Girls trip, Home base: Mirage

this is a pretty long report, I wanted to keep it short, but every time I start talking about Vegas, I can't shut up!!

Well, better late than never, right? The girls annual trip to Vegas consisted of myself, my 2 sisters and a girlfriend, no husbands, children or boyfriends (that's what they make cell phones for). This year the dates were July 12-16. We usually stay somewhere cheap like Imperial Palace, Harrahs or Flamingo because we really like staying mid-strip, but this time we got such a great package deal we stayed at the Mirage for the very first time.

Since we were flying out of Peoria (IL), we decided to start a night early at the local riverboat, the Paradice, and spend the night at the hotel (we had free rooms, so why not). I was so excited to get to Vegas, I only lasted about 30 minutes at the boat. That little boat just wasn’t doing it for me, even on a Sunday night it was so crowded, no $5 or $10 blackjack tables open and no free drinks. After a quick $80 loss on some slots, I decided to call it a night. I’m saving my money for Vegas.

Our non-stop flight left at 9 am. I was chosen as one of the lucky people to get the entire search. Now I don’t mind, but I really don’t like my unmentionables being flashed for everyone to see. But that’s ok, I had a surprise for them. Did you know that when they search your suitcase they have to wand every single shoe? Well, this airline did. I always put my shoes in plastic bags. The guy pulls the first pair out of the bag. He wands the top and bottom of both shoes, then I look at him and ask “Do you have to do that to every pair of shoes in my suitcase?†Of coarse his answer was yes, to which I replied, “Well, I hate to tell you this, but I’ve got about 9 more pairs in there.†He thought I was kiddin, but I wasn’t. When he was finished with everything he said, “man, you sure do like flip-flops.†We both laughed, at least he was a good sport about it. And finally we were off to Vegas.

Our flight arrived a little ahead of schedule, so by noon we were checked in and heading down to the pool. I tried the $20 trick when we checked in, but the girl said the hotel was booked. Instead we got rooms on the second floor at the farthest point from the elevator, with a beautiful view of a rooftop. I really didn’t mind, I’m deathly afraid of heights and besides, WE’RE IN VEGAS!! The pool was beautiful but was extremely crowded, we must have circled it 3 or 4 times looking for chairs. My girlfriend and I noticed there were quite a few really buff guys at the pool. Never staying anywhere other than IP, Harrahs or Flamingo we just decided that the Mirage had a way different clientele than those other places (yeah, we are both blonde). We finally asked one of the pool attendants to find us chairs. He went and got 3 chairs and headed for the back 40. We were as far as we could possibly be from the pool, but we had chairs. He set them on the end of the back row. Shortly after we sat down some guy comes and sits at the chair next to us and starts in on us about how he was “on the end†and he wanted to be “on the end†and blah-blah-blah. He finally gets up and leaves. We just look at each other and laugh. Well, we’ve been in our chairs for about 15 minutes and with the pool so far away we decide to go up to the room. Before we leave we find the pool attendant and I offer him $10 to save us 3 chairs tomorrow next to the pool, he says sure but we need to be down there by 10am. Finally, the tipping thing is working for me. For the next 4 days we tipped him and every day we had what we thought were the best seats at the pool. Keep that in mind when you can’t find seats.

We went up to the room and decided to get room service. I couldn’t wait, I was dying of thirst, so I got one of those diet cokes out of the mini bar. You know, those little tiny ones, I think they are 10 oz or something like that, $3.50!! I didn’t care. I was only going to do it once. We got our lunch, cheeseburgers and fries and ate every crumb. It was really good, but we would pay for it. Later on we headed out to finally gamble. As we are cruising the tables, we decide we need to stay close to a bathroom (way to much cheeseburger and fries). Again, we noticed a lot of really buff guys, you know, the kind that can hardly walk because their thighs are the size of Texas. We sat down at a table where we met Bob (not buff, but a really nice guy) who proceeds to tell us that he was there for the Golds Gym convention that was going on at the Mirage until Friday. OK, that answered a lot of questions. Well, our room service was starting to talk to us. We ended up in our room at 7:30 PM and rented a movie. I’ll spare you those details!!

Every day we got up and went to the pool during the day and every evening we gambled and drank. We didn’t go to any shows, we were basically there for some pool time, gambling and free drinks (this trip I was taking some new medication and trying to limit my alcoholic intake).

