Paris!
Well, Paris, Las Vegas… Kris and I spent the weekend at the Paris Las Vegas hotel, compliments of my Aunt Linda. She gifted us a very nice package she had won during a silent auction for a 3-day, 2-night stay, with dinner and a show. We left Friday at 11, and it was so nice to not hit traffic on the way out (like the last time we traveled on the I-15, argh!). We made it to LV by 3pm, even after a pitstop to grab our lunch out of the cooler. When we got to the hotel, we were a bit dismayed at the line for check-in, but then I realized we would be able to skip that line and go directly to the “Invited Guests” check-in desk. Our next stop was right across the lobby at the box office to pick up our show tickets. Kris and I headed up to the room, where we were able to enjoy the watershow across the street at the Bellagio quite a few times. We were surprised by the arrival of a fruit basket and note welcoming us to the hotel. It was great to be able to enjoy the pool before washing up and heading out to dinner at their resturant Les Artiste. The dinner was fabulous, complete with fancy salad and creme brulet for dessert. We’d decided to take in the show on Friday night also, since we had no idea how long the rallycross on Saturday would take, so after dinner we headed over to the theater.
The show was awesome. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from a musical with songs adapted from Queen’s greatest hits, but I did have somewhat of an idea since I’d seen Mamma Mia (for those of you who don’t know, Mamma Mia is a musical with Abba’s greatest hits). The actual story of the show, We Will Rock You, was a bit corny, but the actors was great, and there was a lot of punny dialogue. (I’ve included some spoiler-type things on the next page.) It was also crazy to have front-row center seats (no offense to anyone, but I’m not sure this is a show Grammy would have enjoyed!), complete with crotch-in-the-face, and a shower of spittle. 
We headed to bed with the Saturday rallycross on our minds. We headed out to Jean and the dry lakebed. I have to agree with Kris about this - it was weirdly like ice racing. Extreme temperature, wind, the occasional ruts/bumps in the road, and the spectating ATV/snowmobilers passing through. The biggest difference was the weird fact that we were standing on the bottom of the empty lake rather than on top of the full frozen lake. It wasn’t hard to find the group the next day, which is the one “complimentary” thing I have to say about the actual event, but otherwise it was a poor showing. The SCCA unfortunately needs some reorganization. The event was hand-timed, the track was set up poorly (so that we had to drive through our own dust trail, the scores were not given at the event, and so we had to leave with no idea of what place we took. Fortunately there was only one other person in our class, so we had a pretty good idea that we beat him (which we did, the scores were posted quickly at least). But at the end of the day, it was basically, “Ok, see you later. Don’t worry, you’ll get your CRS points.” Poorly, poorly run event.
Well, since everything was completely covered with dust, we took a little time to wash or brush everything off as much as possible. We had time to enjoy the hot tub (which actually wasn’t hot, so we had it to ourselves), and we took a nap. Neither one of us felt like going out for dinner, so we ordered room service, which was actually really good, and not any more expensive than actually leaving the hotel room. And we didn’t have to go anywhere!
We tried to go to the Paris hotel “ultralounge” club, Risque, but the cover charge was too much, and we could hear they were playing old school music (versus the “world music” we were expecting) - ie, Jump Around and other late 80’s, early 90’s era music. So we enjoyed a few more watershows at the Bellagio from our room, and started to pack up.
We left Vegas by 11 on Sunday, and again, even with a pitstop, we made it home by 3pm. It was very nice to be able to do laundry (basically get all the dusty/dirty stuff clean) and get some rest before starting another week.
Thank you again, Aunt Linda!!!
Ok, so the character names. There was the Killer Queen, the GAGA kids, Galileo Figuro (main male), and Scaramouche (main female). Then there were all the Bohemians, who all had famous-type artist names. There was a Madonna, Wayne Newton, Aretha Franklin, and Clay Aiken, all mostly the way you would expect them. However, there was a white transvestite man, with too much makeup and long blonde girl-hair who was P. Puff Diddy Daddy, a white female (the main Bohemian) named Oz, or Ozzy Ozbourne, and last but not least, a male (the main male Bohemian) who was buff and excentric, named Brit, or Britney Spears - usually played by a non-white actor. LOL - the whole cast was funny. And now I have twenty Queen songs all stuck in my head!
Sounds like you had a good time. Love, Mom
Comment by Mom — May 7, 2005 @ 5:05 pm