Monday July 9th

The day started off typical enough of any summer Vegas vacation. Dropping kids off at their respective summer daycare providers, and finishing up any last second details for our trip. As the afternoon wore on, the wife and I both noted that our stomachs weren't feeling up to par for some reason. The more I tried to settle, the more I noticed how uncomfortable I was feeling.

Perhaps it was nerves, and having skipped breakfast, I attempted to make myself some uber nutritious sodium in a cup, also known as Raman noodles. The show "Ultra Vegas Villas" was actually on an hour before our ride was scheduled to show up. As I'm attempting to clear my stomach one way or another after multiple bathroom trips, I hear the boss say "Kev, they're here." Time to go.

This time I had booked a limo transport to the airport in Omaha. One company actually had the nerve to quote me (and I'm not making this up) $573 round trip for a standard limo. Uh......wha? My second phone call returned a quote of $75 each way. After airport parking fees, and factoring in the convenience factor, it was an easy decision.

The plane ride out was smooth enough. Once we got into the air, my stomach was fine. The flight attendant was nice enough to remind me "this ain't Disneyland, and the ride ain't free." aka reminding me that simply sitting on my seatbelt in an attempt to hide the fact that it's undone won't "fly." Damn it. I was on the right hand side aisle, with my wife in the middle seat. To the lady that had the window....next time, don't bring a god damn gyro on the plane with extra onions. Really? Oh, and the same goes to the dude on the left aisle...nachos with jalapenos don't belong on a plane.

After that I sort of put myself in a type of Zen state with my ear buds popped in. I half heard the music and half went in and out of consciousness but before I knew it we were nearly landed. Unfortunately, I wasn't up to putting any of my free Southwest drink coupons to use.

The plane landed fine, and before too long we were off the plane looking for our driver. He wasn't too difficult to find, and after our luggage finally came up the conveyer belt, we were on our way. Adrian from Presidential Limo would be our driver today, and he was stellar. Taking nearly all of our bags and being very accommodating along the way. We actually made a stop by a liquor store for some supplies. You know - booze, sunscreen, the basics for Vegas.

The boss doing some brain teasers on the plane.

Adrian with our requested sign.

Cheers...I guess?

Brand new limo.

The Boss.

Seat shot.

The boss playing with the AC.

Check-in goes fine and we're assigned room 2895 in the East tower. Once we get into the room, I snap a few pics and we start to get settled. The first thing we do is crank the temperature all the way down as far as it would go. I guess Cosmo doesn't let their AC drop any farther than 65.

I opt to take a shower and relax and the Boss elects to try out the soaking tub. We have just enough time to comfortably waste before our dinner reservations. As time goes by, we notice the air temperature hasn't changed at all. One call to the front desk, and an engineer makes his way up. He checks the room and all appears to be working as expected. A little time goes by, and as we're getting ready for dinner we notice the temperature has actually increased two degrees in stead of dropping at all.

Purple couch and work area.

I believe I'm missing a Fiji water...

Yep, no water there...

Ice bucket and glasses.

Towards the front of the room.

TV in the living room.

Coming towards the bathroom.

Shower and soaking tub.

Soaking tub. Pretty nice.

Bellagio fountain view.

Towards the spa tower.

Paris, Ballys and PH.

Calm lake shot.

How thoughtful.

Terrace.

Show is starting.

Fountains waking up.

And more...

Fancy Schmancy.

Not the worst view in Vegas.

Here we go.

Making some in room drinks.

Towards the bedroom.

Our stuff already covering the bed.

Booze and music to set the mood.

Some prostitute I picked up in the lobby.

Dirty ironing board.

Dusty blinds.

Wallpaper in need of some attention.

To add insult to injury, we noticed a few miscellaneous housekeeping items that could have easily been fixed. First the shades between the bedroom and bathroom were pretty much coated in dust. I'm surprised no one from house keeping noticed before. Some wallpaper in the bathroom was tearing away from the wall, and the ironing board had some interesting stains on it. The last thing we noticed was that the soaking tub wouldn't drain at all. After another call to the front desk, (and another visit from an engineer) they agree to move us to 2395 a few floors down. We arrange with the bell desk to move our luggage, so we pack as quickly as we can so we can make our dinner reservations.