Tuesday we ate lunch at the pool restaurant. I had a message on my cell phone and decided to check it. It was my daughter, she was crying so hard I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. The only thing I could make out were the last 4 words, “I love you, Mom.†I immediately called the hospital (she just had a baby Friday before I left), she wasn’t in her room so I asked if they knew what was wrong with her. Apparently, she was watching CNN and they had just announced that they had closed down part on the strip and evacuated the Stardust and the Frontier because of a bomb scare . My daughter isn’t familiar with Vegas, so I told them to make sure she knew I wasn’t anywhere close and I was fine. When the waitress came over I asked if she knew anything about it. She hadn’t heard a thing. Later when she returned, she said the cooks had a TV on in the kitchen and that it was true. That’s pretty bad when people in Illinois know what’s going on in Vegas before people in Vegas do. Turned out to be a harmless radio-like device that authorities believe fell off a truck. Las Vegas Boulevard near the Stardust was closed for about two hours after police received a report of a suspicious device in a news rack on the southwest corner of the Strip and Cathedral Way. They did not evacuate the hotels as reported on CNN (as far as I know).

Later we took a taxi down to MGM, we also hit NY NY, and then stopped at Aladdin on the walk back, played a little blackjack at each place. Damn, I lost a hundy (as Mikey would say) at Aladdin and about $40 at NY NY. Got back to Mirage and decided to play some more. We found our friend Bob and sat down at a $10 table with him. He was pretty drunk…what a fun guy. I managed to lose another $50 and decided to call it a night at around 2:30.

Wednesday, while at the pool, my daughter calls again. She wants to know if I have talked to my husband, I haven’t, so she proceeds to tell me how my other daughter and my 3-year-old granddaughter are moving home!! I hang up the phone, look at my girlfriend and say, "to hell with those damn pills, we are going out and getting smashed tonight ." She is laughing so hard, she says she’s never really heard anyone put it quite that way. I tell her it’s an old expression (she’s only 28, I’m 48). We head out to Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville at the Flamingo for a late lunch. We’ve never been there before so we wanted to try it. We had several drinks before our food arrived. I don’t even remember what I had to eat. I just know I wasn’t that impressed with the food. It was just average. It was about 7 pm so we decided to taxi over to the Palms and check out the tables. As we were walking in, we saw a big limo out front and some guys heading that way. It was Chuck Woolery (Love Connection) and he was checking out my girlfriend BIGTIME. She got all excited about seeing him (I don’t get it ). She finally calmed down enough that we could go inside. We finally found a $10 bj table and sat down. After about an hour, my sisters came by and let us know they were ready to leave (they only play slots), we decided to stay as we were both actually doing pretty well and the drinks were flowing. About 3 am our dealer starts talking about Ghost Bar and the view. We have been there for about 6 or 7 hours playing at the same table with the drinks flowing and all the sudden I forget about my fear of heights and say to my girlfriend, let’s go. For the last 2 or 3 hours we have been at the table with 2 guys, Jason and John (I think) and they decide to go too. We get to the entrance and it’s closed because no one was up there. My girlfriend tries to talk the guy into taking us up for a peak explaining my fear of heights and that I will probably never do this again. He was really nice, but said he couldn’t do it. He told us to come back the next night at 8pm, ask for him and he would take us up there (of coarse we never made it back). That sucks, I finally got up the nerve to go up there and they were closed . We start walking back to the tables and John says. “well, my rooms on the 50th floor, we can go up there and see the view.†Let’s see, what’s that saying? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I’m drunk, but I ain’t that drunk . We decide to pass , actually we decide it’s time to go, we cash in our chips. Cha-ching, I got like $500. Finally, I’m headed in the right direction, and drunk too. We taxi back to the Mirage. On the way we call my friends boy friend (It’s about 5:30 am at home) and get his answering machine at which point I leave a message that our taxi driver has kidnapped us and won’t let us out unless he wires 10 grand (we do something like that every time we’re out there, he says we are so funny). Our driver had no sense of humor and never said a word, just kept looking at us in the rearview mirror . We get back to the Mirage a little before 4am and as we’re walking along we hear someone calling our names. It’s our Golds Gym friend Bob, so naturally we have to play some blackjack with him. As soon as we sit down he starts commenting on how drunk we are. I guess it was pretty obvious. Mission accomplished, I tell my girlfriend we are officially “smashed.†After about an hour she decides to go to the room. I decide to stay and take advantage of my winning streak. At about 6 am Bob calls it quits, too. By then I am starting to sober up. I am left at the table with 2 drunk guys. The waitress has told them that she will not serve them anymore. One of them decides to leave. Then the pitboss comes over and says they are shutting down our table but he will move us to another one. We get to the other table and the drunk guy says to me, “I wonder if I can get a drink over here.†I tell him to just sit there and be quit and they will probably serve him. He does as I suggest and gets a bottled beer. Not 30 seconds after he gets it, he dumps the bottle directly into the electronic card reader. The pit boss says, no problem, but it will take about 20 minutes to dry it out. I sit there for a few minutes and then I decide this is a sign, time for me to leave. I head up to my room about 7 am, up another $150.

