Monday in Las Vegas

Usually I write the post on the evening of the day when we did the "things" and then post it in the morning of the following day, but Monday was SO busy (and so was Tuesday morning into afternoon) that I didn't get the post written until late on Tuesday!

Rick is still sharing status/agenda on the white board!

 We joined the group to discuss which show to see, but we had decided that we wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show and most everyone else decided to see a music tribute show... so we all headed to the strip to get tickets, but we went for a different show...

A skylight in the Paris hotel (I think, it could have been Bally's

We got vouchers for "cheap tickets" at the "Tix 4 Tonight" booth for Mystère by Cirque du Soleil -

The show was in Treasure Island, so we drove over to the theater to exchange our voucher for tickets.

Then we went back in the evening for the show - it was good to know where to park and how to get to the theater.

The entrance to the theater

I had read about the large drum that they use in the show - it was used in the beginning and at the end - coming down from the roof with guys playing it. 

From wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst%C3%A8re_(Cirque_du_Soleil)):

The taiko drums in Mystère are created by the Japanese company Asano Taiko, located in Mattō, Ishikawa Prefecture. The largest drum in Mystère is the ōdaiko, which is 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter and 15 feet (4.6 m) in length, and weighs half a ton. Due to the large size of the drum, it had to be brought into the theatre during construction. Since the completion of the theatre the drum can not be removed, as no door is large enough to accommodate it.

The show reminded us of a show we saw many years ago in Moscow, with strength acts, people flying through the air - trapeze, aerial straps, bungee straps, and people launching off a teeter-totter and trampoline-type device. In amongst there was kind of a story, but, it wasn't very clear to us! And then there were a couple of comic elements...

One of the comic elements was this large man dressed up like a baby who interacted with the audience - he began by pushing the ball off the stage and getting audience members to throw it back to him. Then he adopted one of the guys in the audience as "Papa" and involved him multiple times in the show.

 Another comic element was a guy with wild-looking grey hair... he started out in the audience before the show started, "helping" people find their seats by walking them all over the theater and ultimately directing them to a wrong seat or referring them to an usher to get to their seat. He showed up between different acts... again... not sure how he tied into the story line... which we didn't understand anyway!

One of the balancing acts - way up high above our heads...

A zoom in on that picture...

On the left side (front of the stage - we were seated to the side) was the teeter-totter with folks being propelled into the air - and to the right was a long trampoline-type thing that folks were flipping and tumbling down - lots of things to watch all at the same time!

This pair really reminded me of the Moscow "circus" that we visited - they balanced so perfected and moved so slowly from one position to another...

Another of their seemingly impossible poses.

Trapeze artists way above our heads

Scene with the big drum and numerous smaller drums

Final scene included this huge inflated snail - no clue of the significance!

We enjoyed the show - and it had no foul language or questionable dialog - so that was a plus in my book!

After the show, we decided to walk a ways down the strip...

We stopped in Caesar's Palace to find a restroom - it involved going up a couple of floors on these interesting semi-circular escalators (this was when we were returning down to street level) - I don't recall ever seeing escalators that weren't straight...

I wanted to walk as far as the Bellagio - this is the Chihuly sculpture over the lobby "Inside Bellagio, Dale Chihuly's Fiori di Como, composed of over 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers, covers 2,000 sq ft (190 m2) of the lobby ceiling." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellagio_(resort))

Beautiful vase of flowers at the check-in desk

Just off the lobby is the Conservatory where they have varying flower exhibits. "The hotel also contains a Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. There are five seasonal themes that the Conservatory undergoes: Chinese New Year, spring, summer, fall, and winter. From January to mid-March, the Conservatory celebrates the Chinese New Year with a display dominated by flowers bromeliads and Orchids, as well as the animal of that particular year that the Chinese zodiac celebrates." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellagio_(resort))

This is the Year of the Dog

Interesting that the dogs were not covered with flowers - only the children, and then there were garden areas.

We also wanted to see the Fountains, "The Fountains of Bellagio is a vast, choreographed water feature with performances set to light and music. The performances take place in front of the Bellagio hotel and are visible from numerous vantage points on the Strip, both from the street and neighboring structures. The show takes place every 30 minutes in the afternoons and early evenings, and every 15 minutes from 8 pm to midnight." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellagio_(resort)). We caught the end of one show from a vantage point near the entrance to the lobby...

The view to the Paris hotel from near the lobby of the Bellagio

We walked on down to Las Vegas Boulevard and were heading back toward Treasure Island when it was time for another show to start...

So we watched another!

We eventually made it back to Treasure Island and the Jeep and then back to the bus - though we were out a LOT later than we usually are!!! Thus... the late blog post - sorry!