Curly Grace

Celine Dion concert at last

This past weekend I went to Las Vegas with Mom and Aaron. This trip was my best visit to Vegas ever.

We left Irvine around 2 o'clock on Friday in our rental Pontiac and headed toward the toll roads, 261 north and 241 north. The toll roads were pleasant and the fare wasn't so bad. Richard Clayderman's piano blended pretty well with the scenery. However, traffic was jammed on the 91 freeway east bound. We followed this "weed truck" for a while and thought that the traffic would die down when we hit the 15. But no, it was also bumper to bumper on the 15! And we passed by an accident scene where a truck turned over and caught on fire. I hope no one was hurt too badly. After we drove through Needles, the roads finally became smooth again. We found a strange road before Baker named Zzyzx. Who would have come up with a name like that and what was on that road? Who knows, but I had decided to snap a shot on the way back so I can do some research later.

We stopped in Baker for a break. In Baker stood the world largest thermometer, and the temperature it reported at the time was 109 degrees. Gosh it was hot! We got out of the car and ran into an air-conditioned restaurant called Mad Greek, which had many advertisement boards along the 15. Their marketing strategy really worked! Aaron ordered a big gyro since he hadn't had lunch yet. Since I got my allergy a few months ago, I would not eat gyros again. But man, it looked delicious! After Aaron finished eating, we were back on the road again.

The remaining drive to Vegas wasn't so bad. We arrived in Rio, where we stayed, just before 8 o'clock. I liked Rio. When we went to Vegas with tour groups, they always put us in cheap hotels like Riviera. Rio had more spacious rooms and much cleaner. After a 10-minute break, we started our fun times in Vegas. We drove to China Town for dinner. Everywhere you go, there is 99 Ranch Market. Everywhere you go, there is Sam Woo. 99 Ranch Market in Vegas was much smaller than the ones in Irvine. It was rather run-down looking and not very popular. Sam Woo, however, was pretty crowded. We found this Chinese restaurant called Flowers and Fruits Mountain (花果山) , named after the famous wild residence of Monkey King. Their food was delicious, better than the ones in Irvine. One of these I'll go back there again to try their other dishes.

After dinner, we headed back to the strip. We went to Bally's and took some photos in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. There were models all over the place. Apparently they were here for the Model Search America audition. Then we walked across the skywalk to Bellagio, where they had the water show every 20 minutes. The show we saw was, ironically, My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. Yes, Celine, I can't get enough of her! The fountains were beautiful and I took a lot of pictures of the show. After that we went to Venetian for a walk. The gondolas at Venetian looked pretty cool. The gondola captain was singing love songs, but I thought it was kind of embarrassing for the people sitting in the boat as onlookers kept staring at them. I still liked the Newport Beach gondola ride better. After the visit at the Venetian, we went back to the hotel for some rest.

On Saturday, we left our rooms at 10 o'clock and went to Paris. We went all the way up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which was really cool. The sky view was great. We could see the entire city and it was just magnificent. Luckily there was a water show at the Bellagio. I was able to take pictures of the show from above. Then we had lunch in Paris at a crepes place. Yummy crepes actually filled up my tummy. We ordered one with shrimp and one with berries, and both were unforgettable. After lunch, we headed over to Aladdin. Aladdin was much less crowded than the other casinos. We window shopped there and found the French Connection UK store. The sign said FCUK but I really thought the guy who did the sign mispelled it. We tried our luck there at the slot machines. Gambling is not my thing but it was still cool to play just for the fun. After that we went back to the hotel for a short rest.

Once we restored our energy, we were on our way to Caesars Palace. Although the other casinos had the sky imitation ceilings as well, I really liked the one in Caesars Palace. The entire building was better done and looked more elegant. We dined in at a Japanese restaurant and window shopped again, then we were ready for Celine. They spent 95 million dollars building the Colosseum and the theater was absolutely amazing. It had a high definition backdrop projection screen that could extend the depth of the stage conceptually to infinity. Before the show began, the camera man would zoom in on someone in the audience. Some of them were pretty funny. There was this old guy who sat in his seat with a straight face. The camera man zoomed in even more on his face, and he still had that straight face. Then the camera man started to zoom in and out of his face quickly, which created the flash news effect. He still kept his straight face. Finally the camera man gave up on him. Everyone was cracking up. Then music started playing and there she was, Celine Dion, walking down the stairs on the stage in a black gown started singing with her angelic voice. She was so good. I thought those long high notes she did in the CDs were digitally modified, but no, she could do even better in a live performance. I thought she sounded better live than recorded. And she was a very energetic and funny person. I still don't know how she can jump around the stage and hitting those tough notes at the same time. It was amazing. The show lasted an hour and half, which was short. I can never get enough of Celine. I actually knew most of the songs in the concert. Here is the song list from memory: A New Day, It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Because You Loved Me, The Power of Love, To Love You More, I'm Alive, Seduce Me, Love Can Move Mountain, If I Could, All The Way (with Frank Sinatra), I've Got The World On A String (Frank Sinatra), an Italian song that I didn't know, Je T'aime Encore, I Drove All Night, My Heart Will Go On.

After the concert, we were so tired, but happy. We went back to the hotel and slept. Sunday morning, we checked out and went to Gold Coast for some gambling and buffet. It was the first time I sat down at a table, blackjack of course, and I doubled my bet. It was lunch money there. So we ate at their buffet, which was pretty good value. When our tummies were satisfied, we played slot machines for our last chance to get rich in Vegas. I played on $1 for 2 hours, which was really fun. I didn't know it could have lasted so long. The highest gain I reached on that $1 was $5, so I was happy.

We left Vegas in the afternoon and the traffic was really really bad. Basically we were stuck in the desert for 3 hours. I'd never want to live in Vegas because I really hated the weather there. But on the bright side, I was able to snap a shot of the Zzyzx road. When I got home I did some research. Apparently there used to be a free resort there and the owner made a bunch of health food using the water from the Soda Spring. After 30 years of operation, the government decided to evict him for running business on land that he didn't own. He was in jail for several months and retired to Las Vegas and died there in 1986. It was quite an interesting story. Maybe next time I'll go there to check out the Soda Spring and the dry lake bed there. Someone posted pictures of that place and it was astoundingly beautiful.

So that was my Vegas trip.

Labels: adventure, celine dion, concert, las vegas

posted by Grace at 10:44 AM