For tonight, our server was going to be Joe. As he led us to our table, the first thing he said was "congratulations" concerning our anniversary. Nice touch. He asked how long it had been, and I mentioned "Eight years...and it only feels like eight minutes...........under water." After both the Boss and I opted for the wine pairing menu, he promptly brought out a bread basket. Now, I've heard great things about the bread basket from review sites like Yelp and others, and we were not disappointed in our virgin endeavor.

All sorts of spread goodness......

Just the top piece...we were warned about the "ravoli" bread

Pepperoni in there too....awesome.

The fountains starting again....

...And again.....

A light white sparkling wine to start us off....

Where to start for the reviews? The bread was simply awesome. The spread involved some panna cotta based spread, shiitake mushroom and tomato mixture, infused olive oil (which addition escapes me at the moment), but we were more than eager to share and explore the offerings presented before us. My personal favorite was the more spicy pepperoni bread towards the bottom. But if someone was going to offer me a dozen of the ravioli based breads for free, I certainly wouldn't turn them down. To be honest, no matter what you mixed your bread with, you couldn't have gone wrong. They were all delicious.

The first course was a duo of yellowtail and tuna "susci." The fish on the right was spicy and had an awesome tang to it. The Prosecco wine accompanying was light and a nice touch. We were also given "compliments of the house" an appetizer of thinly sliced vegetables which were fried, along with some fried calamari and shrimp. It was more vegetables than protein, but not bad. Especially if you tried everything with a portion of the fried lemon.

Duo of yellowtail and tuna.

Calamari, shrimp and vegetables in deep fried goodness.

Prosecco wine.

As Joe would make his way back around to our table, we got on the subject of Scarpetta and Scott Conant's other restaurant locations. Turns out that Scott was actually in the restaurant this evening, so I inquired about getting a signed menu. We were told "of course." Soon after, the next course came out. It was a roasted scallop, truffled white asparagus pink grapefruit (meh) and uni aoili.

Scallop and asparagus presentation.

Polenta.

This was good...

I wasn't aware we were going to be receiving a beef and shiitake mushroom sauce to accompany some unexpected polenta. It was rich, and very good. The beef flavor was certainly evident and the mushrooms worked well. The polenta was creamy and smooth as one would expect. The scallop was "hey, look! A scallop!" and the asparagus was firm and cooked just fine. The aioli wasn't unpleasant, but I wasn't blown away by the dish.

As luck would have it, Scott Conant was soon at our table also offering congratulations on our anniversary. It was a cool gesture and he looks a lot younger in person than the stuffy personality I've seen on TV.

The next course was the signature spaghetti with tomato and basil which was accompanied by some short rib agnolotti. The wine was a 2008 selection from Tuscany which I'm not going to bore you with the naming details.

The pasta was freshly made which is what you'd expect from an Italian restaurant. The entire spaghetti dish was a wallop of tomato, basil, olive oil with a hint of garlic. Good and certainly filling.

Now let's talk about the agnolotti.... I tried it first, and I simply told Ang, "you're not going to like that." and started to slide the dish closer to my side of the table. She of course didn't believe me and sampled one against my wishes. Of course she also loved it, and I ended up having to share my favorite dish of the night. The short rib inside the pasta was certainly savory, and making my mouth water at this very moment. If you can only pick one dish to try, this would be the one.

The next two courses consisted of black cod with caramelized fennel and concentrated tomatoes with a 2008 pinot noir, and then a spiced duck breast, endive, with a 2009 Feudi di San Gregorio.

The cod was done well, but I wasn't a fan of the fennel. It just seemed like too much work to cut through to get a tasting. For me in particular the duck breast was sadly forgettable. It wasn't bad - far from it, but it just wasn't something that stood out in my mind. Great service through and through, and now it was time for the best part of the meal. Dessert.

It was a flourless chocolate cake, and of course had an awesome molten center inside. The toasted almond gelato was smooth and fantastic as well. The salted caramel sauce was my favorite part. Taking a bite of all three together was the way to go. Within record time, dessert was devoured and we made our way out. As we were passing the hostess stand, we again saw Scott Conant (this time talking to a hottie behind the bar). I asked him "What's with all the hate for you on Twitter?" He said some people don't like him, which is fine. But he just re-tweets their comments. Alright, good enough I guess.

We make our way back to the room, and decide that we were both stuffed and ready to crash. The room wasn't much cooler (70 now), and we make the best of a slightly uncomfortable situation.