As always things are busy. Janey and I just returned from a fun filled four days in Las Vegas. The primary reason for the trip was to see her family, but we made sure to mix in some good Vegas fun.

I started putting together a little play-by-play of the trip and only got about halfway through day one when I totally lost interest… I’ve decided instead to just hit some of the finer points:

• Because of my love for JetBlue, I will do my best never to travel where they don’t fly. I will save money and my sanity while I travel.
• I will never again rent from Dollar Rent-A-Car thanks to the excessive hidden fees and last minute mark ups on the invoices.
• The Stratosphere has gained several points in my book on this trip. Later I will explain why I hated it, and why now I don’t hate it so much.
• The Bellagio is the most elegantly beautiful hotel/casino that exists.
• The Palace Station is a rather crappy hotel/casino that has killer room rates and a very kind staff.
• Cirque du Soleil shows take my breathe away every time I see one. Totally amazing.
• I need to take more vacations even when things at work are busy and I think there is no way I can get away. It does wonders for my brain.

Now lets talk about the Stratosphere
Many moons ago I took a trip to Vegas with my drumline friends. We decided to stay at the Stratosphere only because it was the cheapest thing we could find online. When we got there we found out why. It was dirty and nasty. It smelled and the place just looked like it was about 30 years old and had one mantainance guy. So that kind of set a bad tone in my head for this place. Jump to a few years later and I find out that my girlfriend’s mother’s friend works there, and she is willing to get us into a few shows for free. Woo Hoo! They may not be good, but its a free show in vegas… What the hell.

We talked it over and decided we would go to both shows that play in that theater (one celeb impersonater show, and one other show described to us as “the new show”). We though it would be good to take up two evenings with the free shows so we could save money and keep ourselves entertained so we thought we would go Monday and Tuesday nights.

When we arrived at the theater we were let in and met up with our friend who was getting us seats. She sat us right up front and it was really cool. The show was quite good. There were some real high points, like when Michael Jackson was on stage. He could seriously dance and was really fun to watch. There was an Elvis guy who kinda sucked and a Brittany Spears and Christina Agulera who were good but totally forgettable just like their real world counterparts. And a Charlie Daniels who was a good fiddler and put on a good show. The beginning of each segment in the show was touched off by four dancing girls who did very ‘follies’ type dances. They were pretty, but quite forgettable. Overall the show made me smile, but it would take some real convincing to get me to pay the normal ticket price.

As we were leaving the theater we met up with our friend that got us in and she insisted we come back to the next show. You’ll remember we had planned on coming back the next night so we inquired “tomorrow?”… she said “no tonight! 10:30, you come back!”…. and so on the spur of the moment we decided to see the second show that night. During the same conversation she let us know it was a vampire show. sounds pretty good… so we headed off to get some dinner before the next show.

We went to the buffet at the Stratosphere and were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It was clean and the food was great. And thats my mini-review of the buffet… back to the real story of the night.

Heading back to the theater a bit before show time we reflected on several conversations we had about this “new show”. While in the casino we had seen posters for “Bite”. It was billed as ‘an adult experience’ and in our little brains that meant girls dancing sexy and the like. Then we got to the theater.

Upon entry it was clear this was a very different show then we had seen a few hours earlier. I think I even commented that the room felt very ‘playboy’. As we got in a little further we saw huge stained glass window flats were on each pillar surrounding the room. They each depicted women with little of their anatomy left to the imagination… that was red flag one. Red flag (actually major last-flag-of-the-day) was while we were talking with our friend who was getting us in for free. Janey said something to the effect of “is this show fun?!” … the woman paused a moment and said “no, this is a boobie show”.

We didn’t want to leave or we would have looked like major jerks to the our friend, so we waited it out. It was all about vampires and had some really cool flying work out over the audience and great music… it would have been a great show even with no boobies. I was pretty red faced at several points but all in all it was quite and enjoyable show.

So with all these things put together… I no longer hate the Stratosphere. I’ll never stay in one of their rooms… but I don’t hate it.

Alright, I’ve jumped all over the place in this story and you’ve got a basic idea of everything. This trip was really great, and we did a lot of fun stuff. Maybe if I get a burst of energy later I will post more about the trip.

Don’t forget to leave some comments!!

Till Next time

R.