“Viva, Las Vegas!” – Travels with Lolo & Lulu

I’ve been looking forward to this trip — for MANY reasons! — for almost a year! First and foremost … Las Vegas is in the state of Nevada, which became the 43rd of the 50 States that I’ve now visited!

There we are, Lulu & I, just after we checked in at our hotel, Harrah’s on the Las Vegas Strip! Honestly, I never did see the OFFICIAL sign at the city limits, but much more manageable replicas are all over the place (this one being in the hotel lobby.)

Everywhere we went in Vegas was expanse, and far apart. This photo shows one edge of the check in lobby. Kind of overwhelming!

We dropped our things in our room, and explored around a little bit. FYI, the tab for lunch for 2, quite modest typical lunch fare at a “Grab ‘N Go” counter, was almost 50 bucks. An eye-opening welcome to Sin City, for sure! LOL

Of course we were there for a very important reason, to see the MAIN EVENT: My Christmas present was tickets to the OPENING NIGHT of Donny Osmond’s new solo show. We arrived on Monday, and the following night, Tuesday, August 31 was the opening. After lunch (and some Oxygen to recover, j/k LOL), it was time to visit the Showroom.

Ahhhhhhhhh! There it is!! And … a dress rehearsal was going on inside! (Anyone who knows me can only imagine the restraint I exercised by NOT attempting to peak inside!)

A treat for concert goers, we found a display of Donny’s costumes & memorabilia. My reflection is found in all of the photos (as well as the reflection of some other fans snapping photos LOL), but, what a fun collection!

Here’s the teeny tiny jacket (which matched his brothers’) worn on the Andy Williams show. He made his TV debut there, at age 5. (Andy: 5?? Donny: Yessir. Andy: Do you know ‘Yessir, That’s My Baby’? Donny: Yessir. ::cue Alan on the pitch pipe, and song begins!:: )

A 70’s Donny white jumpsuit from the Osmond Brothers era … seriously that thing was so small, he must have had a 12-inch waist! …. and other assorted Donny / Osmond toys … Rhonda, the D & M dolls reminded me of you!.

The “Soldier of Love”, Donny’s-new-image, circa 1989 black leather jacket, and his gold record, thanks to all of us Forever Fans. 🙂

Donny’s tuxedo, and his Mirror Ball trophy, when he won “Dancing With the Stars” (Season 9, in 2009)

Donny’s costume (The Peacock) for “The Masked Singer.” Yeah, yeah, I know … he DIDN’T win that one … but he did come in second. And … I _STILL_ don’t understand how ANYONE didn’t know it was him under all those purple feathers — his VOICE was completely UNMISTAKABLE! —even though Marie outed him on some talk show.

There I am … JUST a lil overwhelmed … with Donny’s “Joseph” wig & Amazing Technicolor coat, from the Toronto production. So kewl for me to see!

OK, so, it was then time to look around the hotel and the city a little bit more. From our hotel room, we had a great view of the “High Roller” from our room — the giant Ferris wheel seen in the Las Vegas skyline. During the day, it looked like this:

Pretty cool! And, yes, our “view” of the rest of the cement jungle was perhaps not so impressive, but from our 27th floor perch, a great clear view of the mountains in the distance!

After dark, the “High Roller” is lit up like a 550 foot tall Christmas tree! (Stay tuned … we took a ride on Tuesday night! Lots of photos to follow!)

A BONUS (in my humble opinion, MUCH better than winning any money) happened at our hotel: My devotion to frequently checking at Facebook yielded a fun coincidence … my friend, Tracey, who played my daughter in Somerset Valley Players production of “Moon Over Buffalo”, was ALSO visiting Las Vegas at the same time! Despite our BUSY vacationing schedules, we were able to meet up for a drink at Harrah’s! (OK, if she ever sees this, she might kill me, but here’s a production photo from “Moon…”, in which she’s screaming at me for being in the wrong costume. A truly hilarious scene!)

But … MUCH BETTER … here are Tracey & I, in our fabulousness of being Vegas gals:

It was WONDERFUL to see you, Tracey! As you said, “Imagine? We live less than an hour away from each other, and had to come to Vegas to get together!”

Tracey & friend went off to see their show, and we had dinner reservations at another hotel on the Strip. It was an eye-opening and rather warm 15 minute walk to the Paris Hotel.

Exiting Harrah’s, we encountered the 50 foot announcement of Donny’s show. Talk about overwhelming! No missing this marker! LOL

(I’m sorry … does anyone else hear angels singing??? LOL)

Best to use the bridges to cross the busy streets!

Feeling somewhat “EPCOT”-ian, sort of stunning to have the Eiffel Tower in our sights after walking just a few blocks! FYI, the Eiffel Tower replica here in Vegas is half the size of the Paris original, standing at a over 500 feet tall!)

Oh, the things you’ll see on the places you’ll go! Listen, folks: I was not even a LITTLE BIT surprised or shocked to encounter anything / anyone we saw on the Las Vegas Strip. But here’s what did surprise me: the more voluptuous gal on the left was quite angry, and took offense to anyone and everyone who DARED to snap her photo. ::crickets:: For real, girl?? Does the concept of the effects of exhibitionism not really land for you? Anyway … I took my own photo as surreptitiously as possible, so as not to set off another of her tirades. lol

Our table wasn’t ready, so we decided to try our luck in the Casino. I put 5 bucks in a slot machine, and wound up with 17 cents. (“Whoo hoo, honey! 17 cents!” says I. Gerry replied, “Well … actually you LOST $4.83.” Yup. LOL)

Our window seat offered QUITE the view of the Strip!

One of the FEW things that I really wanted to see, was the dancing fountain at the Bellagio Hotel. My sister (who’s visited Vegas several times) suggested the best view would be had from the Paris Hotel, which is directly across the street. From our window table location, boy, was she right!

And, very good news about the meal: It was excellent!

The waiter brought over a complimentary starter, the Chef’s “amuse bouche” of the day, which was called a Watermelon Parfait, but was more precisely like a watermelon gazpacho soup. Delightfully delicious!

I’m not a person who usually takes food photos, but I made some exceptions at this place. 🙂

Gerry enjoyed the Watermelon Parfait, too … but when the waiter said the phrase “amuse bouche”, he gave me the WTF? look, and then said, “Moose? Anything to do with Bullwinkle?” Kidding, yes … but … hey, you can take the boy outta Jersey City, but you just can’t take the Jersey City outta the boy. 🙂

Another food photo (!!) … but I was very impressed with the presentation of the salad.

At the table next to us, a young man proposed to his girlfriend. She said “Yes”, as he repeatedly announced to anyone who walked by … but left the long stem rose behind when they departed.

From Paris we went to a place off the Strip, called Ellis Island. (Imagine? An Uber from Paris to Ellis Island for only 9 bucks! lol)

What was so special about Ellis Island, you ask? One word, people: KARAOKE!! LOL

If there’s an opportunity to sing karaoke, I’m all over it like flies on poo. Got to sing two songs, before it got too crowded.

(Care to guess which song I was singing here? HINT: read the words on the screen above my head.)

It started getting crowded, and although I had begun to build a fan base ;-), I decided to leave before the rotation list got too long. Had a BLAST, though, and thanks to my camera crew (GDM) for hanging in there!

It was back to Harrah’s after a particularly long but exhilarating day. Time for some well-deserved shut-eye, and so excited, looking forward to the long anticipated CONCERT the very next day!

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