I can't beleive how long this turned out to be so be forewarned.
I had stayed up all night Friday for our 8AM flight outta Dulles Sat. morn. A friend drove us so we didn't have to park out in bumf*ck egypt and shuttle in to the terminal. That saved us the PITA it is for us to shuttle because of my limitations. Wheelchair met us at outside baggage as requested, check bags and off we scoot to the gate. I'm only talking about the airport because it was kinda interesting to note the TSA agents. We were a little worried that maybe there would be a huge backup of people because of all the doom and gloom with the sequestration deal. SHEESH! what a crock, there were more agents than we'd ever seen, lines were non-existent and we went by at least 9-10 just standing around in the terminal, not even at gates. This was somewhat of a recurring theme thru the trip. Enought of this.
We land and have budget rental car and head straight to S Point for some seafood at big sur. Had king crab, crab cocktail and some chowder or something. It was delicious and we left happy bellys. Side note; I wish I could find crab legs that weren't split, I like cracking 'em and pulling the hunks of meat out.
Check in polo towers, get somewhat settled and all of a sudden lack of sleep catches up with me,HARD. M&A head to the grocery store w/o me, I nap on the couch. We had a nice one bed on the 11th floor right on top of the Ha-Vi-in marketplace and the ugly ass office complex,er,city center right in front of us. I'm not bitching, it was strip view and not overlooking the parking lot.
PIC OF VIEW HERE
The vdera towers have to be close to the ugliest,stupid ass buildings ever. NOTE; the crane at bottom right. I never saw it doing anything but ny guess is there for dismantling Harmon tower? Too bad, it's probably the coolest building in CC, that or cosmo. What a shame that whole fiasco turned out to be, sholuda been vdera towers torn dowm.
The one most absolute thing A wanted to see was marc savard(his psych prof. had shown a vid of him in class) so we used the MRB coup for two tix and bought one at tix 4 tonite. I'd never put any stock in these hypnotists shows thinking they were totally staged and dumb. Well, I have to admit it was hilarious and it sure didn't seem staged or fake(trust me, I was looking and doubting everything), there were just too many people to up there to have been staged, all volunteers out of the audience, I would guess half the crowd volunteered and he about half of them stayed up there, 30-40 I'm guessing?. After the show we returned to the room and I was wide awake having recharged my batteries with earlier nap, and M&A crashed while I stayed up, drank a beer and headed back over to PHo for a little gambling.
You could certainly tell it was spring break, ton's of college kids all walking around with those monster drink glasses hootin' and hollerin'. I wasn't even thinking there would be any ten let alone five dollar tables with how busy it was and being Sat. night but almost all the tables were five bucks so I commenced playing "flush high" and then some LIR. I held my own and then a hit a straight flush on LIR. I went home with a hundy+ in chips which is win for me 'cause I played for many hours. That's all I want from a game, to play for a while and have a good time, it just royally sucks when you go ten and out in hands. So it was good and I had fun.
We wake up Sun. morn. and do nothing. We laze around and watch tube for awhile( "21" just happened to be on, fitting). Take a moment to say how we do vacations, I do all the research and produce list's of things to do that will interest us and we pick something when we feel like doing something with a few "must's" in there. We decide to go hit the auto museum at IP, A was totally stoked to go do this, it was his pick so off we go.
There were so many cool cars but I think Fatty Arbuckles car was one of the coolest.
Funny thing happened here, well, I can laugh now but I can honestly say I don't let the small stuff bother me, especially on vacation but this stupid ass incompetent woman at the register for the car place really tried me(everyone around us as well). When we got there she couldn't figure out how to take two dollars off the register for the people ahead of us, had to keep calling someone to ask and still couldn't get it. No big deal but it was getting a little trying after ten minutes or so watching and listening to this old asian women who could barely speak a word of english fumbling through it all. After paying admission she then asks if we're AAA members, we get in free if we are. HUH? Couldn't you have said before we paid? OK, I deliberate whether to wait and get our money back or just go on in. I wait thinking she might have a grip on this now and send M&A on in. More fumbling through everything. GRRRR, patience John. Get's straightened out and go have a great time looking at all the cars, we spend several hours. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Fatty Arbuckles was one of my fav.'s
IP CARS
On our way out we wanted a few things from the gift shop. I had picked out a "route 66" sign for fourteen bucks. We go to check out with dippy still at the register and the register rings up 20 bucks. UH-OH, not good. I show her the sticker and she doesn't beleive me, I think she thought I switched stickers or something so asks where I got it from and checks out all the other signs. Fourteen bucks, well whaddya know!? More calls upstairs, SOB! Dippy hangs up and proceeds to tell me, "wrong price, twenty dollah". No, no ,no, it's fourteen bucks and by law that's what it is (the people behind us were all pretty vocal in agreement). I shoula let it go but I didn't, she repeated "tweny dollah" too many times. Finally we left all pissed off and that included everyone else in the gist shop. They prob lost a coupla hundred in sales all due to dippy and her twenty dollah! bullshit, everyone else laid down all the stuff they were going to buy. We all had a pretty spirited conversation on the elevator back down
Let that slide off quickly and we start back down the strip, man o man, it's an absolutely perfect day out. We decide to hit margaritaville on the way home and get a table on the porch. M and I get margaritas and we order some food. A is having a blast, kicking back in the sun, checking out the cuties and soaking in the sun and the strip, M is catching one helluva buzz after second margarita, she's such a light weight! HAHA.Life is good.
