I Ain't Payin' No Stinkin' $10

I was actually looking forward to checking out the Ferraris on display at The Wynn Resort, so after I cashed in my slot machine winnings (see the post of a couple of days ago), the wife and I wandered down the shops concourse to check out the Penski-Wynn Ferrari Showroom.

Pinchy was with me, and I was planning to take a few shots of him ogling the outrageously expensive cars. Yeah, yeah, I was going to take pix of the wife too.

We stopped short at the entrance. There, on a stanchion, was a notice that admission (ADMISSION!) was $10 a person. Ten bucks to walk around and look at cars that they were going to try and sell you. Balk, balk, balk.

It's not that I'm cheap. I mean, I've paid a lot more to see other things, including some rather tacky tourist attractions. But c'mon, I'm not going to lay down a sawbuck just to drool over a car or two or three.

Consequently, I just stuck my camera into the entrance, smiled nicely at the beautiful young women eagerly waiting for me to hand over my money and escort me and the wife around the showroom, and snapped a few pictures.

As a consolation, we checked out the Ferrari Store adjacent to the showroom. There were some nice t-shirts but they too were out of my league. I didn't want to spend $250 for a Ferrari shirt, and neither was I going to buy my grandson one that costs $100. I mean, the only result of wearing those shirts is that I'm going to spill spaghetti sauce on the front, and my grandson is going to slather some noodles all over his.

No Ferrari souvenir. Shucks.

The 'Dirty' Channel Guide

Conversation in my mind:

Me: Hey! This channel guide has coffee stains on it! What kind of classy hotel is this anyway? You'd think Wynn's housecleaning would replace something like this, don't you?

The Wife: Put on your glasses.

Me: Oh, okay.

The Wife: Look at the channel guide again.

Me: Ah, it's a classy design on the side. Never mind!

Where are the 40s?

This is a new one on me.

I've heard of hotels eliminating certain floors for whatever reason. Example: Many hotels still don't have a 13th floor, skipping from 12 to 14 for superstitious reasons. Their philosophy, I guess, is "Why take chances?"

But I've never been in a hotel that eliminated a whole series of floors until I stayed recently at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas.

One of the first things I noticed when I got into the elevator to go up to the 52nd floor was that floors 40 through 49 were missing. And it's not as though they were there and the elevator skipped them entirely. The floor-indicator went smoothly from 39 to 50, confirming that the 40s were missing.

I wonder why that is? Yeah, I know, I should have asked someone.

So all I can do is speculate. Does it have something to do with the Chinese superstition that the number "4" is unlucky? I dunno. Anybody have a better answer?

Thank You, Mr. Wynn

For about a year, I’d been receiving an offer from the Wynn Resort to enjoy three complimentary nights at The Wynn in Las Vegas. Really, I don’t know what I did to earn that offer, but as it so often happens, I was never able to take advantage of it.

Until this past month when the wife and I took a break and visited family in San Jose. Since both my son and his wife work, and since our grandson goes to preschool, weekdays there for us are usually spent on our own.

Not this year … I took Steve Wynn up on his offer. Not only that, but I got a ridiculous roundtrip airfare on Southwest Airlines too.

It just may be we’re lucky this way, but the nice young man who checked us in at the front desk was from Hawaii and gave us his best service, including getting us a couple of bottles of ice-cold water from the back.

Our room at the Wynn
(Click on the picture for a panoramic view)

The Wynn Resort is beautiful, and the room they gave us was top notch – not as nice as the ones I stayed in at The Venetian and Palazzo the other year, but mighty nice indeed. The bed was sumptuous and mega-comfortable, and the lights and drapes were all remote-controlled.

Just press an image on either the bedside control screen or one of the two screens on the wall, and the drapes and/or sheers opened or closed, and the room lights turned on, dimmed, or turned off.

The view from our room

And at night, when we turned the room lights off and opened the drapes, we were treated with an awesome view of the Las Vegas Strip.

Part of the package was a $300 slot credit. They didn’t give you the money, of course, but they entered it into my slot card account. Whenever I’d place a bet on a slot machine, the money I bet was replaced by the credit. Until the credit ran out.

So, the first thing I did after we got set up in the room was to play with the $300. I don’t remember the name of the slot machine I played, but whenever a certain symbol showed up, it activated a display that lit up three bills ranging from $5 to $1,000.

Now, you need to know that whenever the wife watches me play, I have bad luck. And she knows it too, so after I’d spun the reels a couple of times, she walked away. As soon as she walked away, I got that symbol and won $40. She came over and I explained what had happened. Then I started losing again –playing $2, getting it replaced by the credit, playing $2 more, getting it replaced, and so on and so on.

When the $300 credit ran out, I had won $353, which was mine to keep. Subtract the $20 I put in to start the process and I was $333 ahead. Not bad. Meals! Free! Courtesy of Mr. Wynn!

