Sunday, August 06, 2006

Mom's Las Vegas B-Day Fest, 28-30 July 2006


"There was this kid I grew up with - he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition we ran molasses into Canada - made a fortune - your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him - and trusted him. Later on he had an idea - to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Green - and the city he invented was Las Vegas..."

Las Vegas. The above quote of course is from Lee Strasberg's character Hyman Roth in the classic film "The Godfather - Part II." I found out later that "Moe Green" is Godfather code for Bugsy Siegel, much like how "Johnny Fontane" is code for Sinatra (according to Puzo, he never intended for that connection to be inferred - but I think it's pretty obvious). Anyway, the Hyman Roth quote came to mind late Friday night, July 28th, as we passed through the mountains and could finally see the city lights in the distance.
Ironically, it rained for about the first four hours of the drive, but luckily it ended before the mountainous parts leading up to Hoover Dam. We exited the freeway at Las Vegas Blvd. Making our way towards the strip, we saw a number of the infamous wedding chapels, and then further along there were two "Elvi" walking along - one in a dark jumpsuit, the other in a powder blue jumpsuit. Viva Las Vegas.
And then, at about 11pm, we arrived at the "Strip" and checked into our hotel....


Ahh, the exquisite and lavish Bellagio Hotel - which is right across the street from Bally's, where we stayed. It's kind of a generic hotel, meaning it doesn't have a theme like MGM Grand, or Caesar's, or Venetian, or...


The Paris Hotel, which was right next door to Bally's. Bally's was pretty cool, though. One good thing is the kiosk in the lobby sells awesome strawberry tarts. And if you do the breakfast buffet, get the breakfast steak. It was while walking through the Paris on friday night that I first experienced what I will call "The Vegas Effect." We were walking through the Paris casino, then we passed into a mall area with shops and restaurants - all very Parisian, the cobblestones were even treated to give them that "just rained-on" look. Anyway, we were moseying along, seeing the sites, and then all of a sudden we were entering the Bally's casino. ??? I would later find out that The Strip, and the Hotels on the strip all have a certain labyrinthine quality.




This photo, as well as all of the previous ones, was taken friday night. I was pleased with how this shot across the water turned out. As for the Bellagio fountain, seeing it on tv or film does not do it justice. I was amazed at how high the water shoots. During the first "show" the soundtrack was Gene Kelly doing 'Singing in the Rain.' Appropriate. The spray from the fountain felt good with the breeze.


Saturday, after my first official "Vegas Buffet," (it was at Bally's Big Kitchen Buffet, which Jennifer dubbed "The Big Fat Food Kitchen") we went over to Mandalay Bay to see the Shark Reef exhibit, and just to look around in general. This giant reptile resides at the Mandalay Bay pool. I thought he looked cool, and just look at him now, immortalized in a blog.

This is one of three specimens of the rare Golden Crocodile at the Shark Reef exhibit. Dig that devious, croc-y grin. The other two were a little darker shade of gold.


Here are some fish in a tank.


Mom and I are standing by the stingray pool, waiting for them to make another go around.


This is the Big-Daddy stingray, or...the Big Mama stingray. It's a stingray. It's probably two feet across and maybe three or four feet from tip to tail.


Here are Jenn and I, hands-on with the stingray. They feel basically kind of slick and gelatinous. BTW, they also had a couple of small sharks in the tank, just a couple feet long. I think it's pretty cool that they encourage touching the stingrays. Incidentally, I heard that it's been much more of a hit than the original concept, "Bobbing for Stingrays."


This is a cylindrical tank containing many jellyfish - the effect is a living, breathing (do they breathe?) lava lamp.


Here is a close-up of one of the jellyfish - apparently mugging for the camera. While looking at this picture, see if you can spot a certain member of my family.


An eel.


"Floss much?" Now smile and say "chum."

1 comment:

Victor and Kathy Karcich said...

Zack it looks like you all had lots of fun. I am curious if you could email me the type of camera you have. I need a new one, and yours seems to take some awesome pictures. Please email me with this info at vicandkathy@excite.com Thank you in advance.