Las Vegas

Spent four days in Vegas last week and did no gambling other than a dollar in a poker machine, while waiting for our dinner group to assemble. (I know, Scott, such a wasted opportunity!) The K family vacation with Gary's siblings is golf centric--36 holes a day. I slept in and joined the afternoon sessions of 18 holes one day and 9 the next.

We had a great time. Beautiful courses, desert starkness.

i-Phone takes terrible pix or is it me?

Hate to say it, but the group seems to be aging a bit. I heard some complaints of tight back muscles, windburn, and an admission that the best day was the one where they played a mere 27 holes. One thing about not seeing relatives too often is they get stuck in your mind at a younger age and you're truly surprised that time marches on. I laughed at dinner one night at what must be a genetic K weakness.  "No garlic, no onion", the voice boomed to the waiter. Was that my father-in-law talking from beyond the grave?  No, the anti-garlic gene had surfaced in the next generation.

Although we stayed about 20 minutes from the strip, we ventured down to see the Cirque du Soleil Elvis show and enjoyed a wonderful tapas dinner in the newer Aria casino. Amazing that they've sandwiched in several new casinos around the Bellagio, including the Aria and the Cosmopolitan.

On my own I checked out the Mob Museum, in downtown LV, which opened February 14, 2012--anniversary of Capone's Valentine Day massacre. The museum is located in the historic Federal Courthouse/Post Office where the organized crime Kefauver hearings were heard in 1950, acknowledgement that the mob truly did exist and the first steps to bringing them to justice. The museum tries to tell both sides of the story: the mob and the law enforcement. It has a number of  interactive exhibits and photo opps.

Here I am in the police lineup; also fired a tommy gun and stalked a criminal through some dark alleys before our showdown. (I think he got me)  I loved the Las Vegas section with the celebrity and mobster pictures: glamorous Hollywood days with Bugsy Siegel, Frank Sinatra's rat pack, Kennedys and more.  It definitely was not an unbiased National Park Service site--the museum took the position that the mob wiped out President Kennedy, no opposing views aired in that video. And Las Vegas itself got off lightly -- sure, a history of mob influence, but that was looong ago.

Not so squeaky clean was the Catholic Church and our own dear Manhattan College:

Bishops and mobsters at the dedication of Guardian Angel Church on land donated from the Desert Inn (Moe Dalitz and Cleveland mob)

Video on the mob and sports referenced the 1951 point shaving basketball scandal with Junius Kellogg at Manhattan College.

I could tell you a lot more, but as the slogan goes:  "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."