Robert and Christina's Southwest Trip: Story and Pictures
8/4 Fri--Las Vegas Day 1

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After a minor panic when two very tired people couldn't remember how to get to the 15 to Vegas (super simple--stay on the 10 till you hit it), we had smooth sailing & made it in four hours flat. We drove straight to Mandalay Bay & were able to check in early, at 11am. We parked & headed to Olive's--the LV branch of our favorite Boston restaurant--in the Bellagio for my 25th birthday lunch. It took us a full hour, by walkways & trams, to get to the Bellagio, but along the way we casino-watched, saw the lions at MGM Grand, & marveled at just how slowly some people can walk. Pictured on this page are some of the fruits of our trip: a little girl holding one of the Mandalay Bay lobby parrots; the MGM lion; Christina at the Excalibur; Robert at the main Mandalay Bay entrance; and Christina at the statue of liberty at New York, New York.

Lunch was superb--we initially ordered 2 appetizers & 1 entree to share: a polenta-crusted deep-fried seafood plate, a beef carpaccio, & an ahi tuna salad on flatbread, respectively. Our server made sure to tell us that the beef was raw, & Robert jokingly asked, how about the tuna? She said the tuna was cooked through, but it was a very good dish, & we stuck with it. After a nice selection of bread & two tapenades, the food arrived, & we immediately saw two things--one, the tuna salad was not what we had expected, & two, the two appetizers were large enough to feed us on their own. After one bite, we realized the tuna was even drier & more tasteless than it looked--we set it aside & ignored it for the rest of the meal. The beef carpaccio was heavenly--melty, with savory sauces & as good as a fine sashimi made by Masu. The fried squid & salmon chunks were wonderful as well, moist & crispy, with a nice dipping sauce & fresh herbs--some of the best fried squid we've ever had (&, being part New Englanders, we've sampled our fair share.) Everything was perfect except that tuna dish--so we explained to the manager that we'd been to Olive's many times, & had had many of their tuna dishes & were very unhappy with this one. He was extremely nice, & said he would take it off our check. Thus pacified, we ordered one of the nicest, densest cheesecakes in blackberry sauce for dessert. It was an excellent birthday lunch!

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel, making the return journey down the strip in only 45minutes this time. We brought our bags up to the room, and decided to take a quick nap before dinner. Then, three hours later (keep in mind we rose at six, & had had 4hours of sleep the night before), refreshed, we enjoyed showers in our lovely marble dual-sinked bathroom.

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Created: 8/13/2000. Last Modified: 8/14/2000