Tuesday, November 19, 2013
My nose started tearing yesterday. I wasn’t congested, just
tears constantly running out of my nose. It feels like the start of a sore
throat. Then late last night I started sneezing and couldn’t stop. Clay offered
me one of his Benadryl. I don’t normally take that because it tends to knock me
out, but it being bedtime that just seemed like a bonus. I took and it slept
right away and through the night. Great. The drapes fully blocked the outside
light and we were both still sound asleep at 7am. That was when the excitement
started. It sounded like someone was playing bongos in the bathroom, then
another bongo player started up. At some point we realized it was the sound we
had heard from the bathroom sinks when you washed your hands in one the other would make
loud glug noises. But now we were both in bed and not using any plumbing. Clay
went in there and ran water and it got worse. We both used the toilet (which is
our first in Vegas without that jet flush) and washed our hands and it just
kept getting worse. It went out for about half an hour. It was funny for about
5 minutes and then we wondered how we'd get a 2nd night’s sleep in
here! Anyway, we slept in and now we’re up!
We went to Casanova for breakfast because it was the first
place we saw serving breakfast. Honestly, we can’t find our own asses with 2
hands, a map and a flashlight inside The Venetian. It is a giant maze and makes no
sense. I think the recreation of St. Mark’s Square and the indoor canals are on
the floor above the casino. We had a coupon for 10% off at Casanova, so bonus. We just had
normal breakfasts. We have yet to be served real maple syrup on this trip and
at the prices that is just tragic. I had a cup of coffee and never was offered a
warm up or refill. Clay said it was my cheapest cup of coffee all trip at
$3.50.
We walked around and then over to Casino Royale so Clay could play $5
blackjack. The only seat at a table when we walked in was at Free Bet
Blackjack. He didn’t like the rules and lost his $100 in about 30 minutes. I lost
$5 in a penny slot machine in less than 5 minutes (it said 1 penny but the
minimum bet was 35 cents). We walked back to Venetian to do the indoor gondola
with our coupon for $18.95 for the 2 of us sharing with another couple. You
could go by yourselves for $75, or $56 I think with the coupon. We shared. Our
gondolier was Roberto and he sang 3 songs for us. It was good, I enjoyed it. At
least we were sitting down for a while. Clay asked me at breakfast today if I
thought the Disneyland trip in December would be as exhausting as this trip has
been. I told him I thought it would be more exhausting. Three days walking
outdoors all day and into the night in the parks, yeah it will be worse. He
said you really have to appreciate the cruise travel experience. You can always
sit down somewhere without spending money to do it. The food on all our cruises
has been better than all of our expensive meals here and really there is no
excuse for the bad meals we’ve had here. He said he thought he was getting too
old for this. I have to agree, it is too hard and I seldom enjoy it enough
anymore to go through the trials and hardships. I don’t know how much is me and
how much is that so much of what you pay for anymore does not meet your
expectations. There is not enough help working, or they don’t care or aren’t
trained, the quality is not as expected, etc. Or maybe it is me. Probably it is
some of both.
We used a coupon to buy Clay some big malted milk balls and
another to get gelato. Neither of us could think of anything else we wanted to
do or figure out how to get anywhere, so we’re back in the room at around 1pm
expecting to nap until 4pm and early dinner before our last show, Mystere at
Treasure Island right across the street. I think Clay picked out Enoteca Otto
for dinner. We have a coupon for one free glass of Prosecco with an entree
there.
I moved some things around in an attempt to be ready to
pack. Now I guess I’ll nap. We have to leave here around 6am tomorrow morning
for an 8:30am flight and to return the rental car.
We had probably our best meal of the trip finally at a named
restaurant. Mario Batalli’s Otto Enoteca on St. Mark’s Square in The Venetian. We sat right out
on the square and had an excellent view of the performance stage they have set
up there for Winter in Venice. The location was great and so was the food. I
had short rib in ravioli with tomato and mozzarella sauce. We had a coupon for
a free glass of Prosecco with that so I had it. Clay ordered Butcher’s sausage
with roasted red grapes and dandelion greens. It was some kind of white sausage
that was very mild. We both liked all the food. For dessert, Clay had
pistachio, dark chocolate malt and salted caramel gelatos. I had what was
billed as warm chocolate cake with toasted meringue and dark chocolate malted
gelato with salted caramel. Mine was a surprise. It came in a water-sized
glass. The chocolate gelato on the bottom followed by a scoop of salted caramel
gelato, then the toasted meringue which tasted like marshmallow crème with a
cookie-sized or muffintop-sized round piece of cake nestled in next to the
meringue. It was really rich and good, but we were both surprised at it since
it was called cake and there was so little of that in the glass. I also had a
caffe latte which was very good. Finally. At least we finished on a high note
rather than a disappointing one. Enough of that already!
We wandered and finally found our way out to Treasure Island
via the pedestrian bridge from Palazzo across the Strip. We had about an hour
to kill. So we wandered the TI casino, visited the Mystere gift shop and found
the pedestrian bridge to Fashion Show Mall. We went over and visited the art
gallery where we had purchased a lot of art during the 1980’s. They were still
carrying a lot of the same prints for obviously a lot more money. I told Clay
he needs to contact them and offer to sell them back at even half of what they
are asking now.
We walked back to the Mystere Theater and went straight in
to our seats. We had good seats on the 2nd row of the 2nd
section from the bottom. Mystere is in its 20th year and is classic
Cirque du Soleil. We really liked it. Our tickets were $77 per person.
It is about 9:30pm now and time to get to bed. We have to be
on our way to the car at 6am tomorrow. We’ll have an early start and a long
hard travel day flying through DFW. Not looking forward to that but looking
forward to being home for a few weeks before our next hard trip to Disneyland!
Good night and I’ll try to get these posted in a timely manner when we are
home. I’ll see if Clay has any useable photos from either his camera or his
phone.
Photos
Photos