M-VILLE PIC
By the time we stroll back to the room it's time to go check A into the excal. I asked for a high up strip room and the guy comes through with a corner room on the 22nd floor with an awesome view of the entire north part of the strip and across the street at the trop. M and I head back to the room and she promptly conks out, I drink a beer or two and head over to PHo again. The tables are pretty full tonight and almost everything is ten min. except for the flush high game. I play a few other tables and then get a seat at the FH table, I've had luck at this game and like it. After a couple hours the entire table is having a blast, laughing, bettting, having an all aorund good time and a bit buzzed, you all know the drill. Then I get the monster hand, all clubs(seven) with I think five of them making a straight so I had a winning hand within a winning hand. 300-1 and other paid 200-1 for $1700 big ones, it was my first time $500 chips(gimme three of the yella' please). I scooter on home with close to $1900. SWEET! biggest win ever for me. Not too shabby on a $12 bet. I immediately put them in the safe not to be touched, that pretty much pad for the trip, a goodly portion anyway.
Mon. was M's B-day and we went to binions steakhouse for dinner. Nice place, it felt old school Vegas with the dark wood and all, classy is the word that first entered my mind. M and I had the steak and lobster, her filet was fantastic, mine musta been from a cow that excercised a lot, it was pretty tough for a filet, but man!, the lobster tail was phenominal, they were as big as a small child so I still left with a full belly, I don't think I hardly touched the baked tater at all which was equally huge. Total was $220 minus the LVA coup(%25) so that worked out well for our waiter and me, that works out as a nice tip for the waiter and my wallet, just left 220 total.
BINIONS DINNER Didn't think to take a pic til after, DOH!
We had strolled around Fremont for awhile and man, it's changed a bit, WHO THE HELL LET ALL THE FREAKS OUT? You couldn't walk ten feet w/o running into gene simmons or F'n transformer! Get A JOB! SHEESH!
A was staying at 4 queens and I had told him not to expect too much from the room as it was an older place and prob like a holiday inn or something. I go to check us in and give the guy the spiel about his first time in Vegas and everything, any chance at a room with any kind of view? He hits us with how the hotel is full and he'll have to give us a suite, is that OK? Heck ya, even tho I still didn't expect much , and was pleasantly surprised,no, actually shocked when we walked in. It was one big room that had a really nice leather couch/living room on one end and a king bed with wet bar on the other. I really hadn't expected squat really and A was completely stoked again with his room for the night.This made me really happy as well.
PIC OF 4 QUEENS SUITE, pretty cool. He enver got to do the zip line tho, the line was outrageous.
Driving home we got stuck in traffic right around the strat., they were unloading a crane to start dismantling parts of the Sahara. I also noticed a bunch of things fluttering around in the Luxor beam coming down the blvd., I knew they were bats and I thought everyone else did as well but apparently not, because it was all over the news and some people had called the station thinking they were some kind of UFO's. Seriously? When conditions are just right, moths/bugs flock to the beam and the bats have a field day, a veritable buffet for the bats.
