Final Tally:
Video Poker - UP $110. Hit four 7s while eating frozen yogurt on Day 4.
Slot Machines - DOWN $16. Had to tithe to the Vegas spirit.
Craps - DOWN $50. That was one cold-ass table.
Blackjack - DOWN $50. That was one cold-ass table.
TOTAL - DOWN $6. I live to see another day.
Our buddy Shayan arrived in Vegas on Day 3 to bring our crew to four strong. Then we all proceeded to destroy a bottle of Redbreast 12yr, neatly. I always recommend pre-partying with something delicious.
We hit tons of good restaurants over the whole trip: Postrio, BLT Burger, Carnegie Deli (okay, maybe not good), Sirrico's (yum), Noodle Asia......and I'm sure I'm leaving some out.
Thanks to the clubbin', Day 3 lasted until 4am on Day 4. Haven't done that since......my single days? I dunno. Day 4 was a recovery day until we headed out to beautiful Fremont Street.
Okay, that pic is from 1986, but -- aside from the bizarro Viva Vision overhead -- it hasn't changed much. And that's what I like about it.
The cheap glitz. Millions of strobing bulbs. Hot neon. Immersion in Crayola color vomit. Love it! There was even some dude wailing out tunes on his saxophone. I shouted, "I'm in the '80s!"
Unless you go to a classy joint like the Golden Nugget, $5 tables abound. Even on weekend evenings. You can sidle up to the craps table with your Michelob. Stand between the casino employees who hate each other's guts. Toss your crumpled 20s onto the table. And share dice with a dozen prostitutes, pimps, the mentally ill, the drugged desperate, and the incontinent insomniacs. It rules. Nowhere else in that town will you find such camaraderie, so much cheering!
And yeah, I lost some money at Fitzgeralds, but it lasted me awhile. Plus the four of us actually got to sit at the same blackjack table, and lose money together. By the way, you should totally go to their website. The photo gallery is clearly from the......you guessed it, the '80s!
On Day 5, we breakfast buffeted then went our separate ways. No last minute slot machines. No emergency trolling for cheap tables. We're wiser than we used to be, in this sense only.
That drive back to LA is never the best part of the trip. If you've done Vegas correctly, then you're bloated, benumbed, and directionally disoriented.
Barstow was almost 80 degrees, then, forty minutes later, I drove through a snowstorm. Thus the escapade continued until I got home and passed out on the couch.
Five days is a loooong time in Las Vegas, but I didn't feel like I'd overdone it that badly. Had there been more money at my disposal, I could foresee things getting wilder on the gambling floor. But getting out and about (especially with Claire, the Vegas rookie) makes for a much better experience. I've lost count of how many times I've been to LV (somewhere between 12 and 20), but I would venture to say that this, alongside my bachelor's party, may have been amongst my top two Vegas trips.
And yes, there was some significant entertainment that will remain unpublished here. Sorry folks, but it's Vegas.
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