After a long day at work, Matt and I got on a plane at 9:15pm Minneapolis time, and showed up in Vegas around 11:30. After a far-too-long delay at baggage claim, we hopped in a cab to our hotel.

It didn’t occur to me to tell the driver to take local streets, so of course he went the long way around on the freeway. When I asked him why he went that way, he said there was construction. Yeah, right; construction and $15 extra fare.

We checked into our room at Bally’s and promptly began the celebration. (Please note we only drank one bottle; the other was for the next night when Steve and Colleen arrived.)

We needed some food, so we set off from Bally’s into the concourse at Paris. Everything there was closed, since it was after midnight on a Wednesday, so we headed out onto the strip. The next casino was Planet Hollywood, which I was not thrilled about, since I loved the Aladdin. But we went inside anyway, and were instantly impressed. It actually looked awesome! The decor wasn’t hideous! And there was a gigantic photo of Justin Timberlake overlooking the casino floor! You can’t go wrong.

We sighted a Mexican restaurant called Yolos, and headed that direction. The bartender said they weren’t serving food anymore, but listed off a few places nearby that did. We decided, since we happened to find ourselves on bar stools there anyway, that we should probably get ourselves some margaritas. They even put them in to-go cups for us, so we could take them to dinner/breakfast.

Across the casino, we found Planet Dailies. It looks like a coffee shop, but it’s a full-service, 24-hour restaurant. We were thrilled, and ended up just ordering appetizers: some kind of bruschetta with the best dipping sauce ever, and giant nachos. After finishing that and paying up, we headed to the center of the casino, completing our tour of Planet Hollywood at the Heart Bar. It was very swanky, with low couches and expensive martinis. We hung out for a while, enjoying the ridiculousness that is Las Vegas. And Justin Timberlake, looking down on us benevolently.

After that, we set off in search of cheaper drinks and entertainment. We headed over to the other side of Bally’s, to Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon (which was until recently the Barbary Coast). We had another drink at the bar there, the scene of one of our favorite Vegas moments ever, that of the cover band playing Journey with a keytar.

Then suddenly we realized it was 4:30am Minneapolis time, and that meant it was time to sleep.