It's been awhile since I've blogged about travel - and again it's about Las Vegas!! 

My last trip was an interesting one, it was for a bachelorette party for my future daughter-in-law.  I found out something interesting that I didn't know about Vegas - if you are with a bunch of young, good-looking girls, people will give you tickets to stuff!!  I would not know this - my trips to Vegas are usually to do middle-age people things - or to put on my grass skirt and beads for the Jimmy Buffet concert.

We flew the new route on Horizon Air from Santa Rosa, CA  to Vegas - about 65 passengers - free beer & wine and a party atmosphere on the way there.  We arrived at MGM and went straight to the pool for an $18 rum punch and techno music at the lazy river area of the pool.  MGM does have a great pool - and there are several different areas - so if techno is not your thing - you have 3-4 other choices.

Anyway - back to the free stuff.  Three of the women who were coming in from Monterey - were given tickets at the airport to go to a private party at the Bellagio for Adam Sandler.  So we all (12 of us) loaded into a limo and headed over to the casino - where we hooked up with the person we were supposed to meet.  We were given 2-for-1 drink tickets at the Caramel Bar across from the Bank nightclub (where the party was). 

After spending $35 on three drinks (with one of them free), we then headed to the nightclub - where we found out that Adam had already left.  We then loaded into another limo to go back to the MGM to dance the night away at Studio 54 - where apparently we had something reserved there.  We had a great time dancing and spending an obscene amount of money on drinks ($20 for a glass of champagne!).

At some point I heard that someone tried to give us tickets to the new pool club at the MGM on Saturday for a pre-fight show with Mario Lopez and the bride-to-be didn't want to attend.

Well, it's the end of a busy week - the sky is starting to clear up again after a rainy start.  Looking over the previous blogs from Vegas - I have a few notes to add even though I've been home for a little while. 

Saw the jousting dinner show at the Excalibur while in Vegas - "Tournament of Kings" - this was an entertaining show -- the whole 'Good vs. Evil'  theme with a lot of good-looking men with no shirts!  The dinner wasn't bad - I was craving a big turkey leg that I could eat with my hands, but they served cornish game hens.  The wine was an inexpensive house wine; red, chablis, white zin - that wasn't that inexpensive to buy - $7 per glass.  I would recommend the show for kids - not very young kids, however.  There were some large groups of college kids that were having a great time. They separate the sections into countries - we were Austria - and you have your hero to root for during the jousting excercises - and then everybody joins together to fight the evil knight - very fun.

One more note before leaving Las Vegas - in search of a late night snack/dinner - we found a great oyster bar in Harrah's called 'The Oyster Bar' - good wine and food - I had some excellent fried oysters and seafood dip with big chunks of crab and rock shrimp -yum.  It had to be close to 12 midnight - but they served us with no complaints and it was a nice quiet spot away from the noise of the casino.

Okay - one more note about Harrah's - I have to give a shout out to the flair bartenders at the Carnaval Court right outside Harrahs.  I didn't get to see more than a few minutes of the flair because of the craziness of spring break, but this is a great spot to watch all the talented bartenders do their flair thing.  After seeing them a few times, I have come to the conclusion that the best time to see them is during the weekdays during the day - you can actually interact with them and have a good seat at the bar.  Flippy and Steve are actually award winning flair bartenders.  A lot of fun -  check out Flippy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5qAfnMyS6k -

Well - my wishes are for everyone to have a relaxing, warm weekend filled with good food and wine!

After arriving in Las Vegas and checking in at Imperial Palace, we all decided to see the The Rat Pack Show (http://www.ratpack.com/) at the Greek Isles Casino - a very small casino off the strip - within walking distance from the Convention Center Monorail.  It really is a very small casino - but with a great karaoke spot. 

I would definitely recommend this show to anyone who would appreciate the old Vegas lounge acts and is a fan of Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and the whole rat pack era in Vegas. 

The first time I visited Vegas was in '95 or '96 - at that time, you could stay at the Excalibur for $29 per night and airfare was about $100 - and it really wasn't that long ago.  I had just started listening to Louis Prima and was a fan of swing music.

For those of you who didn't follow swing - Louis Prima was the voice of the ape King Louie in Disney's Jungle Book and his song "Jump, Jive and Wail" was featured on a Gap commercial.  Anyway - I took an educational trip to Vegas as a part of the travel school that I was attending.  The Sands Casino was still standing and they were featuring a show - two drink minimum - with Sam Butera and Keely Smith.  These were Prima's horn player and his partner and ex-wife - I was in heaven!!  I felt like I had traveled back in time - Eddy Fisher was even in the audience!!  This was Louis Prima's old stomping ground - there are old pictures with the Sands billboard featuring Louis Prima back in the day!  It was a great show and gave everyone a taste of the gaudy humor and great music that filled that same casino back when.

The Rat Pack show started slow and I kept thinking this might be a waste of money, but as the cast and the audience warmed up, you were transported back to a time when it was acceptable to have a full bar set up on stage!!  Marilyn Monroe even showed up and interacted with the audience. 

It was a great show  - of course it helps to have a martini - neat - in front of you as you transport back in time.

We arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon after a delay on US Airways from SFO (seems to be a regular thing lately - in December we had a four hour delay returning from Vegas - a maintenance issue!) 

Because there were six of us - we decided on a limo right outside of baggage claim for $65 to the Imperial Palace.  We would have had to take 2 cabs (apparently there is a 5 passenger limit on cabs is Vegas) at $15-20 per cab or there are shuttle buses outside of baggage claim at  $7 per person - the downside being that they stop at other hotels along the way to your hotel - so they may take a little longer.

Now we seem to be Vegas veterans in the last few years - there always seems to be a travel trade show, or a 21st birthday or a Jimmy Buffet weekend at the MGM.  This time it was another 21st birthday (my daughter's boyfriend), so we were here with my son and his girlfriend, my daughter and the birthday boy and my husband and I.

We chose Imperial Palace because of it's price and location.  It is a budget property, but has a great location on the strip.  If you are not careful - the least expensive rooms are located not in the casino towers, but out the back door of the casino, through the parking lot and in a motel-like building.  I don't know the history but it looks as if maybe they built the parking lot and decided to keep the cheap motel that was located in the alley behind the hotel for additional bedding ?!!?

Any way - the rooms are basic but large - we ended up with 3 smoking rooms - two of which had small balconies, large enough to stand on.  The other (unfortunately mine) had a window opening up to a great view of the rooftop and air conditioning unit.  This is a 'spring break' hotel - we were awoken two of the three nights to young people yelling down the hall and slamming hotel room doors at about 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning. 

They do have a luau on Thursday nights that sound like a lot of fun - but we always seem to miss it - as we did this time.  The Luau begins in May - after the weather becomes warmer.  I'm looking forward to seeing it some day.