The Royal Links | Las Vegas

Sunday | 4 February 2001 | Las Vegas, Nevada: Today we took Snickers to the kennel. As usual, I had made reservations for him, checked-out the kennel at the American Boarding Kennel Association's website, and phoned them with several questions. No matter what I do, I am always worried at my choice! I guess nothing is as good has your own bed when you are traveling. It was clean and friendly, so I am sure he will be happy for a few days. The girl working the counter was from Oregon and owned a beagle herself and promised to take special care of him. (She was, after all, from Salem and the best beagle-loving girls come from Salem.)

Today was the Las Vegas Marathon and many streets were blocked-off, making navigation around the city difficult.

Matt flew in and we met him in the late afternoon and walked around a few casinos and had a snack. DT and Matt wanted to go to NIKETOWN (they don't get enough of this at home) to buy golf apparel and golf balls unavailable at the employee store in Beaverton. Also, it had been bitterly cold here in Vegas, and now is suddenly 70+, so the boys were unprepared in the wardrobe department. (Especially Matt, who had flown here from his nephew's ice hockey tournament in Minnesota where it was 12 degrees!) The NIKETOWN in the Forum Shops is completely in the back of the mall, impossible to see or notice. I can never understand how they can even get one customer to FIND the store. Luckily though, because of the marathon, many skinny, overly-tan people had searched it out so the store looked a little lively. The guys purchased golf stuff and I found a cute t-shirt for Lisa to wear at the gym, printed for the Marathon. It reads Quick Chick (front) and Out for a fast time - Las Vegas Marathon 2001 (back)."

We met Matt later in the evening for dinner. They had sushi. I had beer. Shintaro, in the Bellagio, has three huge saltwater tanks behind the sushi chefs - filled with giant jellyfish. They were amazingly beautiful and graceful - just mesmerizing! Then we played the tables at the Bellagio for two hours. I won again! Love it, love it, love it! Mostly, I had fun at a lively table with a good dealer. (My usual deal with Lisa - my winnings are in the mail to her.) It was an early night, and the guys have an early tee time at The Royal Links.


Tuesday | 5 February 2001 | Las Vegas, Nevada: DT and Matt made their tee time at The Royal Links. I dropped them off, because I had more important things to do - I had to buy a new battery for the Honda! Yep, folks, it was dead. Finding a garage to replace the battery was simple and it was a 10-minute job. The tough part of my day was getting the BC2 washed! Goodness, it was a complicated effort. First I had to be in the correct line and make all the important decisions: lemon or vanilla scent, tire "treatment" or no, which type of wax, etc. After opting for the "deluxe" wash, I had to wait 75 minutes for my car! (Well, it is very clean.)

Possessing a clean car that actually started... I headed out to shop at the Discount Liquor Barn! (Booze is cheap, cheap, cheap in Nevada.) I ran a few more errands and then came back to answer my 380,001 emails from 'friends' saying my favorite singer had been tossed at a Heat-Knicks game! Naughty Jimmy Buffett, being a potty-mouth in front of his son! My favorite part in the whole fiasco is when Pat Riley was nearly given a technical after calling Forte (the referee) a bad "Parrothead". Maybe Mr. Buffett needs to resume drinking, he is getting too uptight.

I was back out to the golf course to fetch the tired golfers and join them for lunch in the "Pub". Since Royal Links is a course made entirely of copied holes of famous UK golf courses, they carry the theme into the clubhouse and serve Guinness on tap, fish & chips and bangers & mash, etc. Royal Links was exceedingly overpriced with difficult greens and many pot bunkers. Being in Las Vegas, even the pro tries to win your money on a KP on a Par 3! Double or nothing. If you win, you get a "credit" in the pro shop - and guess what??? - if you LOSE you get a credit in the pro shop... so no matter, win or lose, you have to bring home something from the pro shop. All my tired golfers brought home, besides high scores, was a souvenir photo - for which they also were charged an exorbitant fee. (It is a nice photo of them together, though I could do without the 10' high replica of the famed 'claret cup'.)

We met Matt later in the evening at New York New York and had a look around the hotel and casino before walking across the street to see the MGM Grand Hotel. The MGM has a lion habitat (i.e. glass cage with a waterfall and fake greens - very Disney-like) housing (today) three juvenile females. The kitties were very feisty and were playing with gigantic rawhide bones - chasing each other for the coveted prize.  I really enjoyed watching the giant babies "fight" each other for the rawhide chews. (Imagine the same bone you give your dog... about 18" long.)

After all this riveting excitement, we walked down the street, stopping at my favorite shop in Vegas - the M&M store! I love buying M&M's in this store as they come in every color - pink, purple, white, black, silver, etc... not your usual M&M. We stopped to watch a woman free-climbing a man-made, indoor pinnacle, then continued walking down the strip until we came to P.F. Chang's, our new favorite chain restaurant from our trip to Phoenix in October and stopped in for dinner. We tried several things: egg rolls, crispy veggies in lettuce leaves, garlic noodles, General Chang's Chicken and the spiciest stir-fried asparagus I have ever eaten. Again, it was just a delicious meal. Since P.F. Chang's is now a huge chain of 51 restaurants, there is bound to be one near you soon!  Kwai-Kwai!

After that meal, we needed a WALK. So we walked to Paris, intent on gambling, but the town was so quiet (the National Auto Dealers Association convention was over) the casinos didn't have all their tables open. What tables were open were packed... so we went back to Matt's hotel, the Bellagio and found three chairs at a friendly 21 table and proceeded to have fun... but only about for one hour as the boys have another tee time tomorrow! Lisa will receive an empty envelope tonight. (Ah, don't worry - tomorrow night will be my big night at the tables! I hope there isn't a run on the banks...)

Anyway, after walking from New York to Paris and then back to Italy, you can imagine how tired I am, so I am going to bed.