Cannery East

Here is a hidden gem of a spot. What a discovery!
Lucky Pete and his wife Carol recommendehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd I try this place. They are frugal coupon folks as I am, and usually well planned, but they were without a room in Vegas and saw the huge sign that new rooms were just $30. Carol told me to ask for a corner room, but I forgot. I merely asked for a room as quiet as possible and I did not ask for view either. I got both. I'll ask next time.
I am on the fourteenth floor and two of my walls are glass floor to ceiling like some fancy NY city penthouse. The view is spectacular with mountains in one direction and the strip, downtown and more mountains in the other. These are long views and very different from other hotels views closer into town. I am watching the lights come on and the sun set over a mountain. It reminds me of the view from the Stratosphere where I often went to see that change from day to dusk to dark and the difference in the colors and patterns and sense of things when the lights come up.
This room would be a vacation all in itself. Lucky Pete's wife Carol told me that she did not want to leave the room and I see why. I am reading the room service menu and thinking breakfast here and I never do that.
Nor do I take a bath. I don't think I have had a bubble bath in two decades. Yet as I showered after my nap, this extra wide bathtub with the circular shower curtain that is out of the way and fine build in elbow rests looked inviting. It is the most comfortable bathtub I could imagine. I got my book SALT by Mark Kurlanski and just soaked. Then I used my new footbrush ( one dollar at the Christmas Store) to brush and defoiliate. This is a great tool. Four difference kinds of surfaces to scrape and sand away old skin and build up foot gunk. Feels great!
Just as an aside, Kurlansky's two books are great for traveling because you can read just a few pages and get some interesting historical focus. This one is the history of salt. His other book is the history of Cod. Or perhaps better put both are world history as determined by the humand search, processing, and regulation of cod or salt.
In the bath I was reading about the salt mines in Russia and Poland and how terrible it was to be sent to work there. Also there was a photograph of wooden carts behind camels transporting salt. Wild.

The room also has a thirties looking reading chair. I am laughing because the chair at the Golden gate was cheaply made and one of the legs came off as soon as I moved it. I could have had it fixed but I hate waiting for maintenance or having anyone in my room but me. I rarely get the daily service. I just call in the morning and cancel for the day and grab something from the maid in the hall if I need more towels.
I learned this trick from Lucky Pete. Poker buddy Slink thinks it is unclean living not to have the maids make up the beds and clean up once a day. I don't see where they do that much and I know that the most vulnerable time for theft from the room is while the maid has the door opened to clean it.
I could not possibly need more towels here. They are plentiful and everywhere.
The decorative theme is squares and rectangles. If I look around at lamps and bed backings and even the wall art I can see that shape is everything here. The curtains are large rectangles of gray and purple. The hallway carpeting is a wonderful jumble of all sizes and colors of rectangles. Carpeting here in the room is stripes which still create long rectangles. They make the room look incredibly long. It is a huge room.
Restrooms in the casino are marked with a wall of tile in squares and rectangles.
The building itself is lit in these really unique squares of lights that change color. It is am amazing sight.
Every so often there will be some curve like the arms of the chair or the lamp on the desk.
I have just left one of the smallest rooms in vegas so this is quite a change.
Outside the lights are changing. I can see the houses and the land and the mountains but everything is decorated with little bulbs like Christmas light strings and a few small signs are lit with lights that recreate movement.
The sky is lit by the setting sun and the mountain sets up a dark outline against it. Clouds pick up the colors and swirl the shapes. It is wonderful because there is so wide a window and such a panoramic view.
All this light and yet I napped well with little sunlight making it through the curtains. I do clip them, but I only could find one clip this time.
Boulder Highway traffic passes without any noise here.
I am enjoying this.

The table for my computer is about four feet by three feet. There are two chairs. The woman at the Golden Gate said the biggest complaint about the renovation is they lost the little table and chair. I told her I used the bed as a table but I did not tell her to took out the top shelf of the cabinet and made the bed into a table, setting that board with computer and mouse on the chair when I slept and back on the bed when I awoke.

Here I have all the space I need.
The Longhorn across the road is lit up.

The counters are all granite. The one outside the bathroom is about seven feet long. There is just one sink, but two distinct sections including two towel bars. The little bar like counter that sticks out is a very nice touch both in looks and function.

I am beginning to consider coming here each trip and using the Tropicana bus to get me to Excalibur for the poker I enjoyed. There is a bus also for downtown and of course Sam's next door has shuttles too for the strip and downtown.

Now the view is more lights than land. I cannot make out separate houses. The cars are more lights than vehicle and colors emerge from the places along boulder Strip. The lights in the strip hotels far way become visible also. And the sky above the mountains is tinged with the last of the days red.

I had been looking for some local bus access to Excalibur as the Deuce is just too impractical at certain times like last night when I actually got off the bus and walked the rest of the way to Imperial Palace where I played poker into the morning to wait for the traffic to clear out.
I like a good local bus route. With my new senior citizen pass the rides are dirt cheap even with the fare increase. Seven fifty for three days unlimited is cheaper than what I was paying. No extra charge for Deuce rides. It is not far also to the Pinball Hall of Fame so that could be an easy bus stopover.

MORNING

Wow. The air is very clear this morning and I can see all the buildings on the strip clearly and then the cluster of buildings that is downtown.

SECOND MORNING

I had to leave the curtains open here my last night. I woke up too early, 4 am, a fine time to call home where it is 7am. While I talked to Elizabeth, I watched the changing patterns of the lights. 4Am light patterns was dominated by the the street lights. Houses were visibly darker. Off in the distance I could see the lights of the strip.

Gradually the lights gave way to morning. Something in the air makes the strip much more visually accessible this morning. And I can see the nooks and crevices in the mountains behind the strip casinos. I look directly at Flamingo or Tropicana, a straight shot to the strip and what looks like a simple bus ride.

I did not use the pool; I don't think it is open yet. The buffet opens in September. I was not impressed with the deli, but other venues for food seem pretty interesting. Last night I took my relatives to Sam's Town buffet and that seemed fine. It is not as good as it once was but for the price it was good and one was free on POV.

There is 10/7 double bonus here and I can play it in nickels or in dimes or quarters. I like that very much.

DISCUSSION AT CHECKOUT

I asked at checkout if this was an unusual room, but it is a standard room. The more expensive rooms with jacuzzi have other amenities as well. Of course, only the corner rooms have two walls of glass. The others only have one wall, still floor to ceiling. All rooms have the great comfortable bathroom. All have a refrigerator.

BUSES

Flamingo is the road right in front of the casino heading straight into the strip. coming back the drop off is right at the edge of the casino parking lot. It would be easy enough to come this way with luggage and one transfer from the 108 or perhaps the 109. I will have to check which one passes Flamingo closest to Boulder with an easy place to stand for the transfer.

POOL

I did not swim but the pool seemed inviting if a bit cold. Laughlin will be warmer and that might make the difference.