Alternatively titled: "How to do Vegas (and Hoover Dam!) in a day"
Due to the fact that Leann and I rushed through The Hoover Dam and Las Vegas, I figured the easiest thing to do was to give you an outline of our schedule. Put on your tennis shoes, we were busy! (speaking of tennis shoes, thanks to valeting my car, I got stuck in my brown tennis shoes the entire time I was in Vegas! ugh.)
October 15
1: Leave LA, drive to Vegas
5: Arrive in Vegas almost 6 hours before I was supposed to pick up Leann. oops
5:30: check in to hotel, update some stuff, watch some tv and take a much needed nap
10:30: drive to airport to pick her pick
10:40: arrive at pick up, sit in long line
10:50: sit through line again because Leann hadn't been there when it had finally been my tour
11: pick up Leann and head to find food
11:15: drive the strip
12: finally give up, grab quick sandwich, and head back down the strip and to our hotel
12:45: arrive at hotel. love it (Courtyard)
1: catch up
2: go to sleep
October 16:
6: wake up, shower, dress
7:15: head to our pick up point
7:30-7:55: wait for our tour bus
8: get on the "Comedy on Deck" bus
8:05: find out our tour is cancelled (no breakfast, no Lake Mead boat tour, $20 refund) but they our going to auto change us to the other tour (went into the Dam)
9: arrive at Hoover Dam: go on 2 dam tours (one over, one under), check out dam museum, buy dam pictures, laugh at dam tour guide (he wasn't funny on purpose except once: "Do you know our picture policy? The Federal Govermenet says 'Take all the Dam pictures you want!'" haha!)
11:20: get back on bus, head to Boulder City
11:30: take pictures of Lake Mead
11:45: arrive in Boulder City
12: take Boulder Dam Hotel museum tour
12:20 EAT (Finally!)
12:45: back on bus headed to chocolate museum (uh...it was added on too. lame)
1:15: arrive at M&M Store, Ester M's, and "Botanical Gardens" (it was a cactus garden. uh...)
2:15: arrive at Harrah's in Vegas
2:25: call and make dinner reservations (good thing because we didn't know we had to)
2:30: go to the Mack King Comedy Magic show
2:45: get first drink
2:47: wear first drink (real cool Leann!)
2:49: get second drink
3: Mack King's show (we LOVED it. best thing we could have gone to. LOVE LOVE LOVED it!)
4:30: meet Mack King and take pictures with him
5: try to figure way back to car
5:10 get distracted by MGM Grand
5:20: find lion cubs and take pictures for at least 20 minutes
5:45: debate going to a tv pilot screening
5:55: find car and drive to Hilton
6:15: check into Hilton at the VIP lounge
6:25: quick change for dinner (realize I only have my brown tennis shoes. Freak out a little. ha)
7: arrive at Beninhana for dinner
7:01: get seated with random people
7:02: try to explain that we had a dinner package
7:03: get out cell phone to show dinner package
7:04: leave Leann, go back up to room on 11th floor to get printouts about the dinner package
7:09: arrive back to restaurant, hand confused waiter the printouts
7:11: talk to manager
7:12: talk to head manager at front counter (leave Leann again)
7:13: get sent to VIP lounge to straighten it all out
7:16: VIP lounge understand that they dropped the ball and begin to print out corrected paperwork
7:20: paper jam in printer
7:23: 2 more paper jams
7:30: finally have papers in hand and head back to Bennihana
7:34: show papers to mangers and server
7:36: finally sit down next to Leann as the waiter grabs my menu out of my hand and says “steak or chicken?” Everyone else at the table already has drinks
7:38: received a Buddha filled with some strong mystery substance
7:39: got the delicious onion and mushroom soup
7:40: our chef arrives and sets right to work. (this was seriously the fastest & quietest table I’ve ever been at at a Bennihana!)
7:43: salad arrived
7:44: chef tries to be fun and entertaining. He makes an onion smokestack, whistles like a train, and even flips a shrimp tail into his hat. Our tablemates are not impressed. They continue talking and barely look at the chef. Leann and I clap and smile.
