Leaving on a High Note!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Las Vegas and the Divas

Yesterday was quite a day!  This morning we sleep in!  A leisurely breakfast and we camp in our Denny’s to work on our blogs and photos.  Sitting on the beds in our rooms gets old and crampy;  this is much better!

Eventually we feel the need to return to the room and let our waitress have our table (even though we did leave her something extra for her trouble!).  I’m nearly caught up when I hear Marilyn groan.  Blogster has just eaten her entry and pictures for the second time and she’s had it.  She decides to take a nap to de-stress and I have time to finish writing before she awakens.

It’s late enough now to go see if we can locate Ole’s second restaurant recommendation.  He says it is a pub in the mall next to the pyramid (The Luxor), next to the Guinness store and the ice bar, so we park at The Luxor and begin our search.  There is a Public House in the Luxor but they don’t serve curried chips,  so this can’t be the place!  The hostess says there is a pub in the Mandalay Shops and gives us directions.

Are we a bit fuzzy or is it just the Jamesons?

She is spot on and so was Ole!  It looks like a mall and Ri Ra Irish Pub is indeed immediately next door to the Guinness store!  It is an authentic Irish Pub, according to our adorable waitress, and the components were brought over from The Old Country!  They even have a Snug!  And eighteen-year old Jamesons in cut crystal glasses!  It’s so warm and smooth going down!

Ole suggested the fish and chips, curried chips and lamb burger.  I can’t quite do lamb but fish sounds divine and it lives up to my expectations!  The fish is flakey and the coating is thin and very crispy!  The curry sauce is quite a surprise!  It has all the flavor and none of the bite I associate with curry and is nearly good enough to drink instead of just dunking my chips (really French fries) in it! 

Yummy fish 'n' chips with curry sauce!

Time for the bill and the surprise - who knew one small whiskey could be twenty-seven dollars!  Oh what the heck.  Breakfast was free and we’ve skipped lunch, so we’re still way ahead of the game.  And it was wonderful!

A little walking is in order after that big meal!  We scope out the ice bar and find that it is exactly what we thought!  Like the one in Scandinavia, you get a parka, boots and gloves with your admission fee!  It’s called the Minus Five Degrees Ice Lounge and looks like a fun place to get a drink and cool off from the 115 degree Vegas heat!

and the decor is fun, too!

Further down is a shop that sells “Fresh, Handmade Cosmetics” called Lush.  Enticing aromas waft out the door and we’re drawn in to sample the creams and lotions.  There is such high energy in here!  All the sales girls are “on” but not disturbingly so and they really seem to believe in their products.  There is even one line that supports animal charities.  Other signs assure the customers that no animal testing is involved in their products.  We each find a little something to bring home.

Hurray!  We find our way back to the car!  These casinos are so very huge that it is easy to get lost!  Back to our room to change for the evening’s festivities! 

Yesterday morning we were lucky enough to get great seats for tonight’s performance of Frank Marino’s Divas!  Of all the shows in Vegas this is the one that we both agreed would be the most fun!!  It is playing at The Quad, near The Flamingo and Harrah’s and we’ve scoped out a route that won’t require crawling down The Strip.

Well best laid plans and all that.  The signage isn’t very grand and it takes us about half an hour to make the last quarter mile of the trip!  Good thing we left nice and early!  We wind up parking at Harrah’s and are grateful to be that close!  Now begins the next part of the adventure, getting to The Quad and the theater!  It turns out that The Quad is being renovated!  We wish we’d brought bread crumbs so we could find our way back later!

Originally we had planned to park and walk down to The Venetian to see how they did the canals;  but now that we’re here, we afraid we won’t find our way back before the curtain!  Instead we go up yet another escalator to get a drink and sit down before the show.  There are dollar margaritas at the Mexican place which suits Marilyn just fine!  I just want something simple WITHOUT tequila!  A beer will do.  Well…you can’t sit in the restaurant and only drink, you have to order something and there’s no way I can eat another bite of anything.  The chips are five dollars and it seems a cheap price for a place to sit before the doors open at nine.

The beer comes in the can without a glass.  The chips are stale.  The straws aren’t wrapped.  But when the bill comes our waiter has pretended we had refried beans because they are only two dollars instead of the five dollars for the chips.  He changes the whole experience for me with his kindness!

And it’s finally time to go back down for the show.  Everyone queues up and when we get to the front we grab a couple of quick photos with one of the entertainers who is selling fans to benefit the Make A Wish Foundation.

Our seats are wonderful at a table for four about fifteen feet from the stage!  Two other ladies sit with us and they are very congenial seat mates.  It is the younger one’s fortieth birthday and her sister is taking her out on the town to celebrate.  They are both from Chicago where one works for the Teamsters.  They both chose their homes’ locations based on the local school system.

Woohoo!~ The show is starting!  A marvelous chanteuse complemented by  perfectly gorgeous male dancers immediately have us transfixed!  The costumes!  The dancing!  Wow!!

Frank Marino then welcomes the audience as Joan Rivers and we are in stitches from the first moment he opens his mouth!  None of his material is fit for a blog on the internet;  but you can imagine, I’m sure.  After his first schtick, he introduces the first diva, Madonna, and we are off and running.

After each diva Frank comes back in a new and more amazing gown and gives us more laughs before introducing yet another fantastic number!  Many of the divas do two songs and one almost always features the unbelievably talent dancers.  It is obvious that they are all ballet trained and quite a treat for the eye!

Too soon (really it’s been nearly two very-quick hours!) Frank is back to talk to the audience.  He tells us that his show has been on The Strip for twenty-eight years!  It is The Strip’s longest running show and he as not one but two stars on the Walk of Fame!  It’s pretty hard to believe he is old enough for that to be true!  He is selling t-shirts and programs that benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation and also a DVD of tonight’s show, the proceeds of which go straight into the Frank Needs A New Gown Fund!  He introduces his dance captain, too.

Before the end of the night, though, there are two more numbers.  The first begins with one of the performers in drag sitting before a dressing table.  He removes his make up and changes his clothes, returning to his male persona while singing “What Makes a Man a Man?” by Charles Aznavour  It is very moving and I’m relieved that it isn’t the end of the show.

The grand finale is, appropriately enough, “It’s Raining Men” and is every bit as spectacular as the rest of the show.  We’ve been treated to such stars as Cher, Celine, Liza, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Shania Twain, Tina Turner and more!!  Each impersonator has his star’s mannerisms down pat and it is easy to imagine you are seeing the real thing!  Frank tells us how lucky we are that he saved us so much money!

If you enjoyed the show, tell your friends;  if not, tell your enemies!  Might as well help them waste their money!

What an incredible show!  I’d see it again in a heartbeat!  We retrace our steps and find the car with nairy a wrong turn!  Back to Tropicana Drive and home!  It’s almost midnight!!  Tomorrow will certainly be a late morning!