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<< Previous: Vegas 2006 | Next: Vegas 2006, Part 2 >>

Vegas 2006, Part 1
Thursday, 2006 September 21 - 9:16 am
Okay, here's the actual Vegas recap. Part 1 of 2.

This time, the Vegas trip included me, Ed, Javi, Steve, John, Earl, Paul, and Alan.

Several of the guys got there on Thursday. I flew early on Friday, which meant waking up at 4:00 a.m. (EDT). Ugh. I flew the first leg from Raleigh-Durham to St. Louis, and then I had a three hour layover. So I decided to get some breakfast.

Have you ever had breakfast at a Chili's restaurant in an airport? My advice would be, don't.

On the flight from St. Louis to Las Vegas, I opted for a $100 upgrade to first class. (Do all airlines offer that sometimes, or is it just American?) So of course that meant FREE BOOZE. I started drinking right away... for the record, it was 9:30 a.m. Vegas time, but already 12:30 p.m. Raleigh time. Like I always say, "it's noon somewhere!"

Arriving in Las Vegas, I met Ed at the airport. We got in line for the taxi stand, which was a long winding line like you'd find at an amusement park ride... except that on this ride, you had to sit with a smelly guy who wanted thirteen bucks from you.

Nearing the front of the taxi line, the woman indicated to the taxi-stand person that she had two in her party. But she was standing by herself. So the guy says to her, "WHERE'S YOUR TWO?" Ed and I decided that would be our catch phrase of the weekend. The appropriate response is, "I GOT YOUR TWO RIGHT HERE."

We went to the MGM Grand, where we were staying, to meet the rest of the gang. By this time it was about 3:00 p.m., Vegas time.



We did a little bit of gambling. We sat down with a dealer whose name tag said "The Fish". We couldn't decide if it was a Mafia reference or an Abe Vigoda reference, but he was from New Jersey and the name seemed to fit in either case. The Fish seemed to catch on quickly to the fact that our group likes to talk smack to each other. At one point, John said, "Hey, I have the same number of chips as when I started." The Fish replied, "Who gives a shit?"

After we lost our money to The Fish, we had martinis at a bar, and then it was time to eat. We went to the Wolfgang Puck restaurant at the hotel. (By the way, the Wolfgang Puck name loses a little bit of its caché when you see a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the St. Louis airport across from Chili's. I'm just sayin'.) I had to chug my martini because the restaurant wouldn't let us carry them in. Chugging the martini was disturbingly easy.

The restaurant had its menus on wooden boards. So of course, being the geeks that we are, we had to do the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" thing, chanting "Pie jesu domine, dona eis requiem" and then whacking ourselves on the heads. But the waiter, a guy in his early twenties, didn't know what in the world we were talking about. (Kids today.) So we had to do it again, and then explain it to him.

After dinner, there was more gambling, and then we went to a club called the Forty Deuce. It's a nightclub with a couple of burlesque dancers that come out every now and then. To get one of the reserved VIP tables like we did, it's a two bottle minimum, at something like $350 for a one-liter bottle. Yeah, I know.

We went to Forty Deuce last year too and we liked it, but this year we were a little disappointed. It was a lot to spend for a couple of bottles of liquor and just two dancers in the two and a half hours we were there. So we left. But as we were leaving, I noticed that we were about to leave a good chunk of the booze behind. "OH HELLS NO", I said, and I grabbed the bottles to take with me. It being Las Vegas, no one seemed to make a big deal of the fact that I was carrying two open bottles of liquor around with me through the casinos.

Back at the hotel room, I corked the bottles up with tissue paper, making them look like Molotov cocktails.



Mmm, bombs.

By this point I'd been awake for 24 hours, and drinking for 16 hours, so it was time for bed.

On Saturday I got up fairly early and ate at the MGM Grand buffet. (Everyone else except Steve had stayed up late, but I won't say what they were out doing.) I could eat my weight in their corned beef hash. And they have bacon and eggs and sausage and pancakes and lox and bagels... it's fifteen bucks and easily worth it.

After I ate, I went shopping. I went to the shops at the Aladdin and at Caesar's Palace. I got Amy a little birthday present but not much else. I was tempted to buy clothes, but to me it just seems weird going to Las Vegas to go clothes shopping.

In the afternoon, Michigan played Notre Dame. So we all sat in my hotel room to watch it. A waste of valuable Vegas time? Not if you're fans like us... the camaraderie alone was worth it, not to mention the pounding that Michigan gave Notre Dame. And of course we had the leftover liquor to drink. (I went out and bought ginger ale and tonic water as mixers, and set up a little bar. It was almost like home.)

In the evening, we went to Craftsteak for dinner. They have Kobe beef there. The Kobe skirt steak there is one of the best things I've ever eaten, without a doubt. Yeah, the steak is $69, and it doesn't come with any side items. But dang, it's good.




That's Lagavulin in Javi's hand, our traditional scotch for when we eat at Craftsteak.

Oh yeah, when I stepped away from the table, the guys used my camera to take this picture. Fuckers.



In Part 2: the remainder of my Saturday activities, and winding down on Sunday.
Permalink  2 Comment   Bookmark and Share
Posted by Ken in: lifetravel

Comments

Comment #1 from JohnC (Guest)
2006 Sep 21 - 7:42 pm : #
Just so it is clear to everyone. His name tag actually said "The Fish". Ken is not making that up.
Comment #2 from Javi (Guest)
2006 Sep 23 - 1:58 pm : #
yeah, sadly, i too consider the forty deuce experience something of a failed experiment - next year we're marching back to cirque du soleil (or danny gans?)...

...diggin' the recap, i hope you will mention pat and mister danny boy in the second installment!

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