Under the...huh?
Rob and I recently had the opportunity to get out on a Saturday night. Our last "date night" was on our anniversary. Yes, that was back in July. Lame, I know...but we have been a wee bit busy around here. So we were pretty excited when the girls were both invited to a sleepover party last weekend.
At first we considered going to the movies. But after some insightful reflection, we realized that a Saturday evening at the movies would cost us a lot more than almost $10 a person (with crying babies, kickers behind us, and noisy crowds). Seeing the Spazmatics (a local cover band that we love) again was definitely a maybe...until I remembered reading about the new mermaid bar at the Silverton Hotel & Casino. They were supposed to have real ladies who swam and danced under water, surrounded by beautiful saltwater fish. "That might be worth checking out," Rob agreed. With that decided, once we were done with church we headed west.
Now we hadn't figured that parking at the Silverton on a Saturday night would be too difficult. "Who goes there?" we asked each other. Obviously, we were mistaken. The lot was packed to capacity. Discouraged, we drove from lot to lot, trying to spy a vacancy. Just about the time we were thinking, "What movie did we get from Netflix today?" we saw someone pulling out. Not only that, but it was right in front of the main entrance. Cool! This was definitely going to be our night. God was smiling down on us. He wanted us to get out for a while and act like grown-ups!
The mermaid bar, known as Azure~ The Mermaid Bar, was easy to find. It was right next door to the Bass Pro Shop. (Yes, there's a big fishing supply and gadget store in the Silverton. It's not your typical Vegas-style hotel.) Now, we both didn't really know what to expect, but we had figured that it was going to be a nicely sized place, with plenty of seating and a huge aquarium to boot. I wouldn't say that our expectations were lowered, but it just wasn't quite what I had envisioned from an article in City Life last summer.
The aquarium is huge, but not exactly the focal point of the bar. It sits on the right hand side of the bar, directly between the bar and that pro shop I mentioned earlier. The bar iteslf and its multiple TV screens seemed to still be the focal point. Disappointing. "Every bar has to have several TVs," Rob reminded me. There is an area that surrounds the tank which is not exactly inside of the bar. This is where a half-dozen or so children were tapping on the glass and making fishy faces back at it's inhabitants.
Okay, now where can we plop ourselves for a while? What made me think that a bar featuring an aquarium with exotic fish and real-life mermaids would have adequate seating? Aren't they anticipating any business out here? "Well, it was a Saturday night after all," I had to keep telling myself. Obviously, we don't get out much.
Almost as with the parking spot, we noticed two seats (next to eachother) in the front row just as we were starting to lose hope. "See?" I told Rob. "We are meant to be here tonight!"
We ordered some tempura veggies, drinks, and sat back to wait for the next show at 10p.m. That was also the last show of the evening. "Strange for a last show to be so early on a Saturday night, isn't it?" Rob said. But we didn't care. We were there. We had amazing seats. We were eating. All was good.
Then, the lights inside the tank dimmed. The music switched from the in-house hip-hop that was playing to some French techno/lounge song. I couldn't wait to see the mermaids! What little girl hasn't pretended to be a mermaid when she was playing in a pool? This was going to be awesome!.....
I am still waiting to see the mermaids.
Alright, there was a lady, just the one, and she did swim/dance around the tank. But she wasn't quite the mermaid I was looking forward to. No, instead of a fin she had on silver stilletos. Instead of sea shells, she wore a leather bra and some weird kind of skirt. Instead of seeing a "show," we saw about four minutes of her frolicking in the water to an absurd song. Then the lights came back on.
"Is that it?" Rob asked me. "I'm not even sure what we just saw," I answered. "It was different," he offered. "Yeah, you can definitely say that."
We stayed for about another hour, eating Texas brownies and watching the sea life. I have to admit that we found that to be more enjoyable than the human entertainment. I can appreciate her art but she wasn't any mermaid.
The icing on the cake for our lil' evening out was when the bill came. Everything we had ordered rang up at at least 50 cents more than what the menu had said. We even double-checked the menu. We were't trying to be cheapskates, but this seemed like a sneaky way to sucker intoxicated tourists. Neither of which we were. To our surprise, we were told that an "entertainment charge" was added to everything purchased during the show. I guess since we ordered 15 minutes before the show, that counted. This is Vegas, after all.
