Well - as I said at the end of the trip rundown - there aren't too many. They're also mostly of our hotel suite because it was so hilarious - but here they are (and this one is worth the price of admission):
(just click on the photo above or cut & paste the link below into a browser to visit the slide show)
http://flickr.com/photos/slivken/sets/72157601420487142/show/
Hey friends, boy did I have a good time in Las Vegas this past weekend. It was F-U-N! It started off kind of rocky, but everything worked out fine and I had a blast.
Here's the rundown of the trip:
Thursday
My American Airlines flight leaving LaGuardia was almost 2 hours late because of poor ground traffic control (according to the pilot) so I missed my connection in Chicago, which would have gotten me in to Las Vegas around 4:30pm, by about 20 minutes. American Airlines couldn't get me on another direct flight from Chicago to Las Vegas so they put me on a 5:00pm flight to Dallas to make a 10:30pm connection which would get me in to Vegas around 11:15pm (thanks a lot.) American Airlines also forget to tell me that there was a possible connection at 8:00pm in Dallas that I could have made, but since they didn't put me on that flight or on the standby list, I stood at that gate and watched the agent hand out seats to the first 8 standby passengers - I was #9 - before heading to another terminal to wait for the 10:30 flight (thanks even more.) Needless to say, despite several meals at McDonalds throughout the day I was cranky. Oh, and the funniest part was that when I arrived in Las Vegas, I was steps away from leaving the airport when alarms started going off and I was forced to stand behind security doors with dozens of other passengers while security officers investigated a supposed "breach." Finally, I got out of the airport, into a cab, and arrived at Bally's! Hooray! And, what was really exciting was that Tom ended up with a suite because the hotel didn't have a non-smoking room to give him. It was tacky but awesome. It had a bar, several seating areas, an awesome view, a jacuzzi bathtub in the middle of the bedroom and a steam-room / walk-in-shower with two entrances. Ooh la la!
Friday
Tom & I had breakfast at the Le Village buffet in the Paris. It was great. We then took the monorail down to Harrah's and did our own little Casino tour. We walked down the strip to the Wynn, stopping in the Venetian along the way. We then crossed the street and made our way back through Treasure Island, the Mirage and Caesar's Palace. Oh, did I mention that it was 104-105 degrees? It was hot! We went back to Bally's and rested for a bit before Tom had to head off to work (he was attending a convention.) I made my way through the Paris and over to Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin) where I got some lunch at their buffet. YUM! After eating I rested some more before taking a walk to the Flamingo and then to O'Sheas where I learned to play Pai Gow poker. I definitely had beginner's luck and, because of it, a lot of fun. By that point it was time to meet up with Tom. We had a quick drink before going to see Ms. Toni Braxton's show at the Flamingo. I thought it was a lot of fun - she looked and sounded great. Back at Bally's we met up with one of Tom's co-workers and had drinks before turning in for the night.
Saturday
Neither Tom nor I could imagine doing another buffet for breakfast (it's true!) so we had a quick bite to eat before starting our daily adventures. We decided to head down to the LV Hilton to do the Star Trek Experience. As luck would have it (and I'm not being sarcastic,) this was the weekend of the big Star Trek convention at the hotel - so we knew that we'd be seeing some major trekkies/trekkers. We weren't disappointed. We saw some great costumes & the "Experience" really was a ton of fun. We followed that excitement with a buffet lunch at the Wynn (which was another great experience!) After lunch, we went to see the old-school-stylings of the Sahara and rode their roller-coaster, "Speed." It was really exciting. From there we headed back towards the central strip area and visited the Imperial Palace. Regardless of its drab exterior, it turned out to be the most fun casino we visited. There was one area where the dealers were all celebrity impersonators and took turns performing up on a little stage. Tom & I played Pai Gow Poker while watching Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin & Wayne Newton sing - whee! Eventually we headed back to Bally's for a little rest and then went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Mystere. It was the first time I'd ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show and it was amazing! Finally, it was back to the hotel for good - we were wiped out.
Sunday
In almost complete opposition to my trip to Las Vegas, my trip from Las Vegas couldn't have been nicer or easier. Thanks to Tom, we both got First Class upgrades the whole way and made it back to NYC right on schedule. The dogs were thrilled to see us & we spent a mellow night at home watching a bunch of shows that had been recorded while we were gone.
I didn't take a lot of pictures on the trip - but I'll get some fun shots up later this evening!
I did a REAL New York thing this weekend and went out to the Hamptons for some luxurious relaxing with friends. It was a lovely time and I especially want to thank Jim, our host, for inviting not only me & Tom, but the dogs as well!
