Matt and I wanted to go to Las Vegas for the WCC Tournament and the Nightclub and Bar show, but he also had to do a work presentation in Waterloo, Iowa. We made it work!
(The entire photoset is here on Flickr.)
Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day:
Posted in las vegas #6 on April 18th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
We had a unique start to our trip to Las Vegas: via Waterloo, Iowa. Matt had a work seminar to lead on Saturday morning, so we rented a car around 3pm on Friday and got on the road to the beautiful Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area. We arrived in town shortly before 8pm, and got our room at Waterloo’s Finest Hotel (according to their website): the Ramada.
I would like to argue with that name: it was crawling with hundreds of loud children, the rooms were very outdated, and everything smelled like smoke. Granted, the kids weren’t really their fault: there was a state wrestling tournament going on in Cedar Falls. The parents on our floor had all propped their room doors open (many of them with coolers full of beer), and the kids were running rampant. We dropped off our stuff and got the hell out of there quick.
We walked to a pizza place a few blocks away called Doughy Joey’s for dinner. The food was pretty great, as was the beer: I had Millstream Backroad Stout, which is made in the Amana Colonies. AMISH BEER!?! So exciting.
After dinner, we went across the street to a place called the Drunken Monkey, which had been recommended as a great dive. It was indeed that: a few of the patrons there were definitely no strangers to meth. We got some cheap drinks and hung out for a bit listening to 50 Cent on the jukebox, but there were too few people there to entertain us. We decided to take a walk around town and see what else we could find.
There didn’t seem to be much else going on in Waterloo that wasn’t extremely divey (there were apparently trendier places across the river, but it was too cold to walk that far), so we decided on a place called Smitty’s because of the hockey-related sign out front. There were only 6 or so people in there, too, so we grabbed seats at the bar and quickly got to know the bartender. We were very excited to find Templeton Rye; it’s made locally and only distributed around Iowa and Illinois. Matt really wanted to bring some home, so I’d done research and read that it was pretty difficult to find because it sold out right away.
We asked the bartender how he preferred to drink it, and he said the Templeton Press was most popular. That’s the second time we’d heard the term ‘press’, and apparently it involves a splash of water and 7-Up. After some research on the internet, we found out that ‘press’ comes from ‘Presbyterian’, and used to mean a non-alcoholic cocktail of some kind. I asked the bartender if he had any advice on where to find Templeton, and he said the little Pakistani liquor stores were the most likely to have some in stock. I added that to my to-do list for the next morning.
We headed back to Waterloo’s Finest Hotel, where it was thankfully past all the children’s bedtime.
Posted in las vegas #6 on February 17th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: iowa
Saturday morning, I dropped Matt off at his conference at Allen College and went to go see some of central Iowa. It was very grey outside.
I saw the other side of Waterloo across the bridge, and there were definitely some pretty nice restaurants and bars over there. The downtown was interesting, but pretty run-down. It reminded me of a smaller version of Milwaukee. There were also a ton of houses on stilts that were either moving or recently moved, presumably because the rivers there flood nearly every year.
I kept driving around til I came across one of the liquor stores the bartender had mentioned the previous night, called Red Star. They had Templeton Rye! I got two bottles for just shy of $100, which meant we were going to have to do a good job of protecting them since they were going to Vegas and back.
From there, I drove over to see Waterloo’s sister city, Cedar Falls. My first stop was at the UNI Dome, because we wanted to get a picture of Bally at the home of the Panthers. However, I soon discovered that that’s where the million annoying children had gone: the state wrestling tournament was going on there. I took some crappy out-the-window photos of the dome, circled the campus, and moved on.
Downtown Cedar Falls was completely different than Waterloo. There were a bunch of really cute little shops along a pedestrian-friendly main street, and everything was recently restored. I wish Matt could’ve seen that instead of Waterloo!
Speaking of Matt, it was nearing time to go pick him up. I stopped at Barnes and Noble because they had everything I could ever want at that moment (coffee, a bathroom, and the newest Martha Stewart Weddings), then drove up to the college and parked to wait for him. I got a ways into my airplane knitting project because they were running a little late, but as I’d calculated the latest time we could leave Waterloo about 14 times in my head, I knew we were safe.
