Elton John and His Million Dollar Piano

Alison and I decided to take a getaway to Las Vegas. We planned this trip when I heard Elton John announce he is going to do one final tour and then retire. We have talked a few times about making the trip to see Elton John. When we heard he is going to stop performing we decided to head to Vegas before he ends his residency in May. As an added bonus it was a late Valentine's day celebration. Alison ended up taking a work trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma last week. It was super last minute and meant she was gone for Valentine's. This became our Valentine's day celebration and it was honestly the perfect way to celebrate.

We slept in on Saturday morning before dropping off Tex with Blake and Debbie. We certainly appreciate their willingness to let Tex hang out with Blu while we take a weekend away. We hit the road around 11am. We stopped once for lunch and once for gas and pulled into Las Vegas at 3:40pm. We got checked into our hotel and headed off to get some dinner. We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant in Vegas - Emeril's fish house. The food and service are always unbelievable. We started off dinner with wedge salads and crab cakes before Alison had pecan-crusted texas redfish and I had seared Ahi tuna. We finished off the meal with vanilla bean ice cream served over warm pecan pie. It was heavenly. 

After dinner, we walked around the strip. We ended up over by the fountains at the Bellagio where we watched a couple of fountain shows. There are some really beautiful parts of the strip - the fountains, and the neon lights, but there is a lot of junk. It seems like every time we come to the strip the junk is more noticeable and we spend less and less time actually out on the strip. We headed back to our hotel after our jaunt around the strip. 

On this getaway, we wanted to have a relaxing weekend. We spent a lot of the weekend at our hotel. We slept in and enjoyed being together. After a nice morning together we ventured out for a late breakfast/early lunch. We found a local place off the strip called the Omelet house. They had about every type of omelet you could imagine on their menu. It was a good breakfast. 

Next, we went back to the hotel to attend a timeshare sales presentation. We are staying at the Hilton Grand Vacations on the Boulevard. When we were on our way they called us and asked if we would be willing to attend a sales presentation. We have done the head-in-a-vice thing a few times, and it can be a little painful, but the gifts are usually worth it. Since we have done this a few times we know the drill. We engage with the salesperson, but we also make it very clear we are not going to purchase a timeshare. We go through the 90 minutes program so that we can get our gift.

This time the gift we chose was money we could use at the spa. Before we arrived we scheduled a couples massage. I have never done anything like this before. It was Alison's suggestion. It was awesome. It was so relaxing. This may become a staple of future Vegas trips.

The main purpose of this trip was to see Elton John. We headed over to Caesars Palace and grabbed a quick dinner at the Cheesecake factory before heading over to the show.

This week was Chinese New Year so there were decorations all over the strip

The show was amazing! Elton John is a world-class performer. He said he is proud of the albums and songs he has produced throughout his career, but his favorite thing is performing the songs live. He loves the reaction he gets when he performs. He played many of his most famous songs:

1. The Bitch is Back
2. Bennie and the Jets
3. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
4. Levon
5. Your Song
6. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
7. Better Off Dead
8. Indian Sunset
9. Tiny Dancer
10. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
11. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
12. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
13. Philadelphia Freedom
14. I'm Still Standing
15. Crocodile Rock
16. Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting
17. Circle of Life

Every song was fantastic. Elton John sat at his piano and performed. Sometimes he would take a break between songs to talk to the audience. Despite there being thousands of people in attendance he made it feel like he was addressing each individual.

He said a few interesting things, but the thing that stood out most to me was when he talked about how there is too much hate in this world. He said everyone is hating on each other and that he is a big believer in love. He said we need more love and understanding in this world and I agree.

The show was larger than life. The stage at the Coliseum is huge. There were a lot of visual effects going on during the songs. There were many highlights. The percussion during Better Off Dead and Indian Sunset was unreal. That percussionist is so talented. I also really liked I'm Still Standing. While Elton John sang there were pictures and videos of him, from throughout his career, playing on the screen. I always really liked Crocodile Rock. It is one of my favorite Elton John songs. Rocket Man was particularly epic live. The whole show was incredible.

After the show, we called it a night. We had planned to sleep in more on Monday morning, but there was a winter storm warning across most of Utah so we decided it would be better if we got an early start. It was just our luck that the biggest winter storm of the year would hit on the day we were driving across the state. The drive wasn't great, but it was bearable. Some areas were pretty sketchy, but we made it through without any trouble. I-15 was closed in Nephi so we had to take a detour. In all, it took us about 90 minutes longer than usual to drive between Vegas and home.

We were glad to be home. We were happy to see our animals and be off the snowy roads. We ended up having a lot to do to get ready for the week. Plus I had to shovel the walks, which Tex loved because it meant he got to play in the snow.

This really was a fun, relaxing getaway to Vegas. It was the perfect way to spend a long weekend.