The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the lobby at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas was the exceptionally satisfying click my heels made on the elegant marble floors.  The high domed ceilings surely helped the echo, but the real key was the absence of other noise.  To open any door in this town and not hear the ding-ding-ding of slot machines is a rarity.  One of few non-gaming hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, the Four Seasons Hotel is a true desert oasis.

Vegas is perpetually bright and busy, but inside this hotel, you’d never know that you’re just steps away from the hustle bustle of the Strip.  The hotel lobby and meeting rooms are on the first two floors, but the rooms and suites are high above the city, occupying the 35th-39th floors of the Mandalay Bay tower at the far south end of the Strip.  Strip view rooms offer spectacular views of the entire Strip — you can literally see all the way up to the far north end — but you’re far away from the noise and the hurry of it all.

A stay at the Four Seasons is not, however, the anti-Vegas experience.  You’re still on the Strip, connected to Mandalay Bay and its casino and amenities, and a short walk or ride from many more Vegas sights and sounds.  But those sights and sounds can be overwhelming when you’re surrounded by them all the time, which makes the Four Seasons a blissful escape.

While you’re here, you’ll definitely want to visit the spa, where every treatment is customized to your specific needs and wishes.  I recommend the Vitality of the Glaciers Facial, which uses mineral rich glacier water to cleanse and rejuvenate your skin, or the Four Seasons Desert Oasis Body Treatment, a sensory massage treatment using different essential oils each season.

The Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas is the perfect place to stay when you want to be in Vegas without being surrounded by Vegas.  When you’re vacationing, you crave two things — entertainment and relaxation.  The Four Seasons offers the best of both.

Craps is my favorite casino game.  Everyone’s playing together, rooting for the same thing (except that a-hole betting the Don’t Pass — he can suck it), the dealers are the friendliest in gaming, and the house edge is small enough that even with a small bankroll, you can usually play for a long time.  The rules are complicated, but the basics are simple and the dealers and other players are always helpful.

Last night, I was on a pretty hot streak at the Sahara.  I was having a lot of fun and I had a lot of money on the table.  I usually only play the pass line, one come bet, and odds on each number, but every few rolls, I try to tip the dealers with a two-way hardway bet.  (Two-way bets are one bet for me and one bet for the dealers on the same roll.)  On one roll, I had a dollar chip on the hard eight.  When the guy next to me rolled a pair of fours, I was feeling frisky, so I called out “Parlay!”  I’ve never done that before — usually when a bet wins, I take my money and run, but by parlaying, I was letting my winnings ride, hoping for the 10-to-1 payoff to turn my original $1 bet into a black chip.

My neighbor rolled forever.  I am good at math.  I knew it was very unlikely to see that hard eight again, but I was watching for it eagerly, getting excited over the possibility of my big payout.  With every roll of the dice, my heart beat faster.  And I mean it, this guy rolled for ages.  He rolled about a dozen 3′s, 11′s, and 12′s, but didn’t hit his point or any 8′s.  After about five minutes of this, my heart was pounding like I’d just run a marathon, and I wasn’t even moving!

I could tell that the rest of the table was feeling the same way.  This guy wasn’t rolling 7′s, but he wasn’t hitting any numbers, either.  We were all on edge, and every time the dice went out, we’d all lean forward and look — then I saw a 4… My eyes darted around for the other die — ALSO A 4!  Before the dealers could call out “HARD EIGHT!” I was screaming like a teenager at a Justin Timberlake concert, jumping up and down and hugging the shooter.  I collected my black chip and took down my hard eight bet.  The next roll?  Seven out.

I think that roll is why my muscles are sore today.

Lagasse’s Stadium is a new theme restaurant at The Palazzo on the Las Vegas strip.  That’s Lagasse as in renowned celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, and Stadium as in where you go to watch sports.  This is the restaurant part of The Palazzo’s sports book, and it’s like no other sports book in Vegas.

