wanted to do was go to Vegas and play the slots. She used to take road trips with her girl friends back in the day but in the last decade they've gotten too old to make the trek. My Aunt Jan and Uncle Jim drove from San Diego to pick her up and we met in Las Vegas on Sunday the 19th. We got a really good deal on suites at the Wynn Encore.We checked into our fantastic hotel rooms - vary spacious rooms with huge, comfy beds, tile everywhere in the bath, and mechanically-opened curtains (it was a big hit with our group). Our course the first thing we did was watch Aunt Jan set up shop. This woman brings enough food for a small army to be fed for a month and we're only going to be here for 3 days. She has apples, grapes, bananas, yogurt, granola, chips, salsa, cream cheese, sodas... she was like Mary Poppins with her carpet bag. The goodies just kept coming.
Aunt Jan, Grandma, and me in the room... snacking
Uncle Jim and Dad...talking man stuff
After dinner we turned Grandma loose on the slots. She is one lucky lady. She keeps all the money she wins and that's what she gambles with the next time she goes. So she never loses any of her money, she plays with what she's won. And she ALWAYS wins.
The next day was devoted to laying out. All 6 of us spent some time at the pool. Everyone enjoyed doing a whole lot of relaxing. It was such nice weather - not too hot but still hot enough that you had to jump in the pool every 20 minutes or you'd die.
This is humor at 90
We ventured over to the outlet mall, for what purpose I don't know. No one bought anything, we just walked around maybe 2 stores and then left for another mall. It was really chaotic and random, I still have no idea why we were there. We had dinner at a very nice restaurant on the lower level of the Wynn... the name escapes me now, but it was really nice looking over a water fall and pool. Every half hour there was some sort of production - a giant frog singing "What a Wonderful World", a video projected on the waterfall, and other stuff. It was really neat.
The women in the little gardens in the Wynn after dinner
Tuesday was much the same except the older women folk went to the Palazzo to see how hot the slots were over there and check out the stores. After everyone had their morning to do as they wanted (my morning was entirely spent poolside), we drove over to the Venetian for our birthday festivities.
We had dinner at the Grand Lux which is basically the Cheesecake Factory without the cheesecake variety. We all had a lovely dinner and because it was so early we got right in. We all noticed that the Venetian was a mad house. Total chaos. They have 4 shows going every night - The Phantom of the Opera, Blue Man Group, Wayne Brady, and Jersey Boys. Grandma picked the Phantom of the Opera, I was secretly voting for Lion King, but it wasn't my birthday.
Uncle Jim, Grandma, Dad at the Grand Lux
Me, Aunt Jan, and Mom at the Grand Lux
The really neat thing about the show was the Venetian built a new theater for it - basically it's a replica of the Opera House in Paris that the story takes place in. The section the audience sits in is a normal theater house, but the stage and the sides are in the famous red velvet and gold, there were even mannequins sitting in the booths dressed in period attire.
Grandma at the show
Aunt Jan, me, Mom, and Grandma by the gondolas in the Venetian
It was a fantastic night, followed by cheesecake in the hotel room. On our way back we realized how lucky we were to be staying in the Encore. Definitely a different type of person stays there, the people weren't loud, obnoxious, or disorderly. It was rather quiet, everyone was dressed to the hilt, and it was well lit. Just a few hours in the Venetian reminded us all why we don't enjoy Vegas or go there often.
For being 90 years old, she gets around really well, her hearing isn't so hot and we have to repeat a lot but that's to be expected. She remembers names and dates better than my mom does (don't tell her I said that) and loves to dance. She really looks about 80 and acts like she's only 70. I think if her shoulder was in good shape she'd be out playing golf every day still and in her bowling league. She has men falling all over themselves to be with her in the little retirement home she's in. All in all, she doing really well for her age. Her mother lived to be 100 and I can easily see her passing that without a hitch.
