A Day On The Strip

My recently widowed aunt is visiting us this week. This is the visit that gave her something nice to look forward to last winter as my uncle was dying of pancreatic cancer. We spent many days together at his bedside in the hospital -- I blogged about that here -- and now she's here trying to figure out how to relax on a vacation without her husband.

Yesterday, we headed out onto the Strip, of course. She can't really walk too much because of a sciatica, but we headed first to Paris for lunch at Mon Ami Gabi and then to take in the "Price Is Right" show at Bally's. Lunch was a delicious success -- don't know what Miles has against this place -- and the show was a much, much better execution of the game-show format than the $250,000 Game Show Spectacular that was short-lived at the Hilton. Here we are at Mon Ami Gabi:

As you can see, that's NOT me on the cover of my book.

One of the really interesting things I spotted were these touch-screen resort-map kiosks at Paris. Harrah's apparently has them at Rio, too. I know Fontainebleau is planning them using Mac software, but I didn't realize that some resorts already have them. You just choose from the menu what you're looking for...


...and then it generates a map for you with a line suggesting your path.


That's pretty smart. I mostly with the Venetian folks would do this since that place is by far the most convoluted.

We went home for a while, then made it back to the Strip for Ka at MGM Grand. I just love it so much. It always seems like it's the least-noticed of the Cirque shows and it is the most wondrous to me.

While we were out, I spotted some unusual T-shirts. First, the postal workers' union is convening this week at Paris and many delegates were wearing this:


I thought at first it was a self-referential joke about the reference to the alleged tendency of disgruntled mail workers to commit terrible acts of violence. I come to find out that it refers to some business practices that the union opposes regarding the practices of a national shipping-store chain called Goin' Postal. I'm not clear on what the issues are.

This one was just funny. A bachelor party, clearly...


Today, we're planning to do the Bellagio Conservatory and the Gallery of Fine Art. Yippee!