M promptly conks out and I do my routine and head over for some more late night playing. It ended up being one of those times we all know too well, I couldn't buy a winning hand save for one OK hit on roulette. Went to three games and literally lost EVERY single save that one, even when I would get something good to play with, dealer would pull something outta his ass. I know when I'm licked so I had back home. My scooter starts slowing down going through the MM shops. ruh-roh, this isn't good. I get to the doors that dump out on harmon and the damn thing dies going out the second door. The door keeps tryimg to close on me(comical I'm sure) and a homeless guy comes and gives me a little push to get over the threshold. WHEW! Thanks mister! I sit for a few minutes thinking the battery will recharge itself a bit. It does, enough to get me out in the middle of Harmon anyway! Oh sh!t, light turns green and i'm holding up traffic big time so I get off and end up pushing the damn thing rest of the way home. I was pissed and my hip/leg is Friggen killing me. I have to say when I called them(LV scooters) the next day he was extremely cool and did everything to make me happy. Getting the right scooter turned into a total fisco but it was all good in the end. If he had told me it would be "TWENTY DOLLAH!" to get another one delivered, somebody would've lost a kneecap.
We met A at Dupars for breakfast, we meant to hit this place up last time and ended up at a horrible, horrible buffet at fremont insted. Big mistake that was, Dupars did have pretty darn good pancskes and other breakfast fare, wasn't really cheap, but man it was good. After we get done eating we head out to hoover dam with happy bellies. Upon entrance to the the parking lot there's six, yes SIX TSA/DHS guards at the entrance at a little makeshift gate. Three of 'em are sitting under this little pop up tent/shelter thingy, two are standing on the other side of the car shootin' the shit, not paying a bit of attention to us or anything and one guy who bends over and say's "welcome to HD, enjoy". I'm starting to suspect these draconion cuts in the budget leading us back to the dark ages was a tad exaggerated. They had a new parking garage there that was really nice but it sure seemed far away from the entrance, I guess it seems that way to me because I was dying by the end of the day with all the walking I had to do. There was no way in hell I was letting my limitations hold my family back tho, so I toughed it out. If you want to do the extended tour of the dam you apparently have to get there early 'cause they sell out fast.
DAM PICS AND NEW BRIDGE
We hurried back to pick up our tix for Ka that night and went to chill in the room for a while. I desperately need to rest for a bit. I haven't the faintest idea what we did for dinner. We left to go catch the show and holy cow, what a show! We were pretty blown away with it, A thought it was just completely amazing. This made me happy but this could be a double edged sword, will this show ruin it for all other shows? will he be completely disapponited in all subsequent shows? I hope not. Oh, a note here, apparently spring is the best time to see shows, I scored these tix online for 60 bucks and all other shows were 60 or less, way cheaper than reg. price.
After the show we went looking for the lions share slot, found it by the high limit room. Slipped in a twenty and quickly got it up to forty, hit cash out( I always cash out when I double, then put in another twenty) and nothin g happens. What's up? then I notice the light on above the machine. Hand pay. Oh crap. Eventually I had to go in the HL room and tell the lady about it. After five min. some suit walks out with the forty bucks. He was begging us to keep playing HAHA. Put in another twenty, lost it and had to go. I forgot, We had also played one of those cheesy "couples" slots outside the Ka theater. Hit a mini-JP on the second spin, won a hundy and hadn't even figued the game out yet
Wed. was lake mead day after dialysis for a ride on the clipper paddlewheel boat. Another gloriously perfect day for a boat ride, you couldn't buy days like this, well all week actually. We did realize really quick before boarding that the direct sunlight was pretty brutal and A and I had forgot sunglasses and hats. Of course all the hats were really dorky so we decide to follow suit with the skipper and gilligan hats. We kicked back on the upper deck and soaked in the view while sipping on an ice cold beer. Life was good and we were digging this immensely. I forgot to mention, the guard (only one, I was surprised) asked who was disabled when he saw the placard hanging in the window and I showed him my card, we get in free to natl. parks. That was a $25
score, WOOHOO! This was good for GC as well.
SKIPPER AND GILLIGAN PIC/ how dorkier can you get. Clark and Rusty
We remembered last trip we had eaten at planet dailies and thought it was great so we head to PHo for a quick bite. It wasn't as good as we remembered it to be,oh well, good enough. I had hooked up M and A with the night helicopter ride for that night so they had to eat and run because the food took forrr-evvvver to come out. That's cool, I stay and finish and head to the casino for a little after eats play. DAMN! it's a rerun of previous session, I'm licked again. I was anxious to see how A had liked the flight anyway so head back to the room . He loved it as I expected he would. That was cool.
