Should We Be Dancing?

 Hey, folks! 

This was our last day.  Bummer!  We're talking about where just the two of us might go next.  There are currently no plans. 😢 

But we finished our trip with a show! 

It took a lot of juggling and talking and we ended up with this -- 

Yes, it was a Bee Gees tribute band.  The tickets weren't terribly priced and the "auditorium" (it might have held 200) had good views of the stage.  And the three guys did a pretty good job (I won't quibble; it's gotta be hard to recreate that falsetto, etc).  It was fun.  Though I have serious second-hand embarrassment for the people who got up and danced to the disco music.  None of them were younger than the music, some by quite a bit.  😂😂 

They did all the older hits from their earlier albums, like "I Started a Joke" and "How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?", and worked into the disco stuff.  Good times. 

We then went to dinner (the show, appropriate for the audience, started at 6 PM) -- in DB's memory, an Irish pub on the walk back from the Excelsior to the Mandalay Bay.  I had the more interesting meal, the shepherd's pie, which was made mostly of lamb, and wasn't the best I've ever eaten. 

But let me go back. 

We started the day heading southeast toward Arizona -- K pointed out we'd gone a different direction each day!  

We had no plan for breakfast but I saw we were going near where we went Sunday and found a First Watch that we'd passed.  They have unuusal stuff, though they are a chain.  We thought of our friend RR, who we introduced to First Watch last year, even though there's one near his house :) 

I had the cinnamon chip pancakes. 

K had the ricotta omelette.   

Then off to one of the manmade wonders of world. 

We did the full tour -- going down to the fourth floor above the river bottom -- here's my photo with my arm out the slats 

It's a big place.  They have stats, like if you made a 4-foot wide sidewalk from all the concrete poured into it, it would go around the world at the equator!   (I'd like to see that math, but...)

Here's the stairs out from where we were "in case of emergency."  Our guide, Mel, said she asked what happened if you were in a wheelchair and they said they'd lower a harness from the top to that window and lift them out.  We all agreed, no thanks. 

They also built a village there -- at 5,000 it was twice the size then of Las Vegas (which was nothing then) -- along with all the other stuff.  

It's an amazing achievement.  I asked K going home how in 1930 you could figure out what it would take to do it.  Took a lot of brains and some awfully good knowledge of things like engineering.  

And that was our big day.  

We really enjoyed Vegas.  We did find that the dryness sneaks up on you; as our guide said today, you don't realize you're sweating and need to drink more.  We've struggled to stay hydrated. 

And that's all I've got.  Watching election results and I guess this is going to be an historic night.  Woo woo.  

But tomorrow -- back to home and the routine. 

Hope you've enjoyed.  

Till next time...

Rocks (sometimes basketball shots), cacti, and more gaudy scenery

 Hello evreyone,

It is the hours after the basketball game and we aren't terribly disappointed.  ICYMI Purdue lost by 6 in what was mostly a closely contested game.  We hope it wasn't our best effort (if it was, then it is going to be a long season).  We had good seats --

I was complimented on the seats; we even were on the aisle! :)

The row to my left was empty.  For game 2, Arizona vs. UCLAm, there was a group of Zona fans behind us who made my ears hurt.  For one, it was clear the one woman had never seen an opponent miss a shot! :) 

But it was all fun.  Lots of Purdue fans there. 

What did we do before that?

Well, yesterday morning we went to breakfast at this place called Craft Kitchen that had lots of good items.  

The waiter, in a Joe Montana throwback (at this point, is there another kind?) jersey, forgot to bring the cinnamon roll till well into my eggs...I was "away from the table" when K paid, or he'd gotten half a tip. :)

Then we sojourned into California to see the Mojave desert.  It is still amazing to see that you go from built-up city to absolutely, positively nothing in a heartbeat.  There are two crossroads towns along I-15 on the way to the desert, but nothing else.  

It rained off and on going to the desert.   It had clearly rained enough recently to be a thing: there were warnings about debris and washouts.  

Then back to town.  Neither of us were hungry, so we wandered around, trying to find the route to the arena for today.  

Step one was supposed to be to get on the free tram from the Mandalay Bay to the Excalibur -- two hotels (city blocks?) away.  We never found it, but wandered across a pedestrian bridge to the Luxor, passing all these sites along the way:  a Guinness shop (why?), an Irish Pub (next to the Guinness shop), multiple eateries, various vendors (hats, clothes, watches, ...you name it), and went through the Luxor casino. This time I asked and was pointed in the direction of the tram.  I have one shot of the outside of the Luxor, if you. haven't seen pics

We then wandered through the casino at the Excalibur, only to find we didn't have to do that.  

