SinCity - Trip Report

The Grand Pedestrian Plaza, The Forum Shops at Caesars

The Grand Pedestrian Plaza, The Forum Shops at Caesars

The Socks
The trip started off early in the morning. After not a lot of sleep we woke up and showered and ran out the door two hours before the plane's departure time. And I had to go to buy some low rise socks to wear. The original plan was to go to Safeway first, but in my sleepiness I forgot and immediately entered the freeway. Not only did I forget about the socks and Safeway, but started off on the freeway to the wrong airport. When I realized I wasnt going to the correct airport, we had been driving for 10 minutes. So I had to turn around and backtrack to get to the correct freeway for the other airport. Ok, so forget Safeway, we have to make the plane. Trying to stay calm, I drive like crazy to get to the right airport and we make good time. We're within one mile an hour and 40 minutes before departure time. So now it's time to find Safeway. Did you know that there is no place to buy socks in Oakland CA at 7:30a? Well I wasted 30 min driving around the avenues of Oakland by the Colisseum, with my passenger getting worried about the neighborhood we were driving in, worried about making the plane, worried about hand carrying his bag instead of checking in. Finally at 7:50 I disengaged from my quest for socks and headed to the airport. Very frustrating to not finish the job. For something as simple as socks I felt empty for not completing the mission. And the whole point was that if I didnt have socks, jeez my feet would sweat and the odor would be unbearable. I didnt have this odor problem when I was younger, it's another curse of old age.

The trip was literally not starting out on the right foot. Not only do we have the socks issue, but my friend is upset with me that I've wasted time. And finally when we park, we find that the airport security line is a mile long; the airport is jam packed full of weekend commuters. We're not going to make the plane. Suddenly, an airport worker alerts us that there's another security checkpoint at Terminal 1 with no line at all. We rush over and get through security and to the gate just in time for boarding to start. Great, lets avoid any more snags, we're on our way. And to make a long story short, immediately after getting to the hotel in Vegas, I found a shoestore and got the socks I'd been after. I'm done, lets have some fun now.

The Gambling
(more or less chronological sessions over 3 days)
Craps - We won $500 each before we even got our room keys. Not a bad start, this could be really fun!
Blackjack - $200 loss in the next 15 minutes. Let's move on to a different game shall we?
Poker - $4-$8 Texas Hold'em. What a bunch of tight rock players. That was no fun. $200 loss.
Craps - The best thing about the trip - won $180. But first we had to play with one real jerk on the craps table pit crew. We were losing and getting insulted so my friend suggested we move to another table. Great idea, turned a losing session into a great win.
Poker - $4-$8 Texas Hold'em. Lost $50. I'm playing better, but should have quit earlier. I was up ~$100 and had pretty good table control. Got stung by my friend on a couple hands and lost it though. The worst thing was that the he lost it all back to the rest of the table. I thought that he'd at least pay for dinner.
Blackjack - $500 down the drain. Would have been only $400 had I simply lost the last hand, but I had to double when given 11. Dealer had a 7 up. With $75 on the table, I doubled to $150 and asked "Dont give me a 2 or a 3." She gave me a 4! All was not lost though, she revealed a blessed 8 underneath, giving me a final chance at winning. Then she pulled out the dreaded but not unexpected 6 to make her hand a perfect 21, and then she raked all the chips from all the players on the table. I bet the last $25 away on another 2 card 15, on which of course I busted out.
Craps - $200+ winnings, another successful outing.
Blackjack - Won $10, things are turning around!
Blackjack - Won $50, small but on the right track.
Craps, Blackjack, Poker, etc... Ended up losing overall, see expense report.

The Food
Throughout this trip we ate very well at dinner. Thursday was a wonderful cut of Prime Rib with all the trimmings at one of the best places in San Francisco, House of Prime Rib. Then Friday's dnner of Italian food at Canaletto's was great. Calamari, a margherita pizza for appetizers, then linguine with spicy tomato sauce and shrimp, sparkling water, and a latte to finish. Molto bene. Saturday's dinner at Benihana was really good, New York strip and lobstertail. Fried rice, sake, fried veggies and the opening "shrimp" show. And Sunday's dinner, while much simpler, was still good. At California Pizza Kitchen, I had a Sicilian pizza and creamy tortilla soup. Very tasty.

The Club
One of the highlights was going to the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club. It took a while for us to get there because of various "things" that happened. I think the original plan was to go early, like 10:00p because older people like us get tired late at night (like around 11:00p). Without going into the boring details of how we wasted time versus the original plan, we started out for the club at 12:30a and had to force ourselves out the door of the hotel room. I was tired and sleepy, but felt I had to go. What would an MLC Las Vegas trip be without a single lap dance? I would have felt sad to come home and say "we should have gone out". It felt like work to get downstairs to the cab. No excitement, no expectations, this was a duty to be fulfilled. We dragged ourselves out and managed to have a decent time, even though during the show we thought about our daughters and where they'd be in 5-10 years. At the club I spent some time with a young girl who actually lives in LA during the week but works Las Vegas on the weekend. She also flies around to Denver, Texas, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago. The only places she hasnt been yet is New York and outside the country. It's rumored that a good night can bring in $7000; It sounds like an exaggeration, however I could believe $1000 to $2000. I'm thinking about a new career path (typical for any MLC'er). Financial planner for strippers. Of course I'd have to make a number of business trips to search out clientele, and get to know them enough to align with their financial goals. It'll be tough work, some of these young girls are not really sharp. But I guess I could imagine suffering through. And finally, just in case you wanted to know, nothing else happened that night. We came back to the hotel after just 1.5 hours and crashed. Too tired to think about anything but sleep.