Highlights include watching the dogs run around the backyard, seeing the Perseid meteor shower, spending time with some really wonderful people, and... of course... the eating!
Here's a rundown of the meals:
Friday night
We arrived around 9:30 and the guys had lobster rolls, salad, corn on the cob and a bottle of wine waiting for us all! (How great is that - come on!)
Saturday morning
We had a couple snack sessions. First, some lox & cream cheese on toasted bread. Second, I made myself a plate of fridge leftovers: chicken salad & lobster salad - yum!
Saturday afternoon
Rotisserie chicken (from the I.G.A.), pasta salad & a green salad. So good.
Saturday night
This was the big meal - the lobster boil! We did whole lobsters for everyone, corn on the cob, a green salad & garlic bread (plus wine & other drinks, of course). It was awesome - you can see some prep pictures in the slide-show I put together below.
Sunday morning
Tom made scrambled eggs & cooked up some prosciutto while Colleen went shopping with a friend and picked up some bagels, cream cheeses, muffins & fruits. It was all perfect.
Sadly, it all had to end, but I put together a slide-show (sans comments this time) to help keep the memories - enjoy!
(just click on the photo above or cut & paste the link below into a browser to visit the slide show)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99863484@N00/sets/72157601251147042/show/with/1027180931/
So, the past few weeks (since I got back from Russia) have been hectic. As such, I've done nothing on the blog and sincerely apologize to everyone who actually humors me enough to check in from time to time. Here goes a quick recap of June highlights...
Best restaurant meals:
Craftsteak (15th St. and 10th Ave)
Tom surprised me with a visit here as a way to prepare for the new season of Top Chef which is judged by the restaurant's head chef Tom Colichio. We started with oysters and I had one of the New York Strip selections. The meat was incredible.
Blue Ribbon Brooklyn (5th Ave & 1st St)
One of my favorite restaurants, we went out to celebrate "just because" with a bunch of friends one night. I had one of the Paella's for the first time - and it ROCKED!
Landmarc TWC (Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle)
This was a 5th grade graduation dinner for my cousin - so not only did I get good food, I had a great time hanging out with my family. The mussels were a big hit as an appetizer, and my grilled skirt steak salad was great.
Fun & activities:
Cousin Lindsay's wedding
A quick flight up to Rochester was all it took to have a really fun weekend with my family. Seeing everyone was great & the wedding was beautiful.
Xanadu - the Musical
A MUST SEE for anyone who has a sense of humor and/or likes ELO and/or likes roller-skating. It was just funny & fun. The post-show banana-split and cheesecake at Junior's didn't hurt making the night one to remember either.
The Mermaid Parade
Tom and hosted a Saturday brunch before dragging a bunch of our friends out to Coney Island for the mermaid parade (click on the picture below to see the slideshow I put together.) It was great and the mini-Wii competition afterwards was lots of fun.
Well, it's not much but it's a start to getting back on track. I figure that this past weekend's HIGH SCHOOL REUNION (!!) deserves it's own post, so I'll make that a goal for this evening.
I didn't really keep very good notes on the trip as far as my meals, but breakfast should be pretty easy to summarize. Both hotels we stayed in (Hotel Dostoevsky in St. Petersburg & the Mezhdunarodnaya Hotel in Moscow) served buffets with a lot of the same things:
assorted breads (croissants, rolls)
assorted pastry (cheese danish, strudels)
pancakes (blinis)
smoked salmon
whitefish
various coldcuts
cheese
scrambled eggs
porridge
"omelette"
fruit juices
coffee
The Hotel D. also served bbq chicken wings & mini cheeseburgers on their buffet (??) while the Mezh offered an extended selection of pasta, seafood, and other questionable mayonnaise based salads. Both hotels served their scrambled eggs extra runny & oddly orange. Oh, and I put omelette in quotes because what both hotels were serving looked a lot more like flan than what I would expect an omelette to look like (the portions were cubes), and neither Tom or I actually tried it.
At the beginning of the trip, I tried most of the offerings, but by the last day I was pretty much at the following:
croissant
cheese
coffee
All in all, the breakfasts were fine but just average.
More details to come, but for now:
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Well, not quite - but close! Only another 15 minutes until we head to the airport for our Russian holiday to St. Petersburg & Moscow! Hopefully I'll be able to post some of my adventures while I'm there, but I'll definitely have some exciting stories & fun pictures to share when I'm back.
Happy Memorial Day!
My nephew Jack showed me how well he could swim while we were in Memphis - check him out (and don't miss my niece Annie's cameo splash at the end)!
