Las Vegas Christmas 2005 - Our Last Night

At the very end of our wonderful Las Vegas Christmas vacation. We had such a great time!!! I don't think we ever felt rushed or bored, hungry or thirsty, and we enjoyed every single moment of this once-in-a-lifetime treat. This last day we tried to squeeze in every little bit of fun that we could. Dinner was at Savannah's Steakhouse at the Tropicana. Dad had his usual filet (at a steakhouse - of course!!!) Mom had salmon tartare and I had fried shrimp. Dinner was great and we lingered until the last possible second. We still ended up with a few minutes to kill before the show, so we donated to the Tropicana's coffers. And now, ladies and gentlemen... We were guided to our seat, which was actually a half-moon shaped booth. We were on the first tier and the closest booths to the stage. The show was everything we expected and more. We had chosen to go to the "adult" show, which was actually topless. We all agreed later that the numbers where the dancers/acrobats/showgirls were clothed were actually more provocative than the topless ones. The girls have to be in peak physical shape and now that the emphasis is on THIN - many of them had no breasts at all! Well, almost. Here's rundown on the show. It was a "celebration of the female", and started with "Romance: 1850". A royal ball. Not at all what you would expect from a Las Vegas show. The next acts were: "The New Woman: 1920", which featured "Flappers, Vamps and a Tango". "Hollywood Glamour - 1930". The showgirls were on a round stage that revolved with a giantic mirror. It was just like the shows you've seen in the old musicals. "The Big Band Era - 1940" was really cool with swing dancing, "the pin-up" and "The Strip" segments. Then came "Sophistication - 1950" This was your "typical" Las Vegas show show. Big headdresses, lavish costumes, etc. After that came: "Rock & Roll - 1960" - they drove up in a '59 Chevy (I think - correct me if I'm wrong, Dad) and did a rock and roll show called "The Prom Queen". Then "Love & Peace 1970's". Nothing special but still fun to watch. INTERMISSION Wally Eastwood...this guy comes on stage and starts juggling with silver bowling pins - he was really, really good at it. After a while, he stops and introduces himself. (PS - there is absolutely NO WAY that I am going to make this sound funny. After the show we all agreed that he was one of the top ten comedians we had ever seen) He says "Hi folks, my name is Wally Eastwood. My dad was an Alabama redneck and my mom was from Mexico. That makes me a Mexican redneck, I think." Then he goes into a routine whereby he blows ping-pong balls up into the air and juggles them with his mouth. Abruptly he stops "you know, you guys think this is good. Do you know that I do this six days a week, two shows a day? You try going into a bank to get a loan and tell them this is what you do for a living." He interrupted his performance several times to talk very nonchalantly about his life. He was so funny, we were holding our sides. I sure wish I could relay the hilarity - but I can't. After a while, he brings out this box, which turns out to be a piano that he plays by bouncing rubber balls onto the keys. It was incredible. He played "The Star Spangled Banner" but ended up bringing down the house with "I'm Proud to Be an American" - WITH RUBBER BALLS ON THIS PIANO IN A BOX. It was absolutely fabulous. We would have been happy to see the show end after his performance, but there was about another hour of showgirls and song anad dance numbers. It was really great! But we were tired and had to fly home the next day. Fortunately, we weren't leaving at the crack of dawn. We went back to our hotel. Of course, you can't just climb into bed and fall asleep. So...I stopped at the roulette table one last time and won enough to be able to go home with the same amount of gambling money that I left with. (Which wasn't much to begin with - only as much as I could afford to throw away) So, that's our story. It was wonderful - fun, energizing and tiring. And we enjoyed every single second!