Covid-19 is still around, but evidently Las Vegas has decided to ignore the memo. Having decided to reopen about a week ago, Grant and I decided to sit out opening week to let things settle in. With a week in the books, we hopped a quick Spirit flight with previously cancelled vouchers for a quick Saturday to Sunday trip.
The flight itself was uneventful. Most people kept their masks on until we landed in Nevada and then all bets were off. Even the dutiful flight attendants removed their masks and smiles their goodbye as we departed the plane. Our first stop was to pick up our rental car from Budget. The last few trips we have booked with Costco Travel exclusively for rental cars and not only are they usually the cheapest, but usually come with a free upgrade.
We initally intended to go to Bobby’s Burger Palace as a quick burger sounded good, but we quickly came to realize that it was still temporarily closed. Not all of the casinos and restaurants were open and even those that were had strange modifications. We ended up going to Mon Ami Gabi, which was a Parisian resturant at the Paris. They sat us in the perfect spot— right in the middle of their La Cantina Doors so we had one foot in the patio and one foot inside the resturant. The air conditioning was wastefully blasting and so while it was close to 90+ degrees you couldn’t tell from the AC. We also had a great view of the Foutains of Bellagio, which we got to see from our table.
We got our steps in as we walked back from Paris to New York, New York and grabbed the car to check into MGM Grand. We got our room and Grant went to the pool, while I laid around relaxing. He came back to get me and we went lounging in the lazy river.
After getting cleaned up, we got ready to go to Jaleo by Jose Andres. The resturant specialized in Spanish Tapas, which have been our jam since visiting Spain. I ordered anything that looked good and then the bill came. Grant and I were somewhat full, and after our bill totaling $210 came our brain told our stomachs it was cut off. Everything we had was good, but nothing earth shattering or memorable.
The only memorable thing was Grant making an “I-Spy” joke about a woman sleeping at the bar. I kept looking and couldn’t see her. Defeated he explained it me and I laughed at how corny he is.
As we left, Grant kept muttering how expensive the dinner was and that he was going to be hungry later. That triggered a competition in me to get the dinner cheaper so I wouldn’t hear him complain. We had pulled out $100 to gamble and so I decided to not only not lose it, but try and get it to increase. This delusion is usually never actualized, but I was determined. So I started playing slots at the Cosmopolitan and ended up winning $50. So that shaved the bill to $160.
Since I didn’t want to press my luck to much we left and went to Fremont Street to witness the Fremont Street Light Show. It was pretty spectacular watching the screen roof above our head turn into an outdoor rave with people dancing in the street and jamming out to Steve Aoki. Again. No social distancing. We could almost picture CNN doing a live shot above the crowds scolding and talking about how people weren’t taking this seriously - like they do Florida beaches. We decided CNN wouldn’t be wrong; people were too close for our comfort so we took off after that and made our way back to the hotel.
The next morning I woke up and started responding to various student emails. Grant slowly woke up and we got ready to leave. Every hotel in Vegas charges a ridiculous resort fee and is always that “hidden gotcha” fee that no one likes. I called the front desk from our hotel room phone and politely asked for them to remove it. I also might have thrown in something like “I did not enjoy my hotel stay enough to willingly consent to pay an extra $39 plus tax.” Without a debate, they said “sure we will remove it!” I generously applied that $45 credit to our $160 remaining bill, which brought it down to $115.
We got out of the hotel without incident and ate at Viva Las Arapas at a little local shop off the strip. We drove around looking at different sites and tried to go to the Palms. It wasn’t open so we backtracked and made our way to Gold Coast Casino as we had no idea it was even over there. We entered played the Mad Max Game and won another $50 after hitting two bonuses. $65 for dinner now.
Now this may be cheating, but the expectation was that we were going to lose the $100 we had to gamble. After playing at multiple casinos and spending some here and there we ended up with $145 in my pocket. So $145 - $65 means the dinner was free and that Grant owes me $80. I am sure my math may be off somewhere.....really off....but I think the meal is at least somewhat affordable if you considered all the offsets. Hahahaha!
Flight home, Uber to car, and home with our Whole Foods delivery 15 minutes later. Not a bad weekend at all.