You Say It's Your Birthday.......

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Troubadour has a milestone birthday approaching on Saturday January 23rd. He will be the big 4-0. Yes 40. We pondered on how we should celebrate. Neither one of us are big into birthdays so a huge party was out of the question, but we thought it was a good excuse to take a weekend jaunt to somewhere we've never been. We decided on Las Vegas.

Where else should one go to party and celebrate the big day? Not too far from home but still a good distance for a 3-day weekend. We started looking for deals on the internet back in mid November and tried to stop by a few local travel agencies too see what they could do for us. Two that we tried were not open on weekends so the Friday after Thanksgiving we stopped by AAA to see what kind of packages they could come up with. Unfortunately after we stopped by they never did give us a call or email back so we decided to be our own travel planners.

We found a great deal on flights from Alaska Air and then Rick suggested using priceline.com to find a hotel. (Thank you Rick) Priceline did not like our first or second bid, but they did come back and say they could get us into a 5-star hotel for under $100 a night on the strip. We said, sure why not, and took a chance. We managed to score a suite at the Trump Hotel across from the Fashion Show Mall. At first, we didn't know how we felt about that until we started doing a little research. It is 100% non-smoking, is tailored to couples, has no casino, every room has a king size bed and a mini kitchen as well as a full marble bath with a two person jetted tub. Did I mention there is a 14" television built into the mirror across from the jacuzzi tub? If we get bored of the sights of Vegas we'll at least be able to retire to the hotel and relax in comfort. "Oh, room service."

I called the hotel earlier this week to confirm and let them know we will be there for a 40th birthday and that this was our first trip to Vegas. The woman on the phone was extremely helpful and said she left a message in their computer system that said if they were not booked up to please give us a complimentary upgrade to a suite on the highest floor possible and a strip view. That was certainly nice of her.

We then thought "we can't go to Vegas and not see a show." I asked Troubadour what show he might like to see and we came up with a few ideas. Maybe Zumanity, or O, or even The Lion King or Blue Man Group. I asked Troubadour to pick one since it is his birthday I wanted him to choose. He decided on LOVE - the Cirque Du Soleil set to Beatles music. All of the audio clips and music in the show are from actual recordings from the Beatles' Abbey Road studio. Reviews say "The show is a slightly psychedelic journey through the trends and politics of the '60s and most importantly, The Beatles' history, told through nearly 30 of the group's songs", so it should be amazing.

Needless to say we are hoping for multiple photo opportunities and are taking more than one camera. I am sure we'll see lots of blog fodder. Since we've never been to Vegas if anyone has a few pointers of places to visit while there, we welcome ideas from the peanut gallery, but please, no Elvis. Viva Las Vegas.....

-Au Revoir

"In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number."~ Steven Wright

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