* GERMANTOWN COMMISSARY *
(snack 4/20; Germantown Rd, Germantown, TN)
bbq nachos
Holy ****! Who knew that tortilla chips topped with pulled pork, bbq sauce & melted cheese would taste so outrageously delicious?
* NAPA CAFE *
(dinner 4/20; Sanderlin Rd, Memphis)
cheese-stuffed mushroom appetizer
goat cheese & pine nut salad
molasses brined chicken
buttermilk pie
wine
Although I was very full from all my bbq eatin' this afternoon - I managed to clean my plate. Part of the reason may have been because it took about 3 hours for the food to come, but it was good & I was at a very fun table, so I had a good time. One thing to note: the buttermilk pie was basically cheese cake - not as exciting as it sounded like it would be. Tom says that he has a better recipe, so I am anxious to try!
* CAL'S CHAMPIONSHIP STEAKHOUSE *
(breakfast 4/21; Sanderlin Rd, Memphis)
breakfast buffet (coffee, bacon, eggs, potatoes, biscuits & gravy)
This was the hotel restaurant. Decent, but not fantastic breakfast buffet.
* A&R BAR-B-QUE *
(lunch 4/21; Elvis Presley Blvd, Memphis)
bbq turkey sandwich
seasoned fries
diet pepsi
The bbq tasting continues! Another great meal (which we could have predicted based on what seemed like a very local customer crowd.)
* GRAND BALLROOM DOUBLETREE EAST MEMPHIS *
(dinner 4/21; Sanderlin Rd, Memphis)
salad
soup
chicken
rice
salmon
wedding cake
wine
My cousin's wedding reception was really fun. The food was good I had a great time dancing (although watching my 3-year-old niece and nephew dance was the most fun!)
* CAL'S CHAMPIONSHIP STEAKHOUSE *
(breakfast 4/22; Sanderlin Rd, Memphis)
breakfast buffet (coffee, bacon, eggs, potatoes, biscuits & gravy)
Another breakfast buffet morning - this time almost the whole family joined us.
* BACKYARD BURGER *
(lunch 4/22; The Memphis Zoo)
cheeseburger
chili-cheese fries
diet-pepsi
I was not overly thrilled with the burger, but everyone else liked them. The fries were good, but definitely not good for me! We sat next to a window that looked out at some monkeys - it was very funny.
* ENDRI'S *
(dinner 4/22; Brooklyn)
sausage, mushroom, olive pizza
side salad
bourbon
Back at home, Tom & I ordered in so we could catch up on all our stories we missed over the weekend.
* TOM'S *
(breakfast 4/23)
leftover pizza
I don't have to explain how good leftover pizza is again, do I?
* SEATTLE CAFE *
(lunch 4/23; 33rd St btwn 7th & 8th Aves)
grilled chicken/spinach salad
No surprise here. After another weekend of crazy eating, I need to take it down a notch or 2 (or several.)
* IRON WORKS BBQ *
(100 Red River, Austin TX)
the sampler plate (BBQ beef ribs, brisket & sausage w/baked beans, pickles, bread, onion, & potato salad)
side of fries
diet coke
There really was just no other proper way to start off my trip than to get a big plate of Texas bbq. Especially after this morning's pitiful breakfast. The meats were delicious. I didn't eat the potato salad since I got the fries, but it came with the plate. Also, the beans were kind of... blah. At some point a photo of the meal should show up on the blog, but there seems to be some technical problem, so I'll try later.
* JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT / JET BLUE FLIGHT 1061 *
(Queens, NY / Somewhere over Kentucky probably)
mixed nuts (JFK)
"munchies" aka doritos, cheetos, sun chips mix (JET BLUE)
coffee (both)
I didn't realize that I would be flying out of the white trash trailer temporary terminal with no real food this morning. If I had, I would have taken advantage of the lovely food court in the main Jet Blue terminal waiting area before getting on the shuttle bus to gates 18-24.
It's SXSW (South by Southwest) time & I'm heading to Austin tomorrow! I've never been there and I'm really looking forward to the trip - both because of the event and just to see Austin in general.
For anyone who isn't familiar, SXSW is basically like the Sundance Film Festival for the music industry. For 4 days & nights, hundreds of bands from over 30 countries will be performing at over 50 venues around the downtown area. It should be fun, crazy and exhausting. I will be posting from the road - so stay tuned!
Oh yeah, and if anyone lives in or has been to Austin, let me know if there are any places I have to eat!
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Well it has finally happened - I've cut down the combined photos Tom & I took about as much as I can and have posted them. I've added some remarkably witty commentary for about half... but after awhile I ran out of things to say about penguins and ice. Enjoy!
