still catching up on last week's trip

When we left our story, it was Sunday night. We'd enjoyed some really good burgers and everyone was safely ensconced in their rooms at the Trop. MF-ing Trop, man! I'm trying to pay close attention to all the little things about the place that I love so much - the hall of old Vegas photos, the stained glass over the casino floor, the mermaids & shells motif over the entrance - since this might be the last time I see them. I know the Trop has no scheduled implosion date (unlike Stardust) but it seems inevitable now that the property's been sold. And you never know when the next trip might be.

Monday morning Sarah and I got up early (as is usually true, at least for the first few days of any Vegas trip) and walked around the four corners. I got some coffee. We saw a couple of happy Swiss fans on their way back, probably from watching the game at ESPN Zone in New York, New York. We met up with Pru, Lisa and Rob and we decided to monorail it up to Paris for pastries at Le Notre. Fabulous, as always. Altho many of the casinos had seemed, if not empty, at least somewhat below maximum capacity, Paris was mobbed. Big lines at almost all the restaurants. Maybe it was just a time of day thing. After powering up on pastry and caffeine, we finished checking out Paris, then went across the street to Bellagio. The conservatory was amazing. It was all trees, and logs and carved wood and model trains. I'm finding it difficult just at the moment to conjure up words to adequately describe it. Lisa called it a magical forest, and that's pretty close. Go look at some pictures maybe instead. One funny thing (to me, at least) is how surprised I was to see the way they'd decorated the conservatory. I think because if you go to Bellagio's website they have one picture for each season and I'd seen most, if not all of the designs pictured. Somehow in my mind I'd gotten the idea that those were the only designs they had and they just rotated them from season to season. Which is ridiculous, retrospectively. Of course, with the money they're spending, they're going to be doing a new design every time.