While in Las Vegas, we enjoyed a couple of great shows and some fine dining. Something one quickly realizes regarding food here: if it’s a venue in one of the major hotel-casinos, it won’t be inexpensive. Sure, there are still those spots near the strip that promise cheap steak-and-egg breakfasts all day and all-you-can-eat buffets. If you have a hankering for even a simple salad or a little snack and don’t want to leave your hotel, however, prepare to pay. Ah, well, I guess they’ve got to pay those water and electric bills somehow (but isn’t that what all those flashing machines are for?!).

We stayed at the Rio, which boasts “all suite” accomodations. I would define our room as not so much a suite as one large room with king bed, couch, small table with Internet connection that would have to serve as a work station (not handy for those convention-goers that do have to work while in Vegas) and TV atop the bar cabinet. Sorry, no coffeemaker, but a stunning view through the floor-to-ceiling window wall. Since the Rio is across I-15 from the Strip, the set-back allows a really great vantage from which to take in sights of the rest of the town and the mountains beyond. The bathroom/dressing area included a small ‘frig, sizable closet with safe, generous vanity area and a separate room with the commode, a second sink and tub/shower. I was delighted with this arrangement because it meant if one of us chose to get up earlier or retire later than the other, lights and noise wouldn’t disturb the sleepyhead. However, the design included a glass-block “window” over the shower which, with the bath light on, spilled a beam of light directly across the bed! So much for that advantage! (We solved the problem with a towel draped across the opening.) I was also a bit surprised at the dearth of bath products. We’ve all grown accustomed to those little bottles lined up on the vanity, along with shower caps, sewing kits, shoeshine cloths and the like. Because we didn’t want to check luggage, I had whittled down my “liquids” to a bare minimum and was counting on the hotel’s supplies. We got a small bar of hand soap, one small container of shampoo and one of body lotion — and only the soap was replenished (without a request) during our three-night stay.

We had a very nice (though I wouldn’t rate it “outstanding”) meal at the Rio’s Voodoo Steakhouse one evening, and enjoyed the great views from its 50th-floor location looking out towards the strip. We then took in Penn & Teller’s magic show in the hotel’s theater and spent the next two days periodically asking each other, “So, how do you think they did that with the cell phone?” “Where did that guy from the audience go?” They REALLY put on an extremely entertaining 90-minute show which I would highly recommend.

The next night took us to the Mandalay Bay, where we had one of the most outstanding meals of our lives at Charlie Palmer‘s Aureole restaurant. Food, presentation, service were all first-class; and the wine list is incredible. We enjoyed a price-fix four-course tasting menu made up of a number of “parallel” small plates, accompanied by some perfect wine selections suggested by the restaurant’s very knowledgeable and pleasant sommelier. Then it was off to a thoroughly delightful production of The Lion King. It seems everyone I know has seen the show; and they were all correct in their descriptions of the fantastic costumes, masks, puppets and dance. If you’re one of the few people on the planet who hasn’t yet seen the show, I would urge you to take the opportunity to do so.

 There is certainly a restaurant and a show in this town to meet any taste or preference, and the human theater on display along the strip is as entertaining as any paid-for performance. And sometimes you see something that just makes you laugh. We saw billboards everywhere picturing four young, clean-cut guys in neat suits looking a bit like the Four Seasons. No, this wasn’t an ad for Jersey Boys. The billing proclaimed “Australia’s Human Nature — the Ultimate Celebration of the Motown Sound.” It just struck us as rather incongruous: four white guys from Australia were presenting the “ultimate” celebration of Motown? Really!!? Only in Las Vegas!

— Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader