My 3rd birthday with Alice

The Las Vegas celebration is my 3rd birthday with Alice. I will include photos from my first two birthdays here

My first year with Alice we went to the Capital Grill in Boca Raton

Year 2 we went golfing and also went to Capital Grill with Ryan

Tom and Ryan at Palm Beach Par 3

Always a great time with Ailce

Year 3 with Alice — Sin city (vegas baby) - the rest of this blog!

Flight from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas

Unfortunately we could not find a NON stop flight from any of our airports to Las Vegas. The actual time from boarding our first plane in Lauderdale to exiting our plane in Vegas, we could have almost flown to Europe ha ha. I think the last time I was in Las Vegas was at least 20 years ago.

Alice pre booked 2 Vegas shows as well as an all day trip to the Upper Antelope Canyon in Arizona as well as the Grand Canyon prior to our flight.

Day trip cancelled

We got up at 4:00 am, departed to Arizona about 5:00 am, and about 1.5 hours into the trip our driver turned us around to go back to Vegas because the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon were shutdown due to flooding. I was so excited to get some fantastic photos in Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe bend and the Grand Canyon. I guess we will have to go back…

The food in Vegas

We knew ahead of time that some of the best food, chefs and restaurants are in Las Vegas. Every one knows how much we like good food.

Some of the restaurants we ate at include:

Emeril’s

- an underwhelming experience although we ate lunch there and did not have access to the dinner menu.

Dinner at steak house “Tom Colicchio’s craft steak”. This meal was fantastic

Birthday Dinner at Morimoto’s -

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto has created a bridge between the culinary traditions of his native Japan and the American palate, bringing intense excitement, exquisite technique, and perfectly balanced flavors to countless diners throughout the world. He has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his seamless integration of Western and Japanese ingredients and has effectively created a signature style that positions him as one of today’s foremost chefs.

Chef Morimoto first competed on Japanese television show Iron Chef in 1998 and then became one of the stars of Food Network’s Iron Chef America in 1999. As an Iron Chef, Morimoto was able to showcase his flawless technique and creativity with unique ingredients in front of millions of Americans. Chef Morimoto returns to the Iron Chef challenge in the spring of 2017 with Iron Chef Gauntlet.

This was my favorite restaurant on our trip and maybe my favorite of all time. Wow, just WOW!

Dinner at Lago - in the Bellagio Hotel

James Beard Award-winning chef Julian Serrano sets the evening in motion with his stunning interpretation of innovative Italian small plates, each packed with distinct flavors from all the regions of Italy .

How can you go wrong with the waterfalls of the Bellagio going off every 15 minutes behind you?

Dinner at Wolfgang Pucks at the MGM Grand Hotel

Boxing hype and face of canelo vs GGG III

For all those boxing fans (I am not one of them), they had a big fight in town with a FACE off I actually photographed.

Canela Alvarez

Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán, popularly known as Canelo Álvarez or Saúl Álvarez, is a Mexican professional boxer. He has won multiple world championships in four weight classes from light middleweight to light heavyweight, including unified titles in three of those weight classes and lineal titles in two.

The face off was filled with less than 5’ tall women screaming at the top of their lungs. “Ay ya ya Yai”. How about a taco? I hear the fight was a snooze fest and not worthy of the hype. Interested in seeing a 40 year old box? And the winner is…… I just don’t know.

The shows in Vegas

Rouge - Las Vegas The STRAT Hotel

A sexpertise adventure filled with acrobats, aerialists, dancers, contortionists, comedians, hand balancers and more from a provocative cast of 18 women and men ready to stimulate your senses. The last 5 minutes of the show they allowed us to take photos and videos. You can see my videos on my Day 1 video attached at the bottom.

Such an impressive show, the entertainers were talented, athletic, fun, in shape. The whole package. I was so glad we were allowed to photograph the end of the show. Highly recommended!

