The D

We decided to stay on Fremont Street downtown because it was going to be close to the wedding chapel and also within walking distance to where dinner was going to be later that night.

Years ago, we stayed on Fremont Street and stayed at The Fitzgerald's.   A new owner took over and it is now called The D (for Detroit).  I was anxious to see what it looked like since it was remodeled.

I liked the updating, however, I forgot how small the rooms were.  The first time I set foot in the room I felt a little claustrophobic.  There were the beds and dresser.  One chair under the seating part of the dresser. (I guess I got used to being at The Orleans where you have a separate sitting area.)  The next day I was used to the smaller room though, thank goodness.  We were closer to the mountains which was nice to see when looking out the window.

On the first floor they have what they call the Longbar that is supposed to be the longest bar in Vegas.  Also all the bartenders at the D do tricks with the bottles (think of the movie cocktail, ha!)  By the gambling tables, they have women that stand on little platforms dancing (think go go dancers, if you're old enough to know what those are).

They have 4 places to eat:  McDonald's, Coney Island, the D grill and a fancy Steak place.  Ha, you could tell which one we didn't go to because I don't remember the name.  Hippie would get coffee at McDonald's every morning - no coffee maker in the room.  I never tasted a coney island hot dog.  It was very good and the french fries were excellent.

We spent our time gambling at the 2nd floor bar.  It was what they called the vintage floor.  On some machines you could use coins in the machines.  Also, they played 60's and 70's music.  There was a patio right outside the bar we could go out on and people watch.  There was a fortune teller/palm reader/tarot card reader in the red wagon.  I thought about going and then promptly forgot. (Click to enlarge pictures)

I really had to laugh.  On the patio, they had an escalator coming up but if you wanted to go down you had to go inside through the casino (who ever came up with that idea was brilliant)

I loved to people watch off that patio.  It was very amusing at times.  Picture this: an Elvis with his nurse.  The nurse was bare breasted with pasties.  Also, a guy with a cowboy hat wearing a thong with just his manly part covered, no shirt only suspenders. (It must have been a one piece)  I decided they must have been very brave because the woman was older and her girls weren't standing to attention.

There is for lack of a better word a canape over part of Fremont Street.  At night, they show all kinds of things on it.  They also have 4 zip lines that you can ride during the day or night.  It looks really cool especially when the display is going on.

The room we stayed in still was old fashioned.  There was no thermostat in the room.  You had to turn the controls to warmer or colder which made for noise during the night which turned out to be a good thing.

At night next to The D which is to the left, they have either live music or a DJ who plays music and dances.  We were on the 20th floor right above the stage.  With the noise from the air conditioner/furnace you could barely hear the music.  It always lasted pretty late.

The thing I disliked was the elevator system.  I won't even go into what a pain that was.  I would still go back to The D again though.  We had a lot of fun.  

Okay, so I lied

I had some time between loads of laundry so I thought I would post.

Like I said in my earlier post, hippie won some money.  We were playing at the bar and he was playing a progressive video poker machine.  He got a Royal Flush and won $1174.  I was so happy I was there to see him win.  I was also thrilled because it made up for some of what I lost this time or at least that's how I like to look at it, lol.

Las Vegas misc.

1.  First time since we've been coming to Vegas every morning wasn't sunny.  There were a few cloudy days.

2.  Last time we were in Vegas there was the Burlesque convention, this time there was a rodeo competition in town at different places.  Where we stay there is an arena, and they had the rope competition in it.  A lot of cowboys and cowgirls stayed at our hotel/casino.  I never saw so many cowboy hats and boots before.  It was really pretty cool.  Also, the casino played a lot more country music.

3.  At the food court they have a Fuddrucker's.  Son always eats hamburgers from their when we come.  I finally had one, it was yummy.  I wish I would have known they were so good, I would have eaten one every time we came.  We don't have any in Ohio, I don't think.  Even hippie tried them this time and got them twice after I went up to the room, lol. 

4.  What son and I do eat there is a hot dog vendor close to the betting tables.  I usually wouldn't come down from the room until 12 or 1.  When I did, son would always get hot dogs for us.  They are the best.

5.  When son, girlfriend and I went to the buffet I got a self serve ice cream cone for dessert.  Who knew it was so hard to swirl the ice cream in the cone from the machine?

