Las Vegas April 25-28th 2008
Advertisement
Published: April 29th 2008
Leaving for Las Vegas
Here we are riding the people movers at Pittsburgh International...The flight to vegas didn’t leave PIT until 8:30pm, so I worked a full day before heading in that general westward direction. It was a rather long day, trying to find things to do in order to make the day pass more quickly. Finally, I was headed home, and made a few last minute preparations for our trip. Bill & Dawn met us at our house and then we headed to the airport where we found a Friday’s near our gate to consume vast quantities of food and drink.
The flight was longer than I remember, but that probably has a lot to do with the shorter flights I’ve been on recently. Boston and Philadelphia are about an hour away once you’re finally in the air, so I guess I’ve been spoiled. Landing in Vegas finally, we gained 3 hours on the flight so things were just picking up in sin city. Too bad we’re old and decrepit and couldn’t really participate in anything that night, let alone the fact that the shuttle took an hour and a half to get to our hotel. Lesson learned - taxis are cheaper once
Gold & Silver Pawn Shop
Located on Las Vegas Blvd, this is the oldest and largest pawn shop in Vegas - starring my friend Charles as the night manager you have more than 3 people traveling together.
Finally made it to the hotel around midnight local time and met up with Tom & Annie. We had a quick bite in the dunkin’ doughnuts in one of the Fremont street casinos and then headed to bed. The hotel was low-rent and the rooms looked old, but for $55/night we weren’t going to complain.
Saturday, April 26th, 2008: Seeing a bit of the city… The next morning we met up and headed to breakfast in the hotel’s café. The service was… barely passable, but the food was good. After that, we walked down to “Gold and Silver Pawn” over on Las Vegas Blvd… search YouTube for them, and you’ll find a couple of funny videos. The reason for the trip was that Tom & Annie knew a guy who worked there, and he met us there and then gave us the grand tour. Very interesting, to say the least. I felt like we were getting a look at the “behind the scenes” of the vegas-façade and I rather enjoyed the view.
Check out the pawn shop in this
">video.
Charles, our friend, makes an appearance at
Forum Shops as Caesars
Versace, Jimmy Choo, DKNY, they're all here... about 5:15 into the video - he’s the night manager.
Charles introduced us to his coworkers and then let us try on some showgirl head-dresses so we could pose for seedy pawn shop photos. From there, we convinced him to drive us down to Caesar’s palace so we could go to the forum shops. We fit seven people plus a flat screen television into the Blazer and made it to the strip in 15 minutes.
Having visited the forum shops before, I was ready for the explosion of designers and overpriced couture that we were about to be exposed to, but it was still dizzying to see it up close and personal. We were specifically there to find footy pajamas in the Playboy store for Dawn, but they didn’t have the color she wanted. I picked up an overpriced pair of pink panties with the playboy logo, and while I realize that I’m not my fucking khaki’s I’m still happy with my purchase.
It was getting late in the day for us, so we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner and our show. We had reservations at Battista’s Hole in the Wall, and made
it there in time for our 6pm seating. We had been there on our last group trip to vegas, and it did not disappoint on our second go-round. Charles and his wife Christine met us half-way through dinner but still managed to finish in time for us to make it to the 10pm showing of Spamalot.
Charles rented a mini-van so we could all get there together and not have to rely on the “The Deuce” for transport. We arrived at the Wynn with plenty of time, so we wandered a bit and tried to keep Charles out of mischief, with mixed results.
The show was fantastic, from what I can remember. After all the free wine at Battista’s I was feeling a bit sleepy and so kept falling asleep during the show. Good thing it’s coming to Pittsburgh in the fall, or I’d feel rather like an ass at this point. David bought a souvenir grail with virgin daiquiri inside and I assumed the sugar would keep me up, but I was sadly mistaken.
After the show, Charles took us to Chinatown and we stopped a teahouse for nosh and tea. Excellent tea, by the way,
Creepy Hole
The hole in the wall of B&D's room that led right out into the hallway - nice! honey lemon something or other entirely too sweet but delicious none-the-less. It was 1am at this point, which translates to 4am for the easterners, so we headed back to the hotel and retired.
Sunday, April 27th, 2008: The seedy vegas experience… Sunday we woke up and searched for a breakfast buffet. Dawn decided it was “day of the all you can eat” so we planned on eating our way through the entire day. Someone told us the Golden Nugget had the best breakfast buffet, but as it was Sunday they were doing a Champagne brunch for $18, and we wanted something a bit cheaper.
