We went to Las Vegas of the weekend of June 26-28. I took a vacation day on Friday, June 26 and we rode as passengers with Mom and Dad, my in-laws. Mom was going to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood with some of her sisters and nieces. We left Socal on Friday Morning and got to Vegas fairly quickly, only stopping at a new-looking rest stop somewhere between Baker and Primm. Michael Jackson had died the day before so they were playing his songs on KOST as we drove out of the L.A. area.
It was warm in Las Vegas. The temperature would get up to 100 degrees on Saturday. The evening of Friday Mom and Dad drove us to this shopping center on Maryland Parkway on the same street as a hospital and a JC Penny store. The shopping center used to include the Zappos shoe store that my wife visited the last time we went to Vegas. There was also a Red Ribbon bakery, a Valerio’s bakery, and an Asian seafood supermarket. We parked near an eatery on the south end of the shopping center: Jason’s Deli. Mom and Dad had eaten there several times before. It was in its own building. We entered and walked to the back right corner to study the menu. It’s a large space with many 4-person tables and booths along the walls. There’s a large salad bar on the right side. The menu is also large with different sections for “Real Choices”, “Soups, Fruit, & Salads”, “Build Your Own” sandwiches, and wraps, “Po-Boys” (mostly sandwiches), “Paninis and Wrapinis”. It seemed like there were many healthy options and they even listed the calories, fat, and sodium content of the “Real Choices” options. The prices were fairly reasonable: $6-$8 per entrée. We place our orders and sat down at a booth.
They gave us glasses for our drinks to fill up at the dispensers near the salad bar and numbers so they could find us when they served our orders. They brought out the orders fairly quickly. I got the Mediterranean Wrap, a new item under the healthy “real choices” section of the menu. Most menu items came with cheese and this was one of the few that did not. It was wrapped lightly like a taco in a small wheat flour tortilla rather than tightly like a burrito. It was very flavorful with slices of oven-roasted deli turkey breast, cucumber, purple onions, Roma tomatoes slices, and greens. The red pepper hummus and Kalamata olives gave it a strong, salty flavor so it was never bland. That was a good idea to use hummus as a spread for a wrap. I had several choices for accompaniment including fresh fruit, steamed veggies, and baked potato chips. I chose blue corn tortilla chips and homemade salsa. They were good and crunchy and the salsa had just the right amount of spice.
My wife enjoyed her quarter-muff. A full muffatetta is made with a round loaf of bread about nine inches in diameter. I believe the sandwich originates in New Orleans. A whole-muff would have been huge and her quarter-muff looked pretty big. It contained premium ham and hard salami, provolone, and homemade olive mix. She got the quarter-muff deal that came with a choice of any cup of soup or fresh fruit cup. She chose red beans and rice soup, one of the soups of the day and consistent with the Nawlins theme.
While there we noticed several young people who looked like college students. That made some sense because UNLV wasn’t very far away. A notice near the salad bar said that Jason’s Deli was voted as a healthy restaurant by Health magazine. Another notice near the door said they were voted one of Las Vegas’ best restaurants by a local newspaper. We got a take-home menu that listed all the locations of Jason’s Deli. There are many with most of them in Texas. There’s only one California location in Riverside. We later learned that the first one opened in Beaumont, Texas in 1976.
We finished our dinner and Mom wanted to shop at Valerio’s and the Asian seafood supermarket. There was a Jollibee in the market. Jollibee is one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the Philippines and there are many in the U.S. including at least one in West Covina. We got to see their menu. They serve spaghetti that I hear is sweet, burgers called “Yums”, fried chicken called “Chicken Joy” and several breakfast options including longanisa sausage or hot dog with eggs. I don’t they’ll be voted healthy by Health magazine.
The next day, Saturday, we drove to the Palazzo hotel where Mom’s sisters, nieces, cousin, and brother-in-law were staying. I believe her cousin got room comped. It was a large suite, similar to the nearby Venetian where we stayed in October 2008, but newer. The room was on the 16th floor and had a great view of the area to the northeast of the strip especially of the Wynn golfhouse, pool, and conference room buildings, the Las Vegas monorail, and beyond. I saw this large sign near the monorail and I couldn’t figure out what it was for. I thought it might be for the Las Vegas Hilton, but I couldn’t see that hotel nearby, so that wasn’t it.
