Vegas 2010-Just the highlights

I recently took my 8th trip to Las Vegas. I’ve done the blow-by-blow trip report a few times and I’ve gotten to the point where there isn’t much left to say. However, there is always something unique about a trip to Vegas so I’m going to focus on some of the new experiences of this trip.

The wife and I stayed at Monte Carlo, along with our travel companions Mr. and Mrs. Fancypants. This was our first time at Monte Carlo and we found to be incredibly average. Rooms are decent-larger than New York-New York, but not decorated as well. Our rooms also had the old school tube tv’s, but who goes to Vegas to watch tv. The pool area is nice with a wave pool and a lazy river. We spent a lot of time in and around the lazy river. I don’t know who came up with the idea of a lazy river, but it had to be an American. I can see the inventors floating in a pool and getting pissed that they had to paddle themselves over to the beer cooler. They rack their brains for an afternoon and then it comes to them-instead of moving our bodies, we’ll move the water! It’ll look like you’re working really to move around the water when, in reality, you don’t even need to be conscious to get around the lazy river. In fact, I think there were some people that didn’t even have a pulse and were still doing laps in the lazy river.
Since the first time I went to Vegas I’ve wanted to go to the top of the Stratosphere. This was the trip that I finally got to cross it off my bucket list. The wife shopped at ground level while Mr. and Mrs. F and I went to the top of the Stratosphere. We bought tickets for 2 rides and made our way to 1000 feet above the strip. Our first ride was the Big Shot, which is essentially a tower that shoots the riders another 150 ft. into the Vegas sky. The first thing you notice when you get onto the platform is the wind. Ok, maybe you notice the height first so maybe the wind is the second thing. The day we were up there the wind was whipping 30 to 40 MPH. I’ve been on a lot of thrill rides, but I can honestly say this was the first time I’ve been scared before the ride even started. They should sell clean underwear in the gift shop at the top of the Stratosphere. The ride was great and the view is phenomenal. Our second ride was the Xscream. It’s a very basic ride. It’s just 4 cars on a roller coaster track that dangles over the edge the tower. I let the F’s ride in front, which is apparently a much scarier view as the only thing between the rider and the pavement is a lap restraint. After we got done with the rides we needed a drink. After sitting in the bar for 20 minutes I noticed my hands were still shaking.
I don’t the chance to eat at a Brazilian steakhouse very often in Iowa, so I took the opportunity to reserve a table at Samba in the Mirage. For the uninitiated, the premise of a Brazilian steakhouse is the wait staff walks around with huge skewers of meat. They come by your table and slice off as much as you want. It’s pretty cool. The ambiance isn’t great, it’s open to the casino floor. Some of the meat was very good, particularly the lamb and the flank steak. Some wasn’t so great, the pork and the sausage was a bit overdone. Overall, I’m glad we went as we enjoyed stuffing our faces. I’m not sure I’d go back at $40 per person, but it was definitely worth doing once.
After getting the meat sweats at Samba we watched the volcano erupt at Mirage. I’d seen it several years ago and it was fairly unimpressive. It used to look like a C- shop class project. They renovated it last year and it’s definitely a lot cooler than it used to be. It’s synchronized to music and the explosions are a lot bigger than they used to be.
Gambling was fairly uneventful. I made a lot of bets on college and pro football and, despite several near misses, I still nearly broke even. The disappointing aspect is the amount of time I spent researching lines and trends resulted in just worse than break even. I guess that’s why they call it gambling.