A Year in Grenoble

I'm a junior at Arizona State and majoring in French and Political Science. I'm spending my third year abroad, in Grenoble, France. You can read about the city here. This site will chronicle my adventures...

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Viva Las Vegas

After nine thrilling days in Grenoble (and random mountains outside the city, and Annecy), I returned home last night, unpacked, slept and packed again Saturday morning for some (more) R&R in Las Vegas with mon père. We've had a great time so far - Saturday evening's culinary highlight was the superb steakhouse at Red Rock. I gorged on rock shrimp tempura, a so-so Caesar salad and a divine jumbo yam showered in butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. The service was commendable, the presentation impressive and the quality impressive. A "709" (is that an area code?) cocktail fruitened things up: Belvedere Cytrus Vodka, pomengranate and mint leaves. I left with a bloated stomach and a "Absolut Vanilla, Starbucks coffee and espresso" frappucino in hand. Yum. We bounced around: after some time at the Palms, we tottered around Red Rock, then Hard Rock, followed by the Wynn and then a return to the Palms. Hard work.

The most memorable experience of the evening was meeting Al Unser Jr in the Hard Rock high limit area -- well, I didn't so much meet him as I dodged his drunken stagger. Apparently my evasive maneuver was accompanied by a facial gesture, because after passing my table, Al spurned a dealer's invitation to play, because "he [me!] gave me the evil eye." Yes, "the evil eye." However, once Al noticed my light pink polo (he happened to be wearing a similar one), all was forgiven and after complimenting me, plopped down with $600 and gestured in the general direction of the pit boss while uttering, in sounds tenuously similar to the words human beings generally make, a $5,000 marker request. I'm not sure how this man raced in the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago... but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Tomorrow's itinerary includes watching various World Cup matches, soaking up the brutal Nevadan sun, a Swedish massage and other necessities. I took loads of pictures during my Grenoble sequel - around 300 - and will attempt to post them once a reliable Internet connection appears. Highlights include: camping, barbeques, my first snail!, exhausting hiking, Annecy and a near-fatal waterfall escapade.

1 Comments:

At 3:48 AM, Blogger Kathy said...

Traffic must not be too bad for you to have "bounced" from Red Rock, Palms, HRH, Wynn & back. But then, I also know how your dad drives and make a concerted effort to not look forward, but rather sideways! If I don't see it coming, it won't scare me as much. I'll be joining your dad in November or December, and hopefully you, too. We didn't get to Red Rock in April, hope to see it next time.

Do we get to see the face under the fuzz or have you tanned up already?

Will you continue the blog now that you're back in the US?

 

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