Vegas Baby

Okay I have to admit that M and my friend C were right, Vegas can be fun. Recently, while M was away on his bachelor weekend, C took me to Vegas for the first time since I was nine. I have vague memories of playing "bop the mole" at Circus/Circus, but that was about it. Thus, this trip was a whole new experience.

We left on Saturday morning which turned out to be a great choice since we breezed through check-in and security. The flight was on-time and without incident, and we even got the luxury of a first class up-grade! It seems as though the airlines are having much more trouble selling full-price first class tickets because they were offering $50 upgrades on all three of our flights going and coming back. With such a short flight, it didn't make that much difference, but I can really see why it's so nice for a longer trip.

We arrived in Vegas in the early afternoon, collected our bags, and caught a cab to our hotel. Did I mention that our hotel was the huge black pyramid that you can see from the airport? Yep, we stayed at the Luxor for our first night. It was thick with kitsch, but absolutely perfect for a first Vegas experience. Once we'd dropped off our bags, we went off in search of food. What we found was a casual lunch place on the strip with the best Mexican food I've had in a very long time.

After a few hours of goggling at all there is to see on the strip, we made our way back to the hotel for spa treatments. It turns out that good spa treatments are wonderful no matter where you find them. Completely relaxed, we headed out to dinner and a survey of some of the more interesting hotels. The Bellagio is quite impressive with its fabulous gardens in the middle, and, while we were leaving, we happened to have our one and only celebrity spotting of the trip. Mini-Me (aka Vern Troyer) was there with a group of average-sized body guards. We were too amazed to snap any pictures, but there can be no doubt that it was him.

Caesar’s Palace went on for miles, but eventually we did come out sort of close to The Venetian. Now this was the place that M stayed last time, and he raved about its more dramatic touches. I have to say, the fake Italian neighborhoods complete with "blue skies" were quite something. We had dinner at a "sidewalk" cafe, and then began the trip back to our hotel. I'm afraid that I cramped C's usual Vegas style with my wimpy internal clock. We were in bed by 1am.

The rest of our trip followed in a similar mold. We relaxed by the pool, had an amazing dinner at Red Square, and C even got hit on by a perfectly nice drunken Californian. We lost about $7 each a nickel slot machines, and our entire gambling session lasted about half an hour. I now believe people who say that Vegas can be fun for those who don't gamble. On the whole, this trip was a great way to forget about everything stressful in life. Next time I want to go with M, and I want to make it to a few of the millions of things we just didn't have time to do on this visit. Thanks very much to C for the opportunity!