The Bellagio

Two years ago Sally and I went to Las Vegas to see a Monet exhibition at the Bellagio. This year we went to Las Vegas to see an exhibition titled The Impressionist Landscape From Corot to Van Gogh at the Bellagio. In some ways the exhibition was disappointing because a number of the paintings were pre-impressionist and a number were postimpressionist and several of the impressionist paintings were the same ones we saw the last time we were in Vegas. However, we liked a number of the pre-impressionist painting which included some beautiful paintings by Jungkind and Boudin. We saw one Alfred Sisley that both Sally and felt made the entire trip worthwhile. Overall, we have really enjoyed the exhibitions that we have seen at the Bellagio and have considered it well worth the drive.

The Venetian

On our previous trip to Vegas we stopped by the Venetian to see and art exhibit and this time was no different. The Venetian had an exhibition called Rubens and His Age at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum. Although Sally and I are only moderately interested in Dutch masters, we both enjoyed the exhibit.

This time we walked through the Venetian for the first time and were impressed with the general theme. Inside the Venetian they have replicated Venice. When we visited we saw Venice at it would appear at twilight. They had put up an evening sky, and it was very convincing.

The Mirage

On our previous trip to Las Vegas we visited Sigfried and Roy's secret garden. Sally liked it so much that we visited it again this year. We both enjoyed the dolphin show and looking at the white tigers and lions. Sally is always happy when she gets to visit the animals. Some kids never grow up, I guess.

It is difficult to photos of the animals because the move so quickly. This time I used the movie mode on my camera to take some videos of the animals so I was actually able to get photos of the dolphins doing flips.

Sally also loves the dolphins, and we enjoyed them very much.

The Strip

Sally and I didn't spend as much time on the strip as we did on our previous trip. This time we tried using the monorail to get around. For the most part the monorail was a disappointment. It was very expensive and there was a very long delay between trips. I really got the feeling that they had purposefully sabotaged the monorail so that Americans would say "God mass transportation sucks". It seemed liked they intentionally wanted the experience to be bad so that people would say "I'm never giving up my car".

Our Hotel

We stayed at the Clarion hotel just off the strip. We had used Expedia to book our trip and Sally had booked a suite. When we got there we found that there were no more suites and we had to accept a room with two double beds. This sucked because the beds weren't quite big enough for two people and on the second night we slept in separate beds because it was much more comfortable. Expedia doesn't guarantee the room type, yet another reason for not using Expedia. Microsoft--the Evil Empire--strikes again.