Thurs. was Grand Canyon day. UGH! I'd been dreading this drive ever since we had planned it. I kept looking at flying prices all week, but it was just too expensive.I had woke up way before everyone else so went and played a little, lost again. The drive ended up not being so bad, I slept a good bit of the way.We get waved ob through the gate and we arrive, find a parking spot pretty quick. I hate to say it because I'd trade not having it anyday over having to having the HC placard because it does have some benefits. Anyway, we get out and start walking the short trail to the frirst overlook, UH_OH, somethings really wrong here. I start feeling really faint like I'm gonna pass out, I can't hardly breath, my chest is pounding, I have to sit down so I make it to the end of the path and a boulder to sit down on. I catch my breath and then realize" no wonder you can't breath up here you dumbass,THERE'S NO FRICKEN AIR UP HERE!". A goes back to get the scooter, it's a good thing we threw it in, almost didn't. Well the views of course were fantastic of course and had had enough after a coupla hours, back in car, drive home. Twelve hours of driving for two hours looking. It was a lot longer drive this time, I never really recovered from that spell plus I hadn't eaten anything, my body doesn't respond well with no gas in the tank, throw in trouble breathing, I was feeling pretty crappy. We got home at a decent time but I was outta gas and needed rest/sleep desperately.
I really liked this pic of M and A at the GC,
This was a decent pic of me and A
All of a sudden it's Fri. On tues. it had felt like we had been here for a week with all that we had done so far and now it felt like we just got here, weird. I wasn't feeling that great when I got home from dialysis, I tell M to take A on the little tour from cosmo through bellagio to cesears then paris(eiffel tower) and whatever else, while I slept for a while. I woke up up and they were still gone so I call and tell 'em I'll meet them in PHo, I'll be playing at one of the tables.
I end up at the FH table yet again. I'm holding my own but steadily losing. The table is having a blast, the second most fun I've had at a table,EVER. We play and play and I ran finally run out of money, well SOB!, I had only brought a hundred and change with me. SOB! I didn't have anymore money( I always have bucks on my person, just not all in the same place) I had been carrying 3-400 bucks on me all week. GRRR, I didn't want to leave the table, but oh well, you guys take iteasy. Good luck! The guy sitting across from me threw a blackie at the dealer and said "give 'em change". I politely say thanks, but I can't. He wouldn't have it and insisted, adding "you win and I get half, you keep the other half. OK, but you get all if I win. So play resumes, I'm back in the game, fun continues.
Shortly M calls and says they're ready to go eat and looking for me. CRAP! I swear this happens every trip, I've hit an awesome table on the last day, having a blast, in short, I'm not ready to eat just yet. I mention this at the table and high roller fun guy asks where we are eating, I told him the buffet(we still had the freebie passes from the Burton deal). He comments "can't eat there" turns to the pit dealer and asks"what's the best place to eat here?" Dealer says the strip house upstairs. I hear high roller guy say something about a host and some other stuff, I didn't catch it all. M shows up just as the guy buys me in again, arrghhh, dilemma. M goes and plays some slots and I play some more still having a blast. Well M shows up just I was outta chips, perfect timning, all is good, had a ton of fun, wish everyone GL and start to leave. High roller guy colors up and ready to leave. He comes over to us and tells us to stay put for a minute, a host is on the way. Huh??? Mentioned something about steaks and champgne, hold tight. Turns and takes off. Super cool guy and we're standing there wondering what's up, it seemed rather odd.
A hostess shows up and is way super cool with us. I ask what's going on and she replies "ABC wants you guys to have dinner on him at the "strip house" upstairs, anything you want and a bottle of champagne. WOW. Umm, OK. She leads us upstairs and kinda kissing our butts, I ask who was that guy and she only replies he's a VIP, he's staying at the Mirage and he want's you to have a great dinner. She speaks with the hostess for a min and we're led into the restaurant. Nice place, very nice place, a bottle of champagne is brought out. A fabulous meal, I don't even remember what we had bu it was good. My head was still spinning a bit. M drank most of the champagne and was enjoying herself(lightweight) HAHA.
LISA,OUR HOSTESS PIC
Went home and threw my stuff together and crashed for a while, I wanted to get up in a few hours and go play a bit more before we left. I have no idea if I did or not LOL. We checked out and tipped the bellhop with the three unused PHo buffet coupons, he was eternally grateful.
We hit the airport and again there's a million TSA people, may as well put a transformer suit on one of 'em, at least make them "work" for their money We land back home and it's raining, cold and all around miserable weather, the absolute worst kind for me.
So ended our Vegas vacation and A's first time, if he was "bored beyond belief and blah blah blah", he did a helluva job masking it. I'm pretty sure we all had a fantastic time and didn't get to do a fraction of the stuff I had on my notebook. It was the perfect mix of fun, relaxation, weather and all around awesome time for all. I got to play a good bit AND most importantly, spent most of time having family time, and what time it was.
