Blah! This is so long over due and I feel really bad.
Nothing really overly exciting happened in Vegas this year. Thank goodness! I wasn’t escorted out of any pools this time. In actual fact we’re going to wrap up the trip in one swoop here.
We got in on Sunday morning and went straight to the hotel. We were put on the 51st floor of Planet Hollywood. I’ve never stayed at PH before but I’ve always enjoyed their casino. The room was alright. The hotel itself is in desperate need of upgrading. There are chips in all the furniture, the doors to the bathroom didn’t close properly, the paint touch-ups looked terrible ect. The best part about the room…? The view.
The View
Our first day/night was pretty laid back. We walked around the hotel a bit and then down to almost the Flamingo before coming back. Other than that we just chilled and went to P.F Changs for dinner. I had never been. And I won’t go back. It wasn’t very good and two of us ended up getting quite sick after eating it. It was not fun!
The next day I was up bright and early to head down to the pool. This is all I wanted. I had been thinking about it for months. Alllllll I wanted to was to roast by the pool in the hot sun and relax. No shenanigans this time. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed with a pool in my life. You’d think with all the space they have – they’d do something with it. There are two small pools on either side. One is 21+ the other is the ‘family’ pool. I swear the entire pool/deck area is smaller than my condo and they cram as many chairs as possible around it. Oh and the chairs … are old and dirty and falling apart. Yet they have acres of room on the lower level of nothing but chairs … nowhere near the pool. It seems incredibly dumb to me. Anyway I found a chair that wasn’t too bad and got cozy. It wasn’t too busy just let but it was still quite early. I was enjoying myself but then I noticed what appeared to be smoke drifting across from the one side. After taking a breath in, I realized this wasn’t smoke at all, instead it was a vent coming from one of the kitchens and it smelled disgusting. Soon this heavy cloud of greasy bleh hung over us.
Before the ‘bleh’
‘Sittin’ pretty in sun tan city, got the best view in the world … spendin’ my days, catchin these rays…. ‘
After a few hours I got too warm and decided it was time to go inside and do other things. I ended up just walking around the Miracle Mile shops and hanging out. It was quite dull. I did have lunch at Pinks the hot dog place. I was so excited to finally go – the last time I stopped by they were closed. Anyway, it was terrible. I’ve cooked better hot dogs in my microwave.
We all met up a few hours later and went to Gordon Ramsay’s BurGR for dinner. It was AMAZING! Totally made up for the awful dinner the night before. And it was totally worth the wait for a table. The burgers, the fries, onion rings… everything was tremendous! And I love the fact that every one in the restaurant has a role and does it well. Their uniforms are all stamped with the GR, including the jeans. A table is never left unattended for long. And there are no salt and pepper shakers on the tables. Because as GR himself might say, if it’s cooked properly, you don’t need it.
Hot dog at BurGR
BurGR
After we ate we went on a walk down the strip all the way to MGM and back. It was hot and there were a lot of strange people – even more than usual – out. No matter how many times you go to Vegas, you’ll always see something new that amazes you. Good, bad or otherwise.
Day three was an early one. We rented an SUV and headed out of Vegas to a little town call Primm. It’s less than an hours drive away and has an outlet mall. And that’s about it. We wanted to go some place new for shopping this time and we figured this might be a fun time. The drive there was a quiet one, two of us were still recovering from our P.F. Changs experience. We got to Primm just before the mall opened and went to the McDonalds in the parking lot. It was the most unusual McDonalds I’d ever been in. There was hardly any seating and you had to take a number and wait for your food. All I wanted was a hashbrown.
The outlet mall in Primm is connected to one of the hotels. The seemed a bit run down and dirty. The mall was alright but definitely not as good as the other outlets. I bought a few things but I really didn’t find any outstanding deals. Do you know what I did find though? A cockroach in Banana Republic. Do you know how much strength it took to internalize the scream? It was all I could do to not freak out. Ick.
I ended up being the only one who bought anything. We thought we’d check out a few of the other hotels in Primm. We went over to Buffalo Bills – it’s quite the place. Not nearly as run down as the other one. It has a roller coaster that runs along the outside and there is a log ride inside. It’s pretty neat. I found a restaurant named after me even! haha For some reason I can only find these two phone pictures I took. Sorry they’re so small.
