2009 Winding down...

My first impression of Aria was hmm, so this is what $8.5 Billion will buy. Granted, I've not seen the inside of the rest of the City Center project. Aria is nice but, in my opinion, it falls short of WOW! I hope City Center is a raging success and that it helps to pull Las Vegas out of it's current funk but I have my doubts.

Today I visited the Aria Spa . At $30 for a day pass it's priced in the middle tier as far as Las Vegas spa day passes go. The experience, however, failed to crack the top three on my Las Vegas Spas list.

My top three, in no particular order:

Encore

Caesars

Mandalay Bay

A few observations from today's visit.

In the above picture you'll notice a vertical pole attached to a column in the upper left of the picture. That pole had small rods protruding from it. As far as I could see that is the ONLY place in the entire facility where you could hang your robe or towel. Even in the showers there are no hooks or towel bars.

Except for the showers, there is no soap available. If you visit the restroom (which doesn't have sinks in that immediate area) and then head to the vanity area to wash your hands you'll be out of luck.

The corduroy robes are now my favorite in town.

The overhead lighting in the wet area and steam room is very bright. Laying on your back requires a towel placed over your face unless you want to stare at blinding halogen lights.

There is a shower within the steam room which is a plus in my book.

When the steam kicks on in the steam room it is LOUD. I was startled EVERY time it came on. Not the most relaxing thing when you are trying desperately to relax.

As you can see in the picture, there are 4 separate hot tubs. Each is approximately 6' x 6'. They re all the same temperature. My suggestion would be to turn the heater off in one of them and make it a cold plunge and to also vary the temperature of the other three.

For the most part the place looks modern and sterile. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how many tons of granite was involved in the construction of the spa. One major exception to the sterile vibe is the Salt room. I'm not sure exactly what they call the room but it is BEAUTIFUL. One wall and one column in the room consists of blocks of salt of varying shades from white to tan/yellow to brown. It is backlit and the effect is quite soothing. The theory is that the salt emits negative ions (not eons, Otis) which are rumored to be be good for you.

(for the record, I reluctantly admit to briefly licking the wall to verify that it was indeed made of salt lol)

The sacred Japanese ganbanyoku room is interesting. Basically you lay flat on a heated surface of sacred stones which were "blessed" in Japan. I don't know how much I buy into the holistic approach to wellness, but I don't guess it can do much harm either.

After the salt and stone exposure I returned to the main spa and promptly fell asleep for about 3 hours. The relaxation I was in search of was aparently found.

Overall it wasn't a disagreeable way to spend the day.

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Look closely. What the hell is Sanitazing? Does it involve tazering something until the germs give up?

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I saw this in the East parking garage at the Palms. What, exactly, would you have to do to someone to piss them off enough to compel them to have bumper stickers made and then paste them around Las Vegas?...and aparently all across the country.

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I am dreading the receipt of my 2009 win/loss statements from around town. I will have to acquire and save them since I need to off-set a rather large win from a couple of months ago.

Maybe I will be so embarrassed by how much money I throw away that I will do something about it in 2010. I make too much money to be poor!

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Although not really a New Year's resolution I've made a weight loss bet with a freind/coworker. By the end of February the one who has lost the higher percentage of the base line body weight will get a 50 minute massage compliments of the lesser loser. Either way, we both need to lose a few pounds.

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Thursday morning I am flying home to Maryland. It's been a year since I've been there. I am very much looking forward to the visit and it looks like they'll have plenty of snow, both old and new for my white Xmas.

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I wish everyone health, peace, contentment, prosperity and love in 2010