Sincerely, Clark, Ellen and Rusty. Sorry it was so long
I had stayed up all night Friday for our 8AM flight outta Dulles Sat. morn. A friend drove us so we didn't have to park out in bumf*ck egypt and shuttle in to the terminal. That saved us the PITA it is for us to shuttle because of my limitations. Wheelchair met us at outside baggage as requested, check bags and off we scoot to the gate. I'm only talking about the airport because it was kinda interesting to note the TSA agents. We were a little worried that maybe there would be a huge backup of people because of all the doom and gloom with the sequestration deal. SHEESH! what a crock, there were more agents than we'd ever seen, lines were non-existent and we went by at least 9-10 just standing around in the terminal, not even at gates. This was somewhat of a recurring theme thru the trip. Enought of this.
We land and have budget rental car and head straight to S Point for some seafood at big sur. Had king crab, crab cocktail and some chowder or something. It was delicious and we left happy bellys. Side note; I wish I could find crab legs that weren't split, I like cracking 'em and pulling the hunks of meat out.
Check in polo towers, get somewhat settled and all of a sudden lack of sleep catches up with me,HARD. M&A head to the grocery store w/o me, I nap on the couch. We had a nice one bed on the 11th floor right on top of the Ha-Vi-in marketplace and the ugly ass office complex,er,city center right in front of us. I'm not bitching, it was strip view and not overlooking the parking lot.
PIC OF VIEW HERE
The vdera towers have to be close to the ugliest,stupid ass buildings ever. NOTE; the crane at bottom right. I never saw it doing anything but ny guess is there for dismantling Harmon tower? Too bad, it's probably the coolest building in CC, that or cosmo. What a shame that whole fiasco turned out to be, sholuda been vdera towers torn dowm.
The one most absolute thing A wanted to see was marc savard(his psych prof. had shown a vid of him in class) so we used the MRB coup for two tix and bought one at tix 4 tonite. I'd never put any stock in these hypnotists shows thinking they were totally staged and dumb. Well, I have to admit it was hilarious and it sure didn't seem staged or fake(trust me, I was looking and doubting everything), there were just too many people to up there to have been staged, all volunteers out of the audience, I would guess half the crowd volunteered and he about half of them stayed up there, 30-40 I'm guessing?. After the show we returned to the room and I was wide awake having recharged my batteries with earlier nap, and M&A crashed while I stayed up, drank a beer and headed back over to PHo for a little gambling.
You could certainly tell it was spring break, ton's of college kids all walking around with those monster drink glasses hootin' and hollerin'. I wasn't even thinking there would be any ten let alone five dollar tables with how busy it was and being Sat. night but almost all the tables were five bucks so I commenced playing "flush high" and then some LIR. I held my own and then a hit a straight flush on LIR. I went home with a hundy+ in chips which is win for me 'cause I played for many hours. That's all I want from a game, to play for a while and have a good time, it just royally sucks when you go ten and out in hands. So it was good and I had fun.
We wake up Sun. morn. and do nothing. We laze around and watch tube for awhile( "21" just happened to be on, fitting). Take a moment to say how we do vacations, I do all the research and produce list's of things to do that will interest us and we pick something when we feel like doing something with a few "must's" in there. We decide to go hit the auto museum at IP, A was totally stoked to go do this, it was his pick so off we go.
There were so many cool cars but I think Fatty Arbuckles car was one of the coolest.
Funny thing happened here, well, I can laugh now but I can honestly say I don't let the small stuff bother me, especially on vacation but this stupid ass incompetent woman at the register for the car place really tried me(everyone around us as well). When we got there she couldn't figure out how to take two dollars off the register for the people ahead of us, had to keep calling someone to ask and still couldn't get it. No big deal but it was getting a little trying after ten minutes or so watching and listening to this old asian women who could barely speak a word of english fumbling through it all. After paying admission she then asks if we're AAA members, we get in free if we are. HUH? Couldn't you have said before we paid? OK, I deliberate whether to wait and get our money back or just go on in. I wait thinking she might have a grip on this now and send M&A on in. More fumbling through everything. GRRRR, patience John. Get's straightened out and go have a great time looking at all the cars, we spend several hours. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Fatty Arbuckles was one of my fav.'s
IP CARS
On our way out we wanted a few things from the gift shop. I had picked out a "route 66" sign for fourteen bucks. We go to check out with dippy still at the register and the register rings up 20 bucks. UH-OH, not good. I show her the sticker and she doesn't beleive me, I think she thought I switched stickers or something so asks where I got it from and checks out all the other signs. Fourteen bucks, well whaddya know!? More calls upstairs, SOB! Dippy hangs up and proceeds to tell me, "wrong price, twenty dollah". No, no ,no, it's fourteen bucks and by law that's what it is (the people behind us were all pretty vocal in agreement). I shoula let it go but I didn't, she repeated "tweny dollah" too many times. Finally we left all pissed off and that included everyone else in the gist shop. They prob lost a coupla hundred in sales all due to dippy and her twenty dollah! bullshit, everyone else laid down all the stuff they were going to buy. We all had a pretty spirited conversation on the elevator back down
Let that slide off quickly and we start back down the strip, man o man, it's an absolutely perfect day out. We decide to hit margaritaville on the way home and get a table on the porch. M and I get margaritas and we order some food. A is having a blast, kicking back in the sun, checking out the cuties and soaking in the sun and the strip, M is catching one helluva buzz after second margarita, she's such a light weight! HAHA.Life is good.
