The act of prying myself out of bed Monday was difficult, seeing as how I was still exhausted from the day of travel and such the day before. I really didn’t want to waste too much time though so it wasn’t long before we were up and moving on the first full day in Vegas! We started out by jumping on the Monorail system and taking it all the way to the other side of the strip. Once we got off it was an easy walk over to the New York New York hotel. We decided that the Irish pub in the hotel would be a great place to start our day out (of course this was getting close to noon so it was defiantly time for lunch) This was the hotel were we were first acquainted with our enemy in Vegas…… The Star wars slot machine.
Right outside the pub there was this glowing set of machines bearing the all too familiar logo of STAR WARS. At the top was a Death Star adorned with numbers, and the main screen flashed all sorts of games. Since this was indeed a slot machine, you had the standard deal. You put in 1 dollar and you got 100 “credits” You could then decide how they were spent. You can choose the standard 1 line across like every other slot machine, or you could break the mold and have every line imaginable zig zaged across the screen. We usually just chose to use 10 lines, it had a nice pattern and we weren’t blowing 10 bucks with every turn. If you happened to get the right pattern on one of your lines, you got paid! If Darth Vader and Obi Wan appeared on the screen it would launch into a mini game. You had to choose one to win, if they won, you get paid! (If your pick didn’t win, you got a consolidation prize still). And the big game was of course the death star! If you get 3 death stars on your screen (in one of your lines) the machine goes off. It starts with three storm troopers that come out and you have to shoot one of them, this determines which of the three arrows on the top of the death star you are watching. Then three more troopers to determine the arrow at the bottom of the death star. The ball starts spinning and when it stops, the two numbers are added up and multiplied by how much you initially bet (for Arik that was like 5 or 10). As you can see, we got a little involved in this game. The girls actually had to drag us away to go eat.
The pub was great. I love eating in Irish pubs, the atmosphere is always fun. Sadly my fish and chips were not the best I had ever had. But the company was great, Amy even made the effort to work down a hamburger. (Don’t forget, she was still dog sick here). With our full bellies in tow we started down the strip towards the Bellagio hotel. Amy is a big lover of fountains. Any time we ever pas a fountain she is just mesmerized by it. Knowing this, I knew that stopping by the Bellagio would be a must. We had about 10 minutes while the sprayers warmed up and then on with the show. To the tune of “Fly me to the moon by Frank Sinatra, the water danced at heights of close to 5 stories tall. (more or less, I am pretty much just making up stats at this point). Amy was lost in the moment, she loved the show. While we were there someone said that over in the Paris hotel they do a thunderstorm show indoors that similar to the fountains, we added that to our checklist, but first… Caesars Palace!
Home to many a boxing event and apparently to Celine Dion, It was time to visit the ever famous Caesars Palace! (No, we did not, nor do we ever plan to visit Miss “Give them Kayaks” Dion). In the area known as the Forum Shops there is an aquarium where they do an animatronics show about Atlantis. So we thought that would be a cool (and free) show to go see. But first, the group needed a drink. Pineapple rum punch should do the trick, let’s get 2 of those! 2 glasses? Noooooo 2 Pitchers!!! Let’s get this day started, it’s after noon. This got especially fun when Amy was on the phone with her dad and uncle and we are shoving drinks at her. With only seconds to spare we did manage to get our tipsy butts down to the Atlantis show. It was pretty damn cool for just a walk by show. Now it was off to the Paris for the thunderstorm show. Or so we thought.
It was a quick walk across the street to the Paris hotel and we were defiantly feeling tipsy. Looking up at the Eifel tower didn’t help that much. When we walked in we were taken by all of the French décor. Not knowing where to go, I was instantly nominated to go and ask for directions. Sadly I was quickly informed that the Thunderstorm show isn’t in the Paris but back in Caesars Palace!! We were just going to have to let this one go. We took a shortcut through Bally’s to head back to the Monorail. It was time to hit the “Star Trek Experience.” Arik is a big Star Trek fan, so it was very appropriate to take him to the Las Vegas Hilton for the Star Trek Experience. For those who have never been there. There are two rides that take you into the Star Trek world. There is a very cool museum with all sorts of props. Another of the main draws is Quarks Bar. It’s a neat little restaurant and bar. This is where we decided to eat dinner.
Our waitress looked less than thrilled to be working in a Star Trek bar and serving a bunch of geeks. We tried to get her to smile a few times, like asking her to say the name “HamBORGer” a few times. She did her best to put smiles on our faces like bringing us our “Warp Core Breach” which is a giant drink in a smoking bowl. I think Lee drank the most of that one. While we were eating a few of the costumed people came around to visit tables. One was a pretty cute klingon girl (cute is, of course a relative term when referring to a klingon) and a tall blue Andorian guy. This guy was the epitome of a geek getting into his part. He was so serious and there was no way to get him to break his character. We actually ran into him a few times and it was the same at every encounter.
After our trip around the galaxy, we decided to head back to the hotel and take a break. This, of course, lead to us working our way down to the casino floor for some full blown gambling. I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to play some poker. Actually sit down at a table and play with a bunch of money and a bunch of strangers. I had originally saved up $100 just for this purpose. I had also thought that I would need that much. Turns out I only needed to buy in with $20 (I did $40 actually). I handed Amy another $40 and sent her off to the slot machines while I headed to the tables. From what I gathered I was gone for about an hour and a half. Arik and Lee played more of the Star Wars slots, Amy managed to loose $20 in various slots and they all went back up to the room to order ice cream.
I was in another world. This world was green felted and ruled over by four warring houses governed by a monarchy that sucked the life out of many a passing Vegas tourist. The game was Texas Hold Em’ and I had never played before (except for Arik’s quick tutorial). The guys at the cashier’s cage said to just follow along with the other players and the dealer will usually help you out as well. And they did, a few times I was ready to fold when all I needed to do was check. And they were kind enough to advise me when to lay down my blinds and such. After a few hands, I was out there bluffing with the best of them. The guy to my right was raking in the chips, and the lady to my left was loosing them. I don’t think I was doing all that bad, at one point I was up to about $70 total. When I finally left the table (they were going to merge us because a number of people had left) I had $18 of my $40. The upside is that I spent an hour and a half learning a fun game, and having a blast doing it. That money well spent!
When I went upstairs to report in my loosing to the gang, I found them in Arik’s room ordering up desert and Amy sitting off in the corner. She looked a little down so I asked if she was feeling any better. She said no so I took her up to the other room to take a shower for a bit. Turns out one of the reasons she was feeling down (aside from the flu) was that she had lost all of the whole $20 I gave her. This would be the point where I started laughing. I know it’s not nice, but it was really funny. I love her to death but she always knows how to make me laugh. Apparently this really bothered her and she really wanted to come away with more or at least break even, but she just couldn’t stop. After my giggles were done I explained that the money I gave her was to go and have fun, I didn’t care if it got lost, and it was meant for her to experience the slots. After I re-assured her of all this, I think she felt a little better. Long story made short, and I love her to death but, if I didn’t expect it to be lost, I wouldn’t have given it to her!
We went back down in time for the ice cream to arrive and rounded out the evening BSing about what we have done and how much fun we had. Amy and I didn’t stay up too much later as we needed to get up early to catch the flight home. As much as I would love to go into the whole trip home, it was fairly un-eventful. We left at 8am Vegas time and, after a four hour layover in SFO we landed back home at midnight Tuesday night. It was a long day of travel (thank the gods for my PSP). In the future I think we will schedule the days of travel to be excess to the vacation! And on that note I will wrap up the Vegas trip report. Now I have to write about the last two weeks of what happened here!!
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