Vegas, Baby

A couple of weeks ago Jason and I met up in Vegas. It was really nice to get to hang out with my brother for a weekend away. Megan didn't feel like hanging out in the casinos all weekend so she stayed in BC. Originally I was supposed to get into Vegas half an hour before Jason. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. I was flying on points so I had to fly from Toronto to Ottawa and then on to Vegas. The flight to Ottawa was fine and on time, but the plane we were taking to Vegas ended up stuck in Toronto due to the weather. Once on the plane, we had to wait for the wings to be de-iced. I ended up getting to Vegas an hour after Jason. He had flown in to the main terminal and hopped on the shuttle over to the little terminal where I was. Unfortunately, the one I flew in to didn't have any stores open so he couldn't even get a drink. I was so excited to see him!

We then had to deal with the car rental place. We were planning to rent a car for the whole weekend because it wasn't too expensive, but once we got there they hit us with a $20 / day insurance fee. We decided we would just keep the car for one day (we were planning to go to the Hoover Dam and do some driving in the desert). By the time we got to the hotel I think it was 2am. I was so tired!

We woke up to a screamer in the next room. Every morning at 7:30 am she was letting the world know what a great time she was having in Vegas.

Off we went into the desert. It takes forever to get anywhere in Nevada! Our first stop was the Hoover Dam. Dad has always said it was one of his favourite places in the world. He was just amazed by the structure and I can see why. It wasn't so much how high the dam is, but the story of its construction. During the depression they completed the dam in just three years, two years ahead of schedule. The innovations made during the construction were amazing. It was definitely impressive and I'm really glad we did the tour.

What is not impressive is that they are building a new bridge over the river at the bottom of the dam and it is at least 5 years behind schedule. It's amazing how times change and how work ethics, etc change over time.

We then headed into the desert to drive up to the Valley of Fire. Since it takes forever to get anywhere, we didn't have time to go to Death Valley or the Grand Canyon. But, I think it was okay because the drive was absolutely stunning. We stopped a number of times to get out of the car and take pictures.

By the time we got to the Valley of Fire, we were so tired. It was pretty cool, but not that much better than anything we had seen on the drive. The petroglyphs were cool, though.
We hit rush hour traffic on the way back in to town. We drove down the strip and found a thai restaurant for dinner. I do not remember it taking so long to get down the strip! The hotel that I stayed in on my first trip is gone, The Frontier (except for the sign). Jason and I were staying at the other end of the strip at the Tropicana (which worked out really well for getting to the airport, not so good for getting to the Mirage).

After taking the car back we decided it was time to get into a casino! I'd already checked out the hotels / casinos on my last trip so we were checking out the ones Jason wanted to see. We headed over to the Luxor and played some slots. I was not a fan of the slots before. It turnes out I had not been playing the fun video ones. Jason introduced me to the video slots that have bonus games. I was having a great time. We ended up at three or four different casinos playing slots until around 2am (I think). I really wanted to play poker, but the only hotel on the strip that has a 7-card stud game is the Mirage. We were too far from the Mirage to go that night.

I had forgotten how much people smoke in the casinos. When I went the last time I spent most of my time in the Mirage poker room which is non-smoking. Playing slots I was near smokers all the time. What I don't understand is how anyone can bring their kids into a casino or be there when they are pregnant. There were so many kids and so many pregnant women in there, it boggles my mind. I was sick for a week after I got back with this horrible cough that I completely blame on the smoke.

On Saturday morning we decided to take a Craps lesson. Jason and I watched a bit of a craps game on Friday night, but it was so confusing. We ended up at New York, New York at 11am (after touring down the strip and trying to find out if we could get cheap seats for another Cirque show) for the craps lesson. There is so much going on in this game! It sounded really cool and we decided we would play at some point, but, I really wanted to play some poker. Instead of walking down the strip to the other end we bought ourselves some day passes on the bus. The bus was great! Hop on, hop off, but boy does it take a long time to get to the different casinos. Plus, you can bring your drinks on the bus.

