FamiLee Life

Vegas: Land of Drawfs, Giants, and The Mouth

Well, I returned alive and well from a weekend trip to Las Vegas for my childhood friend Pete's bachelor party. Pete and I grew up next door to each other in CT. I've known him since I was 10 years old at the start of 5th grade. I actually remember walking across our driveways and meeting him along with his parents and younger brother. I walked across those parallel driveways thousands of times to go to school together, ask him to play outside, eat over for dinner, hang out to play video games, watch MTV, and to go out in the evenings. So, it was good to see Pete and to see him doing well, happy to be getting married.

I arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday morning and departed on Sunday afternoon. There was very little sleep in between those two time points. But as the ad slogan goes: what happened in Vegas, stays in Vegas. So, I will just focus on a few random observations about the city of sin, which now ironically (but oddly fittingly) bills itself as a family destination.

We stayed at the Palms Hotel which is owned by the Maloof brothers who also happen to own the Sacremento Kings (NBA). It's off the main strip/drag so it's a bit isolated from the other casinos and is really quite plain inside and out, but it remains very popular with the hip/trendy crowds. The hotel is not as glamorous or wonderous as the Bellagio or Mandalay Bay, but much nicer than the Gold Coast or other 2nd/3rd tier casinos. The Real World: Las Vegas was filmed at this hotel and it is where they host the Party at the Palms show on E! TV. It's all marketing wizardry in Vegas and the Palms has pulled it off thus far. More illusion than reality but that sort of thing blurs together in Vegas.

Arriving in Vegas to slot machines in every nook and corner of the airport is always a jolting welcome. Having arrived early (8:30 am) and not wanting to awaken Pete too early, I lounge about the restaurant and then the pool. It was a gorgeous day -- clear blue skies, high 80s, cool wind, no humidity. Lots of beautiful people around me. Trying to even out my farmer's tan. Later on, Pete and his friends join me for an afternoon poolside. We basically repeat this ritual the next day of just doing nothing by the pool for the whole afternoon. It was wonderful and relaxing. If I had forethought and motivation, I would have worked in a spa treatment massage to maxime the relaxation. Next time.

Despite paying an arm and a leg for a hotel room, the service at the Palms was terrible. I mean really terrible. The service at the poolside and inside at the restaurant was horrendously slow. At one breakfast, my friend and I waited 20 minutes just to get a waiter to come to our table and another 20 minutes to get our water (and only after I complained and still waited 5 minutes). The bland breakfast came about 15 minutes afterward. At the pool, we had these two skinny (actually, emaciated) twins (typical Vegas) as our waitresses but more often than not we went straight up to the bar to get our drinks.

Okay, enough complaining! Here are some random highlights and summaries.

Nicky Hilton walked by me at the hotel elevator. She's not as tall as you'd imagine from all the press coverage but she is very attractive. Her hair is dyed blond again. She was there to promote a fashion show. I think I saw Paris from afar. Someone we met at the nightclub (Rain), which is very cool with blowing gas fire balls above the dance floor, met Nicky Hilton's father whom they described as drunk but quite friendly. Supposedly, we heard Lindsey Lohan was in the house but who knows. We know that Seth Green was there because my friend has the same last name and the front desk asked him if he was Seth!

At the hotel, we met a young woman who happens to be a little person (dwarf). This alone is not a strange site. What made it more surreal was later on when I boarded the airplane to go home and sat in front of a giant! Okay, a really, really tall person. Perhaps 7 feet 8 inches or maybe even taller (I think he could have been 8 feet, in all honesty) and large (not relatively skinny like Yao Ming). He was so tall that he had to bend over to walk through the aisles. He obviously could not sit in a regular seat, despite buying 2 coach seats on the plane. He sat across them with his legs scrunched and feet extending into the aisle. No joke, his shoe was the size of an average person's thigh (width and height). It was quite unfortunate and you wonder why the airline didn't offer him an exit row. Incidentally, I guess the tallest living man is disputed. Guinness lists Xi Shun at 7'9" but supposedly it is Leonid Stadnik from Ukraine, who is 8'4" and growing. I think the person on the airplane was close to 8' but he might've looked larger given the small dimensions of the plane.

I don't gamble much. Instead, I went to the center hotel bar to watch college football (Texas vs. OSU - UT won!). Having worked at Texas for 3 years, I was rooting for them and sat next to a guy who had gone to grad school at UT. Across the bar from us was another Texas fan whom we started to refer to as The Mouth. This guy was obviously intoxicated and did not stop talking to anyone who so much as looked his way. The guy beside me started joking with The Mouth and soon enough The Mouth started to buy us drinks, then he bought 30 drinks for the whole bar, then another 20 drinks for anyone in the bar area. It went on till halftime when I had to leave for dinner. There are lots of people like The Mouth in Vegas.

I've been to Vegas twice before but I never tried to go into any nightclubs. Once I was driving through on my way to CA and my friend and I just played blackjack all night and wondered the strip to check out the sights and sounds. Another time I went for a bachelor party but we had gone to Vegas to eat at the top restaurants there (honestly). We also had wonderful spa treatments. Well, this trip was all about nightclubs. We went to the Ghost Bar the first night and Rain the second night. The line for the Ghost Bar was a couple hundred deep, mostly men. When I asked the security, he said that we (3 guys) would not get into the club without women. In a conundrum, I decided to offer a very nice tip and it's amazing the kind of service one suddenly receives :) On the top floor of the hotel, the bar has a great outdoor balcony that overlooks the whole downtown. It was a great relaxing first night. For Rain, we had a connection and were able to secure a VIP room on the top floor which overlooks the dance floor. It cost an arm and a leg but it was easy to cover among 20 guys. This was a club to see and be seen. It was packed and lively. Mostly, I stayed on the balcony and hung out with friends. We saw Nicky Hilton down on the main floor with her posse, secured off from the "common folks."

I only left the hotel once during the 3 days to go with my friends to see the water show at the Bellagio. This occurs in the front of the hotel where the man-made moat/pond shoots out amazing waterfalls synchonized to muzak. This weekend was not about site seeing. It was about making sure Pete had a good time and I hope he did.

It also was good to spend time with two other childhood friends, Chris and Jim (otherwise known as Spanky and Walrus - we all had nicknames in HS). We all went to high school together and have kept in sporadic touch over the years. It's an amazingly tight group of friends from HS (about 12 of us) who still keep in touch, attend each other's weddings, etc. BTW, Jim owns/operates ZipperFish and just got a deal with Starz to develop one of his "characters" into a show. Over the course of the weekend, we spent a lot of time joking, catching up, reminiscing, and not getting enough sleep. It was good to see them and to find out what each is doing in life these days. Too bad the rest of the East Catholic HS group could not make it out, but we will see them in November at the wedding.

My trip home was uneventful even with the continuing NWA strike. I will say that every time I travel, I am so happy to be back home. I also appreciate living in Minneapolis each time. It's not the most happening city, nor the most glamorous, nor got the best weather, nor the most diverse, but I have a wonderful job, a great home, diverse group of interesting friends, and plenty to do to keep my life enriched. Plus, I really am not a big city person and like my little oasis in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Well, that's the sanitized version of my weekend in Vegas. Sorry to disappoint those wanting more but I gotta follow the motto :: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Posted by richlee at September 12, 2005 10:20 AM