Sore Feet and too much food TR

I have been reading for months now and will post a TR as a reply. Many of you answered my questions just by reading. I have laughed many times at various stories.

Sore Feet and too much food TR

Love your title.

Sore Feet and too much food TR

Vegas in a nutshell...awesome

So here it goes. The count down clock at work hit nine PM and I was off for 6 day%26#39;s and Vegas at 9am Saturday April 19th . Start the drive home and it%26#39;s a complete white out can barely see 20 feet in front of the car. If you have ever lived on the west coast this is not normal even in January let alone the middle of April. So a manage to get home and am forced to park in the land lords spare spot upstairs as i don%26#39;t want to get a tow truck at 6am to tow my car out my my parking spot again (just before our wedding). We get up at 5 am to get ready for the drive to Bellingham WA about 15 min south of the boarder. Look out side to see the snow had stopped and it was clear and -4 c. So I trudge out to the car in shorts and sandals (had to do it) to find the car is caked in a sheet of ice. 10 minutes of scraping and we are off to pick up our friend who is joining us. We hit the boarder and time to the pick a line game and a little sign of what was awaiting our gambling luck in the future. 3 lines with 6 cars in each, need less to say we picked the line that had the rookie boarder guard in it 1/2 an hour later we get through.

We get to the airport and get checked in and we are off the the warmth and sunshine. Not so fast I know you are supposed to ware your seat belt on take off and I now know why. Our pilot decides to hit the brakes and stop the plane as he pulls on to the runway to take off. Everybody gets thrown forward and nearly hits the seat in front. Thats a first in my flying life. We land in Vegas about 10 minutes late and we get to out gate in terminal D, we hop the train to the baggage pick up. The baggage room is almost empty. We get to a carrousel%26#39;s and our stuff is already coming off and our stuff is out. Off to the taxi stand with no wait (my last trip it took over an hour) it%26#39;s off to the IP after a quick stop for some beer we are dropped off on the side and the bill is $20 plus tip.

We walk in to the casino and am waiting for the overwhelming wall of smoke and am surprised how clear the air was. Check in was smooth and we are off to our room. Past the Mai Tia bar to the elevators and a huge line up. I then remember from our last stay there there a couple more elevators in behind so we sneak past the crowd to these and boom we are on our way up to the 15th floor. We discover our room as at the very end of the hall as far away from the elevators perfect less noise but by the end of the trip those long walks down the hall will become very tiring. we unpack and it%26#39;s off to pick up our Howie Mandel tickets for later. After getting our tickets we head over to TI for a drink at the Sirens cove Margarita bar for the walk to the Mall for some shopping and a quick bite in the food court. On our way back we go see the Wynn to get our Red cars and the points for the free buffets (not quite free but I saved $5 so it was worth it for the time being more on that later). So we keep seeing these yards of margarita and as it%26#39;s close to 30 c so we finally hunt them down right in front of the IP so we waited in line and I watched a couple get poured and see the price and I%26#39;m out $30 and you don%26#39;t even see them put any booze in it. But my wife and her friend are both way to excited about them so they order one each (there will be some regret from this later).

So we go back to the room as we have dinner later plus Howie and I%26#39;m getting really tired so i want a nap. My wife and her fiend head off to explore some more while I have a beer and get a snooze. We head off to Bouchon at the Venetian my favorite restaurant in the world as I%26#39;m a chef I really appreciate great food and it didn%26#39;t disappoint it only made me want to go back every night. Unfortunately those margarita%26#39;s have now come back to haunt my wife and her friend as they both got very ill near the end of dinner and it%26#39;s not a pretty sight. Back to the room and some Imodiem for the wife and we are off to see Howie while her friend goes to bed sick. If you get a chance to see Howie live he is great i saw him once in the late 80%26#39;s and he is still just as funny, I just wish the chick from Kentucky would have shut up as she did her best to ruin the show event though Howie put her in her place a few times. It%26#39;s now time for bed as the poker tables are calling for the morning.

Great tr, thanks for sharing=) Can%26#39;t wait to read about the poker tables.

Day two starts with we need more drugs for the sick. So we trudge off to Walgreen%26#39;s down by the Monte Carlo a bit of a walk who am I kidding a long freaking walk. We get some water and more drugs and some cash from the ATM (only a $2 charge compared to $7 at the Venetian). After getting the drugs we walked back to the PEE HO (Planet Hollywood)I saw somebody call it that on an other website and i was calling it that the whole trip. Off to the spice market buffet for some breakfast. No line up and some great food with good service all you can ask for in a buffet.

I go play some poker in the 10am tournament and bust out just before they broke down to 2 tables but they started with 6 so for a beginner i think I fared quite well. Just before the tourney I go my A list card and it%26#39;s free stuff $5 match at the Sports book and a $25 match at a table game. Now that the poker is done for the day I go put some money on my Philadelphia Flyers to beat the Caps on Tuesday and off to play Black Jack with my $25 match just so you know I%26#39;m not much of a gambler so a $25 hand of BJ is way out of my price range so one hand it is. Woo Hoo I win and leave with $75 (not for long) I see the Wolf Run Slot on my way out and i have been addicted to it on Blue square since I read about it here a while back.so In goes $50 and out goes $50 in close to 10 minutes. Well that%26#39;s what you get for not leaving while ahead.