Chef Emeril, a big sports fan, has been heavily involved with every aspect of this restaurant to ensure visitors an enjoyable dining, sports, and gaming experience.  The menu choices include stadium classics like nachos, burgers, and beer, but also steaks, seafood, fancy soups, salads, and sides, and delicious desserts.  It’s the selection and quality you’d expect from a world class chef, but the prices aren’t what you might guess.  Menu items start at $6, and lots of entrees are under $15.  Next week, Lagasse’s Stadium will introduce a new menu with expanded vegetarian options.

In here, even the worst seat (I couldn’t find a bad one) offers better views than 90% of the seats at any sports book in town.  Each table in the restaurant has at least one flatscreen television to itself, or you can sit in the super comfy stadium seats that face the big screen at the front of the restaurant.  You won’t have to fight over seats with your buddies, because you can all see whatever game you want to see from anywhere in the place.  You can place sports book bets while you eat, and with the PocketCasino gaming devices available here, you can place bets from the comfort of your own seat — and more bets than you ever imagined.  In a football game, for instance, you can place a bet on every down.  Lagasse’s Stadium is the only place on the strip that has PocketCasino.  You could say that Lagasse’s takes the sports book and kicks it up a notch!  (Couldn’t resist.)

In addition to stadium, table, and bar seating, Lagasse’s has a year-round patio, with heaters for when it gets chilly, and great views of the Treasure Island show across Las Vegas Blvd at night.  Then there are sky boxes — semi-private box seats at the top of the stadium — and luxury boxes — private rooms available for group rentals.  The luxury boxes accommodate groups of 5 to 50 people, and each is equipped with televisions, an iPod dock so you can play your own tunes, and a Wii console stocked with lots of games.  Fun fact: Vanna White uses luxury boxes 4 & 5 as her dressing room when she films Wheel of Fortune in Vegas.

Inside one of Vanna's dressing rooms

Lagasse’s Stadium is still a brand new addition to the Vegas restaurant scene, but it’s already become a favorite hangout for celebs and tourists alike.  If you want seats here for a big game, you’re going to need reservations.  For really big games, you’ll need reservations way in advance.  Call 702-607-2665 to reserve your spot at Lagasse’s Stadium.  This is a must for any sports fan.

Las Vegas is one of my favorite cities on the planet.  I guess you either love it or hate it, but I’m firmly in the love it! camp.  Because cards are kind of the thing in that city, and I’m kind of a card player, I get to go a lot, but this week is the first time in a long time I’m going to Sin City and NOT playing bridge 14 hours a day.

I’ll only be in town for five days, not quite enough time to sample every craps table, night club, performance, and wine bar on the strip, but I’m going to do my best!

Stay tuned for a week of updates from the Entertainment Capital of the World!

I’m watching a live webcast from Hilo Bay in Hawaii.  It looks ominous, but from what I’ve heard from friends in Hawaii, everyone near the shores has been evacuated.

If you want to follow along, watch here.

According to Twitter updates under the #hitsunami tag, whales have disappeared from Kawaihae Harbor.  They seem to know something.

Here’s hoping it’s not as bad as Hawaii is preparing for.

For most of us, it’s not like we have a choice which airports we’ll patronize.  We find the cheapest tickets for the most reasonable trips and we go where the airlines and geography dictate.  Sometimes, though, it’s worth an extra $50 in airfare or an extra 45-minute commute to avoid our least favorite airports when we can.  I know that if I can avoid connecting at LAX (Los Angeles) or JFK (New York City), I will, and I’d rather fly out of WAS (Washington-Reagan) than IAD (Washington-Dulles) or BWI (Baltimore), and that if I’m flying out of Florida, my first choice is TPA (Tampa).  I’m also eternally grateful that my home airport, PDX (Portland), is so completely wonderful, because I don’t have a choice about that one.  According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North America Airport Satisfaction Survey, most of the country agrees with me.