6.  Hippie got propositioned again by a hooker, ha!  She gave him her card just in case for when we come back.

7.  One night when walking to our room we smelled something awful.  It smelled like skunk.  A couple days later, hippie remembered a conversation we had with someone a while back about some marijuana smelling like skunk.  I think we solved the mystery!   

Bad stuff

So there was some bad stuff that happened on our vacation, and I mean BAD stuff.

Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m. (Las Vegas time) my cell phone was ringing.  I didn't get to it fast enough but I saw it was the credit card company calling.  They left a message and I called back, to make a long story short someone was using our credit card fraudulently and I had to cancel the card, ugh.  We did have another card but after that I didn't want to take the chance.  Luckily, we had enough money with us.

One day, son, girlfriend and I were in a parking garage and I fell.   I was trying to avoid a column and went too close to the parking curb.  I didn't notice it and I tripped and couldn't get my balance, down I went. First on my knees, then on my face or more accurately my nose.  I was so lucky though.  I only scraped the bridge of my nose and my knees.  No broken bones, teeth or glasses.  Girlfriend went in the casino and got someone to come out and look at me.  Someone came and they called the paramedics.  Also, some guys from the hotel/casino came asking questions and taking pictures of me.  I thought the paramedics were going to come in an ambulance so I gave my phone to son to take a picture of it, ha.  Always a blogger.  I didn't see what the paramedics came in but they asked if I wanted an ambulance to take me to the hospital but I said no.  (so, no ambulance picture, lol).  At the time, I was mainly worried if my nose was broken but thank goodness it wasn't.  They really didn't have any antiseptic (what kind of paramedics were these?) and they told me I would be better to go inside and just use the restroom to clean up which I did.  They gave us some gauze and tape and girlfriend helped me with that.  Actually besides the scrapes, being embarrassed and a little worked up I was fine.  Unfortunately, I didn't fall from drinking I think it was a senior moment.

The day we left and got to the airport, it was like someone turned on a switch.  Before we got on the plane I started coughing and got a runny nose.  I took two Advil's and bought cough drops before we got on the plane.  All the way home, I got sicker as we went.  Turns out the section we were sitting in was hotter than h***.  I mentioned it to the person sitting next to me and she thought it was extremely hot as well so it wasn't just me.  I told the flight attendant and she said she would check.  A while later she came back and said it was one of those fluke things where the front and the back of the plane were good and the middle was just hot.  Nothing could be done, ugh!

Then there was the day before we left when the maid service didn't clean our room.  I called down and asked that they at least send up some coffee for the morning which they never did.

Also, when we got home, when hippie opened our luggage there was a notice in it that TSA did a random check and opened our suitcase, ha...  I figured maybe they x-rayed it and saw all the stuffed animals in it and wondered what the heck they were. 

Oh well, stuff happens ;-)

Las Vegas

We flew into Las Vegas on a Thursday.  First time on Frontier, it was a rather uneventful flight although we did leave a little late.  The only thing you get free on the plane is water.  I bought some snacks at a store in the airport.  We got in around 4:30 and it was already getting dark. I gambled a little the first night but went up early.

Son, girlfriend and I went to a show at The Wynn called Le Reve - The Dream.  It was wonderful.  If you ever go to Vegas, it is well worth the price of admission.  It is a very small theater.  It has dancing, synchronized swimming, people coming down from the ceiling on ropes and wires doing acrobatics (kind of like Cirque du Soleil ).  It was amazing.  I never saw anything like it.

We stayed mostly at the hotel/casino this trip.  We ate at the buffet a couple of times there.  It was very good and only $12.99 with our card from the casino.  Then hippie was able to get an $80 comp at one of the more expensive restaurants there.  He always gets coupons from there for different things and was able to get it changed for a comp on a meal.  It was very good food.  I got pork chop marsela, yummy.

We did a ton of gambling and a ton of losing but they were giving away free stuff for points.  We got two cake serving trays one for us and one for son and girlfriend.  Also, a bunch of stuffed animals.  At least there was that.  Ha!

Son, girlfriend and I went to Bellagio's to look at their Christmas decorations that were gorgeous.

We left on Thursday and I was ready to go lol.

What would a trip of ours be without things going wrong.  I'll write about that next.  

