Going to Las Vegas

[kitkatz]

On Friday my daughter and I are heading for Las Vegas for her 21st birthday celebration.  I also have a board meeting to attend while I am there for a foundation I am a board member of.  We are going to go to a Phil Perry jazz concert on Saturday night.  We are staying at the Palace Station Casino Resort. Anyone have tips of must sees for me?  I know someone in this group has gone to "Lost Wages" before now.

[jbeany]

It's been years - but I took my grandmother on a sight-seeing trip and we stopped for the afternoon and toured the strip.  I'm not much of a gambler, so I dragged Gram away from the slots for an hour and went to see the show at Circus Circus.  The entire upstairs around the stage was all carny games, only none of them are rigged the way they are at the fair, so you can actually win.  (Plus the toys are nicer quality ones.)  I left with so many stuffed toys we had to have help carrying them to the car.  We drove around the rest of our vacation looking like a "Toys for Tots" collection van.  I handed them out to everyone at home who asked "Whad-ya-bring-me?"

If they've still got the game where you have to roll the racquet balls down the slope into the center slot to win - line up the seam on the ball so it's pointed at the center!

[vandie]

Kit, I can tell you where NOT to do.  Gamble.   
The last time I went I saw Mama Mia.  It was really a fun show.
Happy Birthday to your daughter.  Have a good time.

[Rerun]

Are you going to dialyze there too? 

Happy Birthday to you daughter.

[Joe Paul]

Good luck on your trip. A happy birthday too your daughter as well. Hope you saved up a little mad money, who knows, you could be a winner 

[Sluff]

No one here deserves this trip more than you Katz, have an outstanding good time and don't worry about anything just enjoy your time with your daughter. Stay away from the male strippers and preset your spending limit on gambling before you get there. i used to go to Vegas every year and allowed my self $200 per day spending, when I reached my limit I took in a show or went to my room and just relaxed. Good Luck and Happy Birthday to your daughter.

(by the way I was just kidding about the male strippers, enjoy all you want...LOL  )

[kitkatz]

Male strippers!!! Where? Who? When?   Drool.

I am dialyzing early Friday morning and coming back on Sunday.  So no worries there.  My center was able to get me a chair early 5:30 a.m.  Was that not nice of them? I can go in yawning.

[Ohio Buckeye]

Go over to the Rio (it's off the strp). They have a wonderful free show that's done from
the ceiling. fantastic. (and  table dancers that are fun to watch) (and an out of this
world buffet). Be sure to go down in front of Treasure Island to see the pirate show in the water,
the volcano in front of the Mirage, the dancing water fountains in front of Bellagio, be sure to
go in the Venetian and perhaps take a gondola ride. The New York is an interesting place to
sightsee as it has lots of places set up to resemble NY.  If you want an unbelievable sight,
take a trip to the top of the Stratosphere and ride the roller coaster or just look out
over LV.  Go to the Forum shops in Ceasars Palace, a beatiful enclosed shopping area that
also has a couple of unbelievable moving statues shows.  And....be sure to go downtown
on Fremont Street in the evening and see the free laser light show.  You can go to LV
and never even gamble, there is so much to see and do.  If you like shows, there is a
wonderful selection everywhere.  But.......if you do gamble, they have lots of 1c slots.  haha
Plan on lots of walking so take comfortable shoes.  Even walking in the huge hotels is a lot.
Weather this time of yr. should be wonderful.  You can aso do day side trips over to Hoover
Dam or the Grand Canyon.  It is a wonderful place to visit.  Have a great time!!!!!!!!!!!
Most every large hotel there has wonderful exhibits and things to see and do.
Where are you staying?  I remember Frontier had a place named Gilley's that had a
mechanical bull and while I'm not a drinker, I had a ball watching people try to ride the bull.
country & western music.  Wow, I could go on and on................. have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sara]

I hope you two have a great time. 

[goofynina]

WOOHOOO, Vegas bound baby.. Hope you have a safe and wonderful trip Kit, you deserve it girlfriend    and remember, what happens in Vegas STAYS in Vegas AND in the ihatedialysis forum (HINT)  Cant wait to hear all about it and see pics,,,  ENJOY YOURSELF!!!

[Bajanne]

This is really great.  I am glad that you are going to have an interesting change of scene.  Enjoy!  And keep us posted.

