"Vegas is getting more difficult for me every year. When I first visited that town about 15 years ago, I had no problem staying up most of the night and operating on four hours of sleep a day. Not anymore."
Harold's Blog, Vegas Trip 2006, November 22, 2006.
I guess that I had forgotten how difficult it is for me to party in Las Vegas like I used to, but the trip I just got back from was the hardest one for me yet.
Don't get me wrong -- the trip was an absolute blast, and the stretch from Thursday night to Friday evening was one of the most enjoyable 24-hour periods I've spent in that town.
Dan and I arrived in Las Vegas at about 9:00 pm on Thursday evening (Dan rented a town car for the trip from the airport, something I highly recommend because it enabled us to stop at a grocery store and load up for the weekend). We met Ray at the suite at about 10:00, and then proceeded to drink and gamble until about 6:00 am on Friday morning, then got three hours of sleep, and then started partying again at about 9:00 am.
After breakfast, we hung out in the pool for a couple hours drinking beer into the early afternoon (the temperature hit the mid-80s each day we were there), then went to the cigar bar at Caesar's for a good smoke and a few mojitos, then followed that with delicious deli sandwiches at Stage Deli, and then went to Fat Tuesdays and each drank one of their really strong drinks -- you know, the ones they serve to men who want to get drunk fast.
After resting up back at the hotel for a bit, we had a great craps run over at Casino Royale -- the shooter held the dice for about a half hour before sevening out -- and then closed out Friday evening by going back to the cigar bar to celebrate our craps victory with another cigar and a few more mojitos.
It was a killer day, but it completely wasted me and Dan for Saturday. Ray somehow managed to rally on Saturday morning -- he hung out at the Flamingo's adult pool for several hours, but Dan and I really didn't get going until later that afternoon/evening, when Dan had a winning poker session, I had a winning craps session (I actually managed to put together a decent roll, hitting eight numbers or so before I rolled a seven), and then the three of us went to the dinner buffet at Bellagio, which was gluttonous and great.
We had huge plans to gamble on Saturday evening, but I ended up going to bed early as did Ray. Dan stayed up a little later and watched poker on television, which I thought was hysterical because we were in Las Vegas and there was probably 1000 active poker tables within a 1/2 mile of us, but at least he was doing something. I was asleep.
Ray had to catch a flight on Sunday morning, but Dan and I had a later flight so we hit the craps tables at Casino Royale and got crushed. We then limped over to the poker room at the Flamingo and I managed to win some money -- and Dan broke even -- before we had to go to the airport.
It was a super fun trip, and none of us lost a lot of money overall at the tables and I even won about $300 or so for the trip. But I am so tired today that I can barely stand. I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm convinced that the best way to do Vegas would be to do four nights and three full days, with the middle full day simply being a day of rest (i.e., no drinking, lots of hot-tubbing, eating well, relaxing by the pool, very little gambling, that kind of a day).
Anyway, that's my plan for next year. Of course, another way to approach Vegas would be to simply get a good night's sleep on the first night, but I've never been able to do that. I've always stayed up all night on that first evening, and I don't think that will ever change.
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