Before leaving town, we stopped at the famous Maid-Rite. Matt got a loose meat sandwich (seriously, that’s what it’s called!) and I got some cheese-curd-like things. The employees at Maid-Rite were probably the nicest people on earth, too.
We got on the road to Des Moines, which was a little over 2 hours away. Our flight was at close to 5pm, so we had plenty of time to stop and see the famous Traer Winding Stairs. Yep. (Sometimes you just have to go visit stuff like this, because when the hell are you going to get back to Traer, Iowa? I’d never heard of it until we drove through.)
We arrived in Des Moines, turned in our rental car, and went to get some food and beers at the Capitol City Brew Pub. It was ideally situated so that we could see the plane arriving from our seats at the bar. As expected, it was about the size of a bus. We got on and were soon back in Minneapolis. You know what’s weird? Flying into your hometown to go on a trip.
We arrived in Vegas shortly before 9, and went to go pick up our car. Since we were staying off-strip for a couple of nights, we calculated that it would be way cheaper to rent a car than take cabs to places like the Orleans Arena. And conveniently, parking everywhere in Vegas is free, plus you can leave your car overnight if necessary.
We were spending the first night at the Sahara; not only was it cheap, but we’d had a great time there before (i.e. $1 shots and pai gow). The first thing we encountered after exiting I-5 was a car on fire in the middle of the Strip. Welcome to Las Vegas!
Our room was outdated, but it was clean and comfortable, and that’s all I care about when all I’m doing is sleeping there. We dropped off our bags and headed off on foot toward the Peppermill, a few very long Vegas-blocks away. It’s just past the Riveria, across from Circus Circus.
We got food at the counter in the restaurant (it’s like Vegas Perkins, seriously), then went into the lounge. We had the exact same bartender as the previous time, and he was fantastic. They were also playing the exact same crappy music videos on the TV, plus ESPN. God, I love that bar.
After a couple drinks, we went across to check out Slots-A-Fun. I’d read about their $3 blackjack and $.50 craps games, but there wasn’t too much going on even though it was after midnight on a Saturday. We got some beers from a vendor out front and wandered through that casino and into Circus Circus. We were nowhere near drunk enough to have a Fear-and-Loathing-style freakout, but it’s always good to remind yourself of how bizarre Vegas can be.
We headed back toward our hotel, and got there around 1am. We were too sleepy to gamble, but we had to go see if they still had $1 shots. The bartender told us they’d been discontinued, which pretty much ends any good reason to visit the Sahara. But we did take advantage of some $1 beers instead.
Posted in las vegas #6 on February 16th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: iowa, vegas
We got up Sunday, checked out of the Sahara, and drove down to the Palazzo for some brunch and sports-betting. We stopped to talk to the lady with the in-game betting devices, but they didn’t have enough options yet to be that interesting. There were some basketball games we were interested in, but they weren’t til later that day.
The benefit to arriving at Lagasse’s Stadium early is that you get a great seat. They put us at a table in front of a giant bank of TVs, right next to the book. We collected odds sheets and instructions (because we can never remember how to place bets), and set to picking games. It was a little too early for them to be serving food, but it was definitely not too early for coffee and beer.
We placed bets, ordered food, and also got a pitcher of Long Islands. Happy morning in Vegas!
After brunch, we headed down the strip to do some gambling. I was in search of a friendly-looking craps table, because I was determined to finally try it. I’d even been practicing my betting on the simulator at home. We stopped into O’Shea’s, but the tables were all full. However, when we checked in on Foursquare, we got a message saying we could show the bartender the check-in and get 2-for-1 drinks. So we did.
We went into Imperial Palace and found an open Pai Gow table. After sitting there for a while, I was down about $60 out of my $100. That’s the first time I’d really lost anything at Pai Gow; it’s a break-even kind of game, if nothing else. Matt wanted to switch to blackjack, so I decided to go give craps a try. I put $10 on the pass line, then a $10 odds bet, and quickly ended up with $40. I did that again, and I had more than my original $100 back. Craps was instantly addicting, but I was too excited to keep playing. I took my chips and cashed out, and we went to get our wander on.