X Burlesque - Flamingo Hotel

X Burlesque brings adult fantasies to the stage in a bubbly production show led by a troupe of gorgeous dancers. Running as the city's hottest topless revue for more than a decade, the X Burlesque beauties bare their assets all while playfully interacting with the audience. No photography allowed during the show.

This was a much smaller show than the first one with 6 show girls, a fabulous comedian and a much smaller venue. We sat right up front and had such a great time. Again we were so impressed by the hard work these girls put in every night! Highly recommended and totally different than the first show.

Fantasy - Luxor Hotel

Fantasy, a dynamic topless revue, showcases the Strip's sexiest dancers flaunting your wildest fantasies.

Heating up the intimate Luxor Theater, the women of Fantasy almost bare it all in a variety of sultry costumes throughout the high-energy dance numbers. However, while the costumes play a big role in bringing sinful scenes such as sexy schoolgirls, rowdy cowgirls, and spicy Latin dancers to life, it's when the costumes hit the floor that jaws really drop to the same level. With the majority of the show's soundtrack sang live by Fantasy host, Lorena Peril, each of the 15 powerhouse acts are filled with undeniable talent at every level.

This show again was totally different than the first few shows we saw. There were 8 show girls, a fantastic singer ala Christine Agulera, a comedian/magic act and a much larger stage and venue. The show was packed. Very entertaining and fun. So glad was went.

What it takes to be a showgirl in vegas

If your resume stops at cute, sexy and modelesque, you will NEVER make it in any of the major shows in Vegas. You need talent, athleticism, you must be limber and almost double jointed, you must be able to dance and choreograph. Did I say you have to work 5-7 nights a week? These girls take their work seriously and we were so impressed with their professionalism and talent.

What we did NOT see in any of the shows

Not to be found: butt lifts, boob jobs and overdone lip surgery. These girls were mostly all natural. Good for you. Take a trip to Miami and your experience may be slightly different…

The Vegas Strip

The Vegas strip is a 4.225 mile road at the heart of Vegas running North and South.

In 1941 the El Rancho Vegas resort opened on a section of U.S. 91 just outside the city's jurisdiction. Other hotel-casinos soon followed, and the section of highway became known as “the Strip.” Most were built around the regional or Old West themes that were popular on Fremont Street.

We walked the strip many times during the heat of the day, at sunrise, at sunset and late in the evenings. Many days we walked 6-10 miles mostly on the strip. During the day Vegas was HOT HOT HOT, and I am not talking about the show girls.

Danger on the strip

It seems the middle section of the strip is much more sleazy and dangerous than the rest of the strip. It also seems to us the nicest part of the strip was the Northern section near the Wynn Hotel, one of the fanciest places I have ever been.

The architecture on the strip is phenomenal.

The wannabe show girls on the street

Adorned by the feathers and outfits of show girls on the strip, they travel by foot 2 by 2 soliciting the tourists to take a photo of them. Alice had already warned me about their game as she heard from one of her friends. We were approached many times by the feathered clad young ladies soliciting us to take their photos. We were approached by two girls in front of the Bellagio, the first I had seen I was interested in photographing. I told them I would give them $20 each for a photograph. “That is an insult, we ask for a minimum of $100 each per photograph.” I smiled and walked away knowing there would be very few willing to take them up on this offer.

On the day before we left, we were approached by two feathered women. I had already discussed my strategy with Alice. I handed Alice my camera and posed for the photos. “Only 2 photos are allowed says the brunette.” Alice was struggling with the camera settings. After helping her with the correct focus mode, she clicked away. Following the photos we were then asked for a TIP. I handed them $40, and said thank you very much. “But Sir, we have an agent we have to pay half to him….” Note: you can see many shows in Vegas with dozens of real Vegas showgirls for $50-100 per ticket.

My fine feathered friends in Las Vegas - photo by Alice

Here are links to all the videos I created, 1 for each night and an final video as well.

Birthday Celebration Day 1

Birthday Celebration Day 2

Birthday Celebration Day 3

birthday celebration day 4

Las Vegas Final

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas except when transparent Tom is around. Thanks Alice for a birthday of a lifetime!