Las Vegas Trip Report: The Final Days

Our flight back home to Detroit takes off in about an hour, hopefully the Benadryl pills I took put me more to sleep than the Tylenol PM I took on the way down, and I'll be much happier and more relaxed when we land back home around 8:30. But, in the meantime, here are the highlights of the rest of the trip.

Thursday night: After planning to eat at Mandalay Bay, we called an audible after the Asian-fusion cuisine at China Grille was just a bit too out there for us. Instead we went to Gallagher's Steakhouse in New York, New York, and the steaks were excellent. And huge. I've never seen a piece of meat as big as the prime rib my dad got. Holy cow. After dinner we traveled to the Mirage to see Love, the Beatles themed Cirque Du Soleil. It was a decent show, the music was great, and some of the acrobatics were cool, but it was more of a dancing show than the acrobatic performances some of the other Cirque Du Soleil shows are. I had never seen another show, but my parents, who have seen "O" which is at the Bellagio, said it was much better. I also played some Blackjack, losing around $15.00, and my sister, winning again, won close to $500 on a slot machine. I'm playing the wrong games.

Friday: Friday was a fun day. After sleeping in and relaxing in the morning, we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and then I spent the balance of the day finally playing some poker. I played some $2/$4 limit hold 'em at Treasure Island, and lost $33 in a four-hour-plus session. The people are the table were fun, the stakes weren't killer, and it was a very fun time. I was happy to get some poker in before I left town.

After hitting up the Bellagio buffet for dinner, we then went back to Mirage to see Jay Leno do stand-up comedy. Absolutely hilarious. I was looking more forward to seeing Leno than practically anything else on the trip, and he delivered in spades. The warm-up act, a doo-wop comedy quartet The Alley Cats got the night off to a great start, especially when they called an obviously inebriated spectator on stage. Leno then did an hour and a half set, with some absolutely hilarious bits, and almost no low points (except that his riff's on why cats make bad pets may have gone one or two jokes too long). Basically it was non-stop laughter for an hour and a half. After Leno, knowing this was our last night in Vegas, my dad and I stopped at a Blackjack table and after losing all trip, I finally put a winning session together, running my $50 in starting chips to $250, before leaving, about two hours after I started, with $200. Lots of fun. Around this time I learned that the Tigers game had not started until 11:00 EDT, and did not end until after 3:30 in the morning Detroit time, just incredible.

Saturday: Losing the whole day due to travel. Our flight leaves at 1:40 Vegas time, is four hours, and arrives in Detroit around 8:30 EDT. I plan on watching the Lions-Colts pre-season game when I get home, then moving up to Ann Arbor tomorrow, in between a trip to Comerica Park to watch the hopefully, by then, well rested Tigers battle the Yankees.

Overall, a great trip. The Wynn is an amazing hotel, but it is a bit far down the Strip, so be prepared to do a lot of walking, which isn't great when the weather is 107-degrees or more. Other than that, no complaints, and my sister even got to see Kobe Bryant wandering around the hotel and gym a few times, and she won a decent amount of money on the slot machines, so she's happy. Overall, a successful trip. Now, let's just get back to Detroit and I will be a much happier guy.