Star Trek Convention, Las Vegas 2008 - Day Six
11 August 2008, 1:15 AM

Today we slept late. In fact, we didn't get up until about 1pm or so! We took our time getting ready, then headed out to the monorail on the tickets we bought last night.

This was the first time we'd gone out during the daytime, so we really felt the Las Vegas summer heat bearing down on us. Luckily we were indoors most of the day, so it didn't zap our energy. We took the monorail on down to the Bally/Paris Las Vegas hotel, listening for the last time to the quirky recorded jokes between each stop.

We ate at the Kitchen Buffet in the Paris hotel, the same restaurant that we'd passed up for the creperie on our first night in town. This time there was hardly any line, but we still had to wait 15 minutes before we were seated. At $54 for the two of us, it was an expensive buffet, but well worth it. It was, along with the creperie and Casa Nicola, the best eating out experience so far in Las Vegas. Done up like a French village, with buffets organized by regions and including a salad and dessert buffet, it was quiet, relaxed and very tasty. We lingered quite a while, taking our time after the main meal before we tried desserts. When we left we decided that, although we were going to try Quark's in the evening, it would probably only be for appetizers and drinks.

After eating we decided to do the shopping mall thing and took our time leisurely strolling through the Paris shops. We might have gone up the Eiffel tower replica for a view of Las Vegas, except that it seemed it was only for the restaurant. (At least that's what Jeff was told at the base where we asked.)

Outside we walked down the strip to the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace. At various places along the strip were people who would offer you very-nearly-porn cards for various strip clubs or sex phone lines, and inside the hallways of the hotel we often got stopped with a question, "will you be here tomorrow?" by what appeared to be Casino employees trying to sell tickets to various shows.

We checked out a few galleries and other interesting Forum shops, but mostly just window shopped, checking out the fashion on display. We stopped to the "Fall of Atlantis" animated water fountain at the end of the shops near the Cheesecake Factory. How appropriate! It was an incredibly cheesy spectacle, but what can you expect out of a water fountain in a _mall_. Still, it was fun to watch, and the flame-throwing sword was neat. By the time we finished the mall, we were beat, having walked quite a bit. We headed back onto the monorail and back to our rooms, stopping to check how late Quark's would be open. (Until 10 p.m.)

The visit to Quark's Bar and Restaurant was mostly just to say we'd eaten there. It might have been a cheaper choice than some of our other choices during the week, but it was mostly your typical greasy burger food. (In fact, later when we walked down the hallway to the central tower of the hotel we found several eateries that would have been a bit easier on our budget. Oh well.) Throughout the week we had seen a lot of people try the signature alcoholic drinks: the Warp Core Breach and The Borg Sphere, which were served in huge round glasses with lovely fog spilling out of the drink.

I ordered a "Saurian brandy", a gold colored drink that was pretty good. Jeff had a tall milkshake and the Talaxian Turkey Wrap, while I had Trip Tucker's Chili and Chips. A tall Andorian stopped by our table and chatted with our waiter. All the while we watched the monitors with various shows playing. I could see the movie "Star Trek: First Contact" playing on a monitor in front of me and Jeff could see a Deep Space Nine Episode "Trials and Tribulations" from his perspective. He also got to see the Star Trek movie trailer for the first time, (I didn't know he hadn't seen it!) and there were clips for various shows playing on another monitor. I noticed there wasn't anything from Enterprise in the clip show.

Hoping to be able to sit together on the flight back home, we checked out the business center (closed) to try to print out our boarding passes. Tomorrow we head home. (Postscript: Luckily the fact we checked in online locked in our cattle-call number and we were able to print out boarding passes there that allowed us to get on the plane early enough to choose seats together.)