We arrive – I’ve been here before for a special events conference and this is Jon’s first experience with Las Vegas. We first find excellent RV accommodations at the Oasis RV campground at the south end of Las Vegas Blvd (complete with 2 pools!) and then we head into to town.
We walk the strip from the Sahara (which is closing in three days) through the Hilton to the Wynn and Encore (where I had one of the best Mojitos ever!).
We drive to the Palms and get tickets to see Elvis Costello and the Imposters tonight (two tickets for one –if you can believe it – front row seats 3 and 4!). We also decide to do dinner at the Palms on the 51st floor at Nove. Treated to an amuse bouche of salmon tartare and sautéed vegetables finished in balsamic. We share Maritime lobster aranchini (the jus is definitely cooked from lobster shells), served with roasted beets and a lobster reduction. Jon orders the lamb chops with ciopolinni onions and I order the chicken breast parmesan which turns out to be a huge order of layered eggplant, topped with chicken breast ever so thin, sautéed and layered with a rich tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese (suffice it to say that this dish is enough for three people).
We head over to the Pearl concert hall (it seats over 2500) to see Elvis Costello at 8 pm. Not quite a sold out performance. Elvis and the Imposters perform for an hour and a half and then continue with encores for thirty minutes. Quite a show complete with Elvis inviting female members to come up and dance on stage as well as the audience making song requests. Now, we learn that Elvis Costello’s show usually have a spinning wheel for requests, but being that we are in Nevada, the State won’t let Elvis bring in his `Wheel for song requests as it’s viewed as competition here. But that doesn’t stop Elvis from bringing out his I-pad based wheel and making some unscheduled spins.