We walked to the Venetian to see the tribute to Michael Jackson at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. On the way we noticed a few changes to the lobby and Shoppes at the Palazzo that had been made since we were there for the first time in June 2008. There were all these colorful umbrellas hanging from the ceiling. The large gold cup behind the front desk was now full of flowers. Near the entrance to Madame Tussaud’s they had set up the very life-like Michael Jackson in a shiny white and gold outfit. People had left signs and gifts in tribute including a Buddha statue and a sign that said “You were the Thriller of our lives.” Many people hung around taking photos. They had a guestbook that would be sent to the Jackson family. We signed it.
Later we walked to the Encore hotel just north of the Palazzo across Sands Ave. and past the Wynn. The Encore on the outside looks just like the Wynn only it’s curved in the opposite direction. We crossed the overpass over Sands Ave. and entered the Wynn hotel. With the hot weather outside it was more comfortable to walk through it to get to the Encore. We had last visited the Wynn in 2005 during our honeymoon. It looked very similar to the last time. A few differences were that the Italian restaurant then called Cursa Cucina was now called La Strada and the store with the giant shoes above the doors was either no longer there or at least the shoes were no longer there. There was, however, a shop at the Wynn and the Encore called Outfit that had a giant cloths hanger above it.
The halls of shops at the Encore had skylights and since it was afternoon we could take full advantage of them. From the ceiling hung these elaborate chandeliers of purple and other colors. At other parts there were these shiny gold-colored chandeliers with a single gold spike at the bottom. On the floor colored tiles formed the shapes of butterflies. Near the casino was a colorful forest and an entrance to a bar or restaurant with these shiny peacock sculptures. In another part the walls had large red sculptures of flowers and near the theater there were many red butterfly sculptures on the ceiling. We briefly walked around the conference rooms. One of them would host a Teach for America reception that evening.
We walked back through the Encore and Wynn, exited and crossed the overpass over Las Vegas Boulevard to the Fashion Show Mall and we walked around there for a while. It’s a very large indoor mall with many levels. It has many stores including common ones like Macy’s. They had their own fashion show there. The runway rose right out of the floor. The models were all women and they wore outfits from Macy’s that were more conventional than the ones we saw at the Fashion Empire 2009 Mood Indigo Fashion Show (see earlier blog). During one part they played the Michael Jackson song “Pretty Young Thing”, a fitting tribute.
We returned to the family’s room at the Palazzo hotel. For dinner, Mom and Dad and the others brought food from Jason’s Deli. For the others they brought many containers of pasta including the chicken Alfredo and the Portabello Garden pasta. My wife enjoyed the latter. For me they brought a BLT that was made with three pieces of bread, one in the middle. It had lots of delicious bacon along with lettuce and tomato between all three pieces. It was very good and plenty of food. It came with a bag of Jason’s potato chips.
After dinner we walked over to Caesar’s Palace hotel to check out the Forum shops. I hadn’t been there since my first trip to Vegas nearly ten years before. It had these curved escalators that I didn’t remember from my first time there. We thought we might have some gelato and sorbetto from a gelato counter but it turns out that sorbetto had milk in it. We checked out a collectables/memorabilia shop, the large FAO Schwartz, and saw this historical society cart with crests for nearly all families’ names. We found ours on this poster for Ireland. They also had posters for Scotland, England, and Spain. We found a few more names in our family. It looked like you could order decorative custom plaques with your family’s crest.
We returned to the room at the Palazzo, rested and got a ride back to my in-laws’ condo. The next morning we had brunch at the condo of eggs, canned corned beef, vegetables, rice, and other foods that Mom had bought at that Asian supermarket. I heard about the concert they attended. Apparently, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood did not perform any of their more popular songs. They performed together the entire time and nothing was performed “unplugged”. After packing up we left Las Vegas and drove to the casino and outlet mall in Primm, Nevada that’s just inside the Nevada border. I had read earlier that the car in which the famous 1930’s bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were killed was in the casino at Primm. We quickly located it in a glass case along with mannequins of Bonnie and Clyde. As expected, it’s full of bullet holes on the driver’s side. They also had the now tattered shirt that Clyde wore displayed in a glass case along with video, old photos, and newspapers.
