Las Vegas January 2006 By Jon Konrath

This made my seventh annual trip to Las Vegas for my birthday, on January 17th to 22nd. I went with my girlfriend Sarah, who set up the entire trip and surprised me with a stay at the Bellagio. We spent the first half of the week doing our own thing. On the 19th, we met up with my friend Bill (who also has a 1/20 birthday), plus Lon, Jaime, Cliff, and Johanne and Ken.

• My photos

The trip highlights:

• We flew to Chicago Midway and managed to get in first class for $40 each. This is the first time I've ever flown first class, and it was very nice. (The only other time I was the first person on a plane was when I was flying it.) We then had to get on a Southwest flight to Vegas, which wasn't so nice. I'm not that keen on the whole cattle-herding, no-reserved-seats system.
• We stayed at the Bellagio, in a room that faced the Strip. Very nice, very quiet, and an excellent view of the Paris, Bally's, and the Flamingo.
• Ate at the Cafe Bellagio twice. It has the best Huevos Rancheros imaginable.
• Checked out the huge flower display set up for the Chinese new year, which was pretty over-the-top, as always. The room just west of the lobby and by the entrance to the cafe contains a huge themed floral display with giant trees, bamboo, statues, water fountains, fog machines, steam, and everything else imaginable. It's all live plants, and they completely change it for each holiday.
• Had breakfast at the Denny's by the MGM. They remodeled the front of the store. I got the classic Grand Slam, and ate about 23% of it. I love Denny's, but apparently my body doesn't anymore.
• Visited the Coke and M&M stores, but didn't buy anything. I debated on a couple of the new-looks-old t-shirts, while Sarah debated buying something at the M&M store so she could write off the whole trip, since they are one of her clients.
• Rode the Monorail from the MGM up to the Hilton and back to Harrah's. It's extremely new and clean, and it's a nice layout, but I'm not 100% convinced anyone would use it too much until it gets connected to the airport or to downtown. You do get some incredible views of the back of all of the casinos, including the parking lots, "crew member" areas, and the back of the Wynn golf course. We also got a bird's-eye view of the Concrete World expo. The whole thing is themed for some energy drink, including TV sets in the cars showing videos of super x-treme sports, like motocross jumping. I think there would be some x-treme vandalism if these were in a New York subway.
• Ate lunch at a very crowded In-n-Out, overwhelmed with UNLV students. I love the burgers there. I'm only so-so on the fries, but they are still better than any of the local burger places in NYC. Watching the line work during a lunch rush is poetry in motion.
• Went to the Liberace museum. It's two buildings in a strip mall. The first contains a historical timeline, plus his collection of pimped-out cars and rare pianos, which are all impressive. The second building contains costumes, clothes, capes, jewels, home furnishings, and a gift shop and restaurant. I don't know much at all about Liberace, except that Sarah said he's originally from Milwaukee and she recognized some of the stuff in the pictures. But the well-preserved wardrobes and helpful staff made it a very neat visit.
• We ate dinner at Bouchon, Thomas Keller's (aka French Laundry) restaurant at the Venetian. It's high up in the building, surrounded by a veranda that's all impressive stonework and swimming pools, and the interior is pretty fabulous. Food was good, although I'm finding I really don't like French food as much as maybe I should. Great service though, and great atmosphere.
• We ordered a room service breakfast, and I got a $17 breakfast burrito and lots of little Tabascos and ketchups and jellies to steal. It all arrived on an intricate and fancy folding table that probably cost more than the last three cars I've owned.
• I walked around the Aladdin's Desert Passage mall. It's days are probably numbered, and it looks pretty sad, so I wanted a few photos just in case.
• We went to the Atomic Testing Museum. It's a big museum for the Nevada Test Site, filled with artifacts, photos, papers, and exhibits chronicling the work done by the local folk once Uncle Sugar dumped those lucrative building contracts on them. It's a slightly one-sided commentary on how the silent warriors of the cold war defeated the big evil USSR, and I don't know why the fuck there's a piece of the World Trade Center there. But they do have a lot of great and rare pieces there, and that made it worth the money. Too bad I couldn't take pictures, though.
• We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had lunch at Pink Taco, probably my favorite tex-mex-american restaurant. I also looked at the guitars a bit while Sarah played the slots.
• Since we had a car, we went on one trip to a giant outlet mall and virtually abandoned casino about 40 miles south of Vegas, and another trip to a mall by the Sunset Station Casino in Henderson. I bought a ton of comedy CDs and we bought supplies at a Target.
• We went to the new Wynn resort and did a lap around the first floor, taking pictures and considering crashing one of the conferences there. We got dinner at the Wynn's buffet, which was expensive (about $30) but probably the best buffet I've ever seen. We also spent a few hours playing slots there.
• Had lunch at Spago in the Caesar's Palace shops. I usually like it there, but I took a chance on an asian salad, and it was pretty bad. Oh well.
• I played a penny slot for a while at Caesar's, and got sick of it, so I hit max bet (400 credits, or $4) just to burn through my money. On that spin, I hit the bonus, and then won the little bonus mini-game, which paid me $75.
• Once everyone got in town, we ate at a cafe-style restaurant at the Venetian, which was okay. I got a pulled pork sandwich, but ate the 17 pounds of french fries on the plate and drank three 128-ounce Cokes before I even got started on the sandwich, so I didn't get far.
• We had the standard birthday breakfast at Denny's, although I got a grilled cheese and sampler for breakfast. Grilled cheese isn't on the menu anymore, but if you ask nice, they'll hook you up.
• We ran to the Apple store at the Fashion Show mall to see the new Intel Mac. Showing great constraint, I did not buy one. They are faster than fuck, but I just bought my mac a few months ago, and it would look pretty retarded to have a huge white monitor and a huge black monitor next to it.
• Sarah and I went to the mall east of the Strip. She went to Macy's to get something to wear that evening. I went to Hot Dog on a Stick for corn dog goodness.
• We all ate an excellent Italian-fusion dinner at Fiamma in the MGM Grand. I always get the pork rib tip ravioli, and it was just as good this year as it was last time.
• Caught the late show at the Comedy Stop at the Tropicana. Lame opener, funny second comedian, guy trying too hard to be Carrot Top on third, but he was okay. For $20 which includes 2 drinks, it's not a bad deal, even if the first comedian is always a dud.
• Got lunch at Margaritavilla, where the nachos plate consists of 27 pounds of chips. Realized I'm not a big fan of Jimmy Buffet, particularly when they play the titular song five times during a 40-minute meal.
• Went to an exotic car store in Caesar's and ogled a bunch of high-end vehicles of the two- and four-wheel sort. Got my picture taken in a new Ferrari.
• Lost about $100 in about 12 minutes at blackjack at the Hilton.
• Had a great dinner at Bennihanna at the Hilton. Many budda statue drinks and plenty of shrimp and steak. Plus I swear they put crack cocaine in the fried rice, it's so damn good.
• A long flight home, although we got upgraded again in Chicago. We thought the luggage got lost, but it turned up a minute later on a different plane.