Recently I went with my wife to Vegas because she was attending a conference. All I have to say is what a disappointment. If you want to gamble, spend lots of money on food or shows, pay outrageous rates for just about everything, then Vegas is your place. As for me, I will most likely never go back.
I learned one valuable skill, how to ignore people. Every 40 feet or less there is someone handing you a card of some sort or bugging you about going to a show to listen to their time share junk. One woman jumped out in front of me and if it had been a guy I may have decked him. One woman tried to corner me in the mall and when I get cornered, I am like a wolverine. I will attack. One guy got mad at me because I told him no in a stern voice before he could hand me his junk. Most after one day I just ignored, that is I never acknowledged their presence. Might have been a good time to talk to them about Christ, but I did not think about that until just now.
The hotel we were in the Cosmopolitan was a big disappointment. It is supposedly a world class hotel based on professional reviewers opinions. I am curious how much the Cosmopolitan had to pay to get that review. The hotel seemed dirty and like all casino resorts it was smokey, although not as bad as some I have been into, but worse than others on the strip. Most restaurants in the Cosmopolitan were $$$ or greater and therefore you can expect to pay a good bit for a meal. All the stores were high end store with 0 to maybe 1 or 2 in them most of the time. I do not gamble, but from my understanding this is not the place where you want to spend your money if that is your thing. For example most hotels were giving 6 card bonus on 3 card poker, not the Cosmopolitan. I guess that explains why there were so few actually at the tables or on the slots. The nicest people were the maids.
We did some research and were able to find decent restaurants at reasonable prices, but you definitely had to walk to get to them. We did eat expensive 2 nights. The first was at Pampas and it was ok. It is a place where they bring around meats to your table and will cut off pieces for you to try. I thought all the meats were way over cooked and for the price the selection was not that great. The second was at Guy Fieri’s restaurant and it was ok, but nothing special. We had the open faced brisket sandwich and I could not tell you if the brisket was any good because there must have been 12-16 ounces of sauce covering everything and that was all I could taste. We also got the chicken wings. I am not a fan of breading on wings and that is what these had. They were better than another place called Ocean Bar and Grille. They cut half of the wing off the drumettes and the burgers tasted like they were from Walmart or Sams, but the place did have a great breakfast at a really good price.
While we did not price every show at every hotel, the ones we did price started at a minimum of $87 for the crappy seats and went up from there. I could find cheaper ones online, but heard bad things about buying them online. Actually there really wasn’t any shows we wanted to see. A lot of them are raunchy so again if that is your thing, then this is the place.
The one place we thought about going to was Freemont St, but unfortunately we did not make it down there as neither of us thought it was worth a min of $25 dollars one way by taxi to go about 5 miles. Yes we could have gotten around cheaper using the open top tour buses because you can get off and on as you like and if you bought the 2 day pass you got a 3rd day for free, but we did not learn about this until our last day. We should have done some better research.
Most of the time we spent together and walked around exploring different hotels and for that I am very grateful. However, I am not a big vacation fan as I think the idea that I have to go away to recover or to enjoy myself is ridiculous. To me it is about the person or people you are with not the location or the events.
Philippians 4:11-13 New International Version (NIV)
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.