Reports from some of my previous trips

[Drew]

After reading all these fun filled trip reports, I thought I'd try to piece together and share some reports for a few of my previous excursions to Vegas. I figure it'd be good practice for my upcoming trip.

disclaimer- these may not be the most accurate of reports. Working my best from memory, some experiences stand out more than others, but a lot of it is a blur! So please forgive me if I lack in description, or leave out whole days and events!

[Drew]

Here's the first installment of a trip from last year that I surprisingly remember a good amount of.


8/7/2008- 8/10/2008

A couple friends of mine from grad school were planning to go to Vegas for their birthdays. I was tempted to go. I had been a year out of grad school and thought it be good to reconnect with these two friends from grad school, but they were a couple, meeting up with another couple, and weren’t really going to be partying so much. Living on the East coast now, I call up my 2 best friends (K and M) from home (Southern Cali) to see if they’d be interested in partying it up. They were in. Time to book. We go ghetto cheap style and book the Tropicana for Thursday – Sunday with my friends from home coming Friday. My grad school friends are staying at TI.

8/7 finally rolls around and I excitedly head to the airport. I get to the airport about an hour and a half before my flight when I get a txt from the airline saying the flight was cancelled. NOO! I go up to the desk and the lady looks up every possible flight out to vegas that day. 20 min later… nothing available. She books me for a flight out the next morning at like 7 am or something. I feel dejected and head back home… wasting a day off from work and missing a night in Vegas! I call up the hotel and said I couldn’t make the first night. They had to charge me for it anyways though. Oh well.

Friday 8/8/08

I wake up the next morning super excited again at like 4 am. Get ready, head to the airport, and finally fly out. Land in Vegas at some point during the day, grab a cab to the Trop and check in. I get a garden room on like the 3rd floor with a balcony looking at MGM. Not too bad. I unpack, call up my friends from grad school to tell them I arrived. I meet up with them at TI, we walk around the shops in Caesars, and then we grab some food and drinks at some place in the Mirage. We make dinner plans for 8:30ish and then head back to our respective hotels to rest.

I get back to the trop, txt my 2 friends from LA to see when they are heading out. They plan to leave LA around 5ish and will probably get in around 9. I’m kinda tired from the traveling at this point so I lay down in my bed intending to nap. A minute later I say screw this and head downstairs to the poker room to play some texas holdem. 5 hours later I’m pretty drunk from all the free cocktails and lose my initial buy in for $60. Not too shabby.

Around 8ish I get a txt from K and M saying they are here. Made good time. It had been a while since we’ve partied as we live across country from each other. I walk out the room, see them down the hall and they see me. We crack big smiles, yell out Vegas!!!!!!!!! Run at each other and hug it out. Great to see my best friends. I leave them at the Trop to unwind while I head to the Bellagio to meet up with my other friends for dinner.

We are at this asian themed restaurant at the Bellagio. I’m super tired and drunk, so I just start pounding the tea to get some caffeine. We wait a while for a couple of their friends to show up and then we order. I order some California rolls and another appetizer. My friends order some stuff I forget and their friends order this 5 course meal thing. Food comes a while later. I finish mine in about 15 min. My friends finish theirs not long after. Their friends just finish their 2nd course. Long time later, another course comes out. More time passes, another course. Now mind you, these are good people, but it’s 2 couples and me (they aren’t real partiers), it’s hitting like midnight at this point, and K and M were blowing up my phone for like over an hour asking when I’d be done so I could meet up with them. They finally finish their regular food and I think whew finally… but wait… there’s desert! I patiently wait… having finished my meal like 3 hours ago, but it was like 12:45 at this point , got a few more txts, I couldn’t wait any longer. Plus my buzz was wearing off. I politely tell everyone I have to go meet up with my other friends, apologize and take off. Wow, that was like the longest dinner ever.

While I was at dinner, K and M meet up with M’s uncle (he’s a Vegas local and usually can get some free drinks at various places) at the house of blues. I find them there and they are totally wasted already and are ready to party! I love it. I’m the soberest one and the most tired, having been up for about 24 hours straight, so I start pounding the perfect fix for that… red bull vodka. We hang for a little bit, decide on LAX as the spot for the night and head over there like wild men.

