Mackenzie, Blakely, Jacob, and I hit the tarmac at 11:30 CST yesterday evening to conclude the Vegas extravaganza. Note to self: don't try to wake at 8am after staying up until 8am for 3 consecutive nights. I stumbled awkwardly towards both alarms, unable to find them while I dreamed of Blackjack and black chips. I've never been so out of commission in my life - and no foreign substances were involved. Mackenzie gave me encouragement with shouts of "To your right! To your left! Damnit Brent, turn the alarm off! Needless to say my body was not ready for work this morning.
We arrived at the Imperial Palace early Thursday evening. The details are shaky but I'm pretty sure we dressed up a bit and walked towards the South end of the strip. The girls got kisses from some Stone Man acting like a robot and we ate at Dick's last resort. A few words about that place: Don't go there. Ever. The food was the same crap we saw at a McDonald's airport and our tab for 6 was $175 + tip - $10 per beer. I understand the gimmick of the restaurant is the service, but can you really justify the price by that alone? Our server was horrible - and she didn't spend more than 30 seconds total talking to us - but that's not my gripe. There's a gap in the pictures so I'm not sure what we did after Dick's. I have to think that we ended up at a casino bar somewhere on the South side of the strip. Later in the evening Jacob and I sat at a $10 table at Harrah's and lost lots of money until the wee hours of the morning. I was down $230 at the end of night one.
The Harrah's properties in Vegas have gone downhill since my visit 3 years ago. 6 to 5 blackjack payouts need to be reserved for single deck tables and suckers. At the IP every single table, including 6-8 deck games, paid 6 to 5. At Harrah's over half of the tables paid 6 to 5 including the entire Party Pit. The funny thing about that property was that the 3:2 games were available in random places and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason. Most people are totally oblivious that they are playing a horrible game while the proper game is 15 feet away with an open seat. Caesar's Palace, Flamingo, Ballys, and Paris sucked too. I'll never gamble at a Harrah's table in Vegas again. Luckily its not as bad in Council Bluffs.
Now for the good gambling: The Venetian, Bellagio, and Mirage. Great cocktail service, fun dealers, and cool players. I even found a $5 table at Bellagio on Saturday night! I went from $250 down to $200 up at these casinos and ended the trip at +$75. I had no intention of winning but it was a fun 15 hours at the tables.
Friday afternoon was uneventful; Chippendale's dancers threw some beads at me but aside from that we just walked up and down the strip and enjoyed the weather. We ended up at a shopping mall on the north end of the strip and I grabbed some clothes from Express while we worked out the plans for the rest of the evening. We had lunch at Harrah's buffet and grabbed a cab to hit Fremont street for some cheap gambling. The Queen light show was amazing - I grabbed some pictures of it before we sat down at the $5 table with dealers in circus outfits. We met a crazy group of people and drank some Washington Apples while we watched a guy lose $2000 for a comp'd room. Fremont Street is scary late at night. We walked into that Casino among tens of thousands of fellow tourists. As we exited at 4:30 AM the only things in site were a street cleaner and a single cab, but the lights were still on.
Saturday was the grand finale of the trip. I woke up early to have some Bloody Mary's at the Venetian's blackjack tables before everyone gathered to start the full hour walk to the Hofbräuhaus. I've got to recommend this place if you can make it. I had 1.5 liters of Dunkel with my schnitzel and potato salad while we watched a guy with a (fake) German accent play German music and blow a 12 foot horn. Once lunch was over we headed back to the strip and got dressed up - tonight was the night to hit a club. After being made fun of for thinking we might be able to get into Ghost Bar we settled on Studio 54. Its a classic, right? The drinks were expensive and the people were sleazy but the experience was great. We had a great time dancing and people watching before heading out to New York New York. I found a bar with good IPA on tap (my first in Vegas) and we headed to Americana for some late night snacks. The food and service at this place was amazing despite the late hour.
We had a hard time getting up on Sunday and ended up taking full advantage of the complimentary hour late check out. We walked around to the last casinos that we (or I) wanted to see and took some photos. When we made it to the airport I was pumped up on Blackjack enough to buy a book: Bringing Down the House (the book 21 was based on). I'm halfway through the thing and enjoying it thoroughly. The flight was easy and we're spending today adjusting back to a normal paced life. Gilbert was totally excited to see us.
Where do I end this post? After a trip like Vegas there isn't much left to say. I just purchased the A.S.M. manual for the P/1 first Actuarial exam. I've learned all of the material before so I'm interested in brushing up and taking the test just for kicks. Aside from that I'm starting a Software Development project on my own at home - more details on that later. Mackenzie and I are visiting Dallas in 2 weeks - I can't wait to give an update after that trip!