Editor’s note: Penny Schwartz’s Yellow Brick Road column features places of interest within a day’s drive of the Laguna Woods.
My Yellow Brick Road column has led me to many places within a day’s drive of Laguna Woods, but this time when I followed it, I ended up at the Yellow Brick Road.
As a lifelong superfan of “The Wizard of Oz,” I asked my personal wizard (my husband) to grant me a chance to see the enhanced version of the 1939 movie at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Finally this month, I clicked my heels during an easy 41/2-hour drive to Sin City to see this much-hyped cinematic extravaganza.
I’m happy to report that the event did not disappoint. There on the screen were all my beloved friends from Oz in larger than movie screen size.
The experience could be described as 4D. The use of AI has widened the background and viewing area so that it wraps around and above the audience. When Dorothy got caught in the cyclone, for example, audience members did too. Wind blew through the theater, the seats shook, and dead leaves swirled around us. (I snagged one as a souvenir.)
When the trees in the enchanted forest threw apples at Dorothy, an orchard full of red foam balls fell onto the viewers. (One fell just out of reach in the row ahead of me.)
The multisensory experience was all I could have hoped for, and when Dorothy declared, “There’s no place like home,” my eyes filled with happy tears. I have always felt that all the wisdom of the world is contained in this magical movie. And even though about 15 minutes were cut from the original, the result still sang and rang true.
Las Vegas has long been the land of entertainment, but there’s as much to be found outside the traditional hotel showrooms and lounges as inside them.
Our son recommended that we visit the Meow Wolf Omega Mart, part of a complex of entertainment venues a short drive from the Strip. Meow Wolf began as a collaboration of artists in Santa Fe who wanted to display their art to the public in an interactive way. What developed was an immersive experience that allows visitors to interact with the art in bizarre and mind-bending ways.
The mart itself is great fun, with all sorts of products that at first glance look familiar but turn out to be parodies when you look closer and read the labels.
My husband could not resist purchasing a can of nut-free salted peanuts (100 percent salt) as well as a can of dehydrated water. I was intrigued by the pyramid display of “Camel’s Sops” with multiple varieties of the familiar soup brand with the similar name. The display is topped with a replica of a camel.
As you wander the mart laughing at all the gag items, you can open a freezer door or wander down a hidden aisle into a psychedelic world of art displays, lights, multiple levels and doors to mini-milieus. Each is clever, original and mind-blowing in its own way. There is also an obscure story line to follow if you’re clever and game enough.
Meow Wolf (whose name came from a random drawing of words from a hat) experiences are not for the faint of heart or mind, but its Las Vegas incarnation is worth checking out for the bizarreness factor. The art collective has venues in its original Santa Fe as well as other major cities, and each has a different theme. Look for a Los Angeles version this year.
Another Las Vegas rendition of a digital and video new-age extravaganza is Arte Museum, which we visited last fall in New York but looks to be the same here. Huge walls of water, fields of flowers and starry skies are replicated on video in a variety of rooms through which you wander at will, awed by the enormous scale and spectacle of the marvels of nature.
We did attend a traditional show, choosing to see Piff the Magic Dragon at the old-timey Flamingo Las Vegas. This comic magician puts on a delightfully entertaining 90-minute show featuring his Chihuahua, Mr. Piffles the Second.
Dressed in a dragon suit, Piff catapulted to fame after an appearance years ago on TV’s “America’s Got Talent” and has captured the attention of audiences ever since. He relishes sharing the fact that his current dog star is a clone of the original, who died a couple of years ago. And for a mere $120,000, you can order your very own Mr. Piffles, to be delivered in a year or two.
Besides the entertainment, the other reason we go to Las Vegas is for the food. Oh, and did I say we went for the food?
While we fashion ourselves to be foodies, we are quite happy to chow down on Nathan’s hot dogs or freshly baked New York pretzels (I’m from New York, after all). Going high-end, however, is a rare treat that we indulge in Vegas by eating at Joel Robuchon in the MGM Grand.
Although this eminent French chef died several years ago, his standards of beauty and quality have been kept up by younger chef Eleazar Villanueva, whose kitchen we toured at the end of the meal. Platings that were works of art featured delicacies such as caviar, foie gras and lobster, but humbler foods also elevated to greatness were the potato, daikon radish and grapefruit in the multicourse tasting menu.
One of the highlights is the bread cart rolled out at the beginning of the meal, right after the waiter shaves off a roll of unctuous French butter from a huge golden mound. The bread cart holds a mind-boggling array of varieties beautifully presented and enumerated by the waiter.
If you have deep pockets and a yen to experience a Michelin three-star (highest rating) restaurant, you will not be disappointed.
The number of celebrity chefs with restaurants in Las Vegas is legion. We also dined at Emeril’s in the MGM, where we enjoyed gumbo and blackened red fish prepared Southern style. My husband needed to visit Hell’s Kitchen at Caesars Palace as he is addicted to the Gordon Ramsay shouting match of a cooking competition show. The meal of Ramsay’s iconic scallops and beef Wellington was quite fine, finished off with that sweet and delectable British dessert, sticky toffee pudding
As I said, we are happy with humble as well as elevated eating experiences, and during a dinner visit to Battista’s Hole in the Wall near the Flamingo, we delighted in an old-fashioned meal of minestrone, spaghetti with meatballs and eggplant parmesan, accompanied by that yummy garlic bread that used to be a staple of Italian restaurants. And bottomless white or red wine comes with the meal.
This eatery has been serving customers since the early 1970s, when it truly was a hole in the wall.
After nearly three days filled with nonstop activity, we packed our bags to head home. But not done with Nevada quite yet, we headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just west of Las Vegas. I have read about this place of natural beauty for years but never made the time to visit.
The easy drive along the one-way loop road brings you to many views of red and white sandstone layered with white limestone in all manner of fascinating formations.
After the noise and cigarette smells of the casinos and lounges, the fresh air, natural beauty and leisurely pace were a welcome antidote to the frenetic activity of the Las Vegas Strip.
Nor did we go hungry as a stop at Cottonwood Station in Blue Diamond just south of the park offered a delicious lunch.
Fortified by sights, sounds and sustenance, we hit the Yellow Brick Road for home. After all, there’s no place like it!