What follows is an account of what was my third visit to Sin City in my adult life. I’m not sure why I decide to write these long posts about my travels, but someday they might be worth reading once I’ve forgotten the many details.
TUESDAY
Monday was Memorial Day and I decided to go into work Tuesday (verses 9 straight days off) until about 3pm to finish up some work before heading to Hopkins for our 5pm flight. At check-in, Continental charged a $15 fee to check one bag – this was rather annoying since 1 checked bag per passenger used to be free (pre-recession). It was a 4 hour flight, putting us in a cab from Las Vegas McCarren Airport at around 6pm, Vegas time. My fellow traveler, Steve, forgot his cell phone in the cab but was luckily able to get it back a day or so later by paying a $40 cab fare off the strip. The cab fare from the Airport to the North end of The Strip; about $35. It should be noted that this wasn’t my first time in Vegas and for nostalgia purposes, we decided to stay in the “older”, what we thought may have been the Scorsese Casino-esque Vegas, at the North end of the strip. Yes, we stayed at the fabulous Circus Circus Casino at just under $400/person for 5 nights + airfare.
“The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich. . .” – Hunter S. Thompson, 1971
Our entrance into the lobby brought fear and loathing as I realized what we had done. We were stuck in a hotel that was stuck in the 1960s, what with yellow CRT monitors, poor cable television, and unhappy employees. They even charged a $5 required fee for potential phone calls that we swore not to make in our modern day of cell phones. This was no MGM or Bellagio, but a hotel struggling to hold on to anything in a day of constant Vegas sprawl Southwards down The Strip. The sports book at the Circus Circus gave use two full beers with each one ordered, in typical casino fashion, “…but I only ordered one” – “Sorry, here’s two anyway” was a hilarious conversation had by 3 people in our group with different bartenders. We made our way to a bar to catch the Cavs’ overtime loss in the game 4 to the Magic, cheering next to both Cleveland and Orlando fans and gamblers.
From a typical Cleveland loss, we then made our way down The Strip to meet up at The Mirage with our friend, Pete, who happened to be in town. Had a few drinks there before leaving and going to have a few daiquiris at Treasure Island’s Kahunaville. Caught the end of the Pirate show which is really a poorly choreographed dance show featuring babes in hot pants lip syncing (but, for some reason wearing headset mics, anyway) catered for the whole family. Our Tuesday night ended late with a few drunken stops at the neighboring casinos before calling it a night, jet lagged and tired. Picked up a 18pk of cold beer for a strip price of $19 and only two people on the walk to our room offered to sell us drugs.
WEDNESDAY
Our afternoon started with some gambling at Planet Hollywood before hitting The Miracle Mile for some walking around to kill time. We rode the Monorail around for $5 one way and met a guy on the empty car who was from N. Olmsted, Ohio. Generic talk included the Cavs’ road to The NBA Finals (which they ultimately failed on, the Browns, and Savannah’s Bar in Westlake, Ohio. While on the Monorail, I was thumbing through one of the hundred free guides available to Vegas tourists and happened to see that a band I currently listen to a lot, Animal Collective, had a show slotted for Saturday at The House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. I ordered tickets via Courtney via Ticketmaster via E-mail since no employee in our hotel had access to the Internet. $20 face value tickets, ran for $34 a piece, thanks Ticketmaster.
Did some more sightseeing and was very impressed at the level of construction going on during our current economic climate. A guy on the bus and two ladies on the flight home informed me that all construction on the work-in-process world class resorts, the City Center, Echelon and Fontainebleau , had been temporarily halted. Vegas for decades has seen an insane amount of growth, but the City Center will be completely different – check it out. It’ll be comprised of 8 high rises, once complete, and is designed so visitors and residents never have to leave. This may hurt surrounding hotels like no other sprawl The Strip has seen in the past.
