Las Vegas, Nevada: My bedside mobile phone rang before 6a. A phone call at that time usually means bad news. The caller ID informed me it was My Dad, so I answered. There was no emergency. Just My Dad wanting to be the first to wish his favorite eldest child a happy birthday. Can't be angry for that early wake up call. I don't suppose there are many people in their sixties who have this privilege. Hearing his voice was a great start to my birthday.
We had lunch with Kris and Steve before heading back to the Denver airport. We could have spent another night with them, but since they were attending a wedding tonight, decided to head for Las Vegas. Yep. A certain singer I love is playing at the MGM Grand Garden Arena this weekend.
Planning ahead, I actually brought along one of those Priority Mail packs and shipped my sweater, heavy slacks and jacket back to myself in Portland. Won't need them where I am going next, and that puffy jacket took up half my case.
Let the second stage of the Big Birthday Weekend begin.
My day had a happy surprise when I saw the WGA during the safety instructional video onboard the plane from Denver to Las Vegas. The video featured many US Olympic athletes.
Ashton Eaton giving the thumbs-up to safetyI had another wonderful surprise after landing and opening my phone messages to find a video of Lucy singing Happy Birthday, Bubbe... Happy Birthday, Bubbe... Happy Birthday Lucy, Happy Birthday to me.
After checking into our hotel and having a good rest, we took a taxi to the Encore Hotel (one of the Wynn properties) for My Birthday Dinner at Sinatra. If you recall, this is the restaurant Lisa and Lenny treated us to four years ago for my birthday... the meal where the kids had a birthday card delivered to our table, and they had arranged for payment (including tip!), champagne, and there were no prices on the menu? It's all-fancy-like, Italian, they only play Frank Sinatra music and they have the best Veal Milanese I have ever had in America. So I ordered it again.
How is is even possible to pound a chop so thin? I ate over half!After dinner, we played at the blackjack tables for a bit. No one lost, but no one won, so we decided to go back to our hotel and get some rest for tomorrow. I did snap a few photos of the beautiful Encore hotel because there is just so much art, artistic touches, glitz and gaudy in Las Vegas.
This vase (?) was filled with hundreds of orchids. It was absolutely stunning. They were real. We checked.Until my next update, I remain, your "another trip around the sun" correspondent.