Dobrindts dot com...again

- After the store we went to the top of the Stratosphere. It’s the highest structure west of the Mississippi and has a 360 degree view. I have some great pictures from there, it was a very clear day. They also have three rides on top, there used to be a roller coaster but they changed that to newer ones. None us had the…fortitude…to go on the rides. Seriously, I love amusement park rides but this one was crazy scary, picture above.

- After the tower, we were going to head to Rio for a free show but kind of ran out of steam. So we stopped by our place at the Hilton and then went to dinner.

- Dinner was going to be a good but inexpensive steak dinner at a place call Ellis Island, where you have to say a secret phrase in exact order and with the right pronunciation to get the steep discount, but the wait was too long.

- So we got back in the car, again, and drove to a place called Terribles. A trick my parents have is to sign up for the players club at each casino because in addition to getting points for giving them your gambling money, you can get free stuff and discounts. So we signed up and got a coupon for a free buffet. For the first time in as long as I can remember, we ate at a buffet. Food was good and it cost us 5 bucks a person, plus tip. More money for the slots. Just like breakfast.

- We played the slots there for about 30 minutes after dinner and headed home. Or back to the hotel. We dropped my parents off at their hotel and called it a night, Friday night. We were exhausted from working all week, late dinners with clients, Patti taking care of the kids, cross country flights, sleep schedules that were still on east coast time, running to 7 places in one day and the dry heat of Nevada, but it was fun. Patti and I closed the day out by sitting in the Jacuzzi by the pool and having a couple of cold beers.

- Saturday was much more relaxed. I get up early, especially since my body was still on east coast time, so I was up at 5AM. I worked for a while and watched the Survivor Fans vs Favorites finale online. Patti got up late and while she ran on the treadmill, I went to the pool.

- We hung out in the 95 degree poolside until noonish, then got ready for the afternoon. We agreed that we would not talk about what we were doing next until we were at the end of the current activity. Our lives are run by schedules and timeframes, meetings and playdates and sports practices and flights and bedtimes and mealtimes and appointments and customer calls and alarm clocks and frustration and temper tantrums and pickup times, so we wanted to NOT plan anything. Mid afternoon, after lunch, we walked to the Sahara Casino in 100 degree heat, didn’t really like it, and walked to the Strat.

- Here comes my first real gambling experience of the week. I obviously know how to play blackjack, I can count to 21, but there are specific rules for when to stand and when to hit. If you are somewhat advanced, there are rules when to split and double down. I wanted to play blackjack but was nervous about being an amateur at a table with pros, and getting them ticked off that I didn’t do the right thing. It can be a serious business, and I hate to look like an amateur. But as we were walking through the Strat during the afternoon on a beautiful Saturday, I saw a table with only one other guy, and it was for low money, a 5 dollar table. So I sat down and played for about an hour, winning a hundred and losing a hundred and coming back to even. I walked away with 5 or 10 bucks in my pocket and a couple of free beers. And had a great, GREAT time. I doubled down with an ace and split with two tens, 6 showing for the dealer, and won both times. I talked to the other players that came to the table, and one dealer was really cool about helping with what to do when. Patti watched for a little and then went off to look at the shops and play the slots.

- After that, we stopped at the Worlds Largest Souvenir shop, then back to the hotel for more pool time. Then had dinner at Rio, where we played craps, then to the hotel OJ Simpson was busted in, Palace Station, where we both played blackjack, then back to the hotel. We were so exhausted by the time Saturday night came and had to get up around 4AM to fly home.

Sunday we flew to Boston through JFK and picked up the kids at a friends house. Jim and Pat had the kids and with only about an hour overlap, dropped them off at our friend’s so they could drive back to NY. When Patti and I were leaving the hotel at 4AM, there were a ton of people just coming in from being out all night. Pretty funny. Our lives and bodies are about 3 thousand miles from staying out all night, it's sadly just not in us anymore.

The thing that amazes me the most about Vegas is the size and scale, the building that is going on. Oh, plus the excessive amount of cleavage that is shown by every woman that can pull it off, and some that shouldn't. Seriously, you have no idea how much skin and tight clothes are worn by the ladies that come to Vegas, like it's some land that doesn't see size or body type, only hotness, which there was plenty off. Again, some people should not have been in their attire, but it was definitely fun to people watch. And you should see the billboards and flyers on the ground, like porn jumped from the pages of brown paper covered mags and the internet to 40 foot signs high above roads and on moving plywood trucks on the strip.

Posted by David on May 20, 2008 05:19 PM | Permalink