Day 25. 27.4.16. Las Vegas, USA.

A slower start this morning, given our very late night. Glenda and I are now sharing so we had to sort ourselves out and get organised.

A picture of our room at Treasure Island.

The Bathroom.

View from our room, out towards the mountains and desert.

Trump towers from our window.

Breaky was in the Hotel Coffee Shop, we met at 9.00.

Suzie had organised a 3 hour limo tour, our driver, Sogo took us along The Strip, stopping at several of the Hotel/Casinos so we could check out foyers/lobbies/gardens. We looked into Bellagio, Paris, Venetian, Wynne and Caesars Palace that I can recall. 

My favourite features were the Chihuli Glass ceiling at Bellagio and Parasol Up display along with  the Floral features and Floral Carousel at Wynn. That is to say nothing of the opulence and glitz and bling and total Over the Topness of the others. Gondola’s at Venetian, the Ceiling art and statues etc at Caesars Palace. 

On board for our 3 hour limo tour.

The Flamingo.

Bellagio.

Bellagio entry.

Bellagio.

Chihuli glass ceiling in the Bellagio lobby. Check out the 'check in' lines. There are lines/queues EVERYWHERE, the Americans are much more patient than we are.

More of the Bellagio interiors.

A japanese style garden.

Chihuli glass.

I've loved this guys work, ever since we saw it at Floriade in Canberra...all those years ago.

Then on we went on along The Strip, past the Paris, complete with Eiffel Tower.

Out to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

Past the Luxor - with Pyramid and Sphinx.

Excalibur - Disneyland.

New York, New York Hotel and Casino - with Rockefeller Centre, Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Coney Island Rollercoaster, Ellis Island building. 

Pepsi sign in New York New York precinct.

The Eiffel Tower again.

Elton is playing next door at Caesars.

Treasure  Island, that's where we are staying. We are on the 18th floor on the back side of the building.

Into the Venetian we went for a look. The opulence is simply over the top.

Very busy and hectic ceiling art.

This is all indoors, fake sky and real gondola's with singing gondoliers.

It looks like a bright sunny day, but it is all INDOORS.

The Casino part of it all. Poker Machines EVERYWHERE.

A bar.

Foyer, look at the shine on the tiles.

That massive corridor again. The tiles look pretty cool too.

Our next stop was Wynn. The floral decor in here was astounding. They were a mix of real and fake, but it was very very hard to tell them apart.

The hanging flower balls were stunning.

Lots of flower spheres.

Fairy lights and real trees.

the patchwork flower patterns were great.

This display titled "Parasol Up' was my other favourite. The parasols were slowly rising and falling into the space. The colours and shapes were really eye catching.

Way too many photos of this, but I really liked it.

A floral Carousel in the gardens.

Back to the parasols.

All shapes, colours and sizes.

The tiling was effective too.

The opulence and decadence is hard to fathom, so much to look at – some gaudy and some tasteful and everything in between. Photos tell the story I hope. 

Steve Wynn is responsible for a lot of development in Vegas. He renovated the Golden Nugget, built both the Mirage and Bellagio, which he later sold, he has more recently added more luxury to the city with Wynn and Encore Hotel and Casino.

The interior was very impressive.

From here we travelled South (I think) out past the Stratosphere stopping for a pic at the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign and a cheesy wedding chapel and onto Fremont Street.

Fremont street is where it all began, the first casinos – Golden Nugget and others were established here. There are a few older casinos – Binions, Golden Nugget, Fremont etc. The street has been covered  over with a canopy, I think we need to see it at night, but time is short. 

The limo we were in was a Lincoln.

Here we are pulled up to take a pic of one of the Cheesy Wedding Chapels, Sogo on duty at the door.

Cheesy Wedding Chapel.

Stratosphere.

Our Limo.

Fremont Street, the home of Vegas, this is where it all started. Golden Nugget.

Binions.

The famous Cowboy.

Golden Goose and Glitter Gulch.

More within Fremont Street.

We went and had a look at the Poker Hall of Fame in here. Suzie knew a few of them.

Our final stop and end point was the Outlet stores. We spent 3 hours shopping/looking around before cabbing it home. Our next plan of attack was to try and book a show for Friday night, we had narrowed it down to either Absinthe or Elton at Caesar’s, that way we could go and see which had the best tickets and choose that one. We headed off along The Strip to Caesar’s Palace, the concierge was unable to assist, the ticket office indicated there was no discount tickets for Absinthe and we would need to go direct to the Colosseum box office for Elton, so off we headed…seemed like miles and all within the walls of Caesar’s. The lady at the box office was most helpful and found three brilliant seats which we snapped up, only to realise at the final ‘check’ that they were for TONIGHT, not Friday…so our plans changed, we took the tickets – two together in Row H and one in front in Row G. Not cheap but we were all keen, I am super excited. It is about 4pm by this stage and showtime is 7.30.

We then hot footed it back across The Strip to Harrah’s Casino to ride the monorail – it was quite a walk to find it (I am quickly learning that EVERYTHING in Vegas is long walk.) The Monorail runs along ‘behind’ The Strip and while interesting to see the back view, it wasn’t all that exciting and not really good value, we felt a little ripped off.

A view of the city from the Monorail.

Looking at Encore in the foreground and more of The Strip behind.

This was within the Harrah's Casino on our walk back from the Monorail station.

our home - Treasure Island or TI..

We ditched any plans of returning home to change before the show, instead we returned to Caesars and grabbed a lovely dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago restaurant, before heading off around the corner to the show.

Dinner at Spago.

There were quite long lines to get in, the security check was holding things up. I had to ‘check in’ my camera and Glenda her back pack. Then into the 4000 seat auditorium of the Colloseum. The sets were amazing, seats even more so, we are EIGHT rows from the front!!! 

Here we are, seated and ready to roll.

The set was stunning. There are greyhounds either side and another little white fluffy in the set too, a homage to Elton's dogs evidently.

Elton performed for 2 hours non stop, mostly oldies, his band had a couple of songs break. The show was just incredible. The title of the show “Million Dollar Piano” referred to the piano which had an LED type display that matched the background and surrounding lighting. The lighting and set was pretty spectacular.

Elton and the Piano.

The set, with ever changing projections behind, it looked very 3d.

The lighting and the LED displays in the piano were in total synchrony. I have read that it is all done from within the piano.

Check out the shoes, they were really orange/coppery colour.

Elton was the consummate entertainer, his easy talking manner with the audience and the way he set the scene for each song was awesome.

The Percussionist was as usual a real focus. Not the usual Ray Cooper, he has had surgery and was unable to join the tour, the guy that replaced him was equally talented.

The background to this one, was a history of Elton, here a homage to Rocket Man.

Picture from Elton over the years, I remember him wearing the Duck suit for one of his concerts in Melbourne.

A tribute to the US in this one. Lots of stars and stripes.

There were some quite long instrumental sections, that highlighted his ability to really play that piano, as well as showcasing the talents of his band also.

The $500 seats got to go up on stage around the piano for one song.

The encore was Circle of Life, from the Lion King, hence the animations.

Changed into his pink jacket.

Curtain call.

Such a great show.

Hard to believe, we were there and we got such great tickets to an unforgettable show.

Eventually we  made it home and Glenda and I needed to pack up and prepare for our very early 6.10 departure for the Grand Canyon. We left the bulk of our luggage with Suzie and into bed by 11.00pm…just!

Stuffed, exhausted and to top it off have been fighting a googly tummy all day today. Fingers crossed it’s better tomorrow.