We crossed over to the Mirage, and found a comfortable-looking bar right outside the entryway. It was called Rhumbar, and they featured fancy rum cocktails and cigars. How could we go wrong, really?
It was then time to head over to Orleans Arena for the semifinal games in the WCC Tournament, which started at 4pm. We arrived a bit early, and they let us walk across the court to the far end, where our seats were in the bleachers behind the basket. Even getting to do that blew my mind a little, but that didn’t seem unusual to anyone else. The first game was St Mary’s vs Santa Clara; we were sure St Mary’s would win, but I was more concerned with how much they one by, since I had bet on the game.
St Mary’s covered by a point, so I was very excited. Gonzaga won the second game easily, of course.
After the games, we went over to the Palms to check in. It was one of the preferred hotels for the tournament, so Matt had gotten us a great rate on a room there. I found out much later that it was also the week they were filming MTV Spring Break there. All I can say is that whole thing was incredible: Jersey-Shore looking dudes everywhere, and ladies walking around in bikinis even though it was nowhere near warm enough to go near a pool.
For some reason, they upgraded our room. We ended up in a gigantic suite with 2 bathrooms and a jacuzzi, with a great view of the strip. Not to mention MTV Spring Break going on below us!
Around 10pm, we went over to the Bellagio to see if we could get into the Fontana Bar, which overlooks the fountains. It wasn’t crowded at all, and though it was too cold to sit outside, we still had a good view of the show outside. And the show inside, for that matter: a cover band was playing the greatest dance hits of the 70s through today, complete with several costume changes. They were really entertaining.
The show finished around midnight, so we headed off in search of food. Anyone who says you can get anything you want in Vegas 24 hours a day is full of shit; as we’ve learned over the years, most of it closes down starting around midnight. We covered several restaurants before finally finding one in Paris that was open, serving breakfast all night. It was by no means good (or cheap), but it was food. I had a croque monsier quesadilla without ham, and Matt had a breakfast involving pancakes. One of which he stole, because he wanted to throw it on Las Vegas as revenge for having the audacity to be partly closed. We needed to wrap it in something, so it ended up packed between some Keno sheets in my purse. And when you’ve reached that point in the evening, you know it’s time to go back to the hotel!
Posted in las vegas #6 on February 15th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: vegas
I woke up way too early on Monday morning because Wiz Khalifa was soundchecking by the MTV Spring Break Pool. You know when one of those pimped-out bass-blasting cars drives by and makes everything rattle? Multiple that by 10. There was no further sleeping to be done. Also, someone near us in the hotel was smoking weed in their room, accompanied by massive quantities of incense. I don’t care about the smell of weed, but the other stuff was seriously gross.
We got up and headed to Paris for our usual brunch, stopping first to put a couple bucks in our favorite giant slot machine. I won at first, then lost again.
After some delicious baked goods, fruit, and cheese at JJ’s Boulangerie, we went to go wander around and see some of the new sights in Vegas. All of City Center and the Cosmopolitan had opened since we were last there, so there was an entire block of newness to explore.
We hit up the Cosmopolitan first, and it kind of ruined us for the rest of it. It’s swank, and over the top in a mostly nontacky way, if that’s even possible there. The bars all catered to the Mad Man theme, with classic cocktails and comfy armchairs. In the center of the casino was a three-story bar within a gigantic chandelier, appropriately named the Chandelier Bar.
We walked around the second floor, checking out the restaurants. Jose Andres’ spots were there, and we had reservations at one of them later that night. After looking at the menu, though, we were considering the other one instead. We stopped into a store selling kitchen and barware, and ended up having a long conversation with an employee there who was originally from Wisconsin. She said I had an accent, but I refuse to believe it. She told us more about the Cosmopolitan, including the fact that the chandelier was made of Swarovski crystals valued at $34,000,000, and that there was a secret pizza place in the building. That made us love it even more. (Also, they had one of those cigarette machines converted to an art-book dispenser, and a giant vending machine where you could buy makeup, trinkets, electronics, and other high-end fanciness. Swank.
