Why would anyone want to go to Las Vegas,
except for the pleasant fall weather, the good golf you can still find under $40, the exciting variety of food, the shows (if there are any good ones that you can afford), the sights, and the chance to win a million? Anne and I planned an anniversary getaway (our 44th) of three nights at our Worldmark timeshare in Las Vegas, then a drive through the Mohave over to Palm Springs to spend three nights with our friends Nick and Kathryn in their condo before returning to Vegas to fly home. Plans, though, have a way of changing, as you’ll read.
except for the pleasant fall weather, the good golf you can still find under $40, the exciting variety of food, the shows (if there are any good ones that you can afford), the sights, and the chance to win a million? Anne and I planned an anniversary getaway (our 44th) of three nights at our Worldmark timeshare in Las Vegas, then a drive through the Mohave over to Palm Springs to spend three nights with our friends Nick and Kathryn in their condo before returning to Vegas to fly home. Plans, though, have a way of changing, as you’ll read.
Our Vegas adventure began at PDX with an early morning United flight to San Francisco.
We pulled back from the gangway right on time and then stopped on the tarmac. After ten minutes the pilot told us that all United computer terminals just went down and we’d have to wait until they came back up. With that they pulled the plane back to the gangway and let passengers disembark with the warning that the plane could leave at any minute. Two hours later we began our taxi to the runway--the pilot and crew had done a good job keeping us all informed about United’s progress with the problem or lack of it. Of course, we had missed our flight from SFO to Vegas, but we discovered soon after arriving that we were already booked on the next flight. To United’s credit, within a day we both received emails with an apology and awarding us $50 each in future travel credit.
We pulled back from the gangway right on time and then stopped on the tarmac. After ten minutes the pilot told us that all United computer terminals just went down and we’d have to wait until they came back up. With that they pulled the plane back to the gangway and let passengers disembark with the warning that the plane could leave at any minute. Two hours later we began our taxi to the runway--the pilot and crew had done a good job keeping us all informed about United’s progress with the problem or lack of it. Of course, we had missed our flight from SFO to Vegas, but we discovered soon after arriving that we were already booked on the next flight. To United’s credit, within a day we both received emails with an apology and awarding us $50 each in future travel credit.
The second trauma of the trip occurred the day before we were drive to Palm Springs to stay with our friends. Anne got a call from Kathryn which told us that their condo which they hadn’t visited for a few months had become the domicile of one or more large rats. The rat or rats had gotten into everything, severely fouled the carpets, chewed the bedding, and generally performed normally offensive rat behaviors. Nick and Kathryn would be living in a hotel while busily doing cleanup duty (hopefully wearing full PPE-personal protective equipment). Needless to say our travel plans changed. Without much trouble we extended our stay in timeshare the extra three days.
Anne and I certainly kept ourselves busy in Las Vegas, somedays bordered closely on doing too much.
Black Mountain GC
Golf was high on our list, especially since the previous couple of weeks in Oregon had been ungolfable [Is that word?]. To get good prices for golf in Vegas (or Phoenix, Portland, or almost any other major city) I use GolfNow.com for reduced rates. You have to pay in advance and there are no refunds, but the savings can be anywhere from 20 to 60%. Our first tee time in Vegas was for Black Mountain GC in Henderson about 20 minutes from our Worldmark unit. Price was right, the course was nice, and the weather was perfect--scores could certainly have been better, but then you can’t have everything, even in Vegas. Next was The Legacy,
Legacy GC
an upscale dessert-style course with some problems. We had a noon tee time and found later that they stop marshaling the course at noon. Twice we ended up with five groups on one hole--for non-golfers that means the play was slow and crowded. We played 13 holes and could see that we wouldn’t get our 18-hole round done before dark. What we played was good, but we have some words for the management--GolfNow has a system for reviewing courses. Our third golf was in Boulder City southeast of Las Vegas at Boulder Creek GC.
Boulder Creek GC
This was, for me, the best of the three courses--interesting holes, well conditioned fairways and greens, very good price (almost 60% off). It’s hard getting into the spirit of Oregon winter golf after the dry, 65º of Vegas golf.