Among the large airports (30 million passengers per year or more — mostly large hubs), I would stop short of calling the top-ranked the “best,” and probably just think of them as the least bad.  Basically the survey boils down to how efficient an airport is — can you get in and out quickly, with minimal hassle?  In large airports, the answer is almost always going to be no.  Some are more efficient than others, certainly, and those are the ones that perform best in this survey, but if you’re checking in at a huge airport, expect longer lines just about everywhere, including on your way in and out — baggage retrieval at hub airports always takes FOREVER.

Another main factor in the survey is airport comfort — how good are the amenities inside the terminals?  Shopping, food, internet access, comfy chairs, etc.  Large airports tend to have great selections for food and shopping, but again, long lines…I find that unless I have a long layover, I almost never have enough time to grab lunch at a hub while waiting for my connection.  So in general, I’m not a fan of large airports, though some are certainly better than others.  According to the survey, America’s favorite large airports are DTW (Detroit), DEN (Denver,) MSP (Minneapolis-St.Paul), and DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth).

JFK and LAX both scored very poorly on the survey.  I especially loathe these airports because of the way their terminals are set up, each with its individual security checkpoint.  That means that often when I connect at one of these airports, I have to switch terminals and go through a whole new security line, even though I’ve already done it once that day.  I’ve missed a lot of connections because of this — waiting for trains to move you from one terminal to another is enough of a hassle, but it would be nice if these airports would at least put some trains on the cleared side of the security gates.

Medium-sized airports are the best, in my opinion.  They’re small enough to get through check-in and security without too much of a wait (I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by how fast and efficient the TPA security line was), and large enough to offer a nice selection of retail and dining inside the terminals.  These airports are also usually served by low cost airlines like Southwest, JetBlue, and others, whereas these airlines often don’t fly to the largest airports. And most of them offer free wi-fi.  Topping the survey of mid-sized airports (10 million – 30 million passengers per year) were MCI (Kansas City), PDX (Portland! Woo!), and TPA (Tampa).

Most of us don’t choose our destinations based on the airports that serve the area, but you can choose routes that avoid certain hubs, and most large cities have at least two airport choices.  Do you have any favorites or least favorites?

• Congratulations to Charyn Pfeuffer of The Global Citizen Project for successfully meeting her fundraising goal!  I wrote about The Global Citizen Project on this site, and I’m proud to say that my friends and readers really stepped up to help Charyn meet her $20,000 goal.  For 3 months, Charyn worked hard to raise the money needed for her year-long, worldwide volunteer project, and it came right down to the wire, but she met her goal a mere 8 hours before her fundraising deadline.  Way to go, Charyn!  The Perpetual Tourist blog will be following along with Charyn’s volunteer travels, so stay tuned.  I believe her first stop is Haiti, this summer.  Thank you to all who donated to this cause and those of you who helped spread the word.
• The Samsonite xSpace Spinner giveaway is still open through this weekend — share your travel horror stories (and read other hilarious contributions) here for your chance to win this awesome suitcase.  I’ll pick a winner on Monday.
• I keep adding more tournaments to the Bridge section of this website.  For now I’m mostly adding them as I attend them, but if anyone has any requests, let me know.  The aim of this page is to help players figure out which tournaments they want to attend, and help find travel, hotel, and dining information as well as information about the tournament itself.  Feel free to contact me with any questions or requests!

While the rest of the country is still moaning about snowpocalypse or snowmageddon or whatever other bad not-even-puns you people are using for this winter, the Pacific Northwest has had beautiful weather.  Today’s forecast was sunny and clear with highs in the 60s, so McKenzie and I put on our hiking boots and drove north to Mount St. Helens to take advantage of the perfect hiking weather.

I just got a new DSLR camera and this was the perfect excuse to test it out.  A helpful ranger at the visitor center in Castle Rock, Washington, suggested the Hummocks Trail on the northwest side of the mountain — one of the few hiking areas that’s open in winter.  It’s about an hour’s drive from the visitor center up Spirit Mountain Highway to the trail head, and then the trail is an easy 2.5-mile loop with spectacular views of Mount St. Helens throughout.  Here are some of my pictures from the drive and the hike.