I%26#39;ve already had a few beers by now so I%26#39;m off to see what the wife is up to so I start walking back and stop at bills for another beer and some VP and in goes $20 and out goes 15 real quick, so I switch to the video BJ and I get hot and win my money back plus $30 and I%26#39;m like this is good. So I leave and start walking back to the IP with beer in hand and I cut though the Flamingo and I see another Wolf Run and you guessed it BYE BYE $50 again. I will never learn . So i meet up with the wife and friend who are slowly feeling better and they want to go shopping so we head off to the LV outlets by the airport and spend some money. Back at the hotel we decide we are off to the Golden Nugget for dinner and the Fremont St Light Show.

The Nugget seafood buffet was great and the service was very good well worth the trip. The selection of seafood was decent tons of oysters and crab legs. While the other options were very good a s well We might stay there on a future trip. We then wandered through Fremont st checking out all of the old school casinos wonder what it was like in the old day%26#39;s when it was still a Mob town and this is where it all went down. We then waited for the Queen show at 8pm and it was a pretty amazing show. People were dancing and singing ';We are the Champions';, well worth the trip. Off to the Stratosphere for a night time view of the strip from above. Dam it was freaking cold outside on the top but i wouldn%26#39;t go in I had to watch a few of the people and those rides and I like rides but never in a million years.

So we hiked off to the Sahara to take to return Monorail trip back to the IP ( we took it there as well we bought a 6 ride pass and shared it). Where did they get the comedians for the little jokes they have for each stop as they are not funny, and they get old real quick. Back to the hotel to get the blistered, bruised and swollen feet taken care of. and some sleep after a long day.

Enjoying your TR. I would like to hear more about Bouchon and the things that you notice as a chef about the place that maybe others wouldn%26#39;t. Have you been in the kitchen? Do they use a lot of fresh ingredients?

Glad you won your match play bet at P Ho. You should play more blackjack and fewer slot machines!

Ok I am now happy that I posted the food at the Golden Nugget was good, and now I have a chef that agrees with me :)

Those slushy drinks can knock you flat if you drink too much, so tell the wife next time to just get a small one for a buck at La Bayou downtown.

I think the Pee Ho is funny to and appreciate your sense of humor!

Off to the Bellagio for the breakfast buffet, we get in line and wait for 20 minutes or so and we are in to the best breakfast buffet hands down, great food, great service and a all round great time. My wife%26#39;s friend had never been in the Bellagio through many trips to Vegas so I took him to see conservatory and the lobby, well the allergy%26#39;s hit and he has lo go running out the door barely able to breath. Cross that one off the list of places to visit.

I head over to the PEE HO again to try my luck in the 10am tourney again and bust out around the same time as the day before but there are way more players and there was still three table playing when I left. All in all I think this hotel has the potential to be great for the younger crowd and defiantly had a great vibe and I would love to stay there sometime. S I%26#39;m leaving and I see the tell tail signs of a movie set so i wander over and they are filming CSI Las Vegas now that%26#39;s my favorite show so I want to see if i can see any of the cast. Not my lucky day but I do get to meet Katey Sagal (Peggy Bundy) and Diedrich Bader (Oswald from Drew Carey) as they were the ones filming for the episode. I wish I had my camera as they were taking pictures with people between shots very cool. So I start back to the IP too meet up at the pool with the wife and friend, and you can see the story coming, in to Bill%26#39;s for some Video BJ and out comes $60 to my pocket and I%26#39;m happy. I walk around the Flaming this time resisting the urge of the Wolf, and straight into the IP towards the elevator and what do I see an empty spot on the three card poker table. Bye Bye $60 and it%26#39;s just not my trip.

So I get to the pool and hang out with my wife for a few minutes but it%26#39;s too hot for me so I go to the room to get ready to watch the Flyers play the Caps. I have a couple of hours to kill before the game so I head over to Ceasers and Mesa Grill for a bite and a drink. I sit at the bar and have the two best Margarita%26#39;s I%26#39;ve ever had and a great burger. Having only seen Bobby Flay on TV and thinking he is a bit of a idiot I have to say the whole package was great and I would definitely go for dinner in the future.

I head up to the Sports book back at the IP and put money on the under for the game and pull up a seat at the bar to watch the game. I happen to sit beside another Flyers fan and his wife. The game doesn%26#39;t go so well and I lose both my bet%26#39;s ( I never bet for my team) although I did win $90 on double bonus VP between the 2nd %26amp; 3rd period so not to bad.

So it%26#39;s off to the Wynn for the dinner buffet at 7:30 pm and prime time and I wish we had gone somewhere else. By far the worst experience of our trip. We waited in line for 1 hour and that was cool we knew that was coming we had a couple of drinks while waiting and just enjoyed being on vacation. Just as we are getting to the front a lady tries to get her %26amp; her 14 friends in through the VIP line with out passes and get turned away, to the back of the line or so we thought. No she starts to complain loudly, and a young manager comes over and explains why she can%26#39;t jump the line and she gets more defiant and the manager gives in. I know the squeaky wheel gets the grease but come on. So we finally get inside and guess who we are sat near and you guessed it they had the server running for everything, I%26#39;m surprised they didn%26#39;t want them to go get the food for them. Mean while we couldn%26#39;t even get a glass of water to drink and we were getting very tired of it. We finally flagged down some one to get us a drink. We never had our plates removed from the table until we got up for dessert. Over all the food was OK nothing special, not as good as the Golden Nugget so you don%26#39;t necessarily get what you pay for.

By this time i could barely walk my feet were too sore I contemplated taking a cab back to the IP but toughed it out. That was one long sore full walk back.

I am also interested in your impressions of food. I have a couple of close friends who are chef%26#39;s and their opinions are highly valued.

Why Bouchon over other restaurants? Do tell!

:-%26gt;

Good Report