VEGAS

As most of you know, Lorri and I spent most of last week in Las Vegas. I was attending the U.S. Psychiatric Congress which was held at The Venetian Hotel. It has been 18 years since we were last in Vegas (for another medical conference) and I anticipated some changes, but I was amazed at the transformation. The Venetian, Palazzo, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Paris, New York New York, Planet Hollywood, Wynn and others have been constructed since our last visit and Treasure Island and MGM were under construction. So, basically, half or more of "The Strip" has changed.  For the most part it was clean, bright and buzzing with energy.

Our accommodations at The Venetian were amazing and the weather was nice.

The conference sessions were informative, even if the sessions were large.

I went to sessions during the day and Lorri explored all the shopping options (of which there were many). I was grateful that she only bought two pairs of shoes, it could have been a lot worse. In the evenings, since we do not gamble, we decided to take advantage of the amazing entertainment options.

On Monday we went to see The Lion King at Mandalay Bay. We decided to walk from The Venetian to Mandalay Bay. You know how the passenger side mirror on your car says, "objects are closer than they appear" well that was true walking the strip. We thought it would would only take a few minutes to walk from one resort to another, because we could easily see the next resort on the horizon. However, we failed to realize how BIG these resorts are and how long it would take. What looked like a building that was one block away turned out to be 3-4 blocks away. That's because these resorts are 40 stories high! It took us 1 1/2 hours to walk from The Venetian to The Excalibur. Thank goodness there was a tram from The Excalibur to Mandalay Bay.

The show was wonderful. I was impressed by the costumes and the multifunctional stage. On the way back to The Venetian, we took the monorail; much easier on the feet.

On Tuesday, we took in the Phantom at the Venetian. The theatre was right next to the elevators that lead up to our hotel room, so the walk was much shorter. The Theatre was amazing. It was build especially for The Phantom and the inside was constructed to look like the interior of the Paris opera house. The sound system was incredible.

On Wednesday we saw Jersey Boys at the Palazzo. The Palazzo is right next to The Venetian, so again the walk was short. Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The music was great, although the language was a bit crude.

And on Thursday we topped off the week with The Beatles "LOVE" from Cirque du Soleil. This was playing across the street at The Mirage. It was performing in a theatre designed specially for the show. I read somewhere that the construction cost was 140 million dollars. This production was my favourite of the week. The music, choreography and acrobatics were outstanding. I definitely would recommend this to anyone.

Lorri would have liked to have seen Donny and Marie, but they were all sold out.

I guess we'll just have to go back...