Then, across the street to the New York, New York (K took lots of pics, I thought it was large but not the real thing :)).  Not sure the NY, NY wasn't bigger than the others.  Ended up on the outside in the right direction and there was T-Mobile Arena -- our real destination for this trip. 

K decided she wanted BBQ, so we ended up back at the House of Blues inside the Mandalay Bay.  It's not great food porn, but it ain't nothing, either.  I had my old "usual," though Swerve would tell you that his favorite part when I used to order it for lunch was the "hold the lettuce" part. :). I ate the lettuce tonight. 

This morning we got up "early" and went to this pastry place called Tous du Jour, for a "light" breakfast.  

As we went to breakfast, we saw what looked like a snow=covered mountain to the west.  We took a picture and Gemini said it was Mount Charleston.  Looking at it on the map, I saw a conservation area between us and it -- Red Rock Canyon.  We headed there. 

It was a good pickup.  It had an 11 mile scenic loop, with all kinds of interesting rocks and foliage.  And an annoying blue Lamborghini making a lot of noixe on a 35 mph road. 

There was even a place where the recent rain drainage was running across the road.  

But, despite multiple warnings, we saw no tortoises, nor any of the other possible wildlife ):

Back to the hotel to kill a few, and change from leisurewear, then off to lunch. 

 

The culinary highlight of the trip (I can be somewhat accused of burying the lede here( was today at lunch.  We went to a place called Esther's Kitchen, which is in old town Las Vegas (literally on Main St), and has a Michelin guide recommendation as quality food at a reasonable price. 

Check, check. 

Did I mention it was Italian?

It's set in an older building and has the now not-unseen industrial decor, with wood floors.  It was not what you usually expect from an Italian place.  

The lunch menu was maybe limited, with only half a dozen pasta offerings.  WE found a couple good ones --

I had the radiatorre, which had black garlic, lemon and cream in the sauce.  Funky pasta. 

I don't know what they called K's but it was cacio de pepe by another name. 

And we had chicken so we had a protein. 

For dessert we hesitated but went for this, which was the hero of the meal -- it's their butterscotch badino (I think I got that right) and it's butterscotch custard with a caramel layer, with whipped cream with honeycomb crumbles on top.  It would be worth going there JUST for this. 

But K couldn't resist the Basque cheesecake with apple crumbles.  So we took one back to the room and ate it after the basketball game. 

It was pretty good -- no butterscotch custard, but better than a poke in the eye with a stick. 

And, with that piece of wisdom, I leave you till tomorrow (or the next) -- our last day in Vegas.  😞

Till then, buenas noches...

Not in Pennsyltucky anymore, Dorothy

 Hi Loyal Readers (and Buckeye fans 😂),

As I may have promised (will you remember?), we come to you from Las Vegas, or, as K's father repeatedly called it -- Lost Wages.  

We are here to watch Purdue's men play basketball.  The game is Monday vs. Gonzaga.  It's the season opener.  They are NOT supposed to win, but K says she's resolved to that.  :) 

She wanted to come for basketball and because she's never been here. 

Have I? Yes.  I lived here.  For six months in my first year.  It's changed a bit :) It's also awkward to answer "have you been there" since a) I don't remember anything except some pictures from the time -- most infamous for my pulling the iron onto my knee and spending most of the pictures with a big bandage on my knee, b) it's changed a lot since then.  Like, there were 3 small hotel/casinos here (I hear).  Now, you come over the horizon from any direction, out of desert and nothing, and there's this monstrosity of hotel/casinos.  K said "tacky" twelve times in the first half hour.  :)

What did we do today?  We went to Zion National Park, which isn't really that close.  It was 2 hours and 40 minutes, and some of that was at 80 mph speed limit.  Did I mention there is nothing out there?  It was amazing about 20 minutes out of Vegas and there's nothing.  Not even a decent little village.  And no foliage!  Not a tree for tens of miles.  No grass.  No fields.  No animals.  Barren.

It got a little better in northwest Arizona and southwest Utah, where there were a couple rivers, it had rained recently, and it was green a few places.  There were even a few golf courses.  

