Day 1, the day that Vegas is still able to surprise me
Some people say their vacation starts the moment they leave the house. These people are wrong.
Some say it starts when they arrive at the airport. They are also wrong.
Vacation starts when you have ordered your first free alcoholic beverage on the plane and you’re watching Rick & Morty on the in-flight entertainment.
After a lousy 300-day countdown we are finally going again. This day starts with some nice rungood. The last few days were nice and sunny, but on the day we leave it is cloudy with a chance of rain. I pick up Ropski and Fedor and without much delay (it’s Ascension Day, a public holiday in the Netherlands) we arrive at the airport. When we get in line for customs they open up a new zone right in front of us, so we don’t have to wait either.
Since we fly with Delta we all get interviewed at the beginning of the Pier. This is a bit of a setback because we thought we were boarding at Gate D1 and timed it accordingly, so we are running late now. The questions are pretty standard. Where we are going, how long are you going, did you pack your own bags etc. When we are through, Fedor mentions he must have a trustworthy face, since they hardly asked him anything.
Now, I don’t know what happened to that trustworthy face between the interview and the 300-yard walk to the actual gate, but when we arrive he gets picked out for a ‘random’ search. This is a proper check and the only thing missing is the snapping sound of a white rubber glove and a full cavity search.
Ropski and I continue our way to the plane but we stop halfway and wait until Fedor is fully processed. In the meantime, a girl comes rushing towards us. We are already pushing it time-wise, but she is really really late. She looks at us and I see her wondering why we are standing there. I say: “we’re too late, the plane already left!” and I see some genuine panic in her eyes. “No, you’re good, we’re just waiting”. Somehow, she cannot laugh about this. Maybe I need to rethink my sense of humor.
The rungood continues. The plane is only 80% full so we can pick separate seats. Service is pretty good, they have a lot of movies to pick from and the 9-hour flight to Minneapolis is over before we know it.
After we have gone through customs we must undergo several checks again. First our tickets, then the usual line for the x-ray machine. The guy who checked our tickets is now assisting his colleagues at the baggage check. I tell him “Hey, I just met your twin-brother a minute ago”. Apparently, my rethinking didn’t help, because I got zero response from him.
You know you’re in the US when you enter a restaurant and you count 12 tv’s hanging on the walls. They all show either sports or commercials.
On the flight to Vegas I sit next to a woman who keeps talking to herself and opens and closes the shutter every 3 minutes. At least I win the elbow fight for the armrest. When we approach Vegas, I ask her if she could leave it open, so we can see the Strip when we land. I now notice that she is afraid of flying because she won’t look out of the window during the descent and when we have a bumpy landing she grabs my arm.
Yesssss, back in Vegas for the 8th time.
We pick up our luggage, take a cab to the Wyndham and check in without a sweat. The first 2 weeks we will stay in a 2-bedroom apartment and when the others arrive we will move to a 3-bedroom apartment.
It’s now 6.00 PM local time and we are not sure what to do. We already know where we are going to eat, namely Musashi, the best sushi place in town imho but it’s still a bit early. Fedor comes up with the best idea and that’s taking a dive in the pool first.
15 minutes later we float in the pool and that tired feeling you get from travelling disappears almost immediately.
At around 9.00 we head towards Musashi. According to Waze it’s only 1.2km so we decide to walk. We are not fully acclimatized to the heat yet, so after 20 minutes we realize that walking wasn’t the best idea. Also, it’s not 1.2km, but 1.2 mile. Fedor says “on the map it didn’t look that far”. Jeee, that’s something that has never been said before in Vegas….. The rest of the vacation this will be the running joke. Everything will only be 1.2 mile away.
Musashi is great as always. We order mostly from the specialty menu. If you go there, order ‘the godfather’. You can thank me later. The waiter recognizes us and he serves us a few extra dishes.
Noice!!
Ropski is starting to feel tired, so we take a lyft to Bally’s for a coffee at “Troopers-Favorite” Starbucks. After the coffee we walk to the Bellagio to check the fountains.
Remember that final scene of Ocean’s Eleven where they watch the fountains and they think about how they pulled off the heist? I sort of get that same feeling when I stand there. And as I am daydreaming about the fact that I am back once again a guy comes up to us and asks us if we want to go to a stripclub. Ok, nothing new here, we get that question a lot during the vacation. The next line is something I never heard before and what truly baffles me. He says: “we have a special club, we have over 100 naked women and 10 midgets. Their torsos may be small but they got big asses!!”
Oh mannn…. I love Vegas! I’m too blown away by this and I can’t even respond but this is hilarious.
After this it’s time for some proper cocktails so we enter the Bellagio. We sit down at the Crazy4Poker table game. Ropski is not familiar with the rules and normally only plays poker so he just sits down to watch. For some reason I’m in the mood for a caipirinha. I order one and the cocktail waitress happily tells me she is originally from Brazil so she is over the moon I ordered one.
Ropski also wants to play so he buys in for 120$. He is now getting my cards. 3 hands later the 120$ are gone and he quits. The next hand I make a straight so I thank him for saving me some money.
The first dealer is nice and very talkative, but when she goes on a break we get a grumpy one who wants to deal as quickly as possible and is not in the mood for some small talk. Fedor starts to annoy her on purpose by slowly looking at his cards and taking his time with his decisions.
A few cocktails later I am up 400, Fedor is down 400 and after a visit to the conservatory we decide to go across the street to the Heart Bar in the Planet.
Unfortunately, there are no dancing girls in the pleasure pit and the cocktail bar is almost empty but we order some drinks anyway.
Slightly intoxicated and starting to feel tired from the long day I make the bad decision to play some poker.
I lose $300 like it’s nothing. I get up, play some more table games and lose another 300. It’s around 05.00 AM when I leave the boys and walk back home. At 5.30 it’s lights out for me. Day 1 has come to an end.