Get to LAX, there’s a bit of a line, but not super bad. We decide to hit up the liquor store inside Luxor, get some booze and start chugging it while we wait in line. Before we know it, we’re up front, finished our booze, and are in the door. LAX is packed inside. Head to one of the bars and I pound out some more red bull vodkas (what would I do without it!). We roam around the club for the next few hours, dancing and drinking the night away. At one point a girl grabs M and they start dancing. We leave them be. The rest is a blur… but next thing I know it’s 4 am, I’m a couple hundred bucks poorer and LAX is pretty much closing up. We find M, realize the girl is on the not so good looking side and save him.

We stumble our way back to the Trop. Heading towards the elevators I catch the eye of a lone cute girl sitting at the slots looking around. She flashes me a smile. I look at K and say that’s a hooker. We’re pretty wasted, but M is super mangled, so we point her out to him and say he should go talk to her. He is drunk and clueless and walks over to her and chats her up. After a few min, we go and stop him and drag him back to the room. The whole time he’s like I think that girls really wants me, she was cute huh, why’d you guys drag me away, she wanted to party! Me and K just laugh the whole time and we tell him it was a hooker. His drunkenness wouldn’t let him believe it. We get back to our rooms and drink some more beers as we sit out on the balcony yelling out to all the people walking the street. M passes out in his chair, hunched over with a beer in his hand. K and I laugh at him for a while as we continue to shoot the shit. After while, we pick up M and throw him on a bed, he doesn’t wake up at all during this. K and I eventually pass out (I’d been up for close to 30 hours straight) and thus ends night 1 in Vegas from this trip last year.

More to come later.

[Cisco419]

Very nice!!! Sounds like a good time bro!

[Drew]

Trip from 8/7/08-8/10/08

Saturday 8/9/08

Wake, no clue what time it is, but I’m the first one up. K and M are knocked out still. Lay in bed a little while more and then I proceed to wake them up. This is a mission itself. Finally get them up and we slowly get ready. Recap M on the night before as it was a big blur for him.

Head to the outlets down the strip. K and M buy some swimming/board shorts as they forgot theirs. I hang out at one of those oxygen breathing machines and load up on that for like 30 min. It was a lifesaver. We each buy a cool guy hat and proceed to walk around with them on.

After shopping, I request we hit up In n Out… my favorite. Load up on some double doubles and then head back to the Trop. Roam around Vegas for a bit, have various conversations with cab drivers, one of which shares with us that all the cabs are run by the same company... aka the mafia. I always enjoy these cab driver convos.

Flash forward a few hours, we hit up the pool at the Trop for a bit and then get ready for the night. M mentions trying for Tao. We hop a cab over, find TAO and a gazillion other people there. This was before I found this JC.com, so I was not yet enlightened. I talk to a couple of the bouncers to no avail and decided to head over to the Mirage. A bunch of other people shared the same sentiment as big group of us made that same walk over. Get to the Mirage and see the line at Jet is just as monstrous. An indy host walks up to us and is like he can get us in for $100 each. We politely pass on his services. Also there were people from Revolution, the other bar/club at the Mirage. They were handing out free passes. My friends and I can have fun anywhere, so we head to Revolution.

Get to Revolution, from the outside it looks like your regular open area hotel/casino lounge. We walk in thinking that was it, but were directed to the back through a hallway and into the club portion of the place. Not a bad setup, my friends and I were pleased. Except it was like 11 and the place was pretty empty. We buy a round of drinks at like 15 bucks a pop. The hot bartender lets me know that the place usually gets packed around midnight. My friends and I walk out to the closest penny slots, proceed to get as many free drinks as we can. Around midnight we notice a line forming outside revolution. We head back in and the place was packed. I assume it’s the didn’t want to wait in line for Jet crowd. Anyways, the place was rockin and we had an awesome time.

A group of girls/guys asks me to take their picture. I oblige and one of the cute ones starts talking to me. (I think yes!) She tells me her friend is into asian guys and thinks I’m cute. (I think ok cool, I rarely get a compliment like that at a club, but who’s the friend) She pulls over her friend who is pretty cute. We talk and dance for a little bit. Her friends are dancing around as well. Some of her guy friends start dancing closer to her and pull her in. I was in having a super fun mode, not in a competitive mode, so I exited myelf from the situation and got some drinks with my friends.

