Oh, dear, I’ve just filled in a questionnaire from The Stratosphere, after 2econd Friday’s stay at The STRAT. Hmmm, I believe the questionnaire is from when The Stratosphere opened (1996). One of the questions asks about what other Las Vegas hotels the responder likes to stay at. It offers The Mirage, Golden Nugget, and others. But then Monte Carlo. And no Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, or anything else built after 1996.
Oops, that’s not a very positive start to a 2econd Friday blog, is it. Positive, positive, positive. Oh, this month’s youTube video is a positive. It is positively funny. With two extra performers, it even required two takes.
The STRAT followed Caesars Palace because of visionaries. And visionary openings 30 years apart. Jay Sarno opened Caesars Palace in 1966. Bob Stupak opened The Stratosphere in 1996. Continuing on the decades-apart theme, this very day, ten years ago (16th of December, 2009) was the grand opening of Aria. The day before that, the Cosmopolitan opened. And two weeks before that, Vdara opened. Mandarin Oriental also opened, to make it a very busy December in Las Vegas. A decade prior was another massive year in Las Vegas. In 1999, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, and Paris all opened their doors. They were to prove to be the final three resorts of the Sim City architecture period of The Strip. Various further plans were afoot, including an idea from the very same visionary Bob Stupak to open a Titanic-themed resort.
And one final decade step-back takes us to 1989, and in act apparently to commemorate my mum’s birthday (on the 22nd of November), Steve Wynn opened The Mirage.
The Mirage opened 11 days before National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation hit the “big screen”. And, whoop, whoop, our local cinema showed it, yesterday evening. Suzy was in attendance, in a fantastic outfit, and will surely be awarded some points for that, and perhaps even more, in the New Year, if she happens to be Special Guest, sometime soon.
Ian and Wendy were also in attendance, and they were Special Guests, at The STRAT. Big laughs were enjoyed. We met at Blvd & Main, where I reckon the nicest member of staff we encountered worked. Drat, I can’t remember his name. He had a moustache. We went to the Top of the World restaurant.
We went to the show called Celestia. Hooray, Tape Face, good news, you find yourself above Celestia. In three months, 2econd Friday has been to three shows. In particular order, they would be Absinthe, Tape Face, and Celestia.
In thirty-three months, 2econd Friday has stayed, dined, and activitised at thirty-three different Las Vegas resorts. Not even that gent who stayed at different Las Vegas Strip hotels for a month did that many. Drat, I can’t remember the name of that book. I do remember Stefan Al, though, and I reckon his writing is easily some of the best about Las Vegas Strip: