This Winter Amanda and I decided that we needed a get-away with no purpose other than “getting away.” We hadn’t been to Las Vegas since our honeymoon, and so 5 days were booked. We selected The Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino and Amanda booked our flights. Here we are!
Day One
We arrived late Saturday. We gambled on a generic shared shuttle service and lost, time-wise. The price was right, but the driver didn’t know the city very well and neither, apparently, did his navigation system. It took us almost an hour to get from the airport to our hotel. There are no “rooms” at The Venetian. We have a palatial “suite” with a large bathroom, king-size bed, and separate, semi-sinken “living room” overlooking the interior intersection of two towers and the “pool garden” associated with our tower.
Sunday we went across the street fo The Mirage for their breakfast buffet. Overpriced, but delicious. We returned to explore The Venetian. Holy cow, is this place HUGE! I daresay you could spend at least a week just in this resort without going outside and still not see and experience all it has to offer. We took the inside Venetian Gondola ride first thing after walking through the shoppes. The inside is made up to look like Venice, including the ceiling which is painted and lit like a sunny day with white/fluffy clouds against a bright blue sky. But the lighting isn’t very intense, and so you have the illusion that it is perpetually late afternoon with the sun just having passed beyond the next building—somewhere between actual sunset and twilight. It’s surreal.
After that lengthy walk (and getting lost—a first for me in a hotel!) we returned to our room for a rest (and a nap for me). I woke in time to head back across the street for a poker tournament at The Mirage. I took 4th place ($$$!) out of 30 or so buy-ins. Not bad! I returned to our room and joined Amanda as we went in search of dinner. She had done some more thorough exploring of the casino and other areas we had not covered earlier and discovered a food court where we had a bite to eat. After that it was another walk around “Venice,” then back to our room and bed.
We have no “plan.” We are simply be here and away. It’s an escape. We might just sit in our room. We might leave and explore somewhere else. I might do nothing but play poker. Who knows? Who cares! This is vacation. The last time we were here we were exhausted when we left. We did not rest. It will be different this time.