For dinner, we headed to the Top of the World 5-star restaurant atop the Stratosphere. The prices were comical, the menu featuring a $170 per plate date night special. That’s PER PLATE. Food was delicious, I had the blackened tuna with some sides and a couple Fat Tires. Top of the World offers a view of the strip like no other @ nearly twice the height of the Seattle Space Needle. Dan, Emily, Pete, Steve and myself then headed to the real “old Vegas” for the Fremont Street Experience. This was very cool, and we had a great time here with bright lights, short walks, and cheap drinks. The street is covered an LED canopy that stretches 5 blocks, literally covering all the casinos from the 50s and 60s era. Grabbed a cab on the way back avoiding a cabbie verse cabbie altercation in front of our eyes over “gypsy-cabs”; drivers who try to steal passengers from waiting cabs.
THURSDAY
We decided to relax and take it on Thursday, we hit the buffet for lunch and Stripburger for dinner (and to watch the first half of the Cavs game.) Headed to the Venetian to watch them pull off the victory. The Venetian is great and I would truly consider it for a future stay. What was planned to be an easy day turned into a pseudo-bar-crawl of casinos from Harrahs to Caesars to some rooftop bar to the Extra Lounge in Planet Hollywood to a Subway for a 3am dinner at the Casino Royale. I walked much of the strip with Pete before heading back to the room. Hilarious.
FRIDAY
Friday was the true, and much needed, lazy day of the trip. I was tired and a bit worn out from the fabulous Strip already. We ate a late breakfast at some Casino Cafe, lost big in roulette, saw an Area 51 bound plane, before heading to a movie at the Showcase Theater (near MGM) to kill some time. Did a full walk of The Strip back to our hotel, amazed at all the new construction, before dinner at the Garden Grille.
SATURDAY
Had a quick lunch before taking the doubledecker bus (best deal at $3 a ride) to Mandalay Bay. Dan and Emily checked out the Shark Reef where I enjoyed some coffee and more time killing sprinkled with some gambling losses (unlucky trip, for sure). The Mandalay Bar is another amazing hotel and with The Venetian is up for grabs for my next stay. Saturday here brought hundreds of people to the casino floor and lobbies for multiple weddings – Vegas weddings can be surprisingly classy. We made our way to the sports book for what would be the Cavs’ end to their season (that’s all I’ll say about that) and then headed to the House of Blues inside the huge casino for Animal Collective’s show. I won’t talk to much about this, but they played an amazing show. Had row 2 balcony seats and was able to relax and listen to some great music while nursing a few $7 New Castles. The HOB was pretty lame with a shit-ton of security guards, a camera ban (in a city of tourists!), and literally – an audible disclaimer played before the band went on stating if you were underage and were caught drinking, that yours parents would be notified. I think a handful in the crowd didn’t know who Animal Collective were and just decided to check out a “blues” show while vacationing in Vegas. A bus ride back to our hotel was packed with a few odd occurrences that will go unsaid.
We made it back to the hotel eagerly awaiting our flight home and departure from a worn out Las Vegas.
SUNDAY
Keep in mind that 6 days in Las Vegas is roughly about 3.5 too many. We couldn’t wait to get back – we checked out of our hotel, sold whatever beer we could to folks checking in and got a $40 cab back to the Airport. Here was our Sunday:
Flight was slotted to take off at 4:45pm, 4 hours flight + 3 time change = land in Cleveland @ ~Midnight.
Our plane docked at the gate on time, and let it’s passengers off. What normally includes an inspection, refuel, clean, board, take off again was replaced with a 2 hour delay and test flight to test a cabin pressure problem. Our plane returned 2 hours later, and the counter woman said the plane would not being flying us. Options included either a free hotel stay, and flight home Monday afternoon or a total 6 hour delay and arrival back in Cleveland at 6am. We chose the later and killed time for what seemed like forever waiting out the delay.
We watched the desert Sunset from an Airport window Sunday night, flew over the alive and bright Las Vegas Strip, and landed into a brisk Northeast Ohio sunrise. I had a few hours for sleep and relaxation before heading back to work on Tuesday.
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