We walked around the outlet mall a bit and mostly waited for the others. We eventually drove back, stopping in Hesperia to have dinner at an In-and-Out burger.
It was warm in Las Vegas. The temperature would get up to 100 degrees on Saturday. The evening of Friday Mom and Dad drove us to this shopping center on Maryland Parkway on the same street as a hospital and a JC Penny store. The shopping center used to include the Zappos shoe store that my wife visited the last time we went to Vegas. There was also a Red Ribbon bakery, a Valerio’s bakery, and an Asian seafood supermarket. We parked near an eatery on the south end of the shopping center: Jason’s Deli. Mom and Dad had eaten there several times before. It was in its own building. We entered and walked to the back right corner to study the menu. It’s a large space with many 4-person tables and booths along the walls. There’s a large salad bar on the right side. The menu is also large with different sections for “Real Choices”, “Soups, Fruit, & Salads”, “Build Your Own” sandwiches, and wraps, “Po-Boys” (mostly sandwiches), “Paninis and Wrapinis”. It seemed like there were many healthy options and they even listed the calories, fat, and sodium content of the “Real Choices” options. The prices were fairly reasonable: $6-$8 per entrée. We place our orders and sat down at a booth.
They gave us glasses for our drinks to fill up at the dispensers near the salad bar and numbers so they could find us when they served our orders. They brought out the orders fairly quickly. I got the Mediterranean Wrap, a new item under the healthy “real choices” section of the menu. Most menu items came with cheese and this was one of the few that did not. It was wrapped lightly like a taco in a small wheat flour tortilla rather than tightly like a burrito. It was very flavorful with slices of oven-roasted deli turkey breast, cucumber, purple onions, Roma tomatoes slices, and greens. The red pepper hummus and Kalamata olives gave it a strong, salty flavor so it was never bland. That was a good idea to use hummus as a spread for a wrap. I had several choices for accompaniment including fresh fruit, steamed veggies, and baked potato chips. I chose blue corn tortilla chips and homemade salsa. They were good and crunchy and the salsa had just the right amount of spice.
My wife enjoyed her quarter-muff. A full muffatetta is made with a round loaf of bread about nine inches in diameter. I believe the sandwich originates in New Orleans. A whole-muff would have been huge and her quarter-muff looked pretty big. It contained premium ham and hard salami, provolone, and homemade olive mix. She got the quarter-muff deal that came with a choice of any cup of soup or fresh fruit cup. She chose red beans and rice soup, one of the soups of the day and consistent with the Nawlins theme.
While there we noticed several young people who looked like college students. That made some sense because UNLV wasn’t very far away. A notice near the salad bar said that Jason’s Deli was voted as a healthy restaurant by Health magazine. Another notice near the door said they were voted one of Las Vegas’ best restaurants by a local newspaper. We got a take-home menu that listed all the locations of Jason’s Deli. There are many with most of them in Texas. There’s only one California location in Riverside. We later learned that the first one opened in Beaumont, Texas in 1976.
We finished our dinner and Mom wanted to shop at Valerio’s and the Asian seafood supermarket. There was a Jollibee in the market. Jollibee is one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the Philippines and there are many in the U.S. including at least one in West Covina. We got to see their menu. They serve spaghetti that I hear is sweet, burgers called “Yums”, fried chicken called “Chicken Joy” and several breakfast options including longanisa sausage or hot dog with eggs. I don’t they’ll be voted healthy by Health magazine.
The next day, Saturday, we drove to the Palazzo hotel where Mom’s sisters, nieces, cousin, and brother-in-law were staying. I believe her cousin got room comped. It was a large suite, similar to the nearby Venetian where we stayed in October 2008, but newer. The room was on the 16th floor and had a great view of the area to the northeast of the strip especially of the Wynn golfhouse, pool, and conference room buildings, the Las Vegas monorail, and beyond. I saw this large sign near the monorail and I couldn’t figure out what it was for. I thought it might be for the Las Vegas Hilton, but I couldn’t see that hotel nearby, so that wasn’t it.
