Hotel Mode

So we jumped into the Night Rangermobile and headed instead to our last stop: the Oak Room at the InterContinental Hotel by the Plaza (formerly the Fairmont, the Ritz-Carlton and the Alameda). The Oak Room is best described as contempo-swank. As usual, an older crowd sat around inside and listened to a jazz trio. We eschewed that scene and headed to the outside deck, where a much younger crowd reigned. That's where we met our first nonlocals of the night: 37-year-old Carla and her fiancé, 32-year-old Santiago. They live in Omaha — she's a pharmacist, and he's a commercial cleaning contractor. "She's sleeping with the cleaning guy," Santiago said.

"He made sure he wiggled as he pushed the machine down the aisle," Carla added.

They soon wiggled off, and we joined a large group sitting nearby. Hillary, a bartender at McCormick & Schmick's, was celebrating her 24th birthday. We asked her friend, 25-year-old Ashley, if she had any good stories to share about Vacation Mode. She and Hillary recently visited Las Vegas for the first time, but all she said was, "Oh, my God, it was too much fun. In Vegas, every place is a bar."

Well, perhaps in time, KC will pick up Vacation Mode. Until then, in Zagat terms, we'll be the ones "hanging out by the bar," "trying to talk to people" and "not drinking an overpriced martini." We're sure Barbara Bush, the Silver Fox herself, would vote for that.