Thank you, Mr. Wynn.

A Touch of Hawaii

Only on an airline that flies many travelers to and from Hawaii will you find a "Keep Your Feet Off" sign like this one.

It's not a very clear picture because I had to take it from a couple of rows back. It wasn't very well-lighted in the cabin when I noticed it, and I didn't want to call attention to myself by turning on the camera flash.

Under those two bare feet is the word, "Mahalo," which in case you're not from Hawaii or aren't familiar with Hawaiian words, means "Thank You."

So ... keep your stinky feet to yourself and don't plaster them toe jams on the bulkhead wall!

Beware the Mustachioed Man

Here's a twist on the "Guns don't kill people, People kill people" slogan. I wonder if this bumper sticker that I came across recently was distributed by the "Clean Shaven" branch of the National Rifle Association. Whatcha think?

And do you think that Storm Trooper on the left of the sticker has anything to do with the message? Or the fact that the two are situated above the word "Frontier"?

Hmmmm ... gives one pause.

The Angry Birds Phenomenon

The Angry Birds game for smart phones, iPads and tablets has taken the world by storm. I discovered this when I finally converted to a smart phone a couple of years ago (my son turned me on to the addictive game).

It’s gone far beyond tech … you can find Angry Bird characters is every aspect of kiddie life – towels, toys, toothbrushes, you name it, it’s being merchandised. Last Christmas, we bought our grandson a hoodie towel of the red bird. The cowl was the bird’s head.

When we went to pick up my grandson’s birthday cake while in San Jose a week and a half ago, I wandered around the bakery while his father waited in line to be served.

You know what I saw? This:

The people at Aki’s Bakery in San Jose did a marvelous job on the birthday cake, but I was more impressed with their Angry Bird cupcake creations. I mean, look at ‘em again. Terrific, huh?

Just in case you live in San Jose or in Silicon Valley, Aki’s is situated at 355 Meridian Ave., San Jose, CA 95126, phone (408) 287-5404. They have a website as well: www.akisbakery.com.

Great Hertz Service

When the wife and I motored into the Hertz Car Return lot at Norman Mineta San Jose County Airport on the day of our departure back to Hawaii, we got a pleasant surprise.

The nice gentleman who checked us in offered to drive us to the Hawaiian Airlines gate in the car we’d just turned in so we wouldn’t have to catch the rental car shuttle bus to the terminal.

This is something they’ve started doing at Hertz, a little added customer service, according to the employee, who by the way emigrated from India 27 years ago to America. He’s a pretty distinctive-looking gentleman, with a bushy gray beard and wearing a turban. In fact, there seem to be quite a few East Indians employed by Hertz in San Jose.

He even hauled our bags out of the trunk and rolled them over to the curbside check-in stand for us. I thanked him profusely and tipped him, but I think the gratitude I expressed far outweighed the couple of bucks I gave him.

What a nice way to leave San Jose.

The Best Lobsters I’ve Eaten

Last week, as I reveled in the opulence of the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, I began thinking of lobster tails, mentally going through the list of restaurants that served me the best lobster I can remember.

I came up with four, all of them in Las Vegas:

William B’s, Stardust, 1989. William B’s is no longer there; neither is the Stardust. The restaurant closed before the casino did, and now all that remains there is an empty plot of land awaiting redevelopment on the Las Vegas Strip. The William B’s lobster dinner consisted of two large tails, as succulent as all get out, preceded by a large crudité platter.

The Broiler, Palace Station Casino, 1993. One of the sweetest lobster tails I ever had was at the steak and seafood restaurant situated on the casino floor of this off-strip hotel. I don’t know if it was still called The Broiler when I ate there, as I haven’t been back in a long, long time. All I remember is that I practically swooned when I put that first piece into my mouth.

Nero’s, Caesar’s Palace, 1995. This is where I had my first $100 meal in Las Vegas – everything from soup to nuts (sans the nuts). They brought out a huge whole lobster, let me gaze at it in wonder for a while, then proceeded to prep it for me. They popped out the tail and cracked open the claws. Lawdie, I wish I had a camera with me at the time. I had dreams of that lobster.

Hugo’s Cellar, Four Queens, 2008. This was the most recent great lobster, enjoyed during a dinner meeting of a group that had gathered in Las Vegas. Sweet, sweet, sweet! The lobster tail and the company.  Hugo’s is a great place to have dinner. Again, no picture of the lobster, as the dinner was before I started my restaurant blog. But take my word for it, if you dine at Hugo’s Cellar, you won’t go wrong ordering the lobster.

To be sure, I’ve had lobster at many other restaurants, but none quite measured up to these four.

Er, You Were Saying?

You gotta say the words, Earl ... you just gotta say the words. G'wan, you can do it. You da man.