Vegas 2012-Day 1

It appears that I haven't posted on this blog in almost six months. I don't think that labels me as a bad person, but you can judge for yourself. Day 1: Getting there still isn’t half the fun I’m not going to do the full run-down of everyone that went, but suffice to say we were part of a large group. There were about 15 people in 4 different hotels, so the big turned into smaller sub-groups. Our group was the wife, Nene, Mon and me. Nene, the wife and I flew out of Peoria, IL (Mon flew out the next day from our local airport), which is 2.5 hours in the wrong direction. The price was in the right direction, it cost us over $200 less than using our local airport. Car ride was uneventful except for Nene’s excessive gas and the need to stop for a crap halfway there. In my long history of road trips I’ve never stopped for a crap, especially not after only an hour in the car. The airport was nice, it looks like it has been recently renovated and they don’t charge for parking. The dude in front of us checked a bag containing 3 bowling balls. I found that to be a bit odd. The flight out was late, bumpy and noisy. There was a group directly in front of us going out for a wedding and, despite being in their forties, acted like they were 22. And they drank like Vegas had run out of alcohol. We got to the Flamingo and the line to check was about 4000 people deep. We waited for awhile until I noticed four empty kiosks. I assumed they were to check in, so I slipped out of line to make sure. They were, and they were being manned by a very helpful older gentleman. It took some time to get them to work properly and assign rooms, but I still saved 30 minutes of precious Vegas time. The weather was a bit chilly when we landed, so the girls voted against the pool and instead we went to Margaritaville. We ordered some big ass nachos and drinks while waiting for a few others to join us. We were shortly joined by 4 more and ate while planning the evening. We settled on going to the Venetian to walk around the Grand Canal Shoppes, then meeting up with the rest of the group for drinks. Coolest store we walked through was It’Sugar. It specializes in oversized candy and other inappropriate edible items. For instance, they sell candy cigarettes. I thought those had basically been outlawed years ago as they encourage children to smoke. Apparently they are not frowned upon in Vegas. They also sell 2 pound rice krispy treats and tootsie pops as big as your head. We wandered around for awhile until we were informed the rest of the group was at the pub. My initial response was there is more than one pub in Vegas. I can think of two off the top of my head, one in Monte Carlo and the other in Aria. I was hoping they were at the one in Monte Carlo, that place has a phenomenal and reasonably priced beer selection. So naturally, they were at the one in Aria. I had been to the Pub at Aria on a previous trip and was underwhelmed. Food is average and over-priced, drinks are priced for people in a higher tax bracket than me. My friend assured me they had $2 draws. We came to find out the $2 beer was their house beer, which tastes remarkably similar to ass. We did find Innis & Gunn on the beer list, which is almost impossible to find. It was also the favorite beer of my brother-in-law, who had died very suddenly the week before. We ignored the $12 price tag and the wife and I toasted Erik. Maybe I have to quit hating the Pub at Aria. We left the Pub with another couple and went to Dick’s Last Resort at Excalibur. We bought one of their 44 oz slushy drinks and set to getting loaded. It’s not the best people watching on the strip, however it is entertaining to watch who staggers through Excalibur around midnight. By the time we finished I thought we might have received the virgin variety. We headed back to Flamingo with a light buzz and a dragging ass. And yes, I’m aware that I said “ass” about 12 times already. Read more on this article...