Thursday (our last night in Vegas) After sleeping in the next day and putting in our time at the pool we head to Caesars for dinner at the Cheesecake factory. It is my sisters birthday and we are meeting some of her friends at MGM to go to Studio 54. They have free VIP passes to get in. We get to MGM and they don’t have enough passes for everyone. We all decide we don’t want to spend our last night sitting in a club, we want to gamble, so we decide to go back to Caesars to Cleopatra’s Barge. We stayed for a couple drinks, then off to the tables. We play a little at Caesars, I quit with what I started with. Then we decide we haven’t been to IP yet, so we decide to go there. We usually spend a lot of time there because I usually only want to play $5 tables and they are usually the only ones that have any with open spots. At this point I have decided that since I am $ ahead I don’t want to blow it all and the $5 tables are sounding good. We played for several hours, but I swear that place has more people playing that don’t have a clue what they are doing than any place I have ever seen (except maybe the riverboat). I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve got the basics down. I finally had to leave after this one dude had a 7 and would not take a hit. The whole table was yelling at him, the dealer was trying to explain to him that there was no way he could bust. Finally, the dealer had to call the pit boss over and tell him the guy was staying on a 7. Time for us to go. I think I lost about $40. We played some more at the Mirage, and ended our last night at 3am.

The flight on Friday didn’t leave until 5pm, we tried to get a late checkout, but were told no. We went down to the pool for one more hour (my dermatologist just loves it when I go on vacation. Wonder what new piece of furniture I bought for him this time!!) We put our luggage in storage and headed to California pizza kitchen for our last meal. It was good as always.

Our flight back was delayed about 2 hours. I finally got home around 1:30 am. It’s over.

I have one question for all you. For 20 years now I have always made it a point to go by and give some money to the disabled guy who always hangs out between Harrahs and IP at night. You know the one I am talking about. The man with no arms or legs. I also believe he is blind. Well, I looked for him almost every night and never saw him. I was wondering if anyone knows if something happened to him?

Well, that’s it. I’ve definitely had more exciting trips, I’ve also had trips much worse, but no matter what kind of trip I have, I am always thinking about the next one the moment my departing flight leaves the ground.

Here’s to Vegas

 

Awwww YEAH!! atta girl!

Sounded like a fun trip with the girls, even if you didn't check out that guy's etchings...eerrr view.. hahahaha

Thanks for writing it up.

p.s. the dissabled guy hasn't been there the last couple of times I've been there.

 

The first thing that comes into my mind is - I am sure glad I didn't have to haul that suitcase around with TEN pairs of shoes! Even if they were all flip flops!

Otherwise what a great trip and report. If you say you've had "more exciting trips" - well where are they??

 

Thanks, Terry, I knew you'd be proud of me.

By the way, just what the hell are "etchings".

Kikky

All I'm going to say is that it involved lots of alcohol, lots of late nights (or should I say early mornings), Studio 54, strange men in my room, different ones every night), a bubble bath offer in a High Roller suite from a Mirage manager (think I still have his business card), hookers (sorry, didn't see any midget hookers), being rejected by the ATM machine for being over my daily limit, people calling me by name in the casino and I have no clue who they are and oh, yeah, lots of Advil.

That's it…don't ask for more details, that's all you're going to get.

Hey, a girls gotta have some secrets .

Use your imagination

 

The disabled guy was there in mid May when we were there.

 

AwwwWWww, yeah!! That's what I'm talking about!!

Now as to your daughter, doesn't she know no one is allowed to get bad news while they're in Vegas? She couldn't wait a day or two? I think she neds some motherly discipline. What's my mom say to me? You're never too old for me to whup that butt.

I like the hostage in the cab answering machine message, especially since you sem to keep doing it over and over and over. LOL!!

I swear everyone sees celebs at the Palms, but I always get bored there and don't stay for long.

Great report. You'll have to let me buy you a drink if I'm ever in town the same time as the Queen of Vegas. I must pay homage. lol!

 

Wow...I want to party with you ladies. All that and Chuck Woolery too! Quite a night. Now aren't you glad that everyone talked you into talking yourself into going. Be well...back in two minutes and two seconds.

 

Just last week, I was on weekend trip through your stomping grounds of Bloomington, Decatur and Peoria. I had never been to the Par-A-Dice, so I had to check it out.
After you've been to Vegas, that's one depressing place. They even had the audacity to offer $10 minimum craps.
I gave the place a 10 minute cursory glance and was on my way. The Illinoisians that get a kick out of "going to he boats" are really missing the boat by not taking their gambling experience to Vegas.

 

That was one awesome trip report to Vegas.

 

Ok, well... ahem.... you've heard of submarine races? Same idea, different location.

 

Gotcha, Kikky.

Queen of Vegas…I could get use to that!!!!

Chef, know what you mean about the Par-a-Dice. I only go there a couple times a year. There's definately nothing like the real thing!!

Yes, we do have a lot of fun in Vegas