Oh Fudge, I'm Forty! Vegas Trip - Day 4

[neilhd]

Day 4 - Wednesday 11th July

Oh dear. I'm now 40.

I woke up at 05:30 and examined myself in the mirror. I seem to have lost more hair, put on more pounds and become a lot more wrinkled. That might be because the last time I looked in a mirror was on my 30th birthday. Who knows.

I had spent some of the previous evening trying to decide about breakfast. I'd discounted the Grand Luxe as not special enough. The Bellagio Café was nice, but meant going out, so I looked for other places in the Venetian, and Bouchon seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It was in the Venezia Tower part of the hotel and we arrived there at 07:30.

As the name suggests, it is a French restaurant. It was very nice inside, and we got given a table by the window, looking out on the fountain.

Our server soon came over and we ordered coffee and OJ. The coffee was very nice. I decided on the American Breakfast, which came with a choice of pastry so I had an almond croissant. Ele had an omelette. The food was absolutely delicious and the service was great too. I can see why this place rates very highly. It made for a perfect birthday breakfast although it did set the bar very high, and now basically every other breakfast that I will have in my 40s is likely to be not as good. It came to $52 + tip.

Ele's breakfast:

Mine:

We went back to our room and Facetimed Joe so he could say happy birthday to me. We didn't actually really have much of a plan for today, so we decided to see a few more hotels. We left and headed over the Strip to the Mirage which was opposite. They have nice water features out the front.

The inside was also really nice.

We wandered around a little bit then went outside to see if the zoo bit was open, but it wasn't unfortunately.

Overall we really liked the Mirage. It felt fresh and clean and I'd consider it for a future stay for sure.

Next we headed into Treasure Island next door. This, frankly, was a bit of a dive. There were homeless guys sitting drinking on a bench outside (I imagine if they tried this at the Venetian or Bellagio they'd be swiftly moved on). It was about 10am by the way! We gave it a cursory inspection inside and soon moved on.

We walked as far as the Fashion Show Mall then crossed the road and went into the Wynn. The Wynn is very nice outside with this great waterfall:

We entered via the shops. Incidentally, is there really a demand for so many branches of Louis Vitton, Jimmy Choo etc? Every hotel that has a shopping mall has a branch. There's about 30 of them within a 3 mile radius. I never once saw anybody in any of them!

Anyway we went into the Wynn, looked around a bit and then headed out

The Wynn is also very nice and another strong contender for a future stay.

We headed back towards our hotel now, stopping in at the Walgreens that's actually part of the hotel as opposed to our normal one which isn't part of it, but closer to our room. This one as it turns out is actually a lot nicer! We bought a few bits and pieces - water, coke, crisps, snacks and then headed into the Palazzo to walk back through the shops to our room.

We walked over to Starbucks to get a Frappuccino but the queue was out the door so we went to another coffee place we'd walked past a couple of times. Turned out to be really delicious actually, and enormous!

We carried it back to our room for the main event of the day - the England Semi-Final! I had scoped out a few places to watch this before we left - the main contender being the awesome-looking sports bar in the Palazzo, but had subsequently found out that Fox were showing it and we could just watch it in our room so we did that. The chances of getting showered in beer were far lower that way.

Anyway… we all know that didn't go quite to plan in the end, despite a promising start. At least I made about £70 matched-betting on it. England qualifying for the final would've made a great 40th birthday present though!

After the game we went back out to the Fashion Show mall. We looked around a bit but as we were going outlet shopping tomorrow didn't want to buy too much. We ended up in the Macy's men's store and they actually had some great deals on. I bought some Tommy Hilfiger shorts and a shirt, some golf shorts from somewhere else and we got Joe some bits too. Some good bargains and had I felt more like it I might have got a bit more, but trying things on is a faff with a crutch and knee braces! Plus I knew we'd be outlet shopping anyway (although in the end I think I would have been better off getting more things from Macy's!).

We went back to our room at about 5pm and Ele fell asleep after a while. I really didn't want to wake her and she eventually work up at 7pm which was actually the time we were supposed to be at our restaurant reservation at Andiamo in The D hotel in Freemont street.

