If there is a time to get away for a week and take some time off, it’s spring break. So, that’s exactly what two of my friends, my fiancé and I did on our trip to Las Vegas.
Monday was travel day and our plane was set to leave around 6:40 p.m. I’m not scared of flying, but I am afraid to sit next to a person that needs two seats on a 3-hour plane ride. Just because of the comfortable level alone.
As Vanya (fiancé) and I got on the plane and start walking to our row, I saw a giant sitting close to our spot, but thought there was no way. Well, there was a way and in 30C sat a guy that looked like he was an offensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys. Lucky 30B (me) sat as he apologized for his giant-ness.
I pretended I wasn’t furious as we began joking about how big he was. Turns out he was 6-foot-6-inches, 380 pounds of definitely-needing-more-space. But, when the ride got going and we started talking, I couldn’t have asked for a more interesting person to sit next to. He liked sports, played football in college, has a radio show, knows some NFL players, played on a practice squad in the NFL and had some good stories. But, when we landed, I punched him in the face and told him to never fly again.
Joking aside, we got to the hotel and started our vacation with a walk down the strip. The hardest part of the first night was the two-hour time difference. After we checked out as much as we could, it hit 2:40 a.m. Vegas time, 4:40 a.m. our time, and we called it a night.
The next day we went to a shark/aquarium tour in the Mandalay Bay, checked out some different spots and went to Lance Burton’s magic show at night in the Monte Carlo. While I didn’t get to go onstage and disappear, I did, however, catch a piece of a carrot that was being cut to show their knives were real. I was going to keep that carrot forever, until it turned into a bird and flew away. Just my luck.
On Wednesday, we started the day by visiting the Coca-Cola shop before heading down to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, which turned out to be my favorite place visited. We definitely did not get any drinks in there; just looked around; that’s all we did, no drinks whatsoever.
Then it was off to the Mirage and the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat to see some lions, tigers and bea … no, dolphins.
We did some more sight seeing before we decided to gamble at our hotel, the Luxor. I lost some of my money, but Vanya made some, so it turned out all right.
Our friends left early on Thursday, so we decided to play poker for the majority of the afternoon before heading back to Margaritaville to not have any drinks.
We returned to the tables for the rest of the night, which is when something fascinating happened. Vanya and I played at the same table, and after a while I was up and she was down. But, before long and after drinking nothing but water, she took control of the table. Now I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but she was the only girl at the table. She bullied the other players and got compliments all around for her play before making them either leave the table or buy back because all of their money was in front of her.
While I was proud, I started to think that the person I taught how to play the game, was becoming better than me. Nah, no way.
Our flight out of town was set for 6:40 a.m. and our shuttle told us to meet them outside at 4:30 a.m. So we gambled and pulled an all-nighter on our last night in Vegas, which, I think, is something we were supposed to do every night.
The trip went by faster than it should’ve and now it’s back to school and work. I’m still feeling the lingering affects from a clogged ear, but definitely not from the drinking, because we didn’t do any of that. None.