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11 April 2009

Vegas Vignettes: Day 4, Part 1

Have I mentioned that we really enjoyed our breakfasts at the Paris? This morning our waitress made us samples of their other champagne cocktail offerings: the kir royale (made with creme de cassis liqueur and champagne) and the chambourd cocktail (raspberry liqueur and champagne). Both totally yummy, both potent enough to make you want to sing happily through breakfast. Fortunately, I suppressed the urge. Heh.

After seeing it offered on the menu for the past three days, and unable to contain his curiosity, my husband finally ordered the bacon and chocolate waffle. I can see your foreheads crinkling in a WTF? expression from here. But trust me - the combination of sweet and salt, served with chocolate syrup and REAL whipped cream, was enough to have my husband moaning in an almost x-rated fashion. Then he shared a piece with me, and we moaned together. Oh. My. God. Unbelievably good. Didn't quite throw my quiche lorraine with its side of lovely greens into the shade, but almost.

Fortified by and still quasi-delirious from our breakfast, we started on the first leg of our "be a tourist" day. We took a cab to the Luxor, where we bought tickets to both the Titantic and Bodies exhibits. The Titanic exhibit was breathtaking. Everything, from their recreation of third class/steerage accomodations (complete with the sound and feel of the engines) to their recreation of the ship's grand staircase, was extremely well done. But what really took our breath away was the "Big Piece," a large piece of the Titanic's hull that has been recovered and preserved for posterity. Looking at that suspended chunk of metal, at the crushed glass still in the portholes, we were completely in awe of the force that tore it like a piece of paper from the rest of the hull.

Dodging the photo-sellers and the obligatory gift shop at the end (buy a real piece of coal salvaged from the Titanic!), we headed over to the Bodies exhibit next door. My husband, being a medical professional, wanted to see this most of all; it featured real cadavers, preserved by plasticization. Before we went in, he asked me over and over if I wanted to see this. Having sat through high school anatomy class, and having dissected icky things, I thought, "How hard can this be?"

I should have known better than to tempt karma....

Tune in next time for the unfortunate results of my hubris!

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