Las Vegas Baby!

Wow. I’ve been to Reno. I’ve been to Lake Tahoe. But I’ve never been to Las Vegas. I was totally unprepared for the experience. Maria has been to Vegas three or four times before, so she knew what to expect, though she discovered a lot of changes.

We started off on a 7:30 am flight from Austin to Las Vegas on Saturday morning. We had to be at the airport at 5:30 am so we had to get up a lot earlier than normal to make it on time. We planned on going to bed earlier the night before in preparation, but with all the last-minute packing and the excitement of the trip, combined with the rigors of our last workday, it just didn’t happen. That means that we started off on the first day a little tired.

We flew Southwest Airlines and the plane was only about 2/3 full, so we had lots of room to stretch out and kick back. With the 2 hour difference in time zones, we landed at about 9:10 am and tried to get a limousine. Maria has fond memories of drinking in limos on the way to the casinos, but come to find out, that’s all changed. Limos don’t come with stocked bars anymore, so we took a cab instead.

We got to The Imperial Palace and were lucky enough to be able to check in immediately. It was a lucky break, and not the last one I would get this trip. We went to our room, threw our bags down and nearly ran out of the door on the way to our first day of adventures.

We checked out the Casino at The Imperial Palace, and then went off in search of other casinos. We stopped into the Venetian and then Maria wanted to go to Circus Circus. Her father always stayed there when he went to Las Vegas and in all of her other trips, she’d never been there. I’d been to Circus Circus in Reno and I knew that it would be lousy with kids, and I was right. It wasn’t long before we were ready to go to the next casino.

We got a cab and went to Binion’s in what they call old downtown. We also wanted to experience Fremont Street, and they were right next to each other. Binion’s was kind of fun and I had a good little run on the Blackjack tables while I was there. We also took our picture next to a big pile of money. It’s $1,000,000, all in $100 bills and under plastic to keep anyone from taking it. We also ate there and then went out to Fremont Street.

We were a little early for the show so we wandered around a little, taking pictures and watching street vendors. The show finally started and we were a little disappointed. We thought it would be like a laser light show, but it was really like a music video that you had to look straight up to see. We left a little after 9:00 and headed back to the hotel. Turns out at 10:00pm, it was a tribute to Queen and would have been more along the lines of what we expected, but we left too early.

At the hotel, I wanted to get a little writing in and discovered that the Internet isn’t free there. It was $30 for 3 days. So I didn’t pay and did blog, or twitter, or yammer, or anything. Bummer. But I did write until midnight or later.

But that was a mistake because we got up early the next day, at about 6:30. As soon as we were showered, we were off again; this time in search of show tickets. Maria found a place for discounted tickets and got tickets to see the Cirque de Soleil show, Zumanity. Once we had our tickets, we went to the Flamingo before going to MGM Grande where we watched lions in a habitat they have there.

Next it was off to New York, New York where we at lunch and exchanged our vouchers for tickets for Zumanity, and then we went to the Luxor. There, we found Maria’s favorite slot machine; I Dream of Genie. There were two side by side, so we sat down and started playing. We played for hours. Our waitress took really good care of us and we had a hard time walking by the time we had to go eat before seeing the show. We went up to The Cathouse and had expensive tuna and cheap spaghetti.

When we finally made it to Zumanity, all I can say is that it was awesome! There was a lot to see and it was pretty cool. After the show, we went to Mandalay Bay, then to Harrah’s where we at midnight breakfast before going to bed at 1:30 am after walking probably five miles that day.

Monday morning we were up bright and early again at about 7:00 am. I think it had something to do with the sun shining directly into our room in the mornings. We got up, got dressed, and we were off again. We did a brunch at The Imperial Palace and then each had a 15 minute massage. Once we had all the kinks worked out, we went out again, walking across the street to Caesar’s Palace. They had a neat aquarium and a laser fountain show that we caught. We also picked up souvenirs for the kids there.

We stayed on the strip for the rest of the day, going back to our own hotel so Maria could take a short nap. I played the Star Trek slot penny slot machine all afternoon, winning about $150 on it. One hand I won $100. I had four Captain Kirks in a row, then it went into Win Warp and it replaced the one that wasn’t Captain Kirk with one that was 10x. Five Captain Kirks are worth $10, but the 10x made them worth $100. I was stoked!

We finally made it back to Treasure Island that night for their outdoor show. It was almost cancelled because of the wind, but they decided to put it on anyway. We went inside to gamble for a while. There, Maria discovered that she still had a slot machine voucher for Caesar’s Palace so we had to go back there before we got back to The Imperial Palace. It was nearly 2:30 in the morning when it was all over.

Tuesday morning we got up early again so we could check out and get to the airport. We were early, our plane was late, we were tired, and I was hung over. What a bad combination. So I sat down at an oxygen bar and sucking in O2 while getting a back and head massage. It did wonders to make me feel better, but we were both really tired from an exhausting and wonderful trip to Las Vegas.

I didn’t think I would say this, but I can’t wait to go back. But I have a couple of things I need to remember for our next trip:

- Get on the treadmill to get used to all the walking before we go.

- Wear comfortable shoes for all the walking – ask Maria!

- Plan out your shows in advance. Sometimes it’s hard to make it from one spot to the next in time to see what you want.

Until next time,

~Doug