We drove back to Vegas and went to the ‘indoor’ mall. It’s changed a lot over the years. It was quite busy as well. I bought a few more things but I was getting tired and I just wanted to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately … this wasn’t going to happen for quite sometime, much to my disappointment. We continued our road trip to find a place called Sam’s Town. It’s another resort just south east of the strip. I REALLY didn’t want to go but I didn’t have much of a choice. I ended up having a pretty good time. It’s a really cool place! They have a ‘show’ with robotic animals and music and lights that plays in the lobby area, which is one of the most impressive lobbies I’ve ever seen. But their little show is one of the best I’ve seen in Vegas. We did a bit of shopping in the Sheplers Western Wear store before having dinner at T.G.I.Friday’s. I treated myself to a donut from Dunkin’ Donuts – a very American style donut to boot. After giving their casino a few of our dollars, we decided to head back to PH. In conclusion though, if you are going to Vegas and don’t want to stay on the strip .. I’d definitely consider Sam’s Town.
We got back to PH and unloaded all of our shopping. Then we headed down to the casino for some drinking and gambling! The whole plan was to get a little tipsy and enjoy ourselves and that’s just what we did. We ended up winning a few hundred dollars and had a great time. We were quite drunk toward the end of the night. My uncle got hit on by a hooker as he was sitting all alone. It was just after midnight and officially his birthday so we all thought that was quite funny… happy birthday! ha!
Wednesday no one else was quite well enough to get up and go to the pool, so I went alone. And it sucked. Again, the pool was a disaster and I found a somewhat manageable chair. But again the smell came up and there were kids splashing about. I found two cuties playing with a ruby ball and was going to ask if I could join them but it was so frickin cold on the deck, the last thing I wanted to do was go in to the freezing cold water. I gave up after about an hour. I went and had a quick shower and then decided to do one last round at the Miracle Mile – just to see if there was anything I wanted to buy last minute. The woman running the hair straightener stand cornered me and ended up doing my hair. I was not a fan of this but I couldn’t let her do one side and not the other … that’d look ridiculous. After that I made the excuse that I was meeting people for lunch and had to go. I ended up at La Salsa Cantina for some chips, salsa, a margarita and world cup soccer. I got bored and soon moved on. I walked around outside the hotel to warm up, debated getting one of those really, really big slushy drinks. In all time trips to Vegas, I’ve still never had one. I walked around the casino, did some gambling, watched the rest of the soccer game and then I went and napped. My crew was no where to be found so I didn’t want to venture too far with out them.
Eventually we all ended up back together. We went back to La Salsa for dinner, because that’s where the birthday boy wanted to go. He also wanted to go back to The Mirage to the Carnegie Deli for birthday cake. We had been two trips ago and loved their food. So we hopped in a cab and off we went. We even convinced the cab driver to sing happy birthday!! haha that was too funny.
After our cake we spent some time in the casino. I’ve always had luck at The Mirage and I did again that night. But the birthday boy was the big winner. After that we figured we better leave before our luck ran out. We walked back down to Bellagio and check out the garden feature they had. Their themes are always so nice. Then we watched the fountain show and cross over to the Flamingo. They’ve redone the Flamingo and the hotel beside it. It’s now called The Quad, it used to be the Imperial Palace. Behind it is The Linq which is that big Ferris Wheel. In between The Quad and The Flamingo is a new walk area that is fantastic. It’s full of awesome looking pubs and restaurants. I could have spent my entire holiday just down there. Of course given the crowd I was with, we didn’t get to go in to any of these places. I was bummed 😦
At this point I was also ready to come home. I’m used to being alone all the time so it’s hard to not only be travelling with other people, sharing a room, constantly around hoards of stranger and it being hot… it makes a girl a little psycho after awhile and I didn’t hide that at all… I was getting pissy and everyone was made aware. And of course when someone asks you why you’re in a grump mood, that only makes you more grumpy! Oh and to another end – why do people bring their kids to Vegas? WHY???? The side walks are crowded enough as it is, then you have a family and their two push chairs and one kid that’s walking. It drives me nuts!! In my little rant I said that the strip should be 21 plus only. I’m sure there are lots of people who agree and disagree with me. Anyway, the group wanted to keep walking after that, I went to the hotel and drank alone. That was nice.
Thursday came around and it was time to bid adieu to Las Vegas once again. I spent most of the day in the room watching TV. I didn’t want to get all sun screened up and sit at the pool only to have to come and shower, or be greasy on the plane. I think I could have stayed longer after that bit of a break from all the people and noise. Oh well. There is always next year.
See ya later Vegas
Travel With Ashley 