It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and Kris and I had reservations at Carmine’s in Caesars Palace for 8pm. Instead of catching an Uber (and having spent a small fortune already), we decided we would walk the mile or two to get there as we would be covering familiar ground and there were a couple things we wanted to experience along the way.
Walking out of the main entrance of the MGM, along the pedestrian bridge, we crossed to the New York New York Hotel/Casino and slipped around the corner and down the escalator to street level. We wanted to see what the plaza near the T-Mobile Arena was like at night as we had heard the water feature was incredible and that there was regularly live music.
As we got closer we heard the band at the stage performing more clearly. I’m not the biggest Metallica cover band fan, but it was cool nonetheless. After a few minutes we continued on, and turned into the main plaza of the arena to view the LED water wall feature. I have to say, it was pretty cool in the daytime, but at night, WOW! I mean it isn’t the fountain at The Bellagio, but cool nonetheless.
Basically, there are 6 foot tall walls made of river rock material that have a gently flowing waterfall over their surface. The “waterfall” is lit by a color changing LED strip that casts different colors of light along the water creating a pretty cool rhythmic effect. We walked around the area for a short period and rejoined the mass of pedestrians clogging all the thoroughfares.
The walk from the MGM to the restaurant in Caesar’s Palace is a mile “door to door.” I would say with our brief detour and the throngs of people it took nearly an hour to get there. I will be the first to admit that I was a bit “hangry” upon arrival. Something about swarms of Chinese tourist grandparents stopping at inappropriate places to consult maps, make phone calls, take photos and plan future roadblocks has that effect on me. Don’t get me wrong, not all Chinese tourists are like this, and I wouldn’t dream of stereotyping their incredible culture. The prior link leads to a very well written article about this phenomena, check it out!
Anyway, I wasn’t rude or anything and as soon as I got my mojito I was good, in fact I made “mojito-face.” For those of you who don’t know what “mojito-face” is, see below. We have “pre-mojito-face,” “”mojito-face” and “post-mojito-face.”
Carmine’s is a family style restaurant which means the portions are pretty robust. We were a bit scared of how much food we would end up with so we badgered our waiter into oblivion and he obliged us by providing detailed schematics, ounces and serving sizes. In the end we elected to order a Bolognese, another round of beverages and finished things off with a slice of NY cheesecake.
With everything right with the world, we wandered Ceasar’s Palace with contentment and eventually returned to our VRBO.
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