November 13, 2008 Thursday

Inside the Paris casino.
The new "City Center" that is being built.

"The Bellagio" which I think is John's and my favorite.

The ceiling in the Bellagio...it is all made of glass

flowers. It is totally amazing!

The artist that created this is Dale Chihuly.

Also inside the Bellagio. It is an arbor decorated

in the harvest motif.

Check out this Ford limo! Jackie, this is

what you needed for your wedding!

The ceiling in the Venitian.

The tower at the Venetian.

The ceiling in the Venetian was made to look

like the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

The Eiffel tower of the Paris Casino.

You know, if one didn't know better you would think these pictures were taken in Europe. It is incredible the insides of these casinos! Today we parked in the Paris parking lot, and went in and looked around. The streets were made to look like Paris...it was very unique. We went up the elevator to the restaurant that is halfway up the tower...(not really, but that's what they told us). We had a marvelous lunch. Pretty hard to beat the cuisine! I had a blood mary that was so incredibly good...even the salt on the rim was mild ...not puckering!!! John had a glass of wine. Then I ordered the soup du jour...which was squash, but it was nothing like I have ever had.

I ordered a light omelet that had asparagus and brie cheese on it that ...oh my...it was heaven! John ordered eggs benedict that had a bean in the fava family with prosciutto and the bread was made with brioche and so light. He said it was the best he had ever had. $90.00 later we walked out...full and poor!!! We walked out at 12:30 and walked until 3:00....non stop.

We went through Paris, Cesar's Palace, The Mirage, The Venetian, and a million and one shops along the way. Cesar's Palace has some shops called the Forum and they had every designer I have ever heard of and then some. I had to go into Jimmy Choo's just to check out the shoes I always hear about. I found a cute pair of strappy sandals for $650.00! I could not find a pair of shoes in there under 450.00. So I bought 2 pair and left!!! JUST KIDDING!

Anyway, it was quite an experience. Now, here is what I found out. The new building that I have a picture of that is called "The City Center" is set to be finished 2009 this time. It costs

10 billion dollars and has 10,000 rooms. It will be the largest casino in the world. The deal is, (per bartenders and waiters) some of the workers aren't getting paid. So it seems they are hurting too. It is hard to believe the economy can support all these rooms. It seemed not very busy for Vegas and one waiter said people just aren't spending the extra money on gambling and shopping. Will be interesting to see what happens. The people that are building the City Center is like a consortium from Dubai, China etc...does the US own anything???

So, we got home around 4:00, I ran to the store, we paid bills, and now are chilling in front of the

tube! All is well.