I wasn't feeling massively like going out either, but when she woke up she persuaded me to go, so we called the restaurant, told them we were "delayed" and would it be ok to get there at 8pm? They were fine with it so we got dressed and jumped in an Uber to Freemont street. Ele had had enough of making small talk with Uber drivers by this point!

First impressions of The D was it is really seedy. The lower ceilings, more prevalant smoke, and girls "dancing" on the tables (whilst looking really, really bored) made it seem a world away from the glitz and glamour of the posh hotels on the strip. Nevertheless we knew Andiamo was rated extremely highly so we went upstairs and found it. And sure enough, inside the restaurant was fantastic. A proper old-school Italian steakhouse, complete with white-jacketed waiters. It was very similar in look and feel to Lincoln Square Steak in NYC where we'd gone for Ele's 40th.

We were seated at a nice table and ordered some water and beer. We decided to forgo starters as we weren't starving (they bought over a huge basket of delicious bread anyway), and just ordered steaks. We both ordered fillet, with me ordering a slightly larger one then Ele, and also getting it cooked properly, unlike my "just cremate the thing" wife. For sides we had the Tuscan roast potatoes and mushrooms-and-onions. We asked about fries but our server said that'd be waaay too much. And she was right, the sides ended up being enormous. I also agreed to their Zip Sauce which is a buttery sauce they do, but asked for it on the side.

Whilst waiting they bought a small pasta plate over with some sort of ravioli. I remember the exact same thing happening in Lincoln Square Steak for Ele's 40th!

The steak was delicious. Perfectly cooked, tender, and very tasty. I can see why it rates so highly. I didn't like the sauce though, so asked if she could bring me some Béarnaise instead. This arrived within about 30 seconds and was much more to my liking.

Ele's in front and mine on the left:

They bought me over a complimentary crème brûlée dessert, but I didn't really eat much of it. I was too full and not a huge fan of that anyway.

The bill was $143 plus tip, and we tipped fairly generously as the service and food had both been outstanding. A strange hidden gem in an otherwise pretty rubbish hotel!

We left and walked out into Freemont street. Directly outside the hotel was a "dancing DJ" which seemed to be a girl who would queue up tracks on a laptop and then dance at the front of the stage for a bit, and then go and fiddle with the computer a bit more. I don't get that form of DJ-ing. I can also create playlists and hit go - not sure it's actually a talent. What I was sure of was the bass levels. Frankly I'm surprised the building wasn't actually starting to crack and crumble. It was ridiculous. Still, the younger people there seemed to enjoy it. I'm 40 now and too old for such nonsense. We walked down the street quickly, as I was worried it might shake my recently-fitted crown loose.

We saw further strange sites and people, and watched the lights on the ceiling (not the actual light-show though). Midway down was a band with actual instruments and some talent, and at the far end was another dancing DJ. I must say we didn't really like Freemont street at all. Too noisy, crowded and weird for me! We were glad to leave, and we called an Uber as we reached the end of the street, which arrived in about 20 seconds.

The Uber had the distinction of being an old battered Ford Focus and also with a manual transmission, which I think is the first time I've ever seen one in the USA. We were home and in bed by half past ten.

Tomorrow - I'm still 40.

[Tweety1]

I thought Freemont st was bizarre too

[Joosebug1987]

Another great day - Happy belated birthday for it! I enjoy Fremont but only for a short evening - we did find gambling a bit cheaper there though. Much prefer the strip.x

[WileyCoyote]

A great birthday mooching about more posh hotels, a spot of man shopping, footy (obligatory footy induced snooze for Ele ) and then an amazing steak dinner. Really, my husband says it’s a near perfect day ( England losing being the spoiler clearly).
Fremont street sounds a tad bizarre but I guess one of those “ need to see it to believe it”places.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

A great birthday mooching about more posh hotels, a spot of man shopping, footy (obligatory footy induced snooze for Ele ) and then an amazing steak dinner. Really, my husband says it’s a near perfect day ( England losing being the spoiler clearly).
Fremont street sounds a tad bizarre but I guess one of those “ need to see it to believe it”places.

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It was my Dad, of all people, who told us we had to go to Fremont Street!