Down the way a bit we found that Binion’s had a champagne buffet but there’s was only $11, which fit into the theme of our day much better. We almost forgot about the champagne part, but luckily remembered about three-fourths of the way through the meal. Dawn and I ordered for the two of us, but they brought out six glasses - alas - alcohol cannot go to waste, so we quickly consumed them with a bit of orange juice for mimosas.
After brunch, Tom and Annie had to head back
home, so they left us and we met back up with Charles and Christine. Charles wanted to take us to ‘the best frozen yogurt place in the world’ that was 20 minutes away in Green Valley, NV. And you know what? It really was the best frozen yogurt in the world. It was some sort of serve-yourself frozen yogurt buffet with lots of different flavors and a ton of toppings. They charged by the weight, so you could really go nuts with whatever you wanted.
I was supposed to be avoiding dairy and red meat, but I ate with great and wild abandon, digestive system be damned. It was excellent! After this, we drove past a group of people all dressed in pirate garb that Charles knew, so we stopped in to say hello and meet a few of them. After a couple of minutes, we left and headed to Charles and Christine’s house where she showed us some of her belly dancing tapes.
At this point, Charles had to go to work and drop the mini van back at the rental place, so he took us back to our hotel and we said our goodbyes. He even
davie, dawn, christina
heading out for a night in old vegas left us with some vegas souvenirs before finally driving off into the sunset.
It was time for a nap and a snack, so we refilled our 24oz margarita that we purchased earlier in the day and had some hot dogs at Mermaid’s casino. The nap was refreshing and I think we all woke up adjusted to the new time zone - just in time to head home the next day. Post-nap we decided it was time to gamble, so Bill headed off to play roulette while dawn, davie, and I played nickel and penny slots.
$10 lasted an hour and a half, and we celebrated every $0.50 victory with more free alcohol. That’s the thing about old vegas - they bring you drinks even when you’re playing penny slots because they’re just happy that you’re there. About two hours after we started gambling, it was time to eat. We ended up at the Plaza’s 777 buffet which was… you guessed it - $7.77 per person. It was more than enough for the four of us, and we were well-fed and ready to take on the city afterwards.
Bill ended up tuckering out early and heading back to
homeward
the view from A gates at McCarren International the room for some shut-eye since they fed him beer while he played roulette, but the three of us wound up at the Rush Lounge in the Golden Nugget where we drank $20 kamikazes and listened to the house band. The band was half in the bag by the time they took the stage for their second set, but it was entertaining and amusing and we tipped him a few times.
All good things, however, must come to an end. Sometime around midnight, we decided it was time to hit the hay. We left the bar and picked up a few last minute souvenirs for the folks back home and then turned in for the evening.
Monday, April 28th, 2008: Reflections on the trip… The next day was mostly unremarkable. Good flight home, easy trip from the airport, and Taco Bell was still open when we pulled up to the drive-thru. We had already started talking about ‘next time’ before we even finished up with ‘this time’ so it’s a safe bet that we’ll be back sometime in the future, although none of us can say for sure when that will be.
I enjoyed our trip to Vegas - there was really no agenda, and it gave all of us a chance to relax and unwind. The company was excellent, the food was good, and everyone felt just a little spoiled since they went to Las Vegas ‘for the weekend.’
Vegas has always seemed nothing more than simulacrum to me - a constructed image of reality with no substance behind it. However, while the façade may lack substance, it does not lack the behind-the-scenes support of a thousand interesting characters. People in the pawn shop at 3am trying to get a few hundred dollars more so they can make a comeback at the tables… showgirls who trade in their feathered headdresses for a better tomorrow… and lonely divorcees looking to spend a few quality hours with a faceless machine who beeps happily at them as it takes their quarters… they all have a place and a time in Vegas. And while we never left the country, seeing the seedier side of vegas was like getting to experience a whole other culture with its own mores and taboos and idiosyncrasies.
In the end, travel for me is about experiences. It is about coming home a different person than when you left - it’s about understanding things you might not have otherwise gotten the chance for. How am I changed - how has the person that I am grown and learned from this experience?
I guess we’ll have to wait until the jet lag clears… 😉
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0381s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