We walked to the Venetian to see the tribute to Michael Jackson at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. On the way we noticed a few changes to the lobby and Shoppes at the Palazzo that had been made since we were there for the first time in June 2008. There were all these colorful umbrellas hanging from the ceiling. The large gold cup behind the front desk was now full of flowers. Near the entrance to Madame Tussaud’s they had set up the very life-like Michael Jackson in a shiny white and gold outfit. People had left signs and gifts in tribute including a Buddha statue and a sign that said “You were the Thriller of our lives.” Many people hung around taking photos. They had a guestbook that would be sent to the Jackson family. We signed it.
Later we walked to the Encore hotel just north of the Palazzo across Sands Ave. and past the Wynn. The Encore on the outside looks just like the Wynn only it’s curved in the opposite direction. We crossed the overpass over Sands Ave. and entered the Wynn hotel. With the hot weather outside it was more comfortable to walk through it to get to the Encore. We had last visited the Wynn in 2005 during our honeymoon. It looked very similar to the last time. A few differences were that the Italian restaurant then called Cursa Cucina was now called La Strada and the store with the giant shoes above the doors was either no longer there or at least the shoes were no longer there. There was, however, a shop at the Wynn and the Encore called Outfit that had a giant cloths hanger above it.
The halls of shops at the Encore had skylights and since it was afternoon we could take full advantage of them. From the ceiling hung these elaborate chandeliers of purple and other colors. At other parts there were these shiny gold-colored chandeliers with a single gold spike at the bottom. On the floor colored tiles formed the shapes of butterflies. Near the casino was a colorful forest and an entrance to a bar or restaurant with these shiny peacock sculptures. In another part the walls had large red sculptures of flowers and near the theater there were many red butterfly sculptures on the ceiling. We briefly walked around the conference rooms. One of them would host a Teach for America reception that evening.
We walked back through the Encore and Wynn, exited and crossed the overpass over Las Vegas Boulevard to the Fashion Show Mall and we walked around there for a while. It’s a very large indoor mall with many levels. It has many stores including common ones like Macy’s. They had their own fashion show there. The runway rose right out of the floor. The models were all women and they wore outfits from Macy’s that were more conventional than the ones we saw at the Fashion Empire 2009 Mood Indigo Fashion Show (see earlier blog). During one part they played the Michael Jackson song “Pretty Young Thing”, a fitting tribute.
We returned to the family’s room at the Palazzo hotel. For dinner, Mom and Dad and the others brought food from Jason’s Deli. For the others they brought many containers of pasta including the chicken Alfredo and the Portabello Garden pasta. My wife enjoyed the latter. For me they brought a BLT that was made with three pieces of bread, one in the middle. It had lots of delicious bacon along with lettuce and tomato between all three pieces. It was very good and plenty of food. It came with a bag of Jason’s potato chips.
After dinner we walked over to Caesar’s Palace hotel to check out the Forum shops. I hadn’t been there since my first trip to Vegas nearly ten years before. It had these curved escalators that I didn’t remember from my first time there. We thought we might have some gelato and sorbetto from a gelato counter but it turns out that sorbetto had milk in it. We checked out a collectables/memorabilia shop, the large FAO Schwartz, and saw this historical society cart with crests for nearly all families’ names. We found ours on this poster for Ireland. They also had posters for Scotland, England, and Spain. We found a few more names in our family. It looked like you could order decorative custom plaques with your family’s crest.
We returned to the room at the Palazzo, rested and got a ride back to my in-laws’ condo. The next morning we had brunch at the condo of eggs, canned corned beef, vegetables, rice, and other foods that Mom had bought at that Asian supermarket. I heard about the concert they attended. Apparently, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood did not perform any of their more popular songs. They performed together the entire time and nothing was performed “unplugged”. After packing up we left Las Vegas and drove to the casino and outlet mall in Primm, Nevada that’s just inside the Nevada border. I had read earlier that the car in which the famous 1930’s bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were killed was in the casino at Primm. We quickly located it in a glass case along with mannequins of Bonnie and Clyde. As expected, it’s full of bullet holes on the driver’s side. They also had the now tattered shirt that Clyde wore displayed in a glass case along with video, old photos, and newspapers.
We walked around the outlet mall a bit and mostly waited for the others. We eventually drove back, stopping in Hesperia to have dinner at an In-and-Out burger.
RSS Feed