Day 17-LA County Dept. of Health urges masking indoors
the Bellagio Conservatory…beautiful…
Sawdelles…at the Bellagio…
7/15/21. Thursday
6:45 – 7:45 - Up and straight to the shower. This is way too early for me and I slept poorly, again, last night. Shower. Lotion. Light make-up. Covid-19 uniform. No coffee (sad face emoji). I’m out of the bathroom and out of L.’s way by 7:45 and the rest of my toiletries are packed. I wake up L., but this time she scolds me and says she has an alarm. L. is not a morning person.
7:45 – 8:30 – I ‘publish’ today’s class content for my summer class and read Widowish while L. is getting ready. Then, we leave, take two elevators, and meet everyone at the penthouse. It’s a miracle that L. and I are on time at this early hour-I wasn’t sure we’d make it. S&M are already there, of course.
8:30-9:00 – More elevators to the parking garage so M. can drive us to Sawdelle’s at the Bellagio. M. really knows her way around Vegas and the side streets – we arrive at the Bellagio self-parking lot in no time and walk through the lobby. This restaurant is so pretty and decorated in creams and mint green pastels, with an ornate ceiling and lots of molding. There is no social distancing here and every table is full. On a Thursday. At 9:00 a.m. I don’t understand it – is everyone on summer vacation? I mask as I walk through the restaurant but once we sit down the mask comes off and I pray I don’t get infected.
9:00-11:00 – I’m not much of a breakfast person, so I order coffee, of course, and the avocado toast – it may be the best avocado toast I’ve ever had! This is the family’s last day together so we linger and talk about our summer plans. S&M are “hotel hopping” – they were here two days before we arrived – and will continue to “hotel hop” after L., Mom, and I leave today. As an aside, S&M plan to move to Vegas once my brother retires – they love it here. I don’t have anything else on my summer agenda, but L. is scheduled to leave for South Carolina next week so she can visit her Dad.
11:00-12:00 – We exit Sawdelles and enter directly into the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens. This is an indoor garden, inside a huge atrium, and I mask, of course. Virtually nobody else does.
Every season, Bellagio’s horticulture team transforms the 14,000 square foot Conservatory into a huge and beautiful display – each season has its own theme. Summer season’s theme is Eco: A Season of Earthly Awareness. There are 30,000 flowers and plants, and not ONE dead flower or leaf ANYWHERE. The sculptures are so beautiful, especially a 25-foot sculpture created from blond wood and flowers, that looks like a giant nymph, but represents Mother Earth. I posted it at the top of the blog. The garden beds are artistically designed to represent earth, wind, water, and fire. I absolutely love it!
We browse through a cute, little garden shop and I see several sculptures that would look great in my backyard, BUT, I’m maxed out on space. Adding just one more plant to the mix would probably result in a hot mess.
We leave the Bellagio and return to the Mirage, just in time for check-out. L. and I return to our room for our luggage, and S&M take Mom back to the penthouse so she can get her luggage. I wait in the lobby while L. takes the two elevators to the penthouse to fetch my Mom. Then, we make the long trek through the casino to valet. It’s a 10-minute wait for the car and we’re off. Bye Vegas!! (sad-face emoji). This was such a fun trip!
12:00-4:00 – We get gas, hit the road, and I reach Mom’s house around 4:00. The last 30-minutes of the trip, a large rock hits the windshield and cracks the glass. The last 30 minutes of the trip!! Mom grabs her luggage and L. and I make the final leg of the journey to our house. I’m stressed out about the crack – this is going to cost me. If I claim it through my insurance, my rates will go up. Paying out of pocket is the better alternative, but how much will that cost me? OMG
5:30-6:00 – Home and L. and I run to Enterprise to return, what my Dad calls, “the behemoth.” They close at 6:00 so I just made the cut-off. Gas wasn’t a problem because when I received the car, there was only a ¼ tank in it – I actually have a ½ tank left. I think the Escalade gets good gas mileage…
I ‘man up’ and tell the employee that a big rock hit the windshield and now there’s a huge crack in it. I embellish so they will think the crack is small when they actually see it. This tactic works – the employee can’t even find the crack because he’s looking for a soft-ball-sized divot when the actual damage is about the size of a silver dollar [remember those?]. Anyway, he surveys the damage and says it doesn’t count because the crack is under 2 inches. Whew! What a relief!
6:00-6:30 –L says she needs air in her tires so we run to American Tire and ask an employee to do it since neither L. nor I knows how to work the air machine at the gas station.
6:30-8:00 – Return home and I unpack everything and start a load of laundry. The dog is ecstatic to see us, so L. and I let her upstairs to spend time with us while we unpack.
8:00-9:00 – I haven’t exercised in two days so I do an Insanity Max-Cardio workout.
9:00-9:30 – L. and I take the dog for a walk – she’s so happy to be out with us!
9:30-10:00 – I straighten the kitchen and ready my coffee for tomorrow then;
10:00-11:30 – L. and I watch the first two episodes of Catch and Kill, featuring Ronan Farrow, the journalist. This is a recommendation from my Mom and L. and I really like it.
11:30-12:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed. Long day.