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Las Vegas - Part 5
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Las Vegas Zoo Gemological Tour, Mirage Buffet, Papillon Helicopter Tours, Rosemary's Restaurant and Penn and Teller
Day 5
We work up again early for another day of adventure. This day even earlier, as Pat from the Las Vegas Zoo called when he was ten minutes away, at 6:45 am in the morning. Yes, I did say six in the morning. It was a gemological tour, and it seems the good rocks start hiding later in the day. Only kidding, it gets a bit hotter to be in the desert with the noonday sun.
Pat is a character all by himself. There isn’t a job he hasn’t done or a subject he doesn’t have cursory knowledge about. He’s wrestled lions, visited Lebanese terrorists, and fought for our country—and all that before you’ve had breakfast. At first, with his slim frame and glasses, you might initially think of him as an academic, but then you get to learn more about him and realize this man makes GI Joe and Rambo look like wimps.
We drove north and then again out into the desert through Indian lands to find rocks. A gemological tour is much more interesting then it sounds, and I will describe why. It was probably our favorite tour this week, but only because it was such a shock and so unique.
At first, I admit that I was nervous. I mean, what can be exciting about rocks?
Well, for the first part, watching Margherita "Brooklyn-born Girl of the Year" climb a mountain is priceless in itself. Watching Mrs. "Grass? What is it?" hiking over a dam and scratch up her elbow was a story in itself.
"Honey, should I be nervous scaling this mountain?" she asked quite innocently.
"No, of course not," I replied, while I was clutching the rock face and her belt buckle for dear life. Her Momma sure wouldn’t be happy if I brought her home in multiple pieces.
We climbed over a small dam and got to some petroglyphs drawn in the rock by Native Americans a few hundred years ago. One of which had the picture of what looked like a cowboy, possibly documenting the first meeting between Indians and Europeans a few hundred years ago.
Back over the dam and to the truck, we then drove to the cliff where we would find "the good rocks." Gemstones, like you’d expect, if you think about it, are gems. However, when you first find them, they look more like the "stones" portion of the word than the "gems" part. They look stony and dirty, but when we took them home and cleaned them up a bit, they made a nice little trophy for our mantle. A trophy documenting the time we climbed the mountain with the mountain man himself, Pat, from the Las Vegas Zoo.
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Standing on the cliff looking for gems | |
After the Zoo, we said our goodbyes to our new friend, Pat, and hit the strip again. This time, we met up with our friends, Anthony and Maria, for the buffet lunch at the Mirage, which was completely distracted by baby conversations.
"Oh, when are you having a kid?" was the theme of the conversation or so I perceived at least.
Fortunately with a buffet you can go and refill your plate at any time, which left me plenty of opportunities to exit at the right time.
After the Mirage Lunch, we spent a few hours talking, and then we said our goodbyes to take a taxi to Papillion Tours for a helicopter ride along the strip at night.
This was the roller coaster ride among all roller coaster rides. The good news is that the ride was one of those things that can go down along with Bungee Jumping and riding an elephant. It’s not death defying, but it certainly can go on your "things to tell your grandkids" list. The view is incredible, and yes, seeing the strip from the sky is unique and puts it all in perspective.
The bad news is that looking back, I’d kill to take the helicopter to the Grand Canyon. For a doubling or so of the price, you can take an hour ride, see a bit of the strip, but also see the Grand Canyon in record time.
This is not, however, for those of you who get carsick. Margherita claims she left her stomach somewhere by the top of the Stratosphere tower.
After the Papillion tours, we jumped in a taxi and rode over to Rosemary’s to eat. Rosemary’s restaurant is a local restaurant that expanded into the Rio hotel. It is simply the most unique restaurant I’ve been to—not for the sake of the meal, but for the sake of the management. This is a family business that serves non-family style meals with a family-style feel. Most family-style restaurants are not known for gourmet food, and most gourmet restaurants are not known for a family feel.
Rosemary’s was the first restaurant we’ve been to that accomplished this. I’m not going to tell you what we ate, although I’ll say my steak was to die for, and the shrimp appetizer was incredible.
This is what I’ll focus on. How they run the restaurant, and one phone call I received. After we ate there, we received a phone call "just to see what we thought of the meal." No, they didn’t call me because they love me so much, but because this is what they do. They ask everybody what they thought of their meal and make sure everything was satisfactory. If the meal was good, they make sure to remind them to come back. If it was bad, they do their darnedest to make it right.
If it means altering the menu with one item that people loved—or removing one people didn’t love. Inviting them back. Donating their kidney. Their goal is to make their customers happy, and it shows. It’s such a unique way of doing business because sadly enough restaurants don’t seem to do that enough, but it clearly works. Everybody is a regular, and the menu is now fine-tuned to what the customers seem to love. It’s as efficient and as caring as you could hope for. And even if they have a hundred calls to make, their marketing director will make every one until her dialing finger falls off.
Regrettably we had to run to catch the show, but it was time for Penn and Teller, my favorite comedians/magicians of all time. Penn and Teller’s show was so unique, it affects your philosophy. It leaves you thinking about life, the world, and magic differently.
They discuss how magic is done, and the illusion of magic. Instead of attempting to hide tricks, they actually show you what they did, but make it clear that magic is the illusion of the mind and that is what you should appreciate.
They don’t deny their job is to deceive you to entertain you, but they want to entertain you. They want to make it clear that they’re not lying to hurt you, but to make you smile.
After the show, Penn and Teller even took the time to pose for pictures and autographs with everybody who wants one; one line for Teller, and one line for Penn. And they waited as long as it took to make you smile.
Back downstairs to the taxi.
"So, you’re going to Viva Las Vegas Villas? Getting married?" The driver asked, repeating the usual mantra.
Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3 | Read Part 4 | Read Part 5 | Read Part 6
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