What now?: Sin City Favorites

The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive happens in September and last year Dawn & I went and had a great time so this year we went again. This time I planned and extra day to turn it into a really weekend get away.

Aside from the Belly Dance related events ~ two shows and a few dance workshops ~ we found time to take in a few sights and sounds.... Here are some of my favs from the weekend

Pinball Museum

You could almost hear 'Pinball Wizard' playing in the background.

Who knew that there was a Pinball Museum in Las Vegas, heck who knew that there was such a thing as a pinball museum... The museum had about four rows of dozens of pinball machines side by side and back to back. Old (very old) and new pinball machines everywhere.

You could play them all, with the exception of a few that weren't working that day. The cost of the games ranged from 25 cents to 75 cents.

I really like the art on this Mata Hari game

Meat & Shopping
....is there a better combo?

One evening we went for an early dinner at Pampas Brazilian Grille in the Desert Passage Shopping Mall attached to the now Planet Hollywood but more about Planet Hollywood in a sec.

Pampas was a really great experience - we went for the full on *meat spectacular*.

Here is the restaurants wording about the menu:
Skewers laden with a seemingly endless array of roasted meats arrive at your table and are carved to order.
YUM!

& the best news of all is that Pampas is also in Palo Alto so I don't have to wait for my next trip to Vegas to enjoy skewered meat.

Desert Passage / Planet Hollywood
If you didn't know Plant Hollywood Hotel WAS The Aladdin Hotel. The Aladdin Hotel had a fun Middle Eastern-ish theme and so the Desert Passage shopping mall was decked out in similar fashion in it's decor. But now that Planet Hollywood has moved in the theme is more: "Ultra-Lounge Dripping with Crystals" than Aladdin's: "camels and flying carpets".

Here is a great 'chandelier' of crystals that kept changing colors...

This 'squid' shaped crystal edifice just needed to be photographed

Very little of the Lounge - Crystal motif has been moved into the Shopping mall but where is has it's oddly juxtaposed with some of the old Aladdin feel.

We called this the floating crystal intestine

*Note how the building on the left has the old style arches of the Aladdin look....

Vintage / Costume Shopping

Williams Costume Sales and Rentals has pretty much anything you might need to make a costume or rent one.

The wall just at the entrance had all these pictures

Lots and lots of feathers, boas, etc everywhere....

The Attic. You might remember The Attic from the Visa commercials... It's been quite a few years since I've been there and while they have a pretty big selection of rave/club wear they still have some proper vintage clothes. I'm sure that there is a high level need for colourful Animal Print shirts but that's just not my thing....

Yellow Brick Road

Last year I was introduced to the Las Vegas Band: Yellow Brick Road. They are a classic rock cover band that is really great! It you want to experience Queen, Led Zeplin, Pink Floyd, etc... check them out when you are in town.

There was a pretty funny moment when a woman went up to the lead singer and asked him if they would play a Killers song. He said that they are playing the killers, all the killer classic rock bands....

Prime Rib Heaven

Totally unplanned we decided to go to Lawry's Prime Rib for dinner. It was a really amazing experience... from the moment that you arrive and you turn your car over to the Valet and you walk in and check out the bar.

Inside the decor is Art Deco but properly done, not over the top like a restaurant that tries too hard. Mr. Khato was our server and he was a good looking man but we noticed that he was not actually on the menu.

Not only do they specialize in Prime Rib but they serve a 'famous' spinning bowl salad with their vintage dressing. The table side service was impressive and the salad was scrumptious.

The prime rib was the highlight of the meal. The delivery of the prime rib was a fantastic production. Again table side the 'cruise ship' of meat arrives with all available prime rib selections. Below is the chef that served our meat from the 'cruise ship'.