Our next adventures concerned dining Vegas-style. It used to be--now I’m talking about the 60s and 70s--that you could eat on the cheap all over Vegas: steaks all day for $4.99. Today, though, the prices in Vegas assume everyone has already hit the jackpot, so we saved money by eating breakfast in our unit (except for one day) and skipping lunch on golf days. Dinners were still dear. For instance, in New York New York at Nine Irish Guys Pub I had a wonderful pork porterhouse (pork chop on steroids) with apple chutney for $28--no sides, no veg, no starch, just the meat. Anne meanwhile had a good, but not distinguished, fish and chip supper for $22 and a simple side salad for $6. We did find inexpensive steak and prime rib ($16) at the Coronado Cafe in Southpoint Casino and good prime rib for a little more at the Red Rock Cafe in the Red Rock Casino. It seemed to us that the off-the-strip and away-from-downtown casinos had quality fare for decent prices. We definitely did enjoy a shared seafood mac and cheese (one of the best we’ve ever had) at Margaritaville on the strip--the Jimmy Buffet tunes in the background certainly didn’t hurt the ambiance. The star of our meals, at least for the story, was our first night’s dinner at Hash House A Go-Go in the M Resort south of the strip.
The restaurant has been featured on the Food Channel and Travel Channel, especially on the program Man vs Food which features places serving huge portions. Anne’s meatloaf sandwich was humungous! It came with a side of mashed potatoes which must have weighed three pounds and came covered with bacon and cheese. We both had the leftovers for breakfast for two days! For me the best meal of the trip was our one breakfast out the day we played golf in Boulder City. We had breakfast at The Coffee Cup Cafe,
a restaurant featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. My pork chile verde omelet was outstanding and a bargain as well. Prices at times may have been high, but overall this trip was an gastronomic success.
The restaurant has been featured on the Food Channel and Travel Channel, especially on the program Man vs Food which features places serving huge portions. Anne’s meatloaf sandwich was humungous! It came with a side of mashed potatoes which must have weighed three pounds and came covered with bacon and cheese. We both had the leftovers for breakfast for two days! For me the best meal of the trip was our one breakfast out the day we played golf in Boulder City. We had breakfast at The Coffee Cup Cafe,
a restaurant featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. My pork chile verde omelet was outstanding and a bargain as well. Prices at times may have been high, but overall this trip was an gastronomic success.
We did manage a little sightseeing during our six days, but only a little. One night on the strip was enough.
Even off season it was crowded everywhere we went. The shuttle from Worldmark dropped us off at Caesar’s Palace and we walked about a mile south on one side of Las Vegas Blvd. and then back to Caesar’s for our ride home.
Street performers made the sidewalks even more crowded. Though some were very interesting,
like the Gene Simmons of KISS impersonator and a string quartet, but most were mediocre at best. The other street performers were the young ladies partying in Las Vegas. It seemed like roaming gangs of twenty to thirty-year-olds (and a few older) were undressed to impress,
This is about how short the skirts were in real life.
though whom they were trying to impress I’m not sure since the groups of guys we saw wandering were significantly less than impressive. We heard one young lady in a micro-mini skirt tell her friend that she didn't thing she could "walk up the steps into the casino with this dress on." The Fremont Street Experience, the remake of old downtown Vegas, was rather boring,
especially in the afternoon with not much neon aglow.
Red Rock Canyon National Park was a pleasant drive with some decent photo stops. Most interesting were two special tours going through the park--
a three-wheel scooter group and an exotic auto tour (supercartours.com) which cost $399 for an hour drive in a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Audi, Porsche, or other exotic. Also on this trip we finally got to walk on the Memorial Bridge to view Hoover Dam, though Anne mostly clung to the back rail instead of looking over the bridge at the 600 foot drop to the canyon floor.
As for shows, luck wasn’t with us. Even the discount tickets to Blue Man Group or Cirque du Soleil shows were in the $130 range each. Carrot Top, whom we’ve seen before but wouldn’t mind seeing again, was sold out for our entire stay. Other than those everyone interesting had either been in town last week or was coming next week. Other attractions we had planned to see were either closed or open at the wrong times.
Even off season it was crowded everywhere we went. The shuttle from Worldmark dropped us off at Caesar’s Palace and we walked about a mile south on one side of Las Vegas Blvd. and then back to Caesar’s for our ride home.
