Vegas Vacation

We had such a great time in Vegas! I won't get into my penny slot winnings. :)

Our friends Doc and Amelia picked us up from the airport on Monday night, and we went to the old downtown area. For some reason I really wanted to see the Golden Nugget and the whole big light show they do down there. There are 12 million lights! They knew of a place with $2 Corona's, so we grabbed a beer and checked some places out. The Golden Nugget just re-did their pool, and they have a water slide that actually goes THROUGH a shark tank! It was so cool. I had looked online to find affordable restaurants (there are none in Vegas- entrees literally start at $35) and saw there was a decent one in the Nugget called Groto, so we gave it a go. The food was so good! I ate all of my pasta with chicken, and about a loaf of bread. Maybe a loaf and a half.

Darrel and I were hell bent on making this an affordable vacation. We had checks from work for our travel expenses that covered our flights there and back, and I found an amazing deal at the Monte Carlo on kayak.com one day for our room. It was only $50 a night! We were also able to get tickets for KA, a Cirque show, for $55 a piece, rather than the full price of $140. Tuesday morning was all about finding more deals.

Doc gave us some coupon books and filled us in on some ways to get discounts. I went over and stood in line at Tix4Tonight, where you can purchase tickets at a discount the day of shows. The line took forever. When I finally got to the front, Blue Man Group only had obstructed view seats left. I of course didn't have my cell phone, so I made the decision to get us tickets for Penn & Teller, the magicians. I didn't know much about them, but Darrel had talked about wanting to see the show, and I knew that one of them was on Dancing With The Stars. The lady then asked me if I was interested in any of their dining discounts, and I wound up getting us a voucher for buy one get one free entrees at the steakhouse at the Paris hotel! Life was good. And discounted.

We enjoyed the rest of Tuesday walking around to different hotels, seeing the show, and meeting Doc and Amelia at Smith and Wollensky for dinner. After, we decided to gamble a little. (And I really mean a little). Darrel learned how to play craps, and might have gotten a little addicted that night. I went to bed at 4am, and he was out until 6:00 in the morning!!! That kind of made us get off to a late start on Wednesday, our last day.

Wednesday we wanted to go get a free buffet lunch at the (rundown) Riviera. You show them your plane ticket stub, they feed you. By the time we got the bus ticket and went up there, the damn buffet was closed. We wound up next door at a place called the Peppermill. The decor was hilarious! The place was totally stuck in 1975. But the food was incredible.

After lunch, we went over to Slots Of Fun. They had cheap Blackjack tables there Darrel wanted to check out, and well, I just love slots. I put $5 in a nickel machine, and the dumb thing shot out $5 worth of nickels! For those of you who have not been in a casino lately, you never actually SEE your coins in slots. They become electronic credits, and when you cash out, it gives you a ticket you turn in. But not here. So I start putting these nickels in, five at a time, literally just trying to get rid of them. The place kind of smelled, and we were ready to go. It kept paying me. Not big- just enough to make it so I had to keep sitting there putting the nickels in. Do you know how dirty those things are!? Darrel was calling me nickel fingers, and here's why:

Wednesday night was the best night. We saw KA (you should watch the video), and I can't even put it into words. Amazing. But get this- we were standing in line at the bar in the theatre, and their special drinks were $15 for a small. Well for $3 more, you get a huge one. So what do we do? Spend $36 on TWO DRINKS!! They did last us about two hours though. We then went over to Paris and went to a piano bar and excellent (half price) dinner. After dinner we went back to our hotel, I won the money on the Butterfly slots, and Darrel bet $5 chips at craps next to a man betting $500 chips. Awesome.