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The vet called today to talk about Lina. Worst case scenario, she may have a torn ligament. Which would require knee surgery. Ugh. I have to take her back on Friday to have her stitches out, and we'll see then how well her knee has recovered. If she's still limping on Friday, they'll take X-rays.

The good news is that her stitches are healing up nicely, according to the doctor. She said that stitches on animals never heal as neatly as on humans, because the animals move around too much. She also assures me that once Lina's fur grows back it will be invisible.

Okay, back to the trip report. Monday lunch was our pilgrimage to Lindo Michoacan. Which is the best Mexican restaurant I've ever been to, and I've been to highly rated Mexican restaurants in Texas and Arizona. (And thanks to the Time Out Las Vegas guide for recommending it on our first trip to Vegas, years ago.) Well we got there and discovered that they're still closed from a fire last year. Waa! Luckily there was a sign out front with the address of their sister restaurant, Bonito Michoacan. Thanks to Georg's excellent sense of direction we found it without any trouble.

And it was good! Just as good as I remembered the original. We shared a dish of queso fundido, and then I had the chicken special, "Pollo Michoacan," and Georg had something with eggs. The tortillas were absolutely amazing; we could see a woman making them in a little booth across the dining room. I have to say, it's really hard to go back to pre-packaged tortillas after having fresh ones. The texture is totally different. The tortillas in restaurants around here just do not compare, much less in supermarkets. I wonder if there's a fresh tortilla shop in the Triangle? With the increased Latino community, you'd think there'd be a market for it.

Another table near us had the guacamole appetizer, and the waiter brought out all the ingredients and a molcajete and made it fresh for them! They were able to specify how much tomato, onion and jalapeno they wanted in it. Wow. Next time we definitely have to order that.

After the sublime Bonito Michoacan, we visited the Las Vegas Whole Foods store. It just opened a couple of months ago, and it is huge! They had all kinds of "A store features" like a case where they dry aged beef, a huge prepared foods section with a pizza oven, another case for aged cheese. One thing I really liked was small open refrigerated cases in the middle of a regular aisle. That lets them sell the fresh salad dressings with the regular salad dressings, or sell the milk near the cereal.

Georg gave the bread a critical eye, and declared it not as good as the bread they make at his bakehouse here in Morrisville. We talked about taking a loaf back to show them at the bakehouse, but decided that it wasn't worth trying to transport it. They did have nice looking desserts and pastries, which had a couple of different supplier names on the labels. I think the pastry departments in the stores around here either make their own desserts or get them from the bakehouse.

We were a bit tired and hot after driving around all afternoon -- have I mentioned how hot it was in Vegas last week? -- so we went back to the room and rested up until dinner time. We had hoped to have dinner at Olive's, the Todd English restaurant at Bellagio, but we hadn't thought to make a reservation and they were totally booked up by the time we got there. So we walked over to Caeser's Palace and ended up eating at Spago.

Lunch had been so big that even though it was late, we really weren't that hungry. So we went to the less formal (and less expensive) Spago Cafe out front, rather than the restaurant proper. We shared two pizzas -- one with duck sausage and shiitake mushrooms, and I think the other one was more traditional, with mushrooms, tomato and spinach. They were both excellent. As well they should be, considering Spago's reputation for pizza.

After dinner we walked around the Forum Shops a bit. They have a massive fishtank full of tropical fish which I love to check out. Last time we saw someone wearing scuba gear inside the tank. I can't remember if they were in there for some reason related to the fish, or just to wave at the tourists.

We also went by FAO Schwartz. They have this huge window display of little stuffed animals that move back and forth, acting out a Roman scene. On top was an Emperor on a throne, a banquet, chariot race and so forth. But the scene underground is more sinister: little teddy bear slaves at work, making bricks. One bear was digging earth for the bricks, but when we first saw him we thought he was digging a grave! I also took a photo of the bear slaves making bread in the underground kitchen.

Last we stopped by the Virgin Megastore to get music. Because we couldn't find a good college radio station on the car radio. There was a pretty good Latino station called "Radio Tres Color: Mexicanisimo!" They mostly played music with a lot of accordian and a sort of "oompa" beat -- wish I knew what that music is called, I really like it. But they had really long commercial breaks so we wanted a CD to play in the car. Georg picked up Bally Sagoo's new Bollywood Flashback 2, which was excellent, and I got Paris Lounge 3. Which, to be honest, didn't knock me out on first listen. But then again, I wasn't that crazy at first about London Lounge, another album in the same series. But now I love it and listen to it all the time.

Okay, so that's Monday! Whew, now I can go to bed.