[kitkatz]

I hope I remember to take the camera with me otherwise it will be just little old me telling you about it.

[Ohio Buckeye]

I reread your post and saw where you are staying.
You will have so much fun. 
Hope I can make a trip to Vegas again sometime.

[Ohio Buckeye]

Welcome back Kitkatz!
I imagine you are TIRED.
Did you have a good time?  Win anything?  Any sightseeing?

[kitkatz]

We got back from Vegas tonight.  I will post with pics as soon as I catch my breath and get things sorted out.  Bad thing: We left Vegas a noon today, my daughter left me in Kramer Junction at 4p.m., Hubby picked me up at 5:30p.m.  Traffic was nuts on the 15 through Cajon Pass.  It took us 2 hours to get home when it is usually a half hour cruise down the hill!  I was on the road a total of 7 hours today for a normal 3 hour trip.  Oh man am I tired of sitting in a car!

[Rerun]

Glad you are back.  Sorry for the travel difficulties.  Can't wait to hear what you did.  Did you win any $$$??

[kitkatz]

Now if I had won money you all would have been told last night as I danced around the room gleefully laughing.

The info on the Vegas trip will have to wait.  Got a call this morning at work. They have scheduled parathyroid surgery for tomorrow monring 8 oclock.  Just one more damned thing to get through.  Love to all.  See you all on the flipside in about a week.

[vandie]

Now if I had won money you all would have been told last night as I danced around the room gleefully laughing.

The info on the Vegas trip will have to wait.  Got a call this morning at work. They have scheduled parathyroid surgery for tomorrow monring 8 oclock.  Just one more damned thing to get through.  Love to all.  See you all on the flipside in about a week.

Oh my.  Good luck.  I will be thinking about you.

[kitkatz]

Las Vegas trip.  I am finally well enough to tell you about it.  Vegas is smoky and loud and crowded. I am a small town country girl living in the big city, so Vegas is a like a big city on steroids.  Lights, noise, casinos, people everywhere...
We drove the I-15 up on Friday after I had dialysis.  My daughter Danielle drives like a demon and we made good time. We both agree that the California/Nevada desert in this area are not very pretty with all fo the scrub brush and such. We both prefer the Arizona and New Mexico mesa area deserts.
We found our hotel the Palace Station just fine. It is opposite the strip across the freeway. Here are pics of it.

[kitkatz]

More Vegas trip:
     We settled into the hotel and explored the casino a little bit.  Talked to the concierge about what was around.  Then we took off to the strip in the hotel tram and were let off at the Tropicana Hotel on the south end of the strip.  Our hotel is down on the north end of the strip.  We walked through the Tropicana and looked at prices for the Titanic exhibit.  They have got to be kidding! 
     Then we explored the MGM Grand casino and ran around there a bit.  We took part in a television series survey for an hour and got free coupons for Haggendaags ice cream. Not worth my time for the "gifts" they gave us. It was something to do.  The we promptly got lost in the MGM casino. Do you know it is hard ot find your way out of that place? 
     We went on the strip looking for sushi for dinner.  My daughter wanted sushi, so we walked along the strip looking for this street where the concierge had said was a good sushi restaurant. Never found the street.  We ended up in Aladdin's Casino. I was in tears by the time we found a sushi restaurant.  It was a buffet and Danielle ate like there would be no sushi left when she was done!  I had a plate of sushi and soup and Danielle got me some Odon noodles soup. She knew my teeth were hurting and was being kind to her poor mom. (Remember before our little adventure I had two teeth pulled Wednesday.) 
     So them we walked back to the Tropicana, acting like tourists and looking in the shops.  We went into the M&M store.  Three stories of M&M stuff.  A collector could go nuts in there.   The tram was supposed to be at the Tropicana. We waited, then gave up and grabbed a cab.  Wrong cab to get!  This man took as to Cesar's Palace and tried to dump us out of his cab. I asked his where he thought he was going when we had said Palace Station twice to him.  He got all pissed and drove like a maniac to our hotel.  If I had had any sense I would have gotten his number and called his boss.  He made one move on the road onto the freeway that even made Danielle, my daughter, flinch!  It had to be the scariest taxi ride I had ever been on !  We gambled a little at the penny slots and then went to bed around 10:30 or 11 that night.  Yep a couple of party animals in Vegas!
The pics are of the hotel room (unmade beds of course) Danielle had to have this picture!
Danielle, my 21 year old daughter
Picture of me

