A Sad Coincidence in an Unusual Turn of Events
For most of you, Carl and my yearly trip to Las Vegas is no surprise, however as you read on there are a couple of surprises that all of you would not have been able to see coming! We didn't even see it coming! We received an email from Carl's uncle about a great deal at Mandalay Bay. We have wanted to stay on that property for quite a while and were thrilled that the prices were low enough for us to take advantage of it! So I researched the shows as usual and the restaurants to see what we would be doing and what yummy food we would be having. We finally decided, since the only Cirque show we haven't seen was dark during our stay that we would try seeing The Lion King musical. So we made reservations and off we went.

We had a nice dinner at a mid range Chinese restaurant in Mandalay Bay and then to see the show. It was very good! Carl is not the "musical" type but he did enjoy the puppetry and the stage design and the music. I agreed, however, there were a couple of slow parts that could have been left out (there are reasons that those scenes were not in the animated film!).

The next day we decided after a nice big breakfast, that we would take a walk and then go out by the pool for a few hours. I am not a lie-out-in-the-sun type anymore and especially in Las Vegas where the temperature was about 100 (yes, dry, I know, still hot!) so we were looking for some shade. Well, it was packed, and absolutely no shade to be had. Carl decided we could afford to rent some nicer lounge chairs with an umbrella. Sounded good to me! This included a big bucket of ice and all the water bottles we could drink! Very nice! So we had a nice private little area for a while. We watched people, went in the wave pool and then as we were watching people, a family of four decided to rent some chairs and an umbrella too. The only ones available were to Carl's left. So the family settled down beside us. We nodded our hello's and resumed our conversation. Well, with my sunglasses on I studied our neighbors...The gentleman looked very familiar. Well, after a while (he was beside Carl), we got to talking a bit and I noticed his voice. Well, that cinched it! We were sitting next to Jermaine Jackson and family? So, now you are thinking, Wow, what a coincidence, right? I was totally unprepared to hear of Michael Jackson's passing today and I thought back to how nice his brother was (we never mentioned we knew who he was) and what a nice conversation we had with him and his lady friend. We have never seen anyone famous in Las Vegas before! He mentioned that they have houses in both LA and Las Vegas. He said that their nephews were visiting and that they thought it would be nice to go to a nicer fun pool than at the house. The boys (I later found out) are his sons from a prior marraige and he is in the middle of a custody battle because his ex has been accused of child abuse! I can only assume that he didn't want his children talked about in case anyone did recognize him. He was also with a blonde lady who was definitely not his last wife or any girlfriend that has been linked to him.

He spoke so softly that I could barely hear anything he was saying, but Carl talked with him a bit. As we talked, he asked what shows we've seen and we said most of the Cirque shows, he agreed that they were all good! I asked him if he had ever been to the Red Square Restaurant (where we had decided to eat) and he had and highly recommended it.

After that bit of light excitement we went inside and got ready for our evening. Here we are...Dinner at the Red Square Restaurant. I had Salmon with mushroom risotto and puff pastry and Carl had Filet Mignon Stroganoff. Both were delicious!

This was the dessert! Yummy! Carl had lava chocolate cake with warm strawberries and ice cream, and I had my favorite...Creme Brulee! Love the presentation!

This is outside the restaurant, the statue is of Lenin without his head. In the restaurant, you can go into their Vodka Ice Vault and drink off of Lenin's head. I think you have to buy a bottle of Vodka from the Vault (a $200.00 min.) but the food was phenomenal!

So as you can read, we had a great time and rubbed elbows with a celebrity. I did feel sad today knowing he had to cut whatever relaxing time he was having to rush home without even having the opportunity to say good-bye to his little brother.

So, even though Michael Jackson's life has been rather a freak show, his brother seemed very down to earth and I am sorry for his loss.