First Vegas Trip of 2009

To recap, we left Phoenix on the morning of Saturday, January 17. The airport was hopping...by far the busiest we've ever seen it. What's this, a line for security? That's never happened here before. Onto the flight. We waited about 15 minutes for our turn to depart and as we sped down the runway we passed over 12 planes waiting their turn in line to take-off. Madness.


The flight itself was a brilliant 39 minutes long. No turbulence. Sunny skies. I saw our neighborhood as we flew north as well as snow covered mountains and the Hoover Dam. Very cool. We grabbed some Starbucks breakfast (muffin and coffee...the cashier complimenting my Walmart earrings saying they were, "very becoming") as well as our bags and we were off to stand in line for a cab.


We didn't have to wait too long and we off to the Wynn. I tried to ask the taxi driver, who spoke limited English, if tourism was down in Vegas. The driver proceeded to roll my window down as he clearly didn't understand what I'd asked. Josh gave me a funny look and I quit trying to make small talk with the driver.


Ahhh, the Wynn....along with the Palazzo, my favorite hotel/casino in Vegas. Walking into the Wynn, it smelled so familiar and pleasant. I love this place. No line to check in at 10:30 am and we were able to get a room on the 52nd floor with a view of the golf course (I'd never seen the golf course before so that's the view I wanted).


Well, the Wynn room was very nice and lived up to expectations. There were electronic blinds to cover the floor to ceiling windows. Robes are provided but Housekeeping had forgot to leave us slippers so I called to get some brought up. Wow, the girl answering the phone was seriously THE MOST PROFESSIONAL person I've heard on the phone. That was impressive.


The bathroom was huge with double vanity and a place to sit to put on makeup. There was a separate shower and bath area. For how nice it all was, the water pressure in the shower was abysmal.


Josh and I played some slot machines at the Venetian before returning to the Wynn for the buffet. The buffet still lives up to expectation but I only managed to eat 4 creme brulees this time!


After our late lunch, we met up with Tara and Mike to head Downtown to play. After waiting a millennia for the Deuce bus to arrive, we opted to split a cab which was $10 per couple. Downtown we started at Fitzgerald's which was a huge let down. Annie, our roulette dealer, was literally yawning as she spun the roulette wheel. The cocktail waitress service was no existant so after a few minutes at roulette and the craps table, we were off to Mermaids.





Let me tell you about Mermaids, it is the craziest place to go if you want fast and cheap drink service. When you walk in, a girl gives you some beads, a coupon for their hourly $10,000 drawing and takes your drink order. Two minutes later, as you're ponying up to a slot machine (there are no table games) another waitress is asking what you'd like to drink (remember, your first drink hasn't yet arrived).


The four of us spotted a row of penny slots that we could play while getting our fill of Miller Lites and Vodka Diets. At one point, we had a line of plastic drink cups extending from Tara's machine down to my machine. We were feeling good and having fun with our penny slots. Then, they announced the $10,000 winner.


The number was something like 320221. We all looked at each other because we were like, "One of us must have one." As it turns out, my number was closest at 320222. Only one number off-DAH! No worries...more cheap drinks and then outside to watch three guys ride motorcycles around in a circular cage a la Homer Simpson in the Simpson's Movie. That was pretty wicked cool.


We walked down to the Fremont Street casino where Josh and I were comped for playing in April. Josh and I played craps while Tara found a slot machine and Mike went to blackjack. I was quickly down $60...so much for the Don't Pass line having the best odds. Josh was up and several people at the table went on long runs throwing the dice. We made friends with Ron and Ellen from Hawaii, an old guy name Wilfred, and Janet and Abbey who were sisters. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun.

Gary, the pit boss, comped me $23 when I had lost my $60. I went to the cafe and bought about 7 muffins and 5 orange juices. As the evening wore on, and Josh's luck was slowly winding down, I began to take some of his chips to the cashier's booth to make sure he didn't lose all his winnings. We left the casino around 1 am with Josh getting another $13 in comps from "Big Gar" as we called him. We bought some more muffins and Chinese food to go as we left.


We were all feeling pretty good at this point and Josh and Mike managed to talk a guy driving a cart around Freemont Street to give us a lift to the Deuce bus stop. We piled onto his cart, held on for dear life, and made it to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus without having to wait.


On the bus ride back to the Strip, Josh was dubbed the "Muffin Man" due to the fact he was carrying a plastic bag full of muffins and orange juice. That was a fun bus ride. Of course, when we got off the bus, and were walking back to the Wynn, the plastic bag broke and all the contents scattered everywhere but we managed to make a nice recovery of our items.

Back in the hotel room, I took my contacts out only to realize that I hadn't brought my contact lens container. So, I did what I always do in such circumstances, I fill a cup with saline solution and plop my contacts in the cup.

Well, I must have been really thirsty AND really out of it in the middle of the night because when I woke up in the morning and went to put my contacts in....they weren't in the cup!!! The cup had water in it now, not saline solution! I DRANK MY CONTACTS during the night!!!

Fortunately, I brought two back up contact lenses whereas I normally only bring one extra lens. I grabbed some fast food at the Fashion Square mall for lunch and Josh and I placed a bet on the Cardinals game in the sports book at the Wynn. We watched the game in our room and it was a close call during the third quarter but ultimately the Cards came back to win!!! Which meant we won too!!!

Later that night, Josh and I ate dinner at Grand Lux Cafe before meeting up with Mike and Tara at the Palazzo. We played some penny slots before catching the Deuce bus down to the Stratosphere for a 80's rock, vampire, topless show called Bite. The Stratosphere is so depressing and no fun for gaming...totally skip this place.

Now, why did we go watch Bite? Well, ever since Josh and I went to Vegas last April, he joked about going because he's always been into the whole vampire thing (Buffy, Underworld). Plus, we've seen most of the Cirque shows so we wanted to see something different and the tickets were definitely affordable. As far as the show goes, I mean, you get what you pay for. At least the girls were beautiful and talented and there were some unexpected acrobatic parts and parts with this guy singing that were really good. For what it was, I thought it was fine.

After the show, we left the Stratosphere and saw two people start to get into a fight as we were getting onto the bus. Crazy. We said bye to Mike and Tara when we exited at the Wynn and then Josh and I called it a night.

The following morning, I wanted to check out the pool so we put on our bathing suits and went downstairs. Oh my goodness. It was such a fine sunny day. We sat in the hot tub under the blue sky and it was so pleasant. I even went into the heated pool for awhile and then laid out. It was completely lovely.

Next, we headed up to the room to get ready for check out and to eat lunch at the Wynn buffett again. This trip, we experienced the longest lines for the buffet. Strange. The food was as good as usual and we took our time eating. After our meal, we walked over to the Palazzo to play the penny slots we like there before heading back to the Wynn to pick up our bags to go to the airport. The flight home was completely uneventful which is super great. Side note: I haven't freaked out about flying in a long time now...well, about 9 months or so. It's such an awesome experience NOT to freak out.

Josh says he is not going back to Vegas again for a long time. I headed back to Vegas from January 24-27, so now I have my second Vegas trip of 2009 under my belt.