Street performers made the sidewalks even more crowded. Though some were very interesting,
like the Gene Simmons of KISS impersonator and a string quartet, but most were mediocre at best. The other street performers were the young ladies partying in Las Vegas. It seemed like roaming gangs of twenty to thirty-year-olds (and a few older) were undressed to impress,
though whom they were trying to impress I’m not sure since the groups of guys we saw wandering were significantly less than impressive. We heard one young lady in a micro-mini skirt tell her friend that she didn't thing she could "walk up the steps into the casino with this dress on." The Fremont Street Experience, the remake of old downtown Vegas, was rather boring,
Red Rock Canyon National Park was a pleasant drive with some decent photo stops. Most interesting were two special tours going through the park--
a three-wheel scooter group and an exotic auto tour (supercartours.com) which cost $399 for an hour drive in a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Audi, Porsche, or other exotic. Also on this trip we finally got to walk on the Memorial Bridge to view Hoover Dam, though Anne mostly clung to the back rail instead of looking over the bridge at the 600 foot drop to the canyon floor.
As for shows, luck wasn’t with us. Even the discount tickets to Blue Man Group or Cirque du Soleil shows were in the $130 range each. Carrot Top, whom we’ve seen before but wouldn’t mind seeing again, was sold out for our entire stay. Other than those everyone interesting had either been in town last week or was coming next week. Other attractions we had planned to see were either closed or open at the wrong times.
So how did we fill the rest of the time in Las Vegas? The games, of course. Both Anne and I love to play the slots--oh, we know it’s a poor bet, that they are set to take your money, that the likelihood of even breaking even is remote. We still enjoy the bells and whistles, the chance for even a small jackpot. We also know that the only way to play is set aside an amount we can lose and never go beyond that limit. The game then becomes can we stay ahead of our loss limit.
This trip had a twist to it: we had brought our casino stake based on spending three days in Las Vegas and we we’re now spending six days. At the end of the six days we actually brought home about a fourth of what we had planned to spend in three day. That made this a successful gaming trip! We did come away with some general impressions about the gaming in Las Vegas. First, stay away from both the strip casinos and the Fremont Street Experience casinos. We certainly had little luck and, with the exception of some jackpot winners in New York New York, we didn’t see anyone else having good luck. Second, we had significantly better luck at the satellite casinos, such as M Resort, Southpoint (where we walked right by basketball star Bill Russell--I don't know how Anne, who was walking beside me, didn't notice 6'11" Bill Russell), Red Rocks Hotel, and The Orleans. Third, the slot of choice this year in Vegas is called “Buffalo.”
Every casino had banks of this game throughout and most of the time they were filled with players. I’ll admit the reason our money stretched from three to six days was because “Buffalo” often paid well for me. The obsession with “Buffalo” reminded me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation 1991 episode “The Game,” where a mysterious alien tries to take control of the crew of the Enterprise through a euphoria inducing game. The slot machine’s variable ratio reinforcement creates the same kind of anticipated euphoria. Oh, well, even knowing the theory we still enjoyed the games.
This trip had a twist to it: we had brought our casino stake based on spending three days in Las Vegas and we we’re now spending six days. At the end of the six days we actually brought home about a fourth of what we had planned to spend in three day. That made this a successful gaming trip! We did come away with some general impressions about the gaming in Las Vegas. First, stay away from both the strip casinos and the Fremont Street Experience casinos. We certainly had little luck and, with the exception of some jackpot winners in New York New York, we didn’t see anyone else having good luck. Second, we had significantly better luck at the satellite casinos, such as M Resort, Southpoint (where we walked right by basketball star Bill Russell--I don't know how Anne, who was walking beside me, didn't notice 6'11" Bill Russell), Red Rocks Hotel, and The Orleans. Third, the slot of choice this year in Vegas is called “Buffalo.”
Every casino had banks of this game throughout and most of the time they were filled with players. I’ll admit the reason our money stretched from three to six days was because “Buffalo” often paid well for me. The obsession with “Buffalo” reminded me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation 1991 episode “The Game,” where a mysterious alien tries to take control of the crew of the Enterprise through a euphoria inducing game. The slot machine’s variable ratio reinforcement creates the same kind of anticipated euphoria. Oh, well, even knowing the theory we still enjoyed the games.
We are sorry we didn’t get to visit our friends in Palm Spring (victims of the Rat Effect), that we didn’t get to Joshua Tree Park, or get to play golf in Palm Springs, but despite missing that part of the trip we still enjoyed a nice six days in Fun City, USA. In fact, we’re ready to begin saving for another visit next year.
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