M-VILLE PIC
By the time we stroll back to the room it's time to go check A into the excal. I asked for a high up strip room and the guy comes through with a corner room on the 22nd floor with an awesome view of the entire north part of the strip and across the street at the trop. M and I head back to the room and she promptly conks out, I drink a beer or two and head over to PHo again. The tables are pretty full tonight and almost everything is ten min. except for the flush high game. I play a few other tables and then get a seat at the FH table, I've had luck at this game and like it. After a couple hours the entire table is having a blast, laughing, bettting, having an all aorund good time and a bit buzzed, you all know the drill. Then I get the monster hand, all clubs(seven) with I think five of them making a straight so I had a winning hand within a winning hand. 300-1 and other paid 200-1 for $1700 big ones, it was my first time $500 chips(gimme three of the yella' please). I scooter on home with close to $1900. SWEET! biggest win ever for me. Not too shabby on a $12 bet. I immediately put them in the safe not to be touched, that pretty much pad for the trip, a goodly portion anyway.
Mon. was M's B-day and we went to binions steakhouse for dinner. Nice place, it felt old school Vegas with the dark wood and all, classy is the word that first entered my mind. M and I had the steak and lobster, her filet was fantastic, mine musta been from a cow that excercised a lot, it was pretty tough for a filet, but man!, the lobster tail was phenominal, they were as big as a small child so I still left with a full belly, I don't think I hardly touched the baked tater at all which was equally huge. Total was $220 minus the LVA coup(%25) so that worked out well for our waiter and me, that works out as a nice tip for the waiter and my wallet, just left 220 total.
BINIONS DINNER Didn't think to take a pic til after, DOH!
We had strolled around Fremont for awhile and man, it's changed a bit, WHO THE HELL LET ALL THE FREAKS OUT? You couldn't walk ten feet w/o running into gene simmons or F'n transformer! Get A JOB! SHEESH!
A was staying at 4 queens and I had told him not to expect too much from the room as it was an older place and prob like a holiday inn or something. I go to check us in and give the guy the spiel about his first time in Vegas and everything, any chance at a room with any kind of view? He hits us with how the hotel is full and he'll have to give us a suite, is that OK? Heck ya, even tho I still didn't expect much , and was pleasantly surprised,no, actually shocked when we walked in. It was one big room that had a really nice leather couch/living room on one end and a king bed with wet bar on the other. I really hadn't expected squat really and A was completely stoked again with his room for the night.This made me really happy as well.
PIC OF 4 QUEENS SUITE, pretty cool. He enver got to do the zip line tho, the line was outrageous.
Driving home we got stuck in traffic right around the strat., they were unloading a crane to start dismantling parts of the Sahara. I also noticed a bunch of things fluttering around in the Luxor beam coming down the blvd., I knew they were bats and I thought everyone else did as well but apparently not, because it was all over the news and some people had called the station thinking they were some kind of UFO's. Seriously? When conditions are just right, moths/bugs flock to the beam and the bats have a field day, a veritable buffet for the bats.
M promptly conks out and I do my routine and head over for some more late night playing. It ended up being one of those times we all know too well, I couldn't buy a winning hand save for one OK hit on roulette. Went to three games and literally lost EVERY single save that one, even when I would get something good to play with, dealer would pull something outta his ass. I know when I'm licked so I had back home. My scooter starts slowing down going through the MM shops. ruh-roh, this isn't good. I get to the doors that dump out on harmon and the damn thing dies going out the second door. The door keeps tryimg to close on me(comical I'm sure) and a homeless guy comes and gives me a little push to get over the threshold. WHEW! Thanks mister! I sit for a few minutes thinking the battery will recharge itself a bit. It does, enough to get me out in the middle of Harmon anyway! Oh sh!t, light turns green and i'm holding up traffic big time so I get off and end up pushing the damn thing rest of the way home. I was pissed and my hip/leg is Friggen killing me. I have to say when I called them(LV scooters) the next day he was extremely cool and did everything to make me happy. Getting the right scooter turned into a total fisco but it was all good in the end. If he had told me it would be "TWENTY DOLLAH!" to get another one delivered, somebody would've lost a kneecap.