We got to the Mirage and the first thing we did was go to pick up our tickets for the Cirque de Soleil show 'Love'. This is The Beatles show, and the main reason I wanted to go to Vegas. I'm emotionally at the best of times. I was so excited to see the sign! It looked awesome and the Mirage was playing Beatles music most of the time. It was great. The poker room is right next to the theatre. Jason is more a texas hold'em player but he wasn't sure he wanted to play at the Mirage because the cheapest table was a little steep for his first time at the casino. Lucky for me he was willing to play 7 card stud. We put our names on the list and waited. They only had one stud table and it took about an hour before I got to sit down. I won my first two hands and thought I was going to have a great day. Then Jason sat down and all my luck went over to him. He was having a great afternoon. He was up quite a bit and decided to try his hand at one of the texas hold'em tournaments they were having, $70 buy in. He ended up being the fourth last person at the table and his queen was beat by a king, not too bad. While he was having good luck with his cards I was having really bad luck. The players at the table and the dealers were feeling really sorry for me. I was dealt the low card every other hand so I always had to bring in the pot. Unfortunately, I never had anything to go with that low card. It sucked!

Jay and I had to go back to the hotel to get ready for the cirque show, so back on the bus and back down the strip. I was starting to freak out that we wouldn't get back in time for the show. We did make it with about 15 mins to spare. The theater was awesome (as is always the case with Cirque). The ushers were wearing cool 60s outfits and I so want one of their hats. The show was spectacular. So much going on that I'm sure I missed half of it. I loved what they did with the music. They mixed a number of songs together and it was fun to pick out the different Beatles' songs that were being used.

After the show we couldn't decide if we wanted to play poker or try our hand at craps. Poker won out. Neither one of us had good luck, but we still played until around 3am (and I think I only lost $40). I thought for sure I had it on one hand. I had the flush on the first five cards and I was able to get most people out of the hand, but one guy would not leave. He ended up catching a full house on the last card. I was so bummed!

Sunday morning meant that I had to say good bye to Jay. I so didn't want to say good bye. I miss him so much! We did head over to the MGM to try our hand at Craps before he had to leave. There were a couple of girls at the table that had never played before either. We all had a lot of fun. There was a very cute guy at our table and he bet on me rolling a hard eight when I had the dice. I didn't roll the hard eight, but did roll an eight and won us all some money. We could only play for about an hour before Jason had to leave to catch a bus to the airport. We were each up over $100 so craps was definitely a lot of fun. I did not want Jay to leave. I had an extra 12 hours in Vegas after he left and I knew I would just be unhappy. My cousin Amy (well, actually my cousin Michelle's cousin Amy) was actually in Vegas as well so Jason told me to call her and spend part of my day with her.

After Jay left and I stopped crying, I headed back to the craps table. The cute guy was gone and unfortunately, the dice had gone cold. I lost all the money I had one in a very short period of time. I headed back to the Mirage to play some poker. I hung out there for about four hours and once again had crap cards. But, I had fun hanging out with the guys at the table. I only lost $20, but was getting bored. I decided to try my hand at craps again. I learned that I should not touch the dice! I actually ended up throwing them off the table at one point and hit a guy in the back at another table (oops). Dice cold again: I lost $60 in ten minutes. I decided I should call Amy and get away from the tables.

I met up with Amy and her friends and we went shopping at Caesar's Palace. Oh my God! This is not my type of shopping. It was so expensive. There was a Kate Spade shop and the purse I liked cost $400. It was fun to hang out with people who do shop like this (at least for one afternoon). I didn't buy anything (obviously). I decided to head back up to the strip so that I would be closer to my luggage for when I had to hop in a cab to the airport.

Back at New York, New York, I had some dinner and then hit the crap tables again. I decided to watch for a bit to see how the dice were doing. They seemed to be good so I put down some money. At one point the dice bounced into my chip tray and I backed quickly away from them. I did not want my bad luck going anywhere near those dice! No one on my end of the table wanted to touch the dice, which was fine because the guys at the other end were doing a great job. In about an hour I had won $230. I was so unhappy that I had to leave to catch my plane (even more unhappy later when I ended up waiting at the airport for over an hour).

Overall a great trip to Vegas! It was awesome to hang out with Jay for the weekend, the Beatles' Cirque show was amazing and I had fun gambling (only lost $150 over the three days).