Vegas Trip Report

So for the first time ever Rob headed to Vegas without me.

What happened was that I couldn’t get as much time off of work as Rob did for out trip this year so we reached a compromise.  So he drove out to Vegas on Wednesday morning and I flew out of San Jose Friday night after work.

Friday morning I dropped the babies off at the vets and headed to work. My friend Trisha was set to drive me to the airport after work and I was already feeling apprehensive about flying.

It’s no secret that I am petrified of flying. If I did it more, it probably wouldn’t bother me as much. But as it stands I usually only fly every two years or so and it’s kinda terrifying for me. I wasn’t always that way, but much like my fear of freeways it started after I had a serious bout of anxiety back in Arizona. The worst of the everyday anxiety went away but those two phobias stuck around for some reason.

So around three thirty Friday afternoon, we heard about the things starting up in Paris.

First and foremost, the sheer horror of what happened just cut me to the bone. I am not trying to belittle what happened in any way. I don’t understand how anyone could do the things that were done. I don’t understand. I just don’t. I can’t even express.

So I’m not going to. But I’m not going to lie and say that the thought of my own safety wasn’t questioned knowing I was going to fly to a very popular city that night.   So on top of my already almost crippling fear of planes going down in a fiery fury while I’m aboard for no good reason, now there is a very present threat that something could possibly happen. I know the chances were slim, but hello?  Anxiety girl here!!

At any rate, Work got out and Trisha drove us like a bat out of hell to the airport. Even with a stop to In & Out Burgers we made it record time. She dropped me off and away I went. They say you really have to love someone to drop them off or pick them up at the airport. That girl is a saint.

My flight was delayed, so after what felt like an eternity I was finally on board. It was a full flight but I found a row with an open middle and aisle seat way in the back. In a lucky break, that middle seat was the only seat not filled on that plane. Proving mine and Robs theory that no one wants to sit next to a fat person on a plane. Duh!  You could literally see the fear in the eyes of the passengers I made eye contact with as I made my way down the plane. “Oh shit, don’t let the fat lady pick this seat.”  I almost wanted to fuck with some of them but I was too tired.

As the plane continued to fill up, a group of loud frat boys managed to baord the last two remaining rows behind mine. Of course they did. This was a Friday night flight to Vegas after all.   While they were pretty obnoxious, they did nothing to make me believe they were overly drunk or wasted.

The flight started and I put on my headphones with white noise, and opened up my kindle. It was a very smooth flight and I was very happy about that. Before I knew it, the announcement came on to power down our devices as we were descending. I unplugged my headphones and put everything away.

Now I’m not sure if those frat boys had been pounding drinks right before they got on the plane and it hit them hard, or if they really consumed that much on the flight, but in the one hour I had my headphones on, those boys went from obnoxious to belligerent and slurring their words.   In the ten minutes it took to land the plane, these guys wouldn’t shut up. And there was that one guy. You know the one. The guy that has taken it so far even the other drunks are embarrassed by him.

Ahh to be young and on your way to the city of sin.

Thankfully, my time around them was short and I made my way to the taxi line. The taxi line that was about a mile long. They had it roped up like a popular ride at Disneyland. Where you just keep walking and turning and walking. My initial thought was “fuuuuuck” because I was already so tired , but they had it organized pretty well and it only took about seven minutes to get to a cab.

My cab driver was super nice and chatty so that made the expensive ride seem faster. I should note that in case you were wondering why Rob didn’t pick me up, it’s because I told him not to. It was already midnight at that point and I didn’t want him to have to drive in Friday night traffic.

When I got up to the room rob had food and drink waiting for me but the first thing I did was get in my pj’s. It had been a loooooong day.

I ate my sandwich and watched Fresh Prince on nick at night before falling into a blissful sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up with cramps around nine. Oh yes, Mother Nature blessed me with my gift the day before I flew out just to make sure my vacation was as enjoyable as possible. 😉  This was the day we were supposed to do our check in for the race. Rob and I had signed up for the 10k  they had to go along with the marathon this year. I normally do the half marathon but we decided to do something shorter together this year.

I pretty much knew at this point that I was going to back out. I have done zero training and with the addition of my period?  Yeah, not going to happen. But Rob said he still wanted to do his so he headed off to the expo to check in while I laid around in bed and watched crap TV. In case you didn’t know by now, that is my absolute favorite thing to do on vacation.

He got back about two hours later and we laid around a bit more.  Eventually, I got up and showered and we headed downtown to check things out. First stop was The Fremont to get some Dunkin.I got a large mocha coolatta to split and the we headed to Binion’s to get our annual pics taken with the million dollars.   After that we hit the plaza but weren’t that impressed. We discovered that the Las Vegas Club appears to be closed and all the advertising on its windows were for the Golden Gate. That makes me wonder if they bought them to expand.

With not much else to do we headed back up to the room, after a quick stop at the market for dinner.

Sunday we woke up leisurely. This was the day we were changing hotels, but check out wasn’t until noon and check in at The Flamingo wasn’t until four.  I had an email from Flamingo asking me to check in online and they would text me when the too was ready, so I did that around nine. Rob and I then showered and packed and we were out of the El Cortez by eleven. While we were stopped at a local store to get water and snacks I got a text that our room was ready at the Flamingo and to pick up my keys at the platinum members area.

When I knew we were going to be staying at the Flamingo again this trip, I signed up for their rewards credit card. You earn a certain amount of points for every dollar spent. So I started using that card like I would my debit card and then paid it off every month with my debit card. I figured we might earn some perks and I was spending that money anyway so why not?  As long as it is paid on time there are no fees so it’s a win win.

We found the Flamingo parking structure with no problem and schlept our luggage to the elevator. In the lobby I got to skip the long check in line and go behind the golden door of the platinum cardholders to check in. Got my room keys in a snap and was directed to the spa tower to get our room.