We met A at Dupars for breakfast, we meant to hit this place up last time and ended up at a horrible, horrible buffet at fremont insted. Big mistake that was, Dupars did have pretty darn good pancskes and other breakfast fare, wasn't really cheap, but man it was good. After we get done eating we head out to hoover dam with happy bellies. Upon entrance to the the parking lot there's six, yes SIX TSA/DHS guards at the entrance at a little makeshift gate. Three of 'em are sitting under this little pop up tent/shelter thingy, two are standing on the other side of the car shootin' the shit, not paying a bit of attention to us or anything and one guy who bends over and say's "welcome to HD, enjoy". I'm starting to suspect these draconion cuts in the budget leading us back to the dark ages was a tad exaggerated. They had a new parking garage there that was really nice but it sure seemed far away from the entrance, I guess it seems that way to me because I was dying by the end of the day with all the walking I had to do. There was no way in hell I was letting my limitations hold my family back tho, so I toughed it out. If you want to do the extended tour of the dam you apparently have to get there early 'cause they sell out fast.
DAM PICS AND NEW BRIDGE
We hurried back to pick up our tix for Ka that night and went to chill in the room for a while. I desperately need to rest for a bit. I haven't the faintest idea what we did for dinner. We left to go catch the show and holy cow, what a show! We were pretty blown away with it, A thought it was just completely amazing. This made me happy but this could be a double edged sword, will this show ruin it for all other shows? will he be completely disapponited in all subsequent shows? I hope not. Oh, a note here, apparently spring is the best time to see shows, I scored these tix online for 60 bucks and all other shows were 60 or less, way cheaper than reg. price.
After the show we went looking for the lions share slot, found it by the high limit room. Slipped in a twenty and quickly got it up to forty, hit cash out( I always cash out when I double, then put in another twenty) and nothin g happens. What's up? then I notice the light on above the machine. Hand pay. Oh crap. Eventually I had to go in the HL room and tell the lady about it. After five min. some suit walks out with the forty bucks. He was begging us to keep playing HAHA. Put in another twenty, lost it and had to go. I forgot, We had also played one of those cheesy "couples" slots outside the Ka theater. Hit a mini-JP on the second spin, won a hundy and hadn't even figued the game out yet
Wed. was lake mead day after dialysis for a ride on the clipper paddlewheel boat. Another gloriously perfect day for a boat ride, you couldn't buy days like this, well all week actually. We did realize really quick before boarding that the direct sunlight was pretty brutal and A and I had forgot sunglasses and hats. Of course all the hats were really dorky so we decide to follow suit with the skipper and gilligan hats. We kicked back on the upper deck and soaked in the view while sipping on an ice cold beer. Life was good and we were digging this immensely. I forgot to mention, the guard (only one, I was surprised) asked who was disabled when he saw the placard hanging in the window and I showed him my card, we get in free to natl. parks. That was a $25
score, WOOHOO! This was good for GC as well.
SKIPPER AND GILLIGAN PIC/ how dorkier can you get. Clark and Rusty
We remembered last trip we had eaten at planet dailies and thought it was great so we head to PHo for a quick bite. It wasn't as good as we remembered it to be,oh well, good enough. I had hooked up M and A with the night helicopter ride for that night so they had to eat and run because the food took forrr-evvvver to come out. That's cool, I stay and finish and head to the casino for a little after eats play. DAMN! it's a rerun of previous session, I'm licked again. I was anxious to see how A had liked the flight anyway so head back to the room . He loved it as I expected he would. That was cool.
