The 4th Annual Balwinski Las Vegas Extravaganza came to an end last night. We flew out on Wednesday evening, giving us 3 solid nights in what be my favorite place to visit in the world. My wallet went up and down throughout the entire trip, but I still had a ton of fun. I didn't have as much luck with the slots as I did the last three trips. In fact, I only played Wheel of Fortune this time around. The quarter machines lost the little novelty they have pretty quickly, so I went to a couple of dollar machines. Unfortunately, but as expected, I didn't hit $1000 twice again. I didn't even hit it once. My best "pull" was 600 credits on a quarter machine and I think I hit $40 on a dollar machine. Oh well...I guess it's true that you can't leave with Vegas's money every time! We came home down only about $120, so we're happy!
The eating was nothing short of awesome. Thanksgiving dinner was filets at The Steakhouse in Circus Circus. Yes, the casino is gross and the people playing and wandering are disgusting. In fact, just before dinner while in the casino, a small child vomited near us and then someone rolled right through it with a stroller. Nevertheless, the atmosphere in The Steakhouse was totally different and for the first time ever at a restaurant, I had a filet that was cooked (more like warmed, since that's how I like it) internally to perfection. Since it was Thanksgiving, I felt it was okay to stuff myself completely by following dinner with some bananas foster.
On Friday, Joe's dad and I hit the gambling hard around 8:00AM, then Joe joined us and we hit the road to the Grand Canyon Skywalk. We tried to go to the Skywalk two or three years ago, but we missed a turn and ended up way off track and instead turned around to hit the Hoover Dam. This time, we didn't miss our turn. The two-hour drive from Vegas to the Skywalk included about 9 miles on an unpaved road--we were glad to be in a rental car. The highlight of the drive was seeing wild cows and bulls just chillin' along the road.
I was very uncomfortable at the Skywalk. Of the hundreds of people there, I could have counted all of the Americans on my hands. I really, REALLY wish that when foreign tourists would come here, they were put forth some sort of effort to use our language and blend in with us. In Germany, I feel very ashamed and obnoxious any time I speak English in public. If you are going to travel to another country, please, PLEASE try to learn the language--even just a little bit--and USE IT. But I digress. Guests aren't allowed to take ANY lose items, including cameras, onto the Skywalk, so we couldn't take any sweet pictures. We did get to take pictures, though, literally on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Since the Skywalk is on an Indian Reservation, they don't have any walls or fences installed at the edges of the canyon. I was able to lay down onto the ground and have my head hang over, looking 4000 feet down. That was incredible--even moreso than the Skywalk itself. Still, the whole thing was a cool experience.
That night we had a great Italian dinner at Bacio in Tropicana. I had some kind of thick pasta noodle with artichokes, prosciutto, and a cream sauce. Joe and his dad had spaghetti and Joe shared the biggest breast of chicken parm the three of us had ever seen. No dessert on Friday night--we were way too stuffed and didn't want to put ourselves through that discomfort two nights in a row while trying to enjoy blackjack.
Last year we had a lot of luck playing blackjack at Luxor on our last day, so we decided to try that again this time. We did REALLY well there and Joe got excited that when he colored up his chips, the dealer called, "Purple out!" Afterwards we went to Diablo's for lunch and to watch the O$U-Michigan game. My fajitas were great and the result of the football game got me all kinds of giddy. On that high note, we checked out of our rooms, played a little more blackjack, then we were on our way home.
It was a great trip and we can't wait for next year! Maybe we'll delay it a week so that I can run the Las Vegas Marathon!
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