretty incredible structure. We went down into the generator house on the Nevada side. Because of the low water level, they only had about half the generators running.

We also took in the two attractions at the Luxor (which is where we stayed). We went up into the Stratosphere (where people were actually on top riding the three rides). We went to Madam Tussauds Wax Museum, the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, and the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. Finally, we saw Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and then went to the Adventuredome in Circus Circus.

I’ve never walked so much in my life.

I have to say the highlight was the Cirque Du Soleil show. Those folks were doing incredible acrobatic things, all set to Beatles music. I guess the second highlight was playing in a real live poker game. It was a tournament with 18 players, and I finished 9th. I learned that I’m not that good at poker.

Overall, it was a very nice trip. If I had it to do over again, I would not have rented the car and instead would have taken Amtrak up to Oceanside. Also, I don’t know what I was thinking by booking the trip in August. Although the temperature in Southern California barely got to the mid 70’s, in Las Vegas it reached 100 degrees every day we were there.

I think over the next few days I’ll write more extensive reviews of the places we saw and the attractions we visited.

Well, we got back from our trip out west Sunday night. We were gone for a total of 10 days and visited San Diego, Oceanside, and Las Vegas.

I’d planned on blogging while away, but the only hotel we stayed at with free internet access was in San Diego.  I wasn’t about to pay $10/day to access the net, so being “net free” for a few days was in itself a vacation.

In the next few days I’ll be posting about what we did and saw out west. Some of the highlights were the San Diego Zoo, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas in general.

I’m writing this from my hotel room in San Diego. We arrived here Thursday night on a flight from Nashville. That’s the first time I’ve flown in a couple of years, and I was dreading the security procedures.

But it was harmless enough. I did my research online before, and knew what we could take and how things had to be packed. About 30 minutes after we got to the gate, a strong thunderstorm blew over, and they had to shut down everything for a while. We’d already been told our 4:55 flight was going to be about 15 minutes late, but the thunderstorm made it even later. We were finally in the air a little after 6.

We went to the San Diego Zoo on Friday. I’d been looking forward to it, but in reality it was somewhat of a letdown. Sure, they had animals there that the Nashville Zoo didn’t have, and the Zoo was a lot bigger. But they had moved quite a few animals to a Wild Animal Park in preparation for renovating some of the park. We did get to see a baby giraffe, which had been born Thursday night.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Bay. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a bay view. Our view overlooked downtown. Just acros the street, they’re building at least three high rises. And they start work shortly before 7 am. Thankfully we’re still operating on Central Time, so we were mostly awake when the construction noise started. But for some reason, they have trains running all night, and those trains had to blow their horn about a half block away.

As I write this (on Saturday), we’re killing time, waiting for the Maritime Museum to open. After that we’re going to check out the USS Midway Museum. Then it’s up to Oceanside for a visit with some relatives. My next post will probably be from Las Vegas.