Las Vegas 09

For those of you who have followed this blog (all 3 of you), you know that I had a trip to Las Vegas coming up. Well that trip has already come and past. It was a trip that went entirely too fast, not in the sense that I wanted to stay in Sin City, just in the fact that I was not ready to go back to work. But alas, this silly world we live in revolves around the mighty(?) dollar, and in this economy I should just be happy to have a solid job (I'm a manager in a grocery store and we all gotta eat).

Brian, Rachel, Jillian, and myself all jumped into my Scion XD and took off for Vegas late on a Thursday night after we all worked. We left early instead of the planned Friday morning departure to give us more time to play as we always seem to just nap our first day if we leave early. Since this was not the original plan we did not stay at the MGM Grand this night. We stayed in an "upgraded" room at the Stratosphere. If you read my blog in which I review all of the hotels I have stayed in down in Vegas, you know that this is my fall back hotel. Always solid. Well, this "upgraded" room and exactly the same as their standard rooms, except for the bedspread. That was it. Still, it was clean and we were just staying for the one night. We arrived at the hotel around 11pm and for some reason they only had two people working the checkout line and had a line a mile long. I waited in the line while Brian made a new best friend with some drunk guy who kept yelling weird things and telling lame jokes. Brian gave plenty courtesy laughs to the fella. This was the extent of our fun at the Stratosphere.

The next morning we all woke up and took off for breakfast/lunch at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. We always seem to make a stop here as the food is good and the atmosphere is fun. After that we checked into our room at the MGM Grand. The room here was nice. The beds were soft. The hotel layout was nice. Everything about the place was great, except for the drunk gaggle of dumb girls who had rooms down the hall. Every night these drunk girls would come slamming down the hall yelling, crying, laughing, hell they even breathe loudly. It took everything thing in my power to not run out at night and beat them down with my verbal assaults. As I write this right now I am searching for clean words to describe them, instead of the four lettered ones that come to mind. Anyways, Friday night was spent eating our weight in Japanese dumplings and shrimp at the Mirage. After gorging there we went to see the Beatles Love show. I have seen this show before and I love it (no pun). However, when I sat in my seat, I sat in a puddle in which I hope was just spilt soda. Brian thinks it's fat guy under butt sweat. Dear god. The hostess brought me a towel to sit on and I enjoyed the show non the less. Brian however, full of Prim Rib and seafood, found the music calming, the temperature too warm, and the lights dark, and had one expensive nap.

The next couple days were spent relaxing. Gambling, in which I never won anything. Walking the strip. Eating good food, and just having a good time. Speaking of good food, Jill and I had dinner alone one night and at at Enoteca San Marco, by Mario Batali. The food was excellent, I had the Chef's special of the day, which were Pork Ribs in a Blood Orange reduction. Jill had a very good Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza. We shared a yummy cheese appetizer and had an excellent Peanut Butter and Banana gellato. We will defiantly be going back to this place.

Overall this was a very good trip, but I can say that I am a little worn out with Las Vegas. I'm going to take a nice break from this city so the next time I go back it will have some of its allure again. I have spent so much time there in the past ten years, it feels like a second home. Now I just need to figure out where I take my late summer/early fall trip. Do I go to New York? Hawaii? California? Florida? Colorado? Too many places to see, too little money....