Snow - In Vegas????

Ok, so I am finally back. Sorry about being gone so long, but I was abducted in Vegas by small grey aliens that were all dressed like Elvis - Except for the tall one, he was dressed like Prince.

Snow in Vegas

I go to Vegas to get away from the snow and cold for a week or so, and what happens? Yep, it followed me. It actually snowed on the 5th night we were there. I looked out the window and thought that there were an awful lot of little bugs flying around. I told Dianne that she needed to come see all the bugs outside. That’s when it happened. Those little, “bugs” started to fly into the window and hit me on the head. They seemed to be pretty cold, and they melted when they hit me. That’s when I realized that they were not “bugs”, but in fact snow! It started out as a normal snow, and quickly turned into a very serious snow storm. It was so bad that I was unable to see the building just 3 hotels down. Granted, that building was probably a half mile away, but on any other day you could see it at least 15 miles away. The snow had a very difficult time sticking, but did put on quite a good show. From what I understand it really caused some problems with traffic. Just imagine the people in Vegas that are not used to driving on wet roads, now having to deal with snow.

And now, the trip report…..

The flight going out was on America West, and very uneventful. We did get to watch the movie - A Christmas Story. That helped pass the time between taking off and landing. Other than that, I spent $20 dollars on 2 sets of headphones, a turkey sandwich, and a snack pack. Flying is not getting any cheaper… So 5 hours later we touch down in Vegas. It is 10:30 there time, and I am already feeling the pull of the casinos.

We hop on a shuttle bus to the Golden Nugget and off we go. Half an hour later we are dropped off at our destination. We step up to the desk and advise them that we have reservations for an entire week, and what was the possibility of an upgrade. At this point I advised the gentleman that I would be more than happy to pay for the upgrade if necessary. He smiled and said he would ask his manager. He came back and advised us that he could not upgrade us at all due to the fact that, “we were staying too long”. Ok, that was the first time I have ever been told that there were upgrades, but we could not have or purchase any due to the fact that we were staying too long. At this point I just wanted to get a room and unpack. He tried to give us a room in the south tower that is further away and requires more walking. I asked if there were any rooms in the north tower that were available. He gladly gave me a room in the north tower for $25 more a night. Same room, just closer to the casino.

So after unpacking and laying on the rock hard bed, Dianne and I decided to venture out on Freemont street. At this point it was 1:30am. As we exited the casino we were greeted by a bum asking for money. I so badly wanted to say, “I just gave it all to the casino”, but “sorry” was all I mustered. After walking around for a while we realized that most places were closed that late at night. I thought this was the city that never sleeps….or is that New York? In any case, after playing craps on a corner with some fine upstanding young citizens, we decided to head up stairs and get some sleep.

At about 6:30 in the morning I wake up to hear Dianne talking on the phone. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to the front desk, or a bookie. As it turned out, she had called the Monte Carlo. It seems that she had explained our situation to them and they decided that they could offer us a much nicer deal then the golden nugget. As it turned out, a lot nicer. They were willing to give us a suite, food vouchers, beer vouchers, and spa vouchers all for less than what we were paying for our regular room downtown. I believe that they accidentally pulled up the name of a person that actually gambled and thought we were important or something. I just hoped it lasted until we left. So that morning we packed up and headed to our new home for a week.

When we got there, we were kindly greeted and advised that our room was ready. We quickly ventured up to the room and promptly passed out. I think it had something to do with only getting like 30 seconds of sleep the other night. In any case, the nap went well, and we were quite rested when we awoke.

From that moment on the entire trip gets fuzzy. I am not sure if it was all the gambling, the staying up for 18 hours at a time, or the incredible amount of free booze that they ply on you at every opportunity. In any case, I was assured by several family members (one being a wife….) that I was having a good time.

One of the highlights of my trip was being accosted by a hooker. Yep, I am very proud of this. It was my first time in Vegas being solicited by a professional. Now anybody that knows me can tell you that I am not exactly the kind of person that goes out looking for a good time, but when one just walks up to you, what are you supposed to do??? Well, being the suave and debonair gentleman that I am, I quickly came up with a response to her. I gently looked into her mascara covered eyes and softly whispered into her ear, “You really don’t look like my wife”. Yep, that is exactly what I said. I guess you could say that it wasn’t the best line you could use when approached, but I was kind of new at this, and really had no idea what to say. That and the fact that I really was looking for my wife. In any case, I think she realized that I was not interested in her, or loosing any more money, and decided to find greener pastures.

From there, we move on to the fact that the Monte Carlo does no longer makes any hand crafted beer. For some, this is a minor inconvenience, but for me it was total devastation. I lived for there beer - or any good beer for that matter. They replaced there beer with crap. Crap that I cant even pronounce. It is a sad day. I will have to ponder if I ever want to stay in that hotel again - Remember - A hotel is a hotel, but a hotel with good beer is a place to rest your head.

Snow in Anchorage

In any case, the trip was very enjoyable, and even paid for itself plus some. We were treated like royalty, and had a very good time. The trip home was long, but it was nice to be back home again. The only drawback was getting off the plane in shorts (long story) and walking into a blizzard. All in all though we had a good time and will probably be back soon.

Dianne thought that dressing up the dog for Christmas would be a good idea. The dog however, did not.