Bright Lights; Big City

To celebrate Mom & Dad's 40th Anniversary, We all traveled to Vegas for the weekend. Nothing says way to go with sticking out 40 years together like gambling, great food, and debauchery....

Dad was kind enough to get us all a brand new airstream to stay in at the Circus Circus KOA. They have them available for you to rent, so instead of being in a hotel, we got our RVs and a nice patio with furniture and pink flamingos. (although we never found the flamingos....)

Pat and I arrived first on Friday, so we had a few hours to run around a bit. So we headed up to the Wynn and had a few drinks. $20 for 2 tonics..... Wake-up call for us Montanans.... Then we met up with Greg & Julie and another guy (Pat) and his girl (Macy) (Pat worked on the Helicopter here in Lewistown last summer and lives in Vegas). The 6 of us then headed into Old Vegas for dinner. We had some good Irish food and a few Black and Tans while suffering through the band that was there that night. What band has 2 basses? That one.....

Sat. was then spent wondering up the strip with the whole family. We had lunch outside at Trader Vics across from the Belaggio water show. Pork sliders, lobster pot stickers, crab Rangoon, and fun alcoholic beverages in bowls..... Then we made our way (gambling the entire time) up to NY,NY and stopped in for a pint-o-Guinness at the 9 Fine Irishmen. A great bar that made you forget you were even in the City that made Neon famous. By this time our feet were all falling off, so we heading over to MGM Grand to make reservations for Sun. dinner at Craftsteak (Tom Coliccio's Vegas restaurant - the Bravo's Top Chef head judge )

Then jumped the monorail (which as Greg pointed out - is not a mono-rail it was a duo-rail) to head back to the KOA. Greg and Pat went for food and came back with sushi. So we ate while lounging outside our Airstreams and enjoyed the warm desert weather.

Sunday was Easter along with Mom and Dad's Anniversary. So we started off with a huge breakfast at Peppermill, where they make 10 egg omelets. After that we strolled down to The Saraha and watched Dad do the "Spin The Wheel Dance" while playing Wheel Of Fortune Slots.

After Dad won about $60 we headed over to the Stratosphere. Were we went up to the top and again had a few drinks while enjoying the view of the entire city. Our lunch was a few appetizers of salmon, Kobe Carpaccio, and cheese in the Top of the World restaurant. Next we headed back to our RVs and caught a quick nap. We had to rejuvenate for our dinner plans.

Dinner was at Craftsteak, Tom Colicchio's Las Vegas Steak joint. We had the Spring tasting menu with the wine pairings. There were 3-4 options for each course served family style. We started off with fresh buffalo mozzarella topped with a red pepper concoction, fennel salad, Persian cucumber salad, and Vermont Quail w/ vincotto. The Main course was Angus skirt steak, Angus flatiron steak, Diver sea scallops, baby shiitake mushrooms, yukon gold puree, and sugar snap peas. Dessert was; Warm apple spice cake with maple crunch ice cream, Cinnamon Monkey Bread with pecan toffee & caramel ice cream, Vanilla bean cheesecake, Liquid chocolate cake with pistachio cardamon ice cream, and a strawberry shortcake. The style of the food is good ingredients prepared simply. The food was incredible, especially the quail and the scallops. Pat's favorite was the buffalo mozzarella, Mom's was all the desserts. The design of the restaurant was sparse wide open space with a ton of wood elements and industrial bare lighting. The down point of the event was the music.... it was loud and some mix of bad Kenny G.

After dinner Greg and Julie went back to sleep off dinner, while Pat, Dad, Mom, and I went to the Crazy Horse Paris Cabaret show. It was tastefully done and a very entertaining.

Monday we flew out.... and came home to rain mixed with snow..... oh, to be back in the warm desert. Now there is at least 6 inches of sloppy wet snow onthe ground....