Thurs. was Grand Canyon day. UGH! I'd been dreading this drive ever since we had planned it. I kept looking at flying prices all week, but it was just too expensive.I had woke up way before everyone else so went and played a little, lost again. The drive ended up not being so bad, I slept a good bit of the way.We get waved ob through the gate and we arrive, find a parking spot pretty quick. I hate to say it because I'd trade not having it anyday over having to having the HC placard because it does have some benefits. Anyway, we get out and start walking the short trail to the frirst overlook, UH_OH, somethings really wrong here. I start feeling really faint like I'm gonna pass out, I can't hardly breath, my chest is pounding, I have to sit down so I make it to the end of the path and a boulder to sit down on. I catch my breath and then realize" no wonder you can't breath up here you dumbass,THERE'S NO FRICKEN AIR UP HERE!". A goes back to get the scooter, it's a good thing we threw it in, almost didn't. Well the views of course were fantastic of course and had had enough after a coupla hours, back in car, drive home. Twelve hours of driving for two hours looking. It was a lot longer drive this time, I never really recovered from that spell plus I hadn't eaten anything, my body doesn't respond well with no gas in the tank, throw in trouble breathing, I was feeling pretty crappy. We got home at a decent time but I was outta gas and needed rest/sleep desperately.
I really liked this pic of M and A at the GC,
This was a decent pic of me and A
All of a sudden it's Fri. On tues. it had felt like we had been here for a week with all that we had done so far and now it felt like we just got here, weird. I wasn't feeling that great when I got home from dialysis, I tell M to take A on the little tour from cosmo through bellagio to cesears then paris(eiffel tower) and whatever else, while I slept for a while. I woke up up and they were still gone so I call and tell 'em I'll meet them in PHo, I'll be playing at one of the tables.
I end up at the FH table yet again. I'm holding my own but steadily losing. The table is having a blast, the second most fun I've had at a table,EVER. We play and play and I ran finally run out of money, well SOB!, I had only brought a hundred and change with me. SOB! I didn't have anymore money( I always have bucks on my person, just not all in the same place) I had been carrying 3-400 bucks on me all week. GRRR, I didn't want to leave the table, but oh well, you guys take iteasy. Good luck! The guy sitting across from me threw a blackie at the dealer and said "give 'em change". I politely say thanks, but I can't. He wouldn't have it and insisted, adding "you win and I get half, you keep the other half. OK, but you get all if I win. So play resumes, I'm back in the game, fun continues.
Shortly M calls and says they're ready to go eat and looking for me. CRAP! I swear this happens every trip, I've hit an awesome table on the last day, having a blast, in short, I'm not ready to eat just yet. I mention this at the table and high roller fun guy asks where we are eating, I told him the buffet(we still had the freebie passes from the Burton deal). He comments "can't eat there" turns to the pit dealer and asks"what's the best place to eat here?" Dealer says the strip house upstairs. I hear high roller guy say something about a host and some other stuff, I didn't catch it all. M shows up just as the guy buys me in again, arrghhh, dilemma. M goes and plays some slots and I play some more still having a blast. Well M shows up just I was outta chips, perfect timning, all is good, had a ton of fun, wish everyone GL and start to leave. High roller guy colors up and ready to leave. He comes over to us and tells us to stay put for a minute, a host is on the way. Huh??? Mentioned something about steaks and champgne, hold tight. Turns and takes off. Super cool guy and we're standing there wondering what's up, it seemed rather odd.
A hostess shows up and is way super cool with us. I ask what's going on and she replies "ABC wants you guys to have dinner on him at the "strip house" upstairs, anything you want and a bottle of champagne. WOW. Umm, OK. She leads us upstairs and kinda kissing our butts, I ask who was that guy and she only replies he's a VIP, he's staying at the Mirage and he want's you to have a great dinner. She speaks with the hostess for a min and we're led into the restaurant. Nice place, very nice place, a bottle of champagne is brought out. A fabulous meal, I don't even remember what we had bu it was good. My head was still spinning a bit. M drank most of the champagne and was enjoying herself(lightweight) HAHA.
LISA,OUR HOSTESS PIC
Went home and threw my stuff together and crashed for a while, I wanted to get up in a few hours and go play a bit more before we left. I have no idea if I did or not LOL. We checked out and tipped the bellhop with the three unused PHo buffet coupons, he was eternally grateful.
We hit the airport and again there's a million TSA people, may as well put a transformer suit on one of 'em, at least make them "work" for their money We land back home and it's raining, cold and all around miserable weather, the absolute worst kind for me.
So ended our Vegas vacation and A's first time, if he was "bored beyond belief and blah blah blah", he did a helluva job masking it. I'm pretty sure we all had a fantastic time and didn't get to do a fraction of the stuff I had on my notebook. It was the perfect mix of fun, relaxation, weather and all around awesome time for all. I got to play a good bit AND most importantly, spent most of time having family time, and what time it was.
Sincerely, Clark, Ellen and Rusty. Sorry it was so long