It was still an evening out. A chance for us to be husband and wife, not Mommy and Daddy. We needed it. Plus, now we found a new place to take the girls to the next time. ; )
At first we considered going to the movies. But after some insightful reflection, we realized that a Saturday evening at the movies would cost us a lot more than almost $10 a person (with crying babies, kickers behind us, and noisy crowds). Seeing the Spazmatics (a local cover band that we love) again was definitely a maybe...until I remembered reading about the new mermaid bar at the Silverton Hotel & Casino. They were supposed to have real ladies who swam and danced under water, surrounded by beautiful saltwater fish. "That might be worth checking out," Rob agreed. With that decided, once we were done with church we headed west.
Now we hadn't figured that parking at the Silverton on a Saturday night would be too difficult. "Who goes there?" we asked each other. Obviously, we were mistaken. The lot was packed to capacity. Discouraged, we drove from lot to lot, trying to spy a vacancy. Just about the time we were thinking, "What movie did we get from Netflix today?" we saw someone pulling out. Not only that, but it was right in front of the main entrance. Cool! This was definitely going to be our night. God was smiling down on us. He wanted us to get out for a while and act like grown-ups!
The mermaid bar, known as Azure~ The Mermaid Bar, was easy to find. It was right next door to the Bass Pro Shop. (Yes, there's a big fishing supply and gadget store in the Silverton. It's not your typical Vegas-style hotel.) Now, we both didn't really know what to expect, but we had figured that it was going to be a nicely sized place, with plenty of seating and a huge aquarium to boot. I wouldn't say that our expectations were lowered, but it just wasn't quite what I had envisioned from an article in City Life last summer.
The aquarium is huge, but not exactly the focal point of the bar. It sits on the right hand side of the bar, directly between the bar and that pro shop I mentioned earlier. The bar iteslf and its multiple TV screens seemed to still be the focal point. Disappointing. "Every bar has to have several TVs," Rob reminded me. There is an area that surrounds the tank which is not exactly inside of the bar. This is where a half-dozen or so children were tapping on the glass and making fishy faces back at it's inhabitants.
Okay, now where can we plop ourselves for a while? What made me think that a bar featuring an aquarium with exotic fish and real-life mermaids would have adequate seating? Aren't they anticipating any business out here? "Well, it was a Saturday night after all," I had to keep telling myself. Obviously, we don't get out much.
Almost as with the parking spot, we noticed two seats (next to eachother) in the front row just as we were starting to lose hope. "See?" I told Rob. "We are meant to be here tonight!"
We ordered some tempura veggies, drinks, and sat back to wait for the next show at 10p.m. That was also the last show of the evening. "Strange for a last show to be so early on a Saturday night, isn't it?" Rob said. But we didn't care. We were there. We had amazing seats. We were eating. All was good.
Then, the lights inside the tank dimmed. The music switched from the in-house hip-hop that was playing to some French techno/lounge song. I couldn't wait to see the mermaids! What little girl hasn't pretended to be a mermaid when she was playing in a pool? This was going to be awesome!.....
I am still waiting to see the mermaids.
Alright, there was a lady, just the one, and she did swim/dance around the tank. But she wasn't quite the mermaid I was looking forward to. No, instead of a fin she had on silver stilletos. Instead of sea shells, she wore a leather bra and some weird kind of skirt. Instead of seeing a "show," we saw about four minutes of her frolicking in the water to an absurd song. Then the lights came back on.
"Is that it?" Rob asked me. "I'm not even sure what we just saw," I answered. "It was different," he offered. "Yeah, you can definitely say that."
We stayed for about another hour, eating Texas brownies and watching the sea life. I have to admit that we found that to be more enjoyable than the human entertainment. I can appreciate her art but she wasn't any mermaid.
The icing on the cake for our lil' evening out was when the bill came. Everything we had ordered rang up at at least 50 cents more than what the menu had said. We even double-checked the menu. We were't trying to be cheapskates, but this seemed like a sneaky way to sucker intoxicated tourists. Neither of which we were. To our surprise, we were told that an "entertainment charge" was added to everything purchased during the show. I guess since we ordered 15 minutes before the show, that counted. This is Vegas, after all.
It was still an evening out. A chance for us to be husband and wife, not Mommy and Daddy. We needed it. Plus, now we found a new place to take the girls to the next time. ; )
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