We are driving a small Mazda SUV.  But, to follow a theme from the European trip, figuring it out has been a challenge.  First, I plugged in my phone and got the screen to pop up "Communications" but it wasn't a touch screen and I tried every button on the steering wheel and along the console and couldn't get anything.  Finally, K found a video and if you watched carefully you could see the cursor was on a knob between the gearshift and the cupholder -- yes, an awkward space and not really where one looks.  

But I got it working last night and to get out to Zion.

To get back: it stopped working!!!  😡😡😡. After much trial, K wanted to a reset of the car's connectivity...but we were trying to get back to Vegas and didn't want to sit for awhile figuring that out.  In the end, I did something that brought it back to life...we don't know exactly what. 

And then there's the hotel.  K insisted we stay in a "five star casino hotel" so we are at the Mandalay Bay.  I can complain about neither the room or the rate we are paying.  But we got our daily walks in just going from the parking garage (which is huge) to our room (which is the size of any two we had in Europe last month)...everything here is beyond Texas-sized.  Including this morning's breakfast tab. ):  It's so big, tonight, after dinner, for the walk from the car to the room, her Fitbit actually gave her credit for a walk!!! 😂

And, then, of course, there is the inevitable running into THAT GUY...so, we get in the elevator and this guy -- hat on backwards and too old for that -- is acting like he's the bellhop, eventho the elevator makes you use your room key card to punch in a floor.  He and the woman in front of us kind of did a dosy-do (sp?) and the doors shut on us and he had to talk.  Probably should mention the 16 oz beer -- somewhat tapped -- in his hand.  So, he tells us all (because he's THAT GUY) "my girlfriend says I need to grow up...I said 'I'm 44 and I'm grown.'  What do you think?"  I couldn't resist mumbling something about the girlfriend being onto something, but he ignored me and went on...when we got off the elevator (he was still going up -- I should mention this hotel has 63 floors; we're only on the 14th, which seems high enough to me 😟) I said "she seemed right" and K said "and we all knew it in the two minutes we spent with him on that elevator" 😂

Today's adventure was to Zion National Park -- here's our thumbnail for the blog -- 

The waterfall is due to the recent rain.

The rock formations were great.   Here's another shot --'

It was an interesting place.  The parking lot to get into the visitor's center and shuttle stop was full, so we circled three times, with K saying "let's be patient" and me being Sooooo patient, and the obvious "discussion" of what to do.  

We ended up turning up into the park, stopping at a scenic overlook, and parking there and jumping the shuttle DOWN the mountain to the visitor center, then shuttling back up.  It worked.  K said we were so clever to think of it.  Hahaha 

Then, back to LV.  BTW, gas prices were interestingly varied.  Nevada, or rather Clark County Nevada, has high gas prices -- the station next to the hotel is at $5.59 for regular.   Out of town it was down to $4.89.  We bought gas in Arizona for $4.21.  The Mormons were getting $4.69.  Interesting.  Some economist will have to explain to us what's going on that there's that disparity (is Arizona the only one with some kind of other tax to make up for it?). 

Breakfast this morning was in one of the hotel restaurants (you knew there were like 12, right?) -- Sea Breeze, which was adequate enough.  

That's chicken fried steak, if you are wondering, and no, I don't know if it's called that because it is cooked by a chicken or what.  It was a lot more than either of us could eat.  And it reminded us we weren't in Pennsyltucky anymore, as it was $75!  Yum.  

For dinner, we made reservations ahead of time (pet peeve #1001, why do places ask you multiple times if you are really coming?!?!!?  No, I made that reservation and I have no intention of eating there.  Thank you) at Jose Andres' place here, in the Cosmopolitan, called Chile Pablano.  It's Chinese-Mexican fusion.  So, here are your pics...it was all good, but the Dan Dan Mian (the second from the bottom) was the best.  

Sui mai dumplings    

Barbacoa taco

Black bean and chorizo sope

Table side made guac.  We decided we are now adding quesa cheese to our guac.  :)

We both came back to the hotel, having over-eaten...looking forward to more sight seeing tomorrow.  Don't expect more till after the game (BoilerUp!) Monday.  

Oh, and it's been a trip being here during Halloween.  I told K coming back from the restaurant that sometimes I wasn't sure if it was a costume or not.  :). She said "right?"  She also told someone in the casino that she found Waldo (see obvious costume), there was a couple dressed alike as some female character I didn't recognize, Count Dracula got out of the elevator as we went in, there was a group having their pic done at the Cosmopolitan that included two pirates, a Tibetan monk, the cop from YMCA, and....well, you get the picture.  It's been a treat.  Pun intended.

