As mentioned in the previous post, I met my mom in Las Vegas this last weekend. She had a conference (that she ditched!) and I am very glad to use any reason to take a vacation, quick though it may have been.
After a nap on Friday morning (after all, my flight WAS at 6:30am, which is unholy)we went down to the pool to hang for awhile. It was not even noon yet and the place was PACKED. Mandalay Bay has a beach-like pool area with sand and a wave pool - although, the wave pool is more of a Swell Pool - the waves don't ever really break and Nazi lifeguards whistle at you if you even think about dwelling in the shallow end. The water was warm though. We also took a spin in the lazy river which I just love - and just at this moment I've decided that when I "grow up" I'm going to have a lazy river at my house. Why swim when you can construct a current to carry you?
We were only by the pool for two hours, and we were under partial shade (due to overcrowding) and yet I still managed to FRY under the desert sun. FRY PEOPLE. I ask myself, will I ever learn my lesson? So aside from being totally uncomfortable for the next few days (and still today) I was faced with a very difficult decision: Do I go back out to the pool and fry the other side of my body so that I am at the very least, symmetrical?
Yes. Yes I do.
Late Friday afternoon we caught the tram over to the Luxor hotel and that place is just cool. They have a few exhibits there now - one of them is the Bodies exhibit, which I haven't seen yet, but want to - and the other is an exhibit with items found from the Titanic wreckage. We checked out the Titanic exhibit and it was awesome - really really well done. When you walk in they hand you a card with information about a real passenger, what their story was and by the end you can see if they survived the shipwreck or not. It seems simple, but it was a great way to get people engaged.
We got room service on Friday night (love it) and crashed early. Well, at least we tried. Our next door neighbors were having a party and every few minutes they would burst into the quintessential party noise, you know: "OHHHHHHHHH!!!!" followed by uproarious laughter. Then door slamming. I sat in my bed awake wondering at what point I would get up and say something, but as I rehearsed in my head I realized it was best left alone. "Hey guys, I know its only 10:00 pm....And I know its Friday night....Aaaand I know we're in Las Vegas..." Nevermind if that was a reasonable request it made me feel downright uncool.
The next day, after toasting my backside, we rested, mosied around the hotel and had a long late lunch. After which we decided it would be best to try our luck at the slot machines. I guess we would have saved ourselves a bit of time if we had walked up to the Casino manager and said "Hello. I have a hundred dollar bill here. Can I give it to you and will you slowly but systematically let me down?"
But of course we did not think of it that way when we walked in to the casino. We were both having day dreams of winning the $10k from the massive slot machine in the front. DING DING DING, clink clink clink clink clink.... That same manager would walk up and ask if we would like to have our rooms comp'd and how would we feel about one of the luxury cabanas for the next day or two? The little devil on my right shoulder would tell me to KEEP GOING YOU MIGHT WIN AGAIN and the little angel on my left should would say "No, don't be stupid, go to the hotel jewelry store and buy that Cartier watch".
Really if you want to make money on slot machines you need to cash out the MOMENT you have any sort of profit. $1.00 or $2.00 dollars and you gotta move on. That is the only way to "Win." If you want to win more substantial cash you have to do a game of skill - poker, etc. Which I find totally intimidating.
Of the $60.00 I spent I walked away with $0.38. Of the $60.00 my mom spent she walked away with about $25.00 and somehow (and I think this is how they fuck you) that felt like a win.
Our wake up call on Sunday was for 5:00am because we had to catch the 5:30 shuttle to the airport. Vegas is one of the few places where most everyone that is up at 5:30 in the morning is up because they have not yet gone to sleep. Still in party dresses, absolutely shit faced drunk, smoking cigarettes to keep their minds off of throwing up and taking the dreaded walk of shame down to the taxi station - are all acceptable 5:30am actions in the city that never sleeps.
It was a good trip, relaxing and comfortable. It is always nice to see my mom who, despite being in the same state, I do not see often enough.
So Mom, where's the next conference? Somewhere tropical??
