Las
Vegas Trip June
19-24, 2005
200
dpi pix: December 20, 2007
We visited Las Vegas mid-June, nominally for the Las
Vegas Regional Bridge Tournament, although we did get in some gambling and two
shows.
Sunday, June 19: Mischel
in our Wynn room
Mischel got us two nights at the
Wynn Resort and Country Club at a reasonable rate, about $180 a night, and
three comp’ed nights at the MGM Grand.
The Wynn is 60 stories; our room
was on the 29th, and Mischel got a corner room which, although it
was at the end of the hall, had floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides. The
drapes and shears are motorized.
The view is north, toward
downtown. The tower is the Stratosphere. The bridge tournament was at the Riviera, about half-way
between the Wynn and the Stratosphere.
Wynn postcard – “view”
from the golf course
MGM room – “view” of
the air conditioning equipment
For comparison, this is the view
of the MGM roof air conditioners from our room there. However, it was free. On
the right of that black pyramid you can see part of the Statue of Liberty and
roller coaster at “New York
New York.”
Sunday, June 19: San
Jose to Wynn
Sunday: Wynn room
Notice the flat-screen TV on the
left; there’s a smaller one in the bathroom.
Sunday: Wynn flowers
This is Mischel in front of the fresh
roses and lilies decorating some little alcove.
In the bottom right, note the
stems of lilies, upside down in clear glass vases, for no apparent reason.
Gambling: at the end of the first day, we were actually ahead!
Mischel got some straights at 3-card poker, and I hit a couple little jackpots
on quarter machines. From there it was downhill.
Hindsight: Basically, we should have bit the bullet and stayed at
the Riviera.
We never played in the 9 am
sessions because it was too much trouble getting between the Wynn or the MGM
and the Riviera.
From the Wynn we took a cab; from the MGM we took the Monorail to the Hilton
and then a short cab ride to the Riviera.
On one of the Hilton-Riviera
rides, I tore my pants on a seat spring, and then we had trouble getting the
cab company to deal with it. They’re supposed to send us a claim form.
Monday, June 20: At the Wynn
Monday: Wynn décor (1)
This is Mischel on the main
level where there are escalators down to two good restaurants, similar to the layout
for the Picasso and steak restaurants at the Bellagio, except that these
escalators are curved, and the Bellagio has a better view.
Note the mosaic floral pattern
in the marble floor. There’s lots of this motif around the hotel, and somehow
it doesn’t work: too busy in an otherwise elegant place. Or maybe it’s that we
recently saw really good mosaics in Italy.
Monday: Wynn décor (2)
This photo is in the same area,
but looking up. It’s easier to see the curved escalators.
The red lanterns or parasols
move up and down, but very slowly, so when you see them they’re in one
apparently static arrangement, but when you look again later they’re in a
different arrangement. We might not have noticed, but it was in a Wynn TV ad.
Monday: Wynn décor (3)
This is Mischel in the shopping
arcade (The Wynn Esplanade).
Note the chandeliers: the Wynn
has the best chandeliers: lots of different beautiful styles, in the casino, hallways
and restaurants.
On the other hand, the ceilings
are relatively plain, and look like painted plaster or plywood.
Monday: Wynn décor (4)
This is Mischel at the spa
entrance.
Monday: Wynn outdoors
(1)
This is John by a fountain on
the street side.
The Wynn marquee in the
background is mostly a big-screen TV, but it has a panel with just the word
“Wynn” that moves up and down for no apparent reason.
Monday: Wynn outdoors
(2)
This is Mischel in the garden by
the pool.
I won’t bother with a picture of
part of the golf course taken from our room. The thing is that Las Vegas is high desert:
hardly anything is native. For the golf course, they put in 1200 full-grown
trees and 100,000 shrubs and stuff. The greens fees are $500. Per person. We
didn’t see many people playing. My theory is that golf there is a freebie for
the high rollers, but for a fee you can rub elbows with your betters.
Tuesday, June 21: Wynn to MGM
We took our luggage from the
Wynn to the Riviera,
played bridge, then took a cab to the MGM.
No pictures, so...
Shows: We saw the water show
at the Wynn and a Cuban show at the Stardust.
The Wynn show, “La Réve”, is a
modern circus with a water theme, like “O” at the Bellagio or “Splash” at the Riviera. Excellent.
Pablo Picasso: La Réve
(The Dream)
“La Réve” is the name of one of
the paintings in The Wynn Collection, which we popped $15 each to see. It’s
mostly different from what we saw when his collection was at the Bellagio.
Andy Warhol: Steve
Wynn (1983)
Pictures weren’t allowed, so we
bought a set of note cards and a small print of an Andy Warhol that we had
never seen, even in the Pittsburgh
museum: it’s a set of three pictures of Steve Wynn, a surprise gift.
An aside: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the CA governator, has
similar Warhol pictures of his wife Maria Shriver, but he paid for them.
The Stardust show, “Havana Night
Club”, is a revue of Cuban music. Mischel liked it more than me. I thought it
was for people suffering withdrawal from Carmen Miranda.
Wednesday, June 22: MGM
Eat, sleep, gamble … and play
some bridge.
Dinner: We never got to one
of the fancy Wynn restaurants. We had reasonably good dinners at the Riviera
steak house and the MGM oriental place, but the night we planned on MGM’s
Emeril’s Louisiana seafood place Mischel wasn’t feeling up to it. Too much sun,
probably.
Thursday, June 23: Bridge
Thursday: Mischel in
bridge room
We played in the smaller room,
with about 50 tables for pairs with under 100 master points. Of the 50 tables,
typically they ran 2 or 3 sections of 10 or 12 tables each. The other room was
at least three times larger.
Thursday: Mischel and
John
At the end of the Thursday
afternoon session we found out that we had won the Wednesday night session!
They took our picture and put it on the winner board (by Mischel’s left ear).
In addition to the fractional master points, we got little medallions,
insulated cups, and a travel bag.
We got fractional master points
in 4 of the 5 duplicate bridge sessions we played, for a total of over 3
points. For me, that about doubled my point total and promoted me from “Rookie”
to “Junior
Master”.
Some of the levels: “Rookie” is
under 5; “Life Master” (most players’ goal) is 300 plus; “Grand Life Master” (for
people without a real life) is 10,000 plus. It escalates: when you have more
points, you can get into tournaments that award more points.
Friday, June 24: Las Vegas
to San Jose
We left the MGM about 10 am, and didn’t have quite enough
time to stop at the Bellagio, what with parking our luggage at the bell desk,
so we went straight to the airport, and checked in.
Then we found out the flight was
delayed a couple hours.
Also, did I mention that we flew
through Los Angeles
to save money? The flight out of Los
Angeles was even later.
Door to door, it took about 10
hours, almost as long as driving.