Las Vegas Trip Report: Day One

Well I don't know how often over the course of the trip I will be heading down to the internet hotspot here at the Wynn Casino and Resort, but while I'm here, at a nice ice-cream/coffee bar called "Sugar & Ice", I figured I may as well go through how the first day has gone so far in Las Vegas.

Our flight from Detroit left at 7:00 this morning, Eastern Time, which meant leaving the house around 5:00. That was fine with me, as I attempted to stay up most of the night and down a Tylenol PM in an attempt to sleep through the flight here (due to my previously discussed fear of flying). Well, that didn't work, as I was unable to get comfortable or sleep on the plane. I will say though, that although the flight had a few bumpy moments, it was overall a decent flight, which coming from me, is saying something. What did work out well was ripping the audio tracks from my numerous West Wing DVDs and listening to them on my sister's old Dell Jukebox MP3 player (she's since moved on to a more fashionable IPod). West Wing was able to keep me nice and relaxed throughout the four hour flight. Yes, I'm strange.

Through we left at 7:00 AM EST, and the flight was four hours, with the three hour time change, we landed soon after eight. After dropping our luggage off at the Wynn (an absolutely beautiful hotel, easy to see why everyone loves it so much) we ventured out on the strip. It was a toasty 90-degrees when we started, at close to 9:00 EST, and the temperatures reached mid-triple digits by the time our excursion was done.

We started off with a breakfast buffet at Treasure Island, which I think my parents and sister liked more than I did, though the mini-waffles were good. We then took a short tram ride to Treasure Island's sister casino, the Mirage, where we saw one of their famous Tigers (not quite as cool as the Detroit variety), picked up our tickets to Jay Leno and Love, the Beatles themed Cirque du Soleil show, and started gambling a bit. Not a great first effort, as a 30-minute (or so) stay at a $10 blackjack table cost me the $70 I had in my wallet.

After that "welcome to Vegas" moment, we headed to the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, a place made for people who love shopping, like my mom and sister. And holy cow, are do the shops go on forever and ever. More walking today than I have done in a long, long time.

After that, it was a hot, 100-degree+ walk back to the Wynn to check-in. Amazing room overlooking the Wynn's breathtaking golf course (which I won't be playing due to the overwhelming heat and the even more overwhleming $500 per round price tag), unpacked (well, my sister did, my things are still safely in the suitcase), and down here to check up on Michael Vick's plea-bargain, the rest of the days news, and blog this. Tonight looks like a buffet night (potentially the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood) but this food here at Sugar & Ice looks good. The people next to me have some french fries, very tempting.