Yes, another trip to Vegas. This time mid-June with good friends John and Kathy Casey. Even bigger Vegas hounds than us, they have far more wee-hours stamina than I do, though one night I did manage to stay up until 2:30 am (woo-hoo) or so, thanks to a particularly fun run on a machine.
Lazy of me, I know, but have a look at this link to Kathy’s blog post about our trip, particularly our dinner at the delicious time-warp of a restaurant, Hugo’s Cellar, in downtown Vegas at the Four Queens Casino. Old school, one hundred percent of the way. (I swear, is that not Kevin Bacon serving up the salad on their web homepage?) It was a second visit for Bob and me, I prepared Kathy best I could but she was still blown away by the degree of the time warp effect!
Actually, I guess time warp was a theme of the weekend, having gone to hear Elton John and Bette Midler LIVE at Caesar’s Palace — both of which pulled out the stops on old-time favorites that make us feel like teenagers again.
Maybe that’s the whole thing about Vegas. It’s always some sort of out-of-body experience, whether it’s a trip back in time, a multi-sensory distraction from daily concerns, a chance to role-play as a high roller or starlet gad-about. Shallow? Commercial? Fake? Over-the-top? Yeah, Baby. In small doses, and only in Vegas, it somehow does us good. And it’s easy (perhaps even easier) then to feel grounded, responsible and real once we get home.
Next trip’s already planned! We’re each in a video poker tournament mid-August. More news surely to follow from that trip as well.
