Las Vegas Trip Report, July 30 - August 2, 2000 -- Day Two
Originally posted to the alt.vacation.las-vegas newsgroup on August 16, 2000

DAY TWO: The next day we were supposed to get up early and go to the HR gym to work off our Bellagio buffet excess, but it wasn't to be. Instead we got up at 11am, had a quick breakfast, and then went back to the pool. More sweating, more strawberry daiquiris....

After an afternoon nap, we headed over to the MGM Grand for dinner at Emeril's New Orleans Fish House. Ever since installing my DirecTV dish a couple of months ago, Naoko has been all over the Food Network, and especially Emeril Lagasse. (I have to admit I get a kick out his show too). So as a treat to her, I made reservations at the Fish House (I'm a fish-eating vegetarian so Emeril's other Vegas restaurant, Delmonico's in the Venetian, was out). The MGM always astounds me with how big it is, the place seemingly goes on for miles and miles. Dinner came to $120 incl. tip for both of us, way more than I spend for a fish dinner unless it's the best sushi in San Francisco, and again I can't necessarily say it was worth it, but I did enjoy myself and certainly didn't go away hungry. The only negative was that our waiter was *too* good, over the top with his table-side manners, made worse by the fact that I had to hear him repeat his same spiel to the tables on both sides of us the entire time.

After dinner, we made our way, *slowly*, out of the MGM, again suffering from bursting stomachs. Our intention was to walk down to Paris, but a combination of the heat, our full stomachs, and a blocked off sidewalk due to the Aladdin construction ("there's no way that thing will be done by the 17th," we surmised [it wasn't]), curtailed those plans. We ended up going over to the Boardwalk, I believe that's what it was called. It looked from afar to be low-rent enough to possiblly have a .25 cents Roulette table, but unfortunately .50 cents was as low as they went. Nevertheless, feeling flush from my triumph the night before (can you tell I've just finished Andres Martinez' 24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas?) I bought in for another $20. A short 20 minutes later I was out of chips. Brought back down to earth, and having an early start planned for the next day, Naoko and I decided to call it a night and returned once again to our Hard Rock abode.