2nd Anniversary Trip- Serendipity, Donkey and Jubilee

Two celebrity chef restaurants in a row? Why not? On Monday, we slept-in and ate brunch at Caesar's Palace in Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill. It was burgers and fries ( I mean chips) for both of us. This is definitely the place for a fancy, high quality burger. The decor is fun too, a low-rent Timothy Oulton.

I had been dropping hints all weekend that I wanted a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3. I've made the home version from a packet mix many times, but I had never actually drank one at the restaurant. We go to Vegas all of the time, but this experience had been eluding me, until now! Stars aligned, we shared one of their signature drinks at the outdoor bar.

We demolished it in five minutes. Heaven.

A cute picture outside of Caesar's Palace.

We went to Red Rock Canyon in search of wild burro. It was very, very windy.

We found one burro. He was our friend, until he realized that we didn't have food for him.

In the evening, we cleaned up for our big anniversary night out.

It started with Jubilee, Bally's long-running, old-style Vegas topless revue show. That was a mouthful! Here are a few pictures that we took the day before.

I have no idea what I expected the show to be, as any expectations were immediately erased by the experience of Jubilee. We got prime seats, right in center, in the second row of tables. This was far too close. Jubilee is a grand spectacle and needs to be viewed from a bit of a distance. There was just no way to take it all in up-close. The theater is small, so even the back row would feel close to the action.

Jubilee has an identity crisis. One moment, there are singers doing jazz standards, the next dancers doing a Samson and Delilah sketch, then all of a sudden, they are on the Titanic as they crash into the iceberg, there's a bit of tap-dancing, some guys doing the robot, boobs, feathers, sequins, et...Nothing is cohesive. Sometimes it's serious, like a segment with beautiful ballet dancing, but most of the time it's just corny.

The show is awesomely-bad. I was shaking from trying to contain my giggles. It's completely ridiculous. Christopher Guest is in on this, I'm certain. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't talent or enthusiasm on the stage. All of the performers were very talented, I just had to think that Jubilee is where their dreams went to die. It's so bad.

The other amazing aspect of the show was the clear tension between the two lead female singers. When each was individually in the spotlight, they shone, but the minute it was the other's turn, the one that was in partial shadows shot daggers at the one performing. They seemed to try to "out-sing" each other. This competitive/hate had nothing to do with their characters or a theme of the show. It was utterly compelling. When we walked out of the theatre, Dan had noticed it too, and said that they need to make a behind the scenes reality show of the Jubilee cast. Brilliant.

We splurged for dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. This restaurant has the best views of the strip. Giada pales in comparison. We were given a table for two by the window. Here was our view. Spectacular.

We went with the tasting menu, which included bison, lobster, and foie gras. Delicious, but so filling that we barely made it to the dessert. Dan even did the wine pairing and cheese course.

Our server, who was the absolute best, even brought us a bonus dessert.

Our second anniversary vacation was a success!

Las Vegas March 2015- Zumanity

On our March trip to Las Vegas, our first stop was a Tix-4-Tonight booth, where we were able to pick up some heavily discounted ticket to Cirque Du Soleil's Zumanity.

Zumanity has been running at the New York- New York Casino for ten years and although it was easy to find discounted tickets, the theatre was extremely, if not completely full. I don't think that the popularity is waning and the crowd reaction was very favorable.

Zumanity is Cirque Du Soleil's "sensual" and "sexy" show. It's eighteen plus, has a fair bit of nudity and a ton of sex related jokes. It's not for prudes, however nothing was too extreme or even gratuitous. I think that most people can handle it, if they go into the show with an open mind and good sense of humor.

The posters are almost more risqué than the actual show.

In the lobby, there was a heart shaped bed with red satin sheets. Valentine's Day sexy!

The red theme continues into the theatre. Here is a picture of us with the stage in the background taken after the show.

Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of the Cirque Du Soleil productions. This is my fifth one ( I've also seen O, KA, Believe and Love). Of those, I thought O was dreadful and Love was outstanding, with the other two falling somewhere in the middle. Zumanity moves into my #2 spot, just because it was a lot of fun and different. The sets and costumes are less fancy and it isn't as "showy" as the other Cirque productions, but what it lacks in spectacle, it makes up for in entertainment value.

You must arrive for the preshow. A big reason that I disliked O was the clowns and the sense humor. Zumanity has a much less subtle sense of humor, relying more on dialogue and improvisation with audience members, than it does on physical comedy, like O. This appeals to me. Several characters wander in the audience, including two busty twins passing out chocolate covered strawberries and a horny couple cruising unsuspecting ticket holders. If you're in the front section, there is a fair chance you might be forced to interact. This is not limited to the preshow.

The master of ceremonies is a drag queen who calls herself the Mistress of Sensuality. She invites the audience to keep an open mind as the show proceeds with a series of acts. Some have a semi-story, like an aerial act of a woman who dreams of a man other than her husband. There is a beautifully choreographed scene with two naked women diving and swimming in an oversized fishbowl. The most memorable and impressive was a male contortionist. He was amazing. He could bend his body in the most impossible way and then just as everyone in the audience is cringing, he would give a big grin to assure us that he was okay.

Zumanity was a surprise. I was not expecting it to be so darn fun. It's creative, hilarious and filled with unexpected moments. It's a worthy addition to your next Las Vegas vacation.

Las Vegas Christmas 2014 - Gordie Brown

When we checked-in at the Golden Nugget, we noticed tons of advertisements for Gordie Brown, an impressionist and singer, who is the hotel's headline performer. We didn't have plans for Christmas Day and Brown was performing with tickets still available, so we decided to go for it.

This is the best deal that we have ever had in Vegas. The tickets, a drink at the show and a buffet dinner, were $34.99 each. We were even given the best seats at the show and we were able to use the buffet passes for the special Christmas champagne dinner. The buffet was actually pretty good and we were made to think that it had special holiday offerings that were not normally available. Our server was very liberal with pouring the bubbly!

We ate in the afternoon, hours before the evening performance. Each table at the buffet had a Gordie Brown placemat. The advertising for the show is impossible to escape.

We picked tickets for the early show and we made our way to The Gordie Brown Showroom, about half an hour prior to the start, so that we would have enough time to enjoy our drink before the show. The drinks here are strong and large, another way that they exceeded my expectations based on the low cost.

We were not seated in the front row. However, I think that we had the best seats in the house. We were in the exact center of the front row of the back section. The theatre is fairly small and this meant that we were approximately eight rows back, but that we had the aisle in front of us, so we had that extra leg room.

The set is simple, just Brown and his band on a blank stage. Brown does a few things with props, like a hat, but mostly, it's just him. The ninety-odd minute show is a mix of his impressions ( often done with singing) and him telling jokes. Admittedly, the jokes are hit and miss. Some of them were corny and some were in poor taste. By poor taste, I mean that he brought up stuff like the Bill Cosby scandal. The audience actually groaned with the Cosby joke, no laughs. A lot of the jokes were very modern, TMZ/Celebrity gossip, that went over the heads of many of the mostly older audience members. We are middle-aged and we were definitely among the youngest audience members. I did laugh a few times, but not as much as I should have for the effort that he was putting forth.

The jokes were really an unnecessary part of the show and unfortunately, they undermined Brown's talent. Seriously, this guy is very talented. His impressions were spot on and not only that, he has a fantastic singing voice. I was genuinely wowed by his talent. I think if he kept the show classy and skipped a majority of the jokes, the show would be first-rate. Outside of the realm of this particular show, I'd definitely pay to see him sing in a band with original music. If he isn't already, he should be pursuing a singing career. I left the show thinking that Brown is better than this show allows him to be.

That said, with the buffet/show package, the price is a steal and definitely worth doing if you're looking for shows in Las Vegas.