Yeah, that's right. VIP, Beyotch!

This was quite a fun weekend for us.
Through the generosity of a few student's parents, and some lucky good timing, we were able to have what amounted to an eight hundred dollar evening last night, and all it cost us was the tip at dinner time.
We started out by going to the Bellagio to pick up some VIP tickets to go and see "O." The show wasn't until 7:30, but we had to pick up the tickets by 6:00, so we arrived there at around 5:40. The will call line was about a block long, but after a brief trip to the Bellagio's VIP office, we returned to the ticket booth for the theater where we got to completely skip the line everyone else was in by standing in the VIP line. We literally had no one in front of us, though we had to wait for about five minutes. All in all, it was not a bad trade.
Now, normally I hate all things labeled VIP, and the VIP label is a total tourist scam here in Vegas, where it means nothing more than paying extra for no benefit whatsoever. This concept is so asenine that I won't even get into it here. Seriously, read this article about how one couple got scammed, and you'll at first feel sorry for them, but will then say screw 'em for trying to be elitist in the first place.
That said, there IS a real VIP world where people don't wait in lines and where you really do get treated well, and where you don't pay up front. And let me tell you, it's a nice place to visit!
To continue, for those of you who don't know, "O" is the flagship of Cirque du Soliel shows. It's the most expensive, the most intricate, and the longest of the Vegas Cirque shows, and it really is the best. We picked up our 6th row front-and-center seats, the best in the house, and then headed to dinner.
Dinner was at Joe's Stone Crab in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. Between Nick, Erin and me, we had quite a feast. We started with some Pellegrino, and for appetizers we had 6 stone crab claws, fried tomatoes covered in spinach and cheese, and the Best oysters Rockafeller EVER!
The stone crab claws came pre-cracked, so all we had to do was pick away at the shells. Erin was non-plussed though, as she thinks crab is too bland. I thought it was great, and I love the story behind the stone crabs. The short version is that they harvest the crabs in the Gulf of Mexico by cutting off their claws (which grow back) and then tossing them back in the sea, presumably to regrow their claws so they can be harvested again.



This appeals to both my sense of sustainability as well as my sense of pity; I can just imagine some crab being grateful to escape with his life, who, after the umpteenth time of being plucked from the water to have his claw YET AGAIN striped away by some pesky bipeds, is about fed up with the whole situation. It was amusing to ponder the moral dilemma between sustaining a natural resource and being generally opposed to animal cruelty.
After the appetizers, we had our entrees. Erin had Dover Sole prepared God-only-knows how; Nick had Seafood Marinara with lobster, crab, shrip and mussels; and I had a $55 dollar bone-in NY strip steak, which, I'm happy to say, is the first steak I have had in many, many years which was so good it required no doctoring.
For dessert we had coffee and shared a sweet potato pecan pie, which was better than the sum of it's parts, and which Erin is obsessed with finding a recipe to duplicate. According to Nick, "Dinner's so good I'd be happy even if we didn't get to see the show," which of course a moot point, as we were going to see it in approximately 10 minutes!
We left our waiter a hefty tip (since the food was free) and made our way from Caesars to the Bellagio with a few minutes to spare. We got to our seats, and enjoyed the most engaging show I've ever seen.

As far as "O" goes, it's something you just have to see.



I'm a huge Cirque fan, and Mystere has for years been my favorite show, but I really think "O" topped it. It was just plain outstanding. After the show, we came home and just sort of basked in the afterglow of an evening WAY beyond our pay grade. It was fun.
Last night, as we were enjoying a few of the finer things Vegas has to offer, my thoughts kept drifting to my dad. He was a truly talented cook, and he took great pleasure in great food. My dad was also a huge Cirque fan, and I had planned to take him and Nancy (my step-mother) to see "O" when they visited, but sadly my dad died a week before their trip was scheduled. I kept thinking last night while watching the show how much he would have enjoyed it, and it was comforting to know that in spite of our differences, he and I shared at least a few things, including a love of great food and an appreciation of the wonderful thing that is the human body when the creativity of the human spirit is expressed through it, as it so magnificently is in Cirque performances.
So though our night as rock-stars is over, the memory lingers, and in some strange way, last night has made it a little easier to think about my dad, which I haven't yet been able to do at any length.