7:46: chef dishes out the shrimp and vegetables he had just sautéed
7:47: as we begin to nosh, the chef begins making fried rice. Leann and I are handed small bowls of white rice by the server. Apparently fried rice doesn’t come with our package. (Can I just say here, we didn’t not get a free meal. I paid a lot of money for this Hilton/Bennihana package. Ugh)
7:52: finishes the fried rice and portions it out to our tablemates
7:53: he begins cooking the main meats as we finish the shrimp, veggies, and rice
8:05: chef hands out the meat, asks if everything is alright, bows quickly, and leaves
8:08: half of our tablemates get up and start to leave. (bills have not been dropped)
8:09: watch server and exiting tablemates discuss stuff and glad that for once it isn’t me
8:11: get asked if we want tea, we decline
8:12: get asked if we want dessert, in the same breath told that we’d have to pay for it because it’s not included but the Buddha mugs were and to take them home. (Seriously, did he think we were poor? He was amazingly and continually rude.) We declined dessert and then left a big tip. (take that!)
8:14: leave the table, confused by all that had transpired and that it all happened so quickly
8:15: take pictures of the cool Japanese pagoda/waterfall in Bennihana
8:17: head back up to our room…(I think it’s time to mention, we were equally underwhelmed by our room. It was supposed to be a really sweet room that my friend had even been sweet enough to upgrade for us. It ended up being smaller than the Courtyard we had stayed in the night before. The beds were not nearly as comfortable. And the showers were probably the worst I’ve experienced this trip, that includes the pay showers at the campgrounds! The “view” was nice but the hotel itself was actually quite far the strip so the view was not what we were expecting or even as it had been advertized. In the end, I was not happy that I had paid so much for this package. However, the point of Vegas is to not stay in your room. This experience certainly taught us that.)
8:22: drop off the buddhas, make any wardrobe changes that needed to be made, whine about brown shoes, leave room, and head toward the monorails.
9:30: get off monorail and walk down strip toward Bellagio
9:50: arrive at the Bellagio just in time to see the end of the fountain water show
10: watch the next water show on the edge
10:10: move to the center and watch another show. (what can I say, I’m an Ocean’s Eleven nerd.)
10:20: walk down the strip to catch the “deuce” bus
10:30: get on bus and head to the top of this lovely double-decker
11: miss the laser lights show because still on bus…boo (spoiler alert: we made the midnight showing.)
11:15: finally make it to Frement Street Experience
(The next few hours are nearly impossible to break down times or even the order so I’ll just list until I can catch back up…and, Mom, remember these things are already over and done so you can’t yell at us!)
- - walk around staring at the “World’s Largest TV Screen”
- - take a lot of pictures
- - gamble and win ($12.50 on $.50 not bad) at 4 Queens
- - gamble at Golden Nugget
- - take more pictures
- - laugh at the people dancing in the middle of the street
- - get a Mai Tai at Mermaids for $1!
- - Leann is the big drawing winner at Mermaids. She pulls the lever and wins a whopping $2
- - Play nickel slots for an hour at Mermaids
- - Watch the midnight laser show
- - Find French Toast for $3.99
- - Find out that French Toast isn’t sold til 2 am
- - Eat the world’s worst eggs instead
- - Eat a donut to make it better
- - Acquire beads
- - Gamble at Bayou
- - Walk in and out of casinos left and right
- - Look for souvenirs at a shop (sorry…I didn’t buy anything. I hate all those tacky thimbles, shot glasses, mugs, keychains, etc…)
(For those of you keeping count: Yes that was a lot of casinos. However, you should know that I didn’t spend more than $20 [19.40 to be exact] in all of the casinos in Nevada, including the ones not in Vegas. I even walked out with some winnings. That’s why I loved the nickel slots so much. Start with a quarter. Win $3 and play it till it’s gone or you’re a big winner. You are only out a quarter.)
1:20: decide to leave Fremont Street Experince and head back to the bus
1:35: bus comes and we hop on -- best bus driver ever
1:45: get off at bus stop still half mile from hotel (Hilton…grrr…) – btw, Leann still claims we got off at the wrong stop and so our walk was even longer. Whatever.
1:46: decide to walk to hotel instead of paying the $8 it would be for a cab. Ha. We are cheap!
2:05: arrive at Hilton unscathed except for our nose hairs. (seriously Vegas smells. We call the aroma “elephant pee”)
2:10: head up to our room
2:15: arrive and head to bed
October 17:
Wake up
Take Shower & Pack
Check out through the tv in our room
Drop keys downstairs
Receive our free $20 chip
Try one round of Black Jack
Lose to the house
Leave Hilton
Wait for the valet to bring our car
Tip the valet
Drive out of Vegas.
Shoo…that was a super long, but fun 36 hours! Next time needs to be days. I want to swim with sharks at The Golden Nugget.
--the nomad
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