A Mid-Week Vegas Trip and We Saw Neon

While I spend this February in a kind of stasis while waiting for my new job to begin in March, I wanted to get in some fun activities.  Who knows how crazy life will be the rest of the year, right?  The easiest trip to set up ended up being Vegas, of course.  The previous Tuesday we had gone to my mom’s house and asked if she was up for a trip there, which of course was a yes.  So off we went this Tuesday morning for a quick 2-night trip (and I ended up getting us a mini-suite).

Feb 10, 2015 – Heading to Vegas and Arrival at Flamingo LV

I wouldn’t call this a successful gambling trip unlike my last one, but it was still a good time to get the hell out of dodge and have some fun.  The first day, while gambling sucked, we had a fabulous evening.  To start us off was an early dinner reservation at the new Giada de Laurentiis restaturant, Giada’s (natch), in the Cromwell Hotel (formerly Bill’s Gambling Hall, formerly Barbary Coast).  We could only get a 5:15 reservation but that turned out to be perfect as we got to see the sunlight go down AND we got a fabulous table at the window overlooking the Strip.  Prime real estate.

Dinner at Giada’s

Anyway, Giada’s was a very nice experience, but it’s wildly expensive and likely something we’ll do just this once.  Even Otto, which we went to the next day, wasn’t anywhere near as expensive as Giada’s.  You know what was the major expense?  The wine!  I know that no one has a gun to my head to drink it, but there were very few options for getting bottles of wine that weren’t 3-digits in price.  I mean, DAMN.   But at least we got to go there finally as my mom had been wanting to since it opened last year.

After that, we said goodbye to my mom (and my sobriety) and Michancy squired us away for a treat at an Asian dessert place in Chinatown.  I vaguely remember it but it was a fun experience as they handmade the desserts in front of us.  Very cool-looking interior too.  We then headed back to the Linq area and visited our standard place for late-night drinking and enjoyment, the Boulevard Bar.  Tuesday night was a jazz night and it was fabulous.   The Sprinkles Cupcakes was now open at the Linq too and I finally ended up having one – which again, I vaguely remember.  Really good though, and probably crucial to my hangover not being too terrible the next morning.  Scouts honor, no vomiting occurred during this trip!  I know, Shocker!

Post-Dinner Vegas with Michancy

I’ve had rough mornings in Vegas and luckily, this trip did not have any of those.  I wasn’t 100% by any means, but yeah, I do seem to fucking lose my mind every first night I have in Vegas.  Larry & I were talking this morning and I think it’s time to stop hitting up the Margaritaville 5 o’clock Somewhere bar first and ban margaritas from the drinking rotation.  I never stay with margaritas later that day so it’s just me asking for punishment.  Plus, the margaritas aren’t all that great and I’d be better off sticking with something less sugar-y and over the top.

But back to the next day in Vegas, Wednesday.  We all tried some more Blackjack at the Margaritaville Casino and again, we got pretty fucking destroyed there, fairly quickly.  The cards were NOT in our favor this trip.  Ooof.  After that, Larry & I did a quick walk-around in Caesar’s Palace and the Forum Shops which is always a nice way to kill time.  As we were there, I realized I wanted to finally head over to the Neon Graveyard Museum that I’d been wanting to see ever since I saw it on the Amazing Race.  Our friends Treva and Stuart actually just went there a few weeks ago so it was also fresh in my mind after seeing their FB photos of it.  So the itinerary was updated and even my mom was up for going as the gambling wasn’t getting any better, so why not step away for a little?  At the same time, Michancy called and asked us all to lunch, so it worked out that we went up to Downtown Vegas, which is where she has an office.  There’s a very young and hipster-y section of downtown nowadays, which is shocking.   It’s that area where we visited the Container Park a few trips ago and we went to the Carson Kitchen.  Very cool place and it felt like it would have been perfectly at home here in Los Feliz/Silver Lake.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Michancy and then the three of us drove nearby to the Neon Musuem – and it was fascinating.  Not only is this a non-profit museum attempting to preserve some of Vegas’ showy and glittery past by maintaining and preserving its neon heritage, you get a wildly interesting history lesson.  I definitely learned a lot about Vegas’ origins and past and our tour guide did a great job in telling lots of fun anecdotes and stories concerning casinos long gone.  Things like the mob’s influence are of course expected, but it was interesting to learn about Vegas being ahead of the curve in things like racial integration – obviously it’s great socially but Vegas is all about that $$$ and it’s stupid to isolate revenue streams.  Anyway, I took LOTS of pictures so here they are:

Feb 11, 2015 – The Vegas Neon Museum

If you ever get the chance to visit this place, Do So!  You won’t regret it.

That evening, Larry & I met up with Michancy again, this time over at Otto Pizzeria Enoteca in the Venetian Hotel.  I love this restaurant, and we’ve been to both this location and the original in NYC.  It has amazing pizzas along with basically everything else (fried mozzarella is always and forever amazing).  Shockingly and happily, our favorite kind of wine, Montepulciano, was available and looked to be the most affordable of their selections.  SCORE.  It was a great dinner and then a big table filled with lots of attractive men sat down near us, possibly a rugby team.  Michancy had promised us that this week in Vegas, rugby teams from around the world were here.  I’m not positive they were a rugby group, but I’m choosing to believe they were.

Dinner at Otto

We had a bit more adventure after Otto, as we then went down to the Planet Hollywood area, then walked around south towards Monte Carlo, before finally having a drink or two at Todd English’s Pub in the Aria Hotel at Citycenter.   After that we called it a night.  It was a lot of fun!

Wandering Vegas

We then went home the next morning!  Honestly, I think I like having a third night to do things in Vegas.  I didn’t gamble that much, which is probably for the best, but I would have liked to anyway.  I didn’t get to play craps this trip except for a quick turn at one of those automated craps machines where I actually had a good run of luck, turning $20 into $60.  Yay!  But yeah, better cards at blackjack would have been appreciated and some time at the craps table are necessary items for me – so next time!