We were let off at Palm Beach International airport by our good friends, Chuck and Mary Johnson. I met Chuck when I was 13 back in 1968 playing basketball at the outside courts at Stuart Middle School. Chuck was in his first year of teaching at my alma mater, Martin County High School. Mary was sitting in their red Mustang with their six month old child. Back then you trusted people. I don’t think that relationship would evolve today.
Using American air-miles, we flew to Chicago first, then Las Vegas. Back in 1992 on a canoe trip at Johnathan Dickenson State Park, John and Judy Wakeman encouraged us to get “a credit card that accumulated air-miles.” We have been accumulating ever since those times, and most of our longer flights were paid for by air-mile points. We prefer using Capitol One (now you know what’s in my wallet), but lately using the Gold Card of American Express. There are a number of airlines we use like Hawaiian Air and Virgin Atlantic that are associated with AMEX.
As we flew over Palm Beach, we could not help but see the Flagler Hotels. These places are icons of that area. We were most intrigued when we flew over the Canyonlands, a place we had visited three years ago.
We have always enjoyed Las Vegas. It is so mesmerizing. Mostly we walk in and out of resorts and casinos. This time we did take the Eiffel Experience at the Paris Casino. We loved watching the Bellagio Fountain in action, a sunset and the views down Las Vegas Blvd. We found a two-for-one coupon on the web, exactly half what it would cost going up the real Eiffel in Paris. Ironically, the L.V. Eiffel is half the length.
I did get up early one morning to take pictures of “Tulips,” and “Popeye,” sculptures of Jeff Koons in the Wynn Resort. They are my favorite modern sculptures. The going price tag is $32 and $28 million respectfully. At 4:00 A.M Las Vegas is still alive, but no one was around Tulips except Keith, A Wynn Security Guard. Tulips and Popeye are guarded 24/7. Keith was from Pittsburg and has worked for Wynn the past seven years. He works the 9:00 to 6:00 A.M. shift, has a wife and a grown-up daughter.
We ate several times at Happy Hour at P.F. Chang’s at Planet Hollywood. On Tuesday, my Chang’s ribs cost $7; on Thursday they were $12. The menu was changed! The manager, Mike Focken, did give us credit. The next day we came back and continued our nice conversation with him. We told him that our sojourn is to take us to Honolulu where another P.F. Chang’s is located. He went into his office and gave us a gift card for $25. That man didn’t have to do that.
On our last day, we were floating around the Cosmopolitan Resort and came across a restaurant that sold pizza. You had to literally go down this dark corridor to get to it between two other fancy restaurants. The place had “no name.” It is called “The Secret Pizza.” It was one of the very best slices I have ever eaten. I ordered my slice well done, and it came out, well done.
