Viva! Las Vegas

Note: Check out Karen's blog, i could do better, for a more entertaining rundown and great pictures on flick'r.

People talk about how much fun Las Vegas is, and I never really understood the draw. I don't drink, I'm not a nightowl, I don't gamble. How much fun could I possibly have there?



The opportunity arose to go to a neuroradiology conference in Vegas. Our original plan was for Rowdy and I to drive to the meeting from San Diego, spend a few nights at the Wynn, then continue on to Moab, where we would celebrate Rowdy's birthday by mountain biking and 4-wheeling with Rowdy's sister Tory, her husband Tyler, and their cute little baby girl Bradlee.



Of course, the situation changed when Rowdy left on his adventure. There was no point in me spending time alone in Las Vegas, so I sent out a general invitation to friends, encouraging them to join me. Sharon Soutter agreed to visit from Wednesday to Friday, and my sister Karen and MIL Lezlie were going to arrive Friday and leave on Sunday. Unfortunately, Lezlie has a severe flare-up of her ongoing back problems and couldn't come. Not only was she sore, but she was sorely missed!



On Wednesday night, Sharon picked me up at the airport, and we made our way to the Wynn, site of the conference and my home until Saturday. The Wynn is quite a place. To me, it seemed like it was decorated by Willy Wonka's factory designer. Las Vegas seems to be all about color and noise.












The conference was very good. I was actually excited to come back to work and read head and neck studies, which can be a bane. During our first morning break, I walked onto the terrace overlooking the pools. That's when it first occurred to me that it might be quite pleasant to visit Las Vegas and just sit by a nice pool in the sun, do a little shopping, then go out to a nice dinner and a show.



Sharon wandered around the Strip while I was in conference. On Thursday night, we went to Circo at the Bellagio for dinner. It was quite tasty. Then we made our way to the Venetian, where we saw Blue Man Group. Very entertaining! Sharon and I visited Venice in 1999, so it was funny to visit the ersatz Venice together.





On Friday, Karen arrived and Sharon went back to Utah. We had tickets to see Spamalot that night. I had wanted to see that show when I was in New York, but even going to the same gym as its stars didn't get me a ticket. It was very fun, and well-worth the expense. Dinner was at The Buffet at the Wynn. Yum! My friend, Tim, gave me a big list of very fancy places to eat in Las Vegas, but frankly, I'm not much of a fancy-restaurant kind of girl. I was very happy with the mildly-fancy places I ate while in LV.



I cut out of the conference a little early on Saturday so Karen and I could lay by the pool before checkout. It was quite relaxing and pleasant. Karen had the great idea to visit the Liberace Museum on Saturday afternoon. Talk about campy!!! It was hilarious! It was almost impossible to keep a straight face--uh--yeah. Lee would have understood.



Instead of paying the non-conference price for a room at the Wynn for Saturday night, I took the chance on getting a reservation through Hotwire. Bad idea. We ended up at the Planet Hollywood, until recently known as the Aladdin. It was supposed to be a four-star hotel, but...ugh. I had no need to pumice my heels after spending the night on the sandpaper they called sheets. And their pool was considerably less-swanky than the Wynn's. The only good point was that we could see the dancing waters at the Bellagio from our room. But overall, I don't recommend it. We took off to Henderson for dinner at Settebello. It's only one of 12 restaurants outside of Italy authorized to make pizza the real Neapolitan way. Heaven!!!! There is a second Settebello in Salt Lake somewhere. If you live in Salt Lake or are planning a trip there soon, check it out. It was highly recommended by Sharon, and it was well-worth the trip out to Henderson.