30 Dollar Burgers, Dick’s Sticks, and Stairmasters, Oh My.

Oh Vegas.  You are a beautiful and cruel mistress.  Although, we embrace you knowingly, it’s so easy to forget the pain after your departure.

The trip, quite honestly, was relaxing and fairly uneventful.  The first night we had fancy steak dinner at the Luxor (or in my case… a 30 dollar kobe beef and crab burger… yes, it was TOTALLY worth it and you know you wish you had ordered it…).  Then, we killed a bottle at the Jester bar in the Excalibur playing video poker and talking until sunrise.  I vaguely remember shots, toasting with champagne, eating brunch, and then going to sleep.  I woke up feeling ROUGH the next day, but a little walking around, digesting, leafy greens, and by about 5pm I felt right as rain and was ready for round 2.

We walked around and gambled a bit at the New York New York (my fave place to play slots, I almost always win there), and then searched out some dinner.  Mexican food fit the bill so Cabo Wabo near Planet Hollywood it was.  I had a taco salad because I was needing some more greenery (albeit with beef, sour cream, cheese, and guac on top, lol).  We then chilled at the room a bit waiting for the food to settle, and were supposed to meet up to go dancing.  That didn’t happen (no one was up for it) so Zliten and I just moseyed around and gambled more.  We weren’t feelin it, so we retired early and read our books.

The next day, I woke up feeling great so I wanted to check something off my Vegas bucket list – actually do a workout while in Vegas.  I got to the gym figuring on an elliptical or bike ride, but all the ellipticals were out of order and there was no bike.  Treadmill or stairmaster was the options, and I was NOT going to walk on a treadmill when I have Vegas to traverse so the master it was.  I’d never done one for more than 5 mins.  I set it for 30.  It was pain.  Then, Zliten was up so we hung out at the pool for about an hour at the Trop (nicest pool on the strip!) and I did some lazy laps.  Then, we got dressed and got some buffet lunch at the Luxor.  It was actually right between lunch and dinner so we got lots of different things to try.

However, before that, we decided upon slushy, high octane drinks.  Mine was called cat-5 (I got a kick out of it because I thought it was named after cat5 cable, not a hurricane…I’m kinda a dork).  It was delicious rocket fuel (and not in that make-me-run sorta way) and made for the start of a fun day (why can’t I start the day like that all the time, hehe!).  We took a cab to the real downtown (Freemont Street) and had a lot of fun playing some more quarter poker and then becoming brave and playing some blackjack at a table.  I can see why people like tables!  We ended up about even after playing for HOURS.

Now with more friends in tow, we decided to go back and get daquiris – or at least ONE BIG ONE (pictured above).  It was shared between 6 people at least.  We lugged our… get this… big Dick’s Stick (which came from Dicks Last Resort, heh) around and played some more slots.  Zliten hit it big at the Star Wars machine, and everyone else got sleepy, so we said our goodnights because we were out pretty early in the morn, and headed back to the Tropicana to play our comps.  I lost mine in a sneeze, but Zliten hit some big wins.  Then, we split that and hit more moneys.  After a 50$ bonus round win, we called it a vacation, headed to the room, read, and slept.

The trip home was pretty uneventful as well, we got our favorite Nevada sammiches (port of subs), hit the PHX airport for an hour on the way home, and landed safely.  Then, we got our car, made a beeline for the salad bar, and then went home.  Laundry is still on the floor, lizard has been huggled and loved, couch has our butt prints again, and life goes on.

Two years of 3 Vegas trips, and I think we’re refining the process.  Three nights is too few unless things go perfectly (and no one really wanted to follow my control freaky plans, which was fine, but it would have been cooler if they did, heh).  Five nights was too many.  Next time, we’ll try 4.  Also, we found out from hotel services that if we book through them, and tell them we got married there, they will upgrade us to a suite.  Zliten took a tour of them while I was in the room feeling poopy and has one picked out, heh.  So, I do believe we will be booking a four night stay sometime soon for next year early October.

So, besides being a little fatigued  from 20-ish miles of walking, a little less sleep than normal, and just being away from good food and home, I’m not really much worse for wear.  Except one thing.  Nevada nose.  I get it every time I’m there.  I had it when I lived there (and just thought I was defective).  Within a day, my nose boogers become dry, crusty, and black/bloody.  Yeah, I know, hawt, but it happens every time.  It fixes itself within a few days of being back in less Vegas-y climates, but it’s just ODD.  Again, glad to not live there and have a constantly itchy nose anymore.

Now, back to reality.  It’s a little rough with the 10 hour days and high volume of tri training, but I’ll make it.  More on being back to reality later.