As we got up to the 21st floor we found we were the first room after the elevators.  No long walk to the room from the casino.  Score!  When we opened the door, I saw that we were notably upgraded. I had booked a regular room but this was a fancier room, with a fridge, automatic window curtains, a big soaking tub and a view of the High Roller. Nice!

As Rob got geared up for the race I decided to go downstairs and get a sandwich to split since we hadn’t had anything substantial on our tummy’s in awhile. Rob suggested I also go get my replacement casino card since I couldn’t find mine at home.

So I boogied down to the total rewards booth and asked the lady if I could get a dup card. I gave her my ID and waited. When she handed me my card she said. “Oh, Ms Machado, you have almost three hundred dollars in comps to spend on dining, shopping or rooms.”  I thanked her and headed off to the food court sort of dizzy. I knew I would have some comps from using the credit card on daily purchases, but this basically made the room free.

I got a sandwich at LA Subs and went back up to the room. We snacked a bit and then I walked him down to the monorail so he could head off to the race.

After that I headed back up to the room, changed into my pj’s and laid on the amazing king sized bed while watching crap TV for a couple of hours. Eventually I got up and headed to the food court again. Rob had requested a burger from Johnny Rockets so I went out and got him one for when he was finished with the race.

By the time I got back up to the room, Rob texted me and said he had one more mile to go. I grabbed my jacket and headed downstairs to find it was raining outside and that because the marathon was in full swing, I couldn’t cross the street to see him cross the finish line.   I was bummed.

We texted back and forth and we eventually met up outside the Flamingo and headed back up to the room where he grabbed a shower and a quick nap.

Once he was rejuvenated we headed downstairs and played a little bit of gamble.  We found a block of machines of my mom’s favorite game and ended up fifteen dollars ahead.

We decided not to press our luck any further, so Rob headed back up to the room while I dropped by the food court to pick up two slices of pizza and two Stromboli’s for dinner/breakfast and we ate and went to bed.

The next morning was Monday and Rob had promised it to be my day.  Meaning that, since I had to cut my vacation short, he was willing to do whatever I wanted that day even if it meant just laying in bed and watching crap TV.  We’ve already established, that is my favorite thing.

I wanted to explore a little bit though so we woke, showered and headed over on the foot bridge to see what Caesar’s Palace had to offer us.   Turns out it wasn’t a lot.  We walked the forum shops only to find we couldn’t afford anything they had and at the end of it all, the Atlantis show wasn’t running.  Bummer.

So we headed back down the foot bridge to check out the new Cromwell Casino.  It used to be known as Barbary Coast and also Bill’s Gambling Hall.  We stayed there with my mom a long time ago when it was Barbary, and we quite liked it, but it was a tiny little casino trying to keep up with the big boys.  We knew it wouldn’t last.  What we discovered is that it had been expanded nicely but there was still nothing really notable about it.

We ventured further to check out The Linq.  Which used to be the Imperial Palace.  I had never been to the IP, so I had nothing to compare it to, but I wasn’t altogether un-thrilled with it.  Since it is a Total Rewards casino, we might consider staying there next time.  They had a restaurant that looked pretty amazing called Hash House A Go Go, but we weren’t in the mood for a meal at that time.

After that we decided we wanted to relax some more so we headed back to the Flamingo.  We made a pit stop at the Habitat to look at some Flamingo’s.

After that we grabbed a quick slice of pizza and headed back to our room where we got back into our pj’s. Rob took a nap while I started this trip report on my Ipad and relaxed.

When Rob woke up, we got dressed and headed downstairs.  He had a bet to make for his work pal in the high roller video poker area.  That happened a little too fast without a win so we ventured out to the penny slots as that is more our speed.  We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose too bad either.

Dinner was on our minds at that point and we both thought back to the Hash House A Go Go at The Linq and knew we had to go there.  We made the short trek across the street and placed our order with a really awesome waitress.  She sold me on a drink, that while okay…wasn’t worth the price.  She was forgiven once we got our food and got it back up to the room to discover the most delicious burgers ever!!!

Seriously!  I got a burger stuffed with bacon mashed potatoes.  The thing was so giant that I could only eat half and even then I was stuffed.    Also, the fries!  OMG!!  It’s a good thing they don’t have these locally or I would be 350 pounds again!!!  So nummy!

So that brings us to Tuesday morning.  Time to leave.  I wanted to sleep in a bit but for whatever reason, I was up at around eight.  So we showered, packed up and made a trip down to the car with our luggage.

This was the first time I had ever had “comps” at a hotel/casino and I wasn’t quite sure how to use them.  So after we were all packed up, I headed over to the comp desk to see what to do.  They said all I had to do was go beyond those Golden Doors that I checked in at and show them my card and check out.  It would be comped.

We walked into the Platinum card members check in area and just like that our room was comped, AND we were told we still had over a hundred dollars still to spend on food, drink or shopping.  Rob and I looked at each other and decided we had some shopping to do!

We hit the gift shop and dropped 75 in tee shirts, cups and trinkets for ourselves.  We rarely buy souvenirs in Vegas anymore so it was kind of nice to shop around.  Having said that, even with free money I couldn’t justify spending it on some of the higher priced items in the store.

After that we stopped for an overpriced coffee drink and a danish (also comped) and headed out to go home.

When we got on the road I turned to Rob and said: “Remember when we were high rollers for like a half an hour??”  Damn, I would have comped more stuff on the trip had I known!

The drive home was uneventful and we made pretty good time.

Today Rob had the day off so he picked up the pooches while I was at work and I just reconnected with them about an hour ago.  I’ve never been so happy to have dog slobber all over my face.

Overall, it was a quick trip, but I quite enjoyed it.