We decided to go have a drink in the chandelier. It was amazing.
From the Cosmopolitan, we crossed the street into the City Center complex. The mall was full of really high-end stores that weren’t that amazing (mostly because they already exist in places like Caesar’s), but some of the restaurants looked interesting. The Vdara casino was really pretty, but after having just been in the Cosmopolitan, we were pretty unimpressed. Nothing else is quite that nice.
We got trapped in the mall on the way back out of the complex. That place is confusing! We finally made it across the Strip to Planet Hollywood, where we wandered around the shops (it’s a tradition). After a stop at ABC Stores to remind us of Hawaii, we needed to sit down. (I realized while typing this that didn’t seem like much walking, but it was close to 2 hours!) We headed to Cabo Wabo Cantina, where we got a table on the patio.
It was raining a tiny bit on and off, but it was still pretty nice outside for people who had come from winter. We got some food and margaritas, and I used our Groupon. WIN.
After lunch, we headed back up to the Palazzo to get the car and drive over to the Orleans. The game wasn’t until 6pm, but we figured we could kill some time gambling.
We found a blackjack table that was just opening, and sat down to play. The place was full of basketball fans, at least 90% of them for Gonzaga. People asked us who we were supporting, and were impressed to hear that we didn’t really care, we’d just come for the tournament.
I ended up winning a bit of money at blackjack, and the game was a good excuse to quit while I was ahead. We went to the bar to grab a quick drink (since they weren’t serving inside the arena), and headed into the game.
We spend the first half of the championship in our seats, then moved closer to the St Mary’s student section to be prepared for court-storming. The game was close enough that picking a side was really difficult, but we preferred St Mary’s. (My favorite part of the game was toward the end when St Mary’s was down quite a bit, and their band launched into Cee-Lo Green’s ‘Fuck You’. The booing was spectacular.)
During the last 30 seconds or so of the game, we watched the security guards dragging out ropes and lining them up along the sidelines. Other guards stood blocking the corners of the arena where the students were sitting. It suddenly became evident what they were up to: BLOCKING THE COURT-STORM. Lame.
We stopped at the Palms to change to warmer clothes, and were surprised that there were no MTV spring breakers around. I decided they had probably all frozen to death in the pool. From there, we headed over to see the world-famous Double Down Saloon, which Matt had been determined to visit since the first moment he learned about it.
It had been described as a very late-night place, but we figured it’d be a lot easier to go early and be able to get in. Late night turned out to not be a joke: it was 9pm, and there was only one other person sitting at the bar. (I think he worked there.) By the time we left there were probably 10 people total in there.
I got a beer and Matt got a shot of Ass Juice. The bartender was hilarious. He explained that ass juice was basically just an attempt to get girls to drink grain alcohol; we were pretty sure it was just juice and Everclear. I had to try one after I finished my beer, and it was surprisingly good.
I put $20 in the blackjack machine in front of me, and quickly learned that gambling at the bar was enough to get you a free drink, which is awesome. (That’s true even at the Cosmopolitan, apparently.) After losing on a hand, I tried to lower my bet to the minimum and couldn’t figure out how, so I started clicking the ‘bet’ button, figuring it would go to the top and then start over. That was not the case, however, and I ended up with an $18 bet sitting on my machine. We called the bartender over and asked if he could fix it; he said, “well, we’d have to call the gaming commission, and you might be sitting here for a while.” Holy crap! So I bet my $18 as everyone there watched, and ended up with a push. WHEW.
A couple came in and we moved over a seat to make room for them, so they bought us shots of ass juice to thank us. We got to talking, and learned that the guy was a local rapper, and the lady was his girlfriend from California. They were disappointed we wouldn’t be in town long enough to get to his CD release show. So were we, just because the situation was so amusing.
We said goodbye to everyone and left the Double Down while we were still capable, though it was very tempting to stay there all night. (We’ll be stopping in on every trip to Vegas, I believe.) We went down the street to the Cosmopolitan, because we were in need of dinner.
