// June 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // post
Yay! I finally made it to Vegas!
Yes, this was the destination for my surprise 30th birthday trip. It was a lot of fun!
We left early Sunday morning (actual birthday day) for a 9am flight. I found out where we were going at the baggage check. I can’t say that I didn’t suspect. And boy was Dave relieved to tell me where we were going. He hates secrets and surprises. Too bad he ended up with me! 
We arrived only a half hour after we left due to the magic of the time zone change. We were staying at Bally’s and were able to leave our bags with the bell desk rather than lugging them around all day. That was a huge relief since there is nothing that gets on my nerves more. Lesson #1: Everyone in Vegas works for tips.
We walked over to the Planet Hollywood casino for lunch and some shopping. I found an H&M store! … which did not meet my crazy high expectations… not that I didn’t find something to buy anyhow. In fact, I found some size 30 jean shorts for $30. I figured it was fate being my 30th birthday and all. (Thanks to Dave for reminding me that $30 is not expensive for shorts!)
We learned our lesson about walking around… don’t talk to anyone. Well, really, Dave learned this lesson more than me, but he claims he knew what was happening. This random guy came up to us with deals and promising more deals had Dave and I follow him down an alleyway to some seedy office. There we were hassled about free tickets and the promise of attending a sales pitch for a timeshare. No thanks. I had one foot in the exit the whole time, but Dave had some sort of sick fascination with the whole experience. He finally got out of there. Boo. Lesson #2: No need to be “nice” all the time.
After wandering around New York - New York and Bellagio, we headed back to the hotel to check in at 3. The line was ridiculous and when we got to the front we found out that they were out of King size rooms, but we could come back for one in about 15 min. We did. We were in our room at 4:30! Lesson #3: Everything takes forever in Vegas.
Dave had bought Cirque de Soleil “Ka” tickets for us that night. I couldn’t believe how close we were! It was an amazing show and even Dave was blown away. We immediately decided that their “Zumanity” show was in our future. After dinner, Dave ordered a piece of cake and had it sent up to our room…. with tip it was a really expensive piece of cake! He brought cute candles and we did the whole birthday blowing candles thing. It was a nice day.
We walked around a huge portion of the strip on Monday. Our end caps were the Luxor and Treasure Island. We didn’t do a whole lot of stuff other than walking and hanging at the pool during the day. At night, we got tickets for the Tournament of Kings to satisfy my nerd needs. It was aiiight. Something fun and relatively cheap. Lesson #4: Half price tickets are worth the wait in line.
At night we walked over to Treasure Island for their free Sirens of TI show. We showed up about 10 minutes before it was supposed to start and the sidewalk was packed! All I had heard about the show up to this point is that it was about pirate sluts and that it was really cheesy. I guess that draws quite the crowd. As we quietly took a place in the crowd we got to people watch and experience just how entitled people feel. As you’d imagine, with that many people crowding the sidewalk, no one was able to get through anywhere quickly. But some people just wouldn’t quit. Some HAD to get through to the next hotel (like no one else was in their same situation) while others just couldn’t see. The most interesting, though, was this couple from Boston. (Accents gave them up as East Coast and a passerby let me know it was Boston.) As the show was going on, there was no moving at all. People gave up and were watching very quietly, mostly because you could barely hear the thing. Then came the couple. The woman was trying to get by around me and I informed her there was no way out. Her man proceeded to wonder very loudly about “All the f$%#ing idiots watching the stupid f$%#ing show” and “Can’t even f$%#ing see nuthin”. Making friends was obviously his strong suit. Then the lady came up with her strategy. Jumping up and down and screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking people out of the way as she went through. Wow. Lesson #5: People watching in Vegas can be more interesting than the shows.
We were so exhausted after Monday that we really didn’t do much on Tuesday. We went over to the Flamingo Hotel to see their Flamingo Habitat and hung out at the pool. They had a really great drink that I enjoyed a bit too much. So much so that I almost made us miss our Zumanity show! We ended up having to hop on the Monorail and book it through the MGM and New York - New York casinos to make it. I don’t know how, but we made it in time. I was fine as soon as I was able to sit down and ended up thoroughly enjoying the show. I really hate drinking too much and would have been very pissed if that had made me miss the show. It was great! Very different than Ka. And I learned my lesson… again.
We went to a Noodles restaurant for dinner inside of Bellagio. It had a wall decorated with noodles! The noodles were pretty good, though I’d order something different next time. I liked Dave’s sweet and sour noodles better than my curry vermicelli. No tofu on the menu though. One thing I love about Austin — tofu is everywhere! We then watched the Bellagio fountain show three times and it was really cool at night. The night was perfect and dry… very romantic.
After the shows were over, we headed to Bill’s (a classic) to play their $5 roulette tables. Other than the silly slots we played the night before, this was the first we had gambled since being there. We are cheap bastards. Dave took out $40 for me to play. Dave stood behind me at the table claiming his bad luck and helped coach me and count the money I was winning. I did well with one dude, but my luck changed when they switched him out. This luck thing is very interesting indeed. On Dave’s advice, I walked away with $71 in my hand. I cashed out and handed the money to Dave for keeping in his wallet. We realized then that it must look rather odd: him getting the money out, giving it to me to gamble with him helping out from behind, and then me giving him my winnings… like some sort of gambling pimp. But it worked! After calculating in the silly slots (which are basically just like video games to me anyway) we ended up with a total winnings of roughly $15! Woot! Vegas baby, yeah!
Wednesday was fly out day, so we didn’t do much
at all. Just had lunch and headed to the airport. By the way, Cheeseburger Las Vegas… good stuff!
All in all Vegas was much cooler than I’d imagined. I’d like to go back, maybe inviting a few friends along the way. It was a perfect 30th birthday trip and Dave won lots of points in his favor.
Here are all the pictures!
I have found the best new foundation!