May 2, 2014 – Friday
This Trip to Vegas…. we (Larry, me and Mom) had a pretty easy drive from LA to Vegas. Almost surprisingly so. The weather was hot that first day or so, but when you’re mostly indoors, it’s all good.
This Trip to Vegas….O’Sheas was open again! It’s not the same as it was, but it is still quite a lot of fun and has that same sense of college fun. I think we ended up gambling mostly either there or at Margaritaville this time. On the first day, we even made friends who crowned me with a sombrero after thinking I’d said my name was Kobe. Michancy joined the three of us for dinner at the Margaritaville restaurant where we hoped to load up on food to prevent getting too drunk….
This Trip to Vegas…. the Linq opened up, as mentioned indirectly above, which is a pretty awesome area containing all sorts of great restaurants, bars, and the piece de resistance, the High Roller, the highest observation wheel in the world, at least at the moment, sitting at 550 feet. Of course Larry & I went on it on Friday night.
This Trip to Vegas…. I yet again overdid it with the alcohol that first night and paid the penalty for it on Saturday. After the High Roller, Michancy had waited around down on the ground (Mom wasn’t joining us on the High Roller either – scaredy cats!) and then we headed up the Linq to the Boulevard Cocktail bar. Couldn’t stop drinking while listening to a pretty great band and having front row seats. It was shocking they were empty, but finders keepers. So drunk. Because of that, Michancy played it safe and crashed with us overnight, as it was quite a drunky drunk night.
May 3, 2014 – Saturday
This Trip to Vegas…. I got Mom and Larry to BOTH gamble with me at the blackjack tables! In fact, this day, we all played at the same table at the Margaritaville casino area of Flamingo for over 4 hours. And we all walked away with winnings. There were a few major swings of fortune, but we kept getting pretty decent hands, especially when hand minimums went to $15. It was a lot of fun.
This Trip to Vegas…. Larry & I saw Jersey Boys! It’s playing at the Paris Las Vegas, and it really impressed with its imaginative visual style and unique take on combining songs and spoken word. It was so fast-paced and involved, you really couldn’t do the standard end-of-song clap for many of the songs as they are moving right along to the next scene. Awesome songs and it was interesting to learn about the story of the Four Seasons. We ate at Mon Ami Gabi before the show and unfortunately, I was still recuperating from the overdrinking the night before; so I ended up not eating anywhere near as much as normal. Boo. Also, during the show? The couple seated next to us left halfway through the first act – it seemed they had not liked the show, but it also seemed they had managed to throw up on themselves, hence why they left. GROSS.
May 4, 2014 – Sunday
This Trip to Vegas…. I got my ass handed to me on Sunday morning at the same Margaritaville blackjack table we played at yesterday. All 3 of us were back at the same spots, but this time, my cards were brutal while Mom’s and Larry’s were great. So when I got beat out, I ended up going for a walk around the area. I ended up meeting back up with Larry over at the Bellagio where my ol’ faithful craps tables (they still have a $10 minimum over there – it’s so surprising yet awesome they do that) took me for another $100. But then we headed back to Yardhouse at the Linq (a new favorite place to hang out and drink in Vegas!) for some lunch and recuperation, before heading to O’Sheas.
This Trip to Vegas…. I finally got what was coming to me, craps-wise. How? I had a pretty fantastic roll of the dice with lots of numbers at O’Sheas while Larry was playing blackjack (all by himself…sniff,sniff, so proud!) and I made good money for myself, but GREAT money for this guy on the other end of the table. I’ve done that before and thought it wouldn’t be crazy to expect something like $5 or $10 thrown my way, but you know what? It never happens. But this day? After I finally seven’d out, this gentleman tips ME $50. HOLY SHIT. It finally happened, and on a day when I certainly needed a change of luck! After the table turned cold, I then went to play some more blackjack, and Mom joined me at it while Larry played at the next table. Had continued fun and even made some money!
This Trip to Vegas…. we had a pretty different Sunday night than normal. First, we rejoined Michancy in the evening and had a spectacular Italian dinner at RAO’s in Caesar’s Palace. Such good Italian food….and a wonderful and expensive bottle of montepulciano, naturally. Afterwards, Michancy suggested a trip up towards Downtown Las Vegas, which naturally gives me pause, but she had in mind Container Park. It’s a place made mostly out of refurbished shipping containers with a great little plaza in the middle with slides! At 9pm, all under-21 have to leave, and drinking is for everyone! We went on the slides of course, then drank at a really great little bar called Bin 702 with a wonderfully nice and funny staff. THEN, after that, we walked a little bit towards Downtown, but not all the way, as no thanks! Nope, instead there’s a great hipstery little section of the street with more bars and clubs, and we went to the piano bar called Don’t Tell Mama. A bit of a mixed experience but a nice way to end the night.
May 5, 2014 – Monday
This Trip to Vegas…. we ended up having what was probably the worst and longest drive I’ve ever had between LA and Vegas. After 8 hours, we finally made it home. Why? Because as you may have heard in the news, there was a bridge under construction that caught on fire that shut the I-15 down. Of course this happened when we were about 30 minutes north of the bridge, so we got caught in horrendous traffic. We inched forward and past the second-to-last offramp at Main St in Hesperia before realizing we definitely should have exited then. So we were trapped and spent the next 3 hours inching towards the final exit at Joshua St. All sorts of “fun” ensued during those hours but we survived and made it around the bridge fire and eventually to a pretty awesomely fast southbound I-15. But damn.
So it was a fun trip overall – 75% is a good percentage. Pretty great gambling too!