This is the view of Mount St Helens from the visitor center:

Some views from the drive:

Debris from the blast, and by “debris,” I mean the entire north face of the mountain, gushed through the Toutle River Valley, traveling 10 miles in 14 minutes.

A few spots on the drive offer views of nearby Mount Adams, the peak in the middle of the shot below:

The best views of the crater are from Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is closed in winter, but you do get some nice close-ups from the highway.

Inside the crater, the cone is rebuilding itself.  The rate of growth is surprising — geologists estimate St. Helens will be back to its pre-blast height in as few as 200 years.  The 1980 eruption reduced the summit by 1,312 ft, from 9,677″ to 8,365″.  That’s a lot of mountain.  Isn’t this earth amazing?

One of my favorite parts of this drive is the new growth forest.  Young noble firs have such perfectly geometric trunks and branches, it was like driving through computer graphics.

The rest of the photos are from our hike on Hummocks Trail.  We were walking over rock deposits that used to make up the peak of Mount St. Helens — in a way, we summitted the 1980 mountain!

The trail takes hikers to the edge of the valley carved by the debris flow from the 1980 blast.

Life is slowly but steadily returning to the blast zone.  Eventually, forests will cover most signs of the eruption, and wildlife will flourish here, but 30 years since the big blast, the evidence remains clear.  The stumps on this hillside are all that remains after the volcano wiped out the trees that once stood here.

The eruption launched this tree like a spear into the ground miles away from the blast (at least, that’s what I imagine happened here):

When I learned about the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption in elementary school, I pictured a mountain blowing itself to smithereens, but even 1,312 feet shorter, Mount St. Helens remains one of the giants of the Cascade Range.  It’s now one of my favorite places to visit on a day like today.  Read what I wrote about my first visit here.

Posting has been light here on Jianantonic.com for the past few days — I’ve been doing my best to take advantage of the incredible weather we’re getting in the Pacific Northwest, and I’ve got company in town to share it with.  I’ll be posting some updates soon, but I wanted to put this photo up here.  I’m in a hotel in Vancouver, Washington, across the Columbia River from Portland, and we have a magnificent view of Mount Hood right out our window.  The windows here open, but only just a smidge, so I held my camera out to get a photo.  I couldn’t see the display on the camera at all, so I had no idea if the mountain was properly framed — I just took my best guess and clicked.  That bird, which appears to be a bald eagle, had amazing timing.

Travelers are generally outraged that American Airlines will be charging $8 for blankets on their domestic flights.  Nevertheless, the announcement comes as no surprise, and I pretty much expect other airlines to make similar announcements soon.  JetBlue and US Airways already have charges in place.

Can you think of any flight that was ever a comfortable temperature?  It’s almost always chilly on airplanes, and AA is hoping to capitalize on passengers’ silly optimism that their next flight might actually be different.  But you do not want that blanket — even if it’s free.  According to a flight attendant friend, those blankets rarely get washed and are probably dirtier than the airplane lavatory.  So wear warm clothes on your flight.

Even if you’re flying from Miami to Cancun in July, you’re going to want to wear a sweatshirt and long pants for the plane.  Your shorts and tank tops go in the suitcase for when you reach your destination.  This is a no-lose situation.  No one ever overheated because they were wearing jeans, and a full zip hoodie lets you regulate just how bundled up you’ll be, and you get a little extra pocket space for anything you want handy on the plane.  In the rare event that it gets too warm for long sleeves on the plane, shed your hoodie and use it as a pillow (pillows are also no longer free on American Airlines).

While it’s fair to whine about being nickel-and-dimed by the airlines in most cases, blanket charges are totally avoidable, and if you find yourself “having” to pay $8 to stay warm on a plane, it’s your own fault.  Wear layers and quitcherbitchin’.