Sophie’s last day in Las Vegas — we decided to treat it as a celbration of selling the house, since the money actually went through on Halloween day. We woke up wondering where to get a killer French style breakfast in Vegas. Something like “Cafe de la Presse” in San Francisco, but you know, in Vegas. We weren’t hopeful to match that, but after a bit of online searching we eventually we decided to hit Bouchon at the Venetian, which seemed to be the ticket.
Oh man: that Bouchon is some very good breakfast. Lattes were perfect, and we got — along with our rich eggy entres — a basket of fresh pastries. The pastries were embarrassingly good… embarrassing because we ate so much of them. The whole thing was arguably better than Cafe de la Presse in fact, and wasn’t far off in price, either. Odd to be discovering this at the end of our stay here.
Our first after-breakfast plan was to hit a movie, but then got the idea of doing a spa and couple’s massage, which felt absolutely great. Spent an hour each in the spa later, just trying out the different hot and cold rooms and pools. The spas were not co-ed, so that was each on our own, but still a good recharge.
Timing was perfect: after coming out of the spa we had just enough time for a delicious light dinner before her flight.
After she left I felt sad, at the realization that the Las Vegas chapter of my life is drawing to a close. I really did grow to love it here in a strange way. It’s not a balanced city, and it lacks the easy community feel of other places I’ve lived. But it is special, nonetheless, and I respect it being so different from any place else. I respect that it is entirely a testament to mankind’s effort to shape his world.
Unlike most cities there was nothing here to build from or to. San Francisco would be beautiful no matter what, with it’s dramatic hills and the bay, and it would grow no matter what, as an industry-inspiring costal port. But Las Vegas had to earn its place. It is a pure example of the world that man would create for himeself, as contrasted with the world created by God and/or natural processes. And given that, it is not nearly as bad as one might fear. We’re tacky beings, perhaps, insecure and foolishly hopeful, but we just want to have a good time. And I don’t want to be down on that.
And there’s a lot of people in Las Vegas that I love.