More dancing occurs. I dance with various groups of girls (I’m thinking this is the best ever, I don’t think I’ve ever danced with so many different girls before). M is off one the side basically giving 2 grls sitting down a lap dance. K is drinking and talking to some girl. We just are having a blast. Every once in a while the original cute girl would venture by (with her guy friends attached to her) and flash me a smile. Later on, she comes finds me again and says her and her friends are taking off to some club (I forget where) and that it was great meeting me. I was like cool have fun, great meeting her too and she heads out with her friends giving me one last look back and smile as she leaves. Looking back, this was probably a mini tao_experience type moment that I should have played out better, but oh well. I was drunk and having a blast.

I start dancing with 2 other girls. After a little bit, we all sit down by her friends (a couple of guys) who happen to be sitting next to K and M. We all start chatting it up for a while. Turns out they are from a town not too far where K and M and I were from. Revolution closes up shop and we try to figure out where to go next. We hop into a minivan cab a little bit outside of Caesars… drivers asks where to, someone says Drais. I think it’s going to be tough to get in, but they really want to go. This was a stupid mistake because Drais was literally a block away. The driver drives a block, we hop off and he’s like that’ll be $45 bucks. I’m blown away, but we pay anyways.

Get to Drais and of course it’s packed. I suggest we go elsewhere and we walk down the street to O’Sheas. I see the signs saying “Beer Pong” and I get excited and run in. I love beer pong. I get in there and there are like 8 tables all filled with people playing beer pong. My friends and our new found friends get next at one of the tables, buy some pitchers, and play beer pong. Lots of interesting people there… you have some thuggish looking people, you have college frat boy/ sorority girl types, you have some stylish clubby people, some dudes in business suits, etc.

Next to us is this girl sitting on a couch watching her friends play. This random creepy dude who looks like a bum starts getting all close to her. She gives me the save me look and I sit down next to her and start chatting with her. Creepy guy goes away (but only like 5 feet). She eventually leaves with her friends as I play pong.

Creepy guy returns and starts pouring beer into a cup from our pitchers. I’m like whatever it’s cool, I’m a welcoming guy and it’s vegas, we’re here for a good time. Eventually the pitchers are finished. Creepy bum guy starts saying to me… hey go buy another pitcher. I’m like nah it’s cool we’re probably done. He keeps going come on, get another pitcher, come on. After a couple minutes, I’m like get the f lost. He senses the switch from happy fun guy to about to be mean dude and he makes the smart move to leaves.

We play a little longer. I’m in zombie mode. Walk out of o’sheas and it’s super bright out. My cell phone says it’s 8ish in the morning. Hop a cab back to the Trop., sleep for an hour, wake up feeling like my head was about to explode. Pack up, head to the airport and fly home. I’m in horrible condition and I say to myself as I’m waiting at the airport that I’m never partying all night like that before a flight ever again. We’ll see if that holds true lol.

K and M check out of the Trop, get into Ms car, end up passing out in M’s car for about an hour in the blazing heat, and then proceed to drive back to Cali.

Thus ends this trip from August 2008.

[wat]

Awesome TR, man. Amazing you can remember that much from a year ago.

And lol, thanks for the mention ... I guess

I'm gonna be honest, the story started off way too familiar for me.

[Drew]

Very nice!!! Sounds like a good time bro!

thanks! it was a great time.

[Drew]

Awesome TR, man. Amazing you can remember that much from a year ago.

And lol, thanks for the mention ... I guess

I'm gonna be honest, the story started off way too familiar for me.

I was surprised myself. It was just one of those memorable trips, although I really had to think hard as bit by bit started coming back at me.

I had to give you the shoutout. I had just been looking back on the forums and read your review... reminded me a little of this trip and inspired me to write it up lol.

[wat]

I was surprised myself. It was just one of those memorable trips, although I really had to think hard as bit by bit started coming back at me.

I had to give you the shoutout. I had just been looking back on the forums and read your review... reminded me a little of this trip and inspired me to write it up lol.

Then I'm glad it inspired to you do something ... other than make jokes, lol

[ChappStick]

Great TR!!! People that read this one and have prior experiences please do share!!!!

[restyle]

There's not much of a TR from my last trip out there 4th of July 07.

Basically I got the flu and was stuck in bed the entire time.

Here's to a good time next weekend to make up for it!!

[dnix]

There's not much of a TR from my last trip out there 4th of July 07.

Basically I got the flu and was stuck in bed the entire time.

Here's to a good time next weekend to make up for it!!

and you didnt even have the JC forum to chat on.

[restyle]

and you didnt even have the JC forum to chat on.

it was pretty miserable haha