Till later...buenos noches

From Rembrandt to Van Gogh: Going through Amsterdam in two (long) days

 Hey, Dutch Masters,

So this is the last travel narrative (I'm thinking a retrospective blog might be in order -- you know "the 10 stupid things I did on this trip"), but this will be the last detailing of our days because we are out of days!!! 😡  After 27 days away, I will be going home tomorrow (and RR has been with me the whole way)

First, we have broken RR. 😒

You see, though I haven't mentioned it (an example of Sheldon Cooper's suffering in silence 😂) K and I both woke up Friday morning with cold symptoms.  But RR has held out.  Remember the man who climbed the 226 steps Sunday morning?  Today he wasn't up to going out for breakfast!!! The man who eats like a hungry G-man (inside joke? :))  And, after being a trooper and doing the first two items on the day's agenda, he said he was washed and came back to the flat before numero tres. 🙁. And he didn't clean up any of the leftovers from dinner -- which looked like this.

Satay

Spring rolls

Prawn curry (one pepper heat)

Beef curry (no heat)

Chicken pa-naeng (one pepper heat)

It was all very good.  We all like Thai food and Google didn't do us wrong saying this was a good one within walking distance (.5 mile) of the flat. 

The day began with a quick chocolate croissant at a bakery around the corner.  It was an odd chocolate croissant -- no vein of chocolate going through it, but instead chocolate poured on top.  It was very messy, as you might imagine.  But fresh! :)

Then we hustled off to the Anne Frank House (in Dutch "huis") for our 10 o'clock appointment. 

I don't want to say they were Nazis at the Anne Frank House (that might be in poor taste), but there were multiple staff out front making sure you didn't get in line too early.  For ten o'clock she told the 10 o'clocks to line up, and someone was at 10:15 and she told them to go stand back out of the way! 😂. 

Despite the tough steps inside, it was a notable experience.  Our barge driver later said the use of narrow, steep staircases was due to the saving of square footage in a house, and the secret annex showed it. ):  I learned a lot I didn't know (I admittedly didn't know much) about her and the people hiding with her.  I was surprised there were so many, or that they had so many rooms (four?). You can't believe the tight-laced Nazis missed all those square feet. OC, it was heart-rendering, as it seems she was on the last train that left Amsterdam for the transport hub before the Nazis gave up in early '45. 😢

We then Ubered over to a spot in front of the Hard Rock Cafe, where our canal tour could start.  But I went in with the ticket (a ticket I didn't remember buying the night before) and the very nice woman told me it wouldn't scan.  She did all she could, even making a phone call, but I was told to call Viator.  In the end, I bought tickets on the boat, hoping to recoup from someone later. 

The canal tour was interesting.  Some genius ~1610 decided to expand the city they needed a canal system -- it took 50 years to complete.  OC this is all done by hand.  😡  It starts with three parallel canals off the Amstel River (once dammed, the city there became Amsterdam) that run in a semicircle south.  Then they built cross canals, then another semicircle farther out.  By ~1660 they had tripled the square footage of the city.  But still they needed to build all these town homes along the canals -- they were encourage to build up and not horizontally.  They have some lovely homes.  And some palatial places where the directors of the East India Company lived.  It was them who helped generate all the 17th c Dutch wealth on the spice trade (the captain joked that part of it was marijuana 😂) and the great shipping fleet.  Amsterdam was for the better part of the century the richest city in Europe.  

After the canal ride, and RR heading off to rest, we went to the Rijk Museum, which we saw from the boat. 

It is famous for holding the most Rembrandts in the world; it also holds the most Vermeers -- which K likes so much.  She said she'd never seen four in a collection before, and only four together in an exhibition in DC once.  

Then we ubered back to the flat.  Uber rides have been a bit salty (30 euros regularly) and this driver, John, told us why: to Uber here you have to have same certification and insurance as a taxi.  So, they charge more.  Though RR pointed out there was an Uber option here to get an electric vehicle for less, which we'll look to do.  Our ride from the museum was in a Veekj -- which he told us was Chinese.  And rather mocked Americans for not allowing Chinese cars, though he admitted they tariffed it heavily, claiming it cost double what it would in China. 

