If you
haven't already, please read part I first.
After
sleeping for only a few hours, my wife and I awake, not to the alarm clock
which Nikki had set but to a static noise the alarm clock made about 30 minutes
after the fact. So we're up! Luckily, her father calls -he slept in too,
whew. After getting ready, we go down
stairs and eat breakfast; this time, we get the buffet.
Now, for
those of you who haven't done a buffet in Vegas this is what you can
expect. Picture 100 to 200 hung over,
sleep deprived vacationers who look nothing alike, lining up like cattle almost
pushing and shoving because they think the food is goind to run out any
second. Of course, the food never runs
out, one thing Vegas wants is you to be happy; happy people like to gamble. I mentioned how nobody looked alike, what I
mean by this is well, if you go outside and walk around your town/city, people
have a certain look like they belong.
Because Vegas is 90% out-of-towners, that look is gone. While this isn't bad, you do see some really
ugly people stuck in different eras.
This one guy I saw was stuck in the 80's. Bad big hair, horizontally striped shrit
tucked into acid washed jeans. Good
lord, I want to know where this one came from because they need help, I'm sure
the entire town looks like that. Back to
breakfast. We thoroughly stuff ourselves
on the fare and proceed to venture outside, into the light.
Wow, was it
bright there in Vegas. You have to
realize, we're from Portland and it's been cold and rainy for the past couple
of weeks, so walking outside to a cloudless, bright, sunny, warm day was a nice
feeling... albeit, a bit blinding. We
decide that we want to go to the Bellagio, Paris, and then the Wynn casinos. Nikki and I are the only, oh, how do I put
this, non-seniors, of the group so we're up for walking the distance on the
strip. Luckily, Margie is in pretty good
shape and likes to exercise so she's up for walking. Neal, as you remember, is on wheels. Unfortunately, Ed (Nikki’s dad) was none too
happy. We tried to catch one of the
busses up but they seemed to be lagging so we just started walking.
Honestly,
I've never really walked around in Vegas during the day. Oh sure, I've been there at night before and
always took taxis too and from the hotels.
I must admit, it was nice. It
also makes you appreciate how spread out everything is. Walking from one casino to the next can be
quite a trek, they're on acres of land and they are not small. So, we all thought the Bellagio wasn't too
far away, hell, we could see it. But
don't be fooled, like a mirage in the dessert, it kept eluding us. Poor Ed was bitching the entire time because
he had done this exact same walk yesterday.
The nice sun, wasn't so nice 30 minutes into the walk. Due to the heat and the sun even I was trying
to find shade and the occasional oasis to give nourishment to me and my
imaginary friend who joined us 10 minutes into the walk -heats a bitch.
Finally,
the Bellagio is within reach, again, just like every intersection we came to
but this time it was true. We entered
the mall there, I forget the name, which housed all the places we shouldn't
shop at; Prada, Tiffanys, Cartier, etc.
Of course, this is EXACTLY what my wife has been waiting for. Like a kid in a candy store, her eyes light
up and money seems to be aplenty. I
indulge her and we go where she wants and look around. Of course, her father doesn't seem to
understand and just wants to get thru the mall not realizing that that's where
we were heading to all along. Luckily
for my wallet, Nikki doesn't buy anything... although she did find a nice little
Prada wallet for only $110 -she passed though, good girl honey.
After the
Bellagio and the mall, we cross the street to Paris.
Now, one thing I should note is that we're trying to catch the lunch
buffet at Wynns before 3pm, because after that the price doubles for dinner and
if you're in you're in. So 3pm is the
target time. Ed, sensing that we won't
make it, is trying to convince us to go back to Wynns, THEN go to Paris. Sounds good but you have to realize that Paris is just across the
street, while Wynns is about 6 to 7 blocks down. We're not buying it. So off to Paris for a quick walk around. Then we caught a bus to Wynns.
Another
buffet, in one day... my stomach was not happy with me but let me slide due to
how good the food was at this buffet.
For those who haven't been, Wynns buffet was quite possibly the nicest
and fanciest buffet I've ever been too.
Although my wife and I aren't that hungry, we know that we need to eat
because it'll be our last meal there before we start our trip back. Neal ate so frickin' much, I seriously think
the casino took a loss that night. That
didn't surprise me, what did surprise me was that Margie at almost as
much! She couldn't have been more than
100 lbs! Where the hell did it go?
After that
we played some slots and did some gift shopping for us and Ty & Bernie
(friends of ours who watched one of our dogs -Brian). We got back to Circus Circus and had to say
our good byes. Nikki’s family was nice,
loud, and a bit obnoxious but they were truly good people and I'm glad they
were all those things and I'm glad to have finally met them.
Now, we
pull out of the parking lot and within 100 feet, we're lost! Yup, we took another wrong turn, fuck. We drove about 3 miles down, come back go about
2 miles in another wrong direction just to head back to where we started almost
30 minutes later to find that we should've turned right, THEN left instead of
just left. I'm driving so I'm getting
frustrated and we finally find the rent-a-car place almost an hour after we
leave. We get out of the car, and look
and I shit you not, we could see the strip and Circus Circus and they looked so
damn close. Fuckin A!
We then get
to the airport, not late, and check in and the lady behind the counter says
that the flight has been overbooked and is looking for volunteers to give up
there seats and take a later flight. In
agreeing, we would get 2 free round trip tickets to anywhere in the country, Canada or Mexico. HELL YEAH, we say. We have to go to the plane because there is a
chance we wouldn't get it but we were numbers 3 & 4 on the list so we had a
good chance. Going thru security, my
wife was selected. Oh yes, she got the
super deluxe search. Funny, she kept
walking up to the next point in the screening and smiling saying "I've
been selected for the strip search".
Too much, I just laughed. She
goes one way, I empty my pockets go thru the metal detector and set it off...
so, they redirect me and next thing you know, I'm next to my wife -we got to keep
our clothes on. Batteries! I left batteries for the camera in my pocket,
dumbass!
We finally
get thru, get to the plane and sure enough, we got bumped to the later flight,
2 free round trip tickets and the coupe de gras, upgraded to first class. Unfortunately, we were so tired and the seats
in first class were soooooo comfortable we both slept home. We got to enjoy first class for a bit, her
coffee and Baileys, me red wine.
A
perfect end to our spontaneous, one day adventure.