The Vegas Report - The Arrival

Yes I've been back for a few days and I'm sure everyone wants to know how it went. I'm sorry for the delay. Though I can still play like I'm a 20-something. I need to recuperate like the 40-something I really am. Please enjoy this post and know that more will follow soon.

One of my standards for measuring the success of a Vegas trip is hours of sleep for the stay. This trip that came to a grand total of 10. Plenty when you consider we were there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and left Thursday morning. As far as the gambling action is concerned that too was a fine success. No big win but even for a couple of days with only Wednesday being a real down day and not really over my daily limit.

We all met at SeaTac at 8:00am and after a couple of smokes before entering the non-smoking building that is the airport we headed inside to see what kind of trouble we could find before we left the dreary Spring weather of Seattle. Security was mostly a breeze. One of our members did have a few candles in their carry-on luggage that induced the need for TSA to search the bag. Thankfully candles are not on the no-fly list and our altar decorations were given the all clear. This is an improvement from last trip where the same person attempted to smuggle a lighter skillfully hidden in the liner of her coat. It took TSA a few minutes to find the offending object and once it was in their possession we were allowed to proceed.

During the initial booking of the flight I was unable to secure three seats together and we were all a little worried about the limits this would put on airplane antics so after passing security the next step was the Alaska Airlines Customer Service desk to see if somebody could work their magic and arrange our seating to better enable fun time at 30,000 feet. What I thought might be tough turned out to be no big thing. A very nice employee of the airline typed away at her computer and in moments the three of us were sitting next to one another for the flight. The best way to celebrate this turn of events and prepare for the flight is a few rounds of cocktails.

Few things in this world say "We're headed to Vegas" like double screw drivers at 9:00am. By the time the first round was done we took a moment to remember the coworkers we left behind and reached out and touched them via the trusty cell phone. I think everyone enjoys the merriment of getting drunk phone calls at the office from the very people that have abandoned you for the week. I almost always have a round of drinks at the airport pre-Vegas, it's fun to think that the drinks will be the last I pay for until I return to reality.

The fight down was uneventful. The preflight cocktails negated any need to fork over more cocktail cash so our time was spent trying to contain our enthusiasm for gambling and await the turbulence our pilot had warned us about but turned out to be nothing more then a few bumps here and there. As regular readers know I get a little excited about my Vegas trips and the only point more exciting then my first sitting at a video poker machine is seeing The Strip from the plane. It rises out of brown nothingness. Even in daylight the buildings seem to shine. Their shapes scream Come Visit Me First. To speed our travel through the airport we brought only carry-on baggage so it was out of the plane, tram to main terminal and into a waiting shuttle to take us to our hotel, Harrah's.

It's hard to complain about a comp'd hotel room and even if I had paid normal price I can't really say anything bad about our home away from home on the Strip. Harrah's location is fantastic smack in the middle of the strip, plenty of gaming tables and slot machines. My one issue with the property is the lack of bars with video poker machines. I counted two and during the day seldom was a seat to be had let alone three in a row.

Next posting...

A day on the Strip and our first sun rise