We napped, got up, with everyone feeling perkier, and went to the Thai place for dinner.  K avoided getting hit by a bike, but to make note of all the near misses now would take multiple blogs. 😀. it's been a zoo out there. 😡

*****

Today was our last day here, as we fly out at 1130 to London, then from London at 4 to Newark.  A long day (I realized that it would be 1:30 Amsterdam time, Friday, when we landed in Newark...and that ain't home yet 😡)

The good news was RR was better, though he admitted this evening that he was broken and would have to spend time at home to get mended. :)

We started the day with a short walk to a place I had scoped out, not very carefully, for breakfast.  They had the full sit-down thing (as opposed to Tuesday's croissants on the fly).  It turned out to be associated with a hotel, so there was this massive buffet, but the cost was more than we wanted.   So, on to plan B.  This was Greenwood's which had atmosphere on a canal (the canals have names, but they are, duh, in Dutch so understanding them all is iffy -- though I get brouwerscanal [brewers canal], which we were told the breweries were all on originally).  Here's the food porn:

We had tickets (we thought) for the Van Gogh museum at 1245, so wondered how to kill the time.  We went looking for a hop on, hop off bus, a la Brussels.  The company didn't make it easy. 😡. After finding the spot on the map where it claimed the one stopped near Anne Franke House, we gave up on that one and RR said the next nearest one was 15 minutes.  You will notice that we have now walked the first X, then another Y to Greenwood's, another Z to the Anne Frank House, and, finally, the "15 minutes" to the last stop.  

We never saw a hop on/hop off bus.  In the end, I said we could try to take the tram that was right in front of us and I saw it went straight to the museum district -- it turns out right in front of the Van Gogh museum.  :) Brilliant move.  I even found out you could pay with a tap.  

A quick drink across the street (ok, I had a lemon muffin -- I didn't eat nearly all my eggs benedict and we'd walked a million miles) and...

Then to the Van Gogh Museum.  Not surprisingly after yesterday, the tickets didn't work.  The ticket taker took my phone, tried a bunch of things, then asked if she could make a phone call on it.  Clearly, she wanted to talk to her grammy in Botswana :). She spoke to someone for a bit in Dutch, gave numbers and my name, which she spelled out in Dutch (it really doesn't sound recognizable) and told me it was a problem with Viator and I had no real ticket.  So, I bought tickets and she let us in, though the sites claimed they didn't have tickets available for most of the day. 

We're in. 

I told RR when we finished that I had had about as much Van Gogh as I could take for about a decade; he kind of agreed, though he was quick to point out the brilliance of some of his work.  True that.  But I know I saw ten different self portraits (and a couple not self ones) of the man, and a lot of his early, not ready for prime time, work.  He had one really good year, and that year he was quite productive, but it wasn't massive.  

The building is huge, with three floors of displays.  I guess I should hit you with this one, one of the highlights (along with the one at the top that I put so it'd be the thumbnail for this blog entry)

Called Almond Blossoms, he painted it for the birth of his nephew, also named Vincent, and it maybe his last finished painting.  

The funny story of the day, maybe of the trip, took place after we were finished.  I went to the "toiletten" and, as I came out, I turned and about bumped into a guy coming around the corner. I took a step back; he took a step back!  I took a step forward; he took a step forward!!!  I looked up and it was me!!!! 🤦  They both thought this was terribly funny.

Home for rest and then out for Dutch food for dinner. It was interesting, though no one claimed it was anywhere near the best meal of the trip. 

This is the local dish called "bitterballen," which seems to be meat and cheese in a deep fried shell. 

This is Dutch stew, which is a chunk of roast on celery puree. It was good.

K had the steak, again on a puree. 

For what he said was maybe the 5th time on the trip, RR had the (Dutch) fish and chips; he said the best was still that from the food truck outside Edinburgh Castle two weeks ago.  

And for dessert -- their version of apple tart, which was excellent.  Yeah, rah. 

We took a walk home not the direct way on purpose :) and came across this graphic example of how Amsterdam got its rep as a place where a lot goes -- and we didn't miss it ALL! :)

K acted all magnamious last night and told us we could go to the red light district without her and RR and I passed. :). Not sure we'd live through it. 😂

And that, my friends, is that.  It's been fun, with lots of great times and lots of good food.  I hope you've enjoyed.  K and I have to get home to rest for the next two trips. :)

Until then, guten nicht.