The ramp at the Cosmopolitan is the most advanced parking ramp I’ve ever seen. There was a digital display telling us how many spots were available on each floor, and rows of overhead lights in red and green showing which spots were open. Once we parked, we of course had to get out and make sure our light had turned to red. It was that exciting.
We got seats at the prep bar at China Poblano, one of Jose Andres’ restaurants there. The menu was a mix of chinese and mexican street foods, and everything was amazing. Here are Matt’s tacos:
I had a margarita with a mezcal float. Hello, happy time. We sat there watching the second floor fill up with club-goers; Monday is industry night, and apparently gets pretty crazy. We had to fight our way out of there after dinner, pushing through people wearing clothes about 100 times fancier than ours. We tried to get into the Chandelier but it was packed, so we went downstairs to Bond for a drink instead.
We had to reenter the gigantic club crowd to get to the parking elevators, but we survived. While waiting there, we witnessed two security guards helping a girl who was in a panic about not being able to find her car in the ramp. She couldn’t even remember what floor it was on, and that’s because she was so drunk she was about to fall off her heels. The guards were trying to be helpful by helping her find it. What the hell, dudes? I pulled one of them aside and asked, “you’re not really going to let her drive that drunk, are you?” He kind of waved it off like they couldn’t possibly do that, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what happened.
We headed back to our presidential suite, which was by then so full of the smell of incense it was horrifying. It seemed to be mostly isolated to the living room, though, so we could cut it off by closing the door. But, really, dudes, if you’re going to smoke weed in a hotel, just smoke week. Nobody cares.
Posted in las vegas #6 on February 14th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: vegas
We got up at the last minute on Tuesday, checked out of our presidential suite at the Palms, and headed to the Venetian to get brunch. After that, we went down to the sports book and cashed our our immense winnings (something like $40) on the basketball games.
Then it was time for the Nightclub and Bar Show!
All we knew was that there would be a ton of vendors represented, and that there would be some samples. What we didn’t know was that there would be a million samples and giveaways, and that everything would be amazing.
The exhibit floor was open from 12-6, and we figured we’d only be there a few hours before getting bored. Man, were we wrong.
Also, a porn star autographed that sign for us, and wished us happy wedding. AWESOME.
How we survived the NCB Show, I’m not really sure. What I do know is that one should not try to experience it all in one session.
We stopped to get food at In & Out Burger on the way to our new hotel, the Flamingo. By the time we got to the room, I’d forgotten that we had eaten. Also, the front desk told us there was a package waiting for us there, but apparently there was not. I’m still troubled about that.
The Flamingo’s ‘Go!’ rooms are great. They’ve been recently updated and are very modern. My favorite amenities were the TV built into the bathroom mirror, and the shower with horizontal jets. We’ll definitely be staying there again.
After crashing for a while, we went out to have a very late dinner at Todd English’s Urban P.U.B. in City Center. The food and beers were great, and the crowd getting pretty nuts there. After dinner, we went back over to the Chandelier Bar for another cocktail. It had quickly become our favorite bar in Vegas.
Posted in las vegas #6 on February 13th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: vegas
Wednesday morning, we checked out, brought our bags to the car, and went to go see the wildlife sanctuary at the Flamingo, since we’ve never stopped in there.
I love that the turtles have their names painted on them, and that Amy was standing on Mike.
We went to go play pai gow for a while, but I had a really bad run and lost $60 again. I fully expect to win a bunch next time I play, because twice in a row is unlikely. We decided that brunch was a better use of our cash, so we went up to the rooftop at Margaritaville and had some food and margaritas.
On the way back through the Flamingo, I wanted to show Matt how to play craps, since he was playing blackjack the first time I’d tried it. I placed my bet, and quickly recouped the money I’d lost at Pai Gow. Whoa.
We went over to do our usual shopping at Caesars, and managed to not buy a single thing at Shanghai Tang. (First time ever!) Then it was time to go get our stuff and head to the airport, sadly. We did manage to meet a showgirl on the way, and had Bally’s photo taken with her. WIN.
On the flight home, we saw a court-storming on the airplane TV. So not fair!
Posted in las vegas #6 on February 12th, 2011 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: vegas