Mar 11 2008
Another weekend in Vegas
I came back from another awesome Vegas weekend last night. And one more time…I love this city.
One thing that I did that was pretty cool was going to The Gun Show, an indoor shooting range about 10 minutes off the strip. I’ve never shot a gun before, but now I’m hooked.
I started with a 9mm, then moved up to a 45. Lots of fun. Each time you squeeze the trigger it’s kind of surreal. You have the bang, which is partially muted by your headphones. But you also feel the kickback from the gun, see the bang and the hole appear in the target. It all happens so quick though…the instant you pull the trigger all this stuff happens in a split second.
But it’s boring to go to The Gun Show and just shoot pistols. They also have a wide range of machine guns, including the SAW machine gun. One of my friends tried this out and it was absolutely insane. The rounds go off quickly, back to back. 50 rounds could be squeezed off in just a few seconds…that’s $60, by the way.
I took a few shots with a sniper rifle as well. Lots of fun, actually very similar to a video game. But my favorite by far was the 45.
As for food, the highlight of the weekend was Morel’s, a French steakhouse at the Palazzo. Nice place, although it didn’t have a sommelier like Carnevino. But one plus for Morel’s was their seafood selection. They had tons of fresh oysters, along with enormous lobsters, shrimp and more. We got a seafood tower, which was incredible, along with a bunch of freshly grated horseradish for the oysters.
And of course you have steak. And Morel’s was good, for sure. My steak was nicely seasoned, rich, flavorful, perfectly cooked. Definitely on par with Carnevino.
As for the diggs, I stayed, for the first time in the Venetian. And it was nice…a big improvement over the Imperial Palace. Our room had 3 LCD TVs, including one in the bathroom, and a huge tub.
One thing tho, the room had been renovated to include the LCDs, and there was lots of cordage sticking out of the wall…pretty messy for a five star hotel. The room was huge, with lots of extras like electronic curtains, a printer/fax, and a full sofa.
We also hit up a couple of strip clubs…Spearmint Rhino on Friday/Saturday, and Sapphire on Sat/Sunday. A tip for everyone…GO TO SAPPHIRE. The Rhino was crowded…with only standing room available for many patrons. The place is small with low ceilings and a suffocating claustrophobic feel.
In contrast, Sapphire was huge, with a large stage in the center of the club with three mini stages. The girls were incredible and although the place was packed it wasn’t hard to find a nice table.
Service was slow and the drinks were expensive. But at the end of the day, the quality of the dancers made up for this…big time.
And this time, I left Vegas up…for the first time in god knows how long. Blackjack was kind to me, especially on the big hands.
The worst part was leaving. I considered taking the early Monday morning flight back to San Jose and pulling an all nighter. Even worse, when I got to the airport they were offering $300 credit for switching to this flight. I jumped on it of course, but they turned out not needing the extra seat.
I’ll never get tired of Vegas. Love it. Absolutely love it.
Powered by FireStats
I don’t get the appeal of Vegas.
While I’ve never been there, pretty much all it offers are the things I got bored with long before I graduated from college.
The food looks good though.
I’m not really big into the strip clubs or gun range, but the food, booze, surreal nature of going to bed at 6 am, and gambling can be really exhilarating. I love Vegas, too, so I understand Japa’s love affair. I really am a sucker for the buffets and the glass flower covered ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio.
Jak, first of all, you never been to vegas? really? Put down the mouse, emerge from your virtual world of midgets and elves, and hop on a plane there. At least try it ONCE before you form your opinion. If anything, you’d be able to appreciate the free drinks, availablility of automatic weapons, and ability to smoke anywhere. And since there is smoke everywhere in vegas, the Bear’s argument that your second hand smoke is harming her goes away.
Try it.
TJFKAK, this is probably the first time I’ve gone to vegas and not seen that stupid umbrella ceiling and garden.
This is true. I admit I’ve never been. And maybe I’ll go and I’ll love it. But I just don’t see the APPEAL.
Gambling - I’m broke, hate playing cards, and just don’t get any sort of adrenaline rush from this activity. I mean, I only played fantasy football for the trash talking. Of which there was little. Another disappointment. If I can put my cigarette out on the forehead of the dealer everytime I get 21, well then maybe it would be worth it.
Drinking - I’m old. Drinking is kinda fun in the right setting. But now a days if I have two beers I get a bad headache three hours later. Any hard alcohol and my stomach kills me and I shit blood for three days. I should probably get that colonoscopy.
Strippers - Seriously, if the Bear hooks up with one, cool. Don’t think that’s going to happen though. Other than that, it’s like watching porn but not masturbating. What’s the point? The Bear thinks things like nice expensive shoes and designer purses are a pointless waste of money. That’s what I think of strippers.
Whores - Ew. What’s the fun if you didn’t have to trick them into sleeping with you? These girls just do it for money. No art or skill involved. Lame.
Automatic weapons - I’m going into a profession where I get to carry these all the time. On airplanes. Why the fuck would I want to go to an indoor range where the gun has the idiot wires so that you can’t shoot your playmates? Once you’ve done a fast draw from a concealed holster and a tactical reload, you never want to go back to that gay ass target shooting crap.
Midgets and Elves - I get the impression I could find these in Vegas too if I wanted. I did find this:
http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0809,ruberg,347182,24.html
Looks promising.
Smoking everywhere - Ok, that’s pretty cool.
Food - The only real reason to go, as far as I can tell. However, like everything in Vegas, it appears the food is merely an oversized caricature of actual authentic cuisines from other parts of the world. Why get the cartoon version of sushi when it would be so much more interesting to go to Japan? However, on a base fatman’s analysis: giant good tasting food that comes cheap is still pretty sweet.