Vegas

We got back from Las Vegas a few days ago and I've been sick in bed with a bad cold.  I haven't even unpacked yet , ha!  Here's a holiday picture I took there.  Will write more later when I'm up to it.  It was an adventure this time. 

Hotel & Casino

The last few years whenever we go to Las Vegas (which has been twice a year) we've been staying at the same hotel and casino.  It's off the strip but we like it because it's close to where son and girlfriend live.  It almost feels like coming home since we know everything about the place.

This time we were surprised when we into our room because they redecorated.  Everything was fresh and new. We loved it.

We didn't win any money.

One day when I was playing video poker I stopped because we were going to go out to eat.  I had a backache and went to the little store inside to buy some Advil.  We went out to eat, then came back and the machine I was playing on was being used.  (I have two or three machines I always play - creature of habit I suppose)

I decided to try a totally different machine.  When I looked in my purse for my voucher and the card you earn points with, I had neither.  Shoot!!  I must have forgotten to take them out.  I ended up losing $50 some dollars, ugh!!

I was able to replace the card.  Girlfriend the next day called lost and found to see if someone turned the voucher and my card in but no such luck.

One day if you earned 300 points on the card by a certain time, you won a prize and could win $5 to $500 dollars.  Hippie and I both got 300 points.  The prize was a tissue holder for your vehicle.  We each won $5.  So there's that, ha!

Yard House & Observational Wheel

When we were in Las Vegas in November, they were putting the finishing touches on the Observational Wheel which is the tallest in the world.   We could see it in the distance from the place we were staying.

There was a restaurant in the complex we were going to where it was this time and we got a close up look of it.

In each enclosure (or whatever they're called) it's supposed to fit 40 people.  The ride lasts 30 minutes.  I believe it because from the restaurant we were at we could see the spokes and they barely moved.

We went to a restaurant that was called the Yard House.  http://www.caesars.com/thelinq/restaurants/yardhouse.html#.U6Mz57Hb7EM    I had ribs and they were excellent.  They had around 160 different kinds of beers.

When we left I was able to get a picture of the wheel at night.  It changes colors.  Cool!

Motown

Son's girlfriend and I went to a show at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.  It was called Forever Motor City.  When I was growing up I listened to Motown.

I have to say this was the best show I've been to in Vegas.  They sang Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, Lionel Richie and (my favorite) The Temptations.

It was in a little bistro with little tables and chairs, very intimate. I was sitting next to a woman and I was glad she was singing because I was too, lol.  It was so much fun.  I could have listened to them sing old Motown songs for hours.

I would highly recommend this show for anyone that grew up in that era.  Most of the people were grey haired, ha!!

http://www.rivierahotel.com/forever-motor-city.aspx

Bootleggers

In April, I watched this show about Las Vegas on CNN with Anthony Bourdain.  He goes to different states and countries and talks about the area and goes to different restaurants.  That night he talked about a place called Bootleggers.  An Italian place where they had piano playing and a singer entertaining while you ate.  This was something right up my alley.

I talked about it to my son and his girlfriend had been but she had never been for the entertainment part.

So we went.  It made me think I was at a dinner club in the 50's.  The woman singer is the daughter of the owner.  She sings jazz and is dressed in clothes of the time.  It was so cool.  The only thing was we went early and the people who were eating were kind of loud instead of listening.  We will go back next time maybe later though.

I would highly recommend this place.  The food was excellent.

Here's a picture I took but it's very dark.

If you would like to see a clip on the Bootleggers click here it's under jazz & nostalgia. 
www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-3/las-vegas/index.html

Burlesque

The place we stayed in Vegas was hosting a fundraiser for the Burlesque Hall Of Fame for 3 days while we were there.  http://bhofweekend.com/

I think we could have gotten tickets to some of the shows but at the time for some reason I thought it was a convention.  I think it would have been fun as I've never seen Burlesque.  It was neat seeing the Burlesque people and how they dressed.  Some were quite bawdy and risque, ha!

Son's girlfriend even asked a couple that were at the food court to take their picture which she took because I was too embarrassed lol.  

With the good, comes some bad

1.  We've always had good luck with leaving on time when we've flown.   After taxing to take off we waited and waited.  After a half hour the pilot came on and told us we had to go back to the gate there was something wrong with the plane.  We  finally took off two hours late, ugh.  Before we did the pilot came on and told us he would get us to Vegas "to the best of his