Viva Las Vegas!

November 11, 2022

We stacked our calendar with a few trips this fall. After Tom had told me about our “mystery” trip last March, I got the idea that maybe I could surprise him with a trip for his 50th birthday. Well it turns out I’m horrible at planning surprises so I just told him my idea right away before I spent any money and I planned a trip to Las Vegas over Veteran’s Day weekend to see the comedian, Daniel Tosh. As a bonus, I knew that the Armed Forces Hockey tournament was happening the same weekend and that several people that I know from the base, would be there.

We both worked all day Thursday as our flight wasn’t until 10:45 at night. This worked out great since I had plenty of time to pack once I got home from work and to do all the prep that comes with leaving the house for a few days. We got out the door by 8:00 and went to the Pita Palace for dinner before we headed to the airport. For this trip we just decided to park in the Super Saver lot since we were only going to be gone for a few days and both of our flights were super late at night. Check-in was a breeze and we were at our gate with plenty of time to spare. Being such a late flight I thought maybe I would sleep on the plane, but that didn’t happen. I figured out how to download shows and movies from Netflix so I was able to finish up Season 3 of Love is Blind on the way to Vegas. I was super tired by the time we got to Vegas and once we got our luggage we didn’t feel like navigating to the Uber/Lyft pick-up area once we saw that taxi’s were right outside. It probably would have been slightly cheaper to take a Lyft, but convenience was the name of the game at the late hour. Even at 2:00 in the morning there was a line to check-in at the hotel. We stayed at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. Both Tom and I have been to Las Vegas several times before, but staying downtown was first for the both of us. We got to our room and promptly crashed for the night.

We set no alarms on this trip and were happy to take our time and relax. With having made no plans other than the show which was on Saturday at 10:00p.m., we could afford to relax and play everything by ear. Since it was Veteran’s Day I did a quick search of what restaurants near us may be offering a deal. I found that Claim Jumper’s had a Veteran’s Day menu for a free meal with choices that sounded pretty good, and the fact that it was in our hotel was even better. We made our way downstairs and stood in a short line to get a table. When we were seated I asked for the Veteran’s Day menu, but the host told us that they weren’t doing that but were offering a 15% discount. A little disappointed, but being super hungry we were going to stay and eat and appreciate the discount. I got a ginormous Bloody Mary and Tom a Captain and Coke along with a burger for me and (no surprise here) a turkey club sandwich for Tom. While we were waiting for our food I got a text from one of the hockey players that they were on Fremont Street hanging out at Whiskey Licker Up. When we were done with our meal we wondered outside and easily found the bar and the guys. We hung out with them for the next several hours drinking beers, shooting the shit, and people watching. Tom also donated $5 to a couple of the “solicitors” on the street so I could get my picture with them (see photos below). The hockey schedule didn’t originally have them playing a game on Friday thereby designating Friday as “F-off Friday”, but as we were hanging out they got a text that said they had a game at 6:30 in Henderson, NV. I was hoping to catch one of their games while we were there, but the timing and location never really worked out for us. Sometime around 5:00 we said our good-bye and went our separate ways.

Tom and I took a Lyft to the Pinball Museum that is at the end of the strip past Mandalay Bay. It was free to get in, but cost anywhere from $.25 to $1.00 to play the games. I got $20 in quarters and split them between Tom and I. I looked for the pinball machine that was in my Mom’s basement but didn’t see it. I mostly spent my quarters on claw games, but didn’t win any prizes. Tom played quite a few games, but found that several were in need of repair or weren’t working at all. We spent about and hour and a half here before we had our fill and moved on.

Since we were so close, we walked to the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign and stood in line to take our picture. I had done the virtual geocache that is here the last time I was in Vegas, but I looked and saw there was a physical cache near by. I gave it a quick, short look and didn’t come up with it and quickly abandoned the attempt due to temperature and number of people. We started walking down the strip to see what we would come upon, be it either food or a show that would interest us. The one destination I had on the strip was to the Bellagio fountains. Our deployed friend, Kristin, had requested that Flat Kristin get a picture in front of the fountains. We walked for a ways and came upon Olive Garden. I wasn’t super hungry, but Tom was still feeling like we should cash in on a free Veteran’s Day meal and we confirmed that Olive Garden was in-fact honoring the Veteran’s Day free menu. I had the chicken parmigiana and Tom had the Fettuccini Alfredo. While we were eating dinner we talked about how many homeless people we had seen and about how much food probably gets wasted. Right then I knew I wasn’t going to finish my meal and planned to get it wrapped to go to give to somebody on the streets. After dinner we continued down the strip to the Bellagio and took some pictures. Just as we were about ready to continue on, the fountains came on for their show! With the show over and us being thoroughly chilled and tired we were ready to head back. We headed to Caesar’s Palace but didn’t find the Lyft/Uber pick-up area (we didn’t look that hard) so we started walking off the strip towards the Rio thinking that might not be as crowded. Stupid desert . . .everything looks closer then it is. LoL We finally got to the Rio, went inside to use the bathroom and then asked where there rideshare pick-up area was. We found this one much easier and order a Lyft. I don’t know what time it was by the time we got back to our hotel, but I think it was about midnight. We were done for the evening and crashed.