[kitkatz]

Vegas Continued: 
     We had signed up for condo tour and went to Mandalay Bay to meet the people there.  Had a nice bus ride to the place, the promptly got kicked out because my hubby was not with us.  Oh Boy fun. A waste of time.  We arrived back at Mandalay Bay and decided to go see the Shark Reef. After all, we had eaten their buddies at dinner last night.   The Shark Reef is hidden way in the back of Mandalay Bay.  You walk out of the casino area and keep walking.  We had been expecting breakfast at the condo tour but got kicked out.  We were going to stop for a small snack but eating in Vegas is so darn expensive.  One place wanted eightbucks for a regular burger! Four bucks for fries! Forget it!  So we went to the shark exhibit.  I am including picture here of it.
    After we had seen the sharks and fishies we had a Mexican food lunch, where yours-truly insulted the cooking to the manager. He asked me how it was and told him okay, just okay. I usually like carne asada tacos but these were not up to my standards.  Danielle had halibut fish in some kind of soup.  It was okay.  I can still see the managers face as he walked away from our table. 
     The Mandalay Bay is the nicest hotel/casino I think we saw while we were in Vegas.  Large casino and you did not feel like you were in someone's way all of the time.

  Then we went back to the hotel and we both took a nap. Yes, we are the party girls! 
Then we got ready to go to the Phil Perry concert.  We had a great time.  Phil Perry is a jazz singer.  My friend Lillian is a teacher at my school and is his wife.   She invited us. It was fun.
     Sunday morning we were up at eight and off to the Philil Foundation meeting which is the main reason I was in Vegas for the weekend.  We had a good meeting and made plans for the year.  I will have more on that later in other posts.

Here are the pictures I promised.
The alligator at shark reef
A pictue of fishies
Shark!
The Shark Reef entrance
Phil and Lil Perry (Yes, I know this singer and have met him several times.)
The Philil Foundation Board members (Yes, the entire motley crew!)

   

[kitkatz]

The End of our trip:
So the party girls went on home.  We got caught on the I-15 in a Major traffic jam that held up the freeway for 1/2 an hour. They flew in life flight helicopter to take some injured out.  Several motorcycles were involved. What a mess.  We stopped at Peggy Sue's Diner outside of Yermo and had a delicious cheeseburger.  I had a Vicodin with the fries and started to feel better after awhile.  Peggy Sue's is a cool place.  Lots ff diner area. Three restaurant areas, a pizza parlor and a dime store ice cream counter.  We called my hubby and asked him to meet us a Four Corners so Danielle could get on the road and save some time.  She left me at the Burger King at Kramer Junction and took off for home. She was tired and wanted to get home.  My hubby came and got me.  He was pleased to be driving such a distance.  However the I-15 was a mess with traffic and the usual 1/2 hour drive took 2 hours down the Cajon Pass. We were home about two hours before Danielle got home all the way in Sunnyvale. 

I had fun.

Tips for going to Vegas:

1. Take lots of money for meals. Average was 60 bucks for two to eat at a fairly nice place.

2. Eat off of the strip if you can.

3. Gamble only money you designate for gambling.  This is a big place to bet and lose money.

4. Bring money to see attractions and use for cabs.  The feet can only go so far.

5. Plan not to see it all in one weekend.  We saw four of the major hotels and that was it.

6. See the outlying area.  Tours to the Grand Canyon are not expensive. Hoover Dam is there, Lake Mead, Red Rock area, Horseback riding with meals is available. I am going to do these things in April when I go back for board meeting #2.

Pics are of traffic jam
Peggy Sue's Diner

[goofynina]

Well, i am just glad you had a safe trip Kit and it sounds like you had a fun while spending "quality time" with your daughter, that is too cool.. thank you for sharing it with us...

[Ohio Buckeye]

Kitkatz, you are amazing.
I remember when I had my wisdom teeth cut out and I sure didn't feel like going to Vegas 2 days later.  I'm glad you had a good time with your daughter. And then surgery.  You have been
through a lot recently.
Hoping you feel lots better soon.

[kitkatz]

Thank you.  I am feeling better.  However I just sneezed twice and boy did that Hurt! It is amazing what can hurt when the neck has been slit. 
Vegas was fun, but next time I am doing the outside of Vegas stuff.