All you can eat buffets abound and fast foods of all sorts are everywhere. Places we had never heard of. Too many to try them all ... but we gave it our best shot.
In and Out Burger ... delicious fresh, never frozen. French fries are made fresh each day. Lettuce is hand leafed (whatever that means) and all orders are cooked to order. It was not fast ... but it was worth the wait.
Cains chicken tenders - best we ever had. Nice and juicy and tender and their dipping sauce had just a hint of spice - really good fries too!
Buffalo Wild Wings (Sports Bar) - and this one is a franchise - with some in NY ... gonna be a roadtrip in the next month. Tom really liked the wings and ribs combo. They must have had at least 15 different sauces to choose from for the wings. We went there twice.
We started the week in Vegas at the all you can eat buffet for Mothers Day at Joe's grandparents. We went to the exercise room after dinner and played with the toys ... and there was a scale ... so we all weighed ourselves. Yesterday we finished the week at the grandparents for dinner - thankfully not a buffet this time ... and weighed ourselves again. Well ..... Tom gained five pounds, Papa Bruce gained a couple, Bro gained a couple more, Jen and Joe were up a couple and I gained a pound too!
We had a list of the top 10 places on the strip for desserts. We decided to go with the shakes at the Sugar Place at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. They were delicious!
I think they were $6 apiece. Tom and I split one and we were stuffed - even threw out the last slurp. They start with a blender, put in some heavy whipping cream, then a lot of soft serve ice cream and then whatever toppings you picked ... mix it all up and serve ... and the straw is really fat. You know how when you get a thick shake and they give you a regular straw and you feel like you're going to suck your cheeks inside out ... these guys have the straw thing down!
A departure from the traditional Las Vegas-style buffet, this extraordinary dining experience takes buffet dining to a higher echelon by featuring live-action stations, the freshest ingredients and food cooked to order in a remarkable French village settings.
Le Village Buffet brings to life five provinces of France through culinary expertise and visual attention to detail. Each station is themed for a particular province and features an intricate facade designed to replicate the architecture of that region. Meals are prepared as they are ordered to ensure the quality and freshness of each selection. A large selection of pastries, pies and an assortment of delicacies are offered from the buffet's dessert station. You dine in a village-like setting, where you may choose to eat outside in the town square or in a casual dining room by a fireplace. Each province's cottage dining room is decorated for the region.
I couldn't have said it better myself, so I copied it from their web-site. I don't know which village we sat in ... but I think we ate from all the provinces ... Joe was having a hard time by the end of the meal ... he was looking rahter uncomfortable ...
They had sushi, fresh fruit, shrimp, crab legs, a crepe station, carving stations ... so much food ... so little time. Jen was impressed with the two different kinds of mashed potatoes. You can tell what I like ... because that's the only thing I took a picture of ... and this doesn't even show the flan and the apricot cheesecake thing. The creme brulee and the fruit tart were the BEST!!!
We had to walk around after we ate ... Jen and Bro found this statue that looked like we felt ... so they posed with her for a picture.
The Venetian is Jen and Bro's favorite Casino ... they think its the prettiest.
This is outside - they have gondoliers inside and out.
One of the ceilings.
You can take a boat ride and be serenaded.
There are shops on both sides of the canal and the ceiling is painted and lit up to look like you are outside. And its a really big area. The canal goes under bridges and around corners.
The Mirage has joined forces with legendary Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, Indian tabla sensation Zakir Hussain and Fountains of Bellagio design firm WET to create an all-new audio/visual spectacle. (from the web-site) The Mirage has an outdoor lake with a Volcano that erupts nightly - it is pretty cool ... or hot. You can actually feel the heat from the fire balls and "lava" that spews from the 54 foot high volcano. Crowds of people gather in front of the Mirage every hour to watch the show.
These pictures didn't come out too good ... I did a video ... but can't post that on the blog.
And then there was the Silverton Casino - which was right next to the RV park we stayed at. It was attached to a huge Bass Pro Shop. They had every kind of stuffed animal, fish, bird you could imagine ... don't think I saw any reptiles come to think of it.
Tom was very excited - we actually went twice.
They had an indoor fresh water tank with some huge bass. There was one large female - 19 lbs. Makes Walter look like a baby ... well, maybe a teenager.
They even had a remote controlled tarantula - it was really creepy looking. And camo living room furniture - it had Nally written all over it. I was going to take a picture, but there was a lady with a magazine sleeping in the recliner.
Then over to the casino and the saltwater aquarium. Really cool - there was even a mermaid.
That's not the mermaid - he was just getting their regulators ready.
You can see the reflection of the slot machines in the lower left.
Back in the Bass Shop there was a shooting gallery ... everyone had fun with that.
Then there was this cool OCC bike ...
Definitely a Big Bass Bike.
And last but not least ... the Flamingo
By far the most celebrated of the early resorts was the Flamingo Hotel, built by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, a member of the Meyer Lansky crime organization.
The Flamingo with a giant pink neon sign and replicas of pink flamingos on the lawn, opened on New Year's Eve 1946. Six months later, Siegel was murdered by an unknown gunman who fired a shotgun blast as Siegel sat in the living room of the Beverly Hills, Calif., home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
Siegel's life was the subject of a 1992 movie entitled "Bugsy." Although the historic accuracy of the movie is questionable, the movie prompted the Flamingo to open the "Bugsy Celebrity Theater" in November 1992. The Flamingo, after numerous ownership changes, is now owned and operated by the Hilton Hotel Group. Its proper name is the Flamingo Hilton.
While the El Rancho Vegas and other 1940s resorts followed a western ranch-styled theme, the Flamingo was what Siegel called a "carpet joint." It was modeled after resort hotels in Miami. Only the Flamingo Hotel name has survived the 1940s era of Las Vegas Strip development. The final end of the Flamingo as Bugsy knew it was announced early in 1993 when Hilton Corp. revealed plans to construct a $104 million tower addition at the Strip resort -- the last of a six tower master plan. The addition opened in the spring of 1995.
Architectural plans included razing the outmoded, motel-style buildings at the rear of the property, dooming the fortress-like "Bugsy Suite" and bullet proof office used by the gangster before his death in 1946. In December 1993, the last remnants of Bugsy Siegel and his residence were destroyed when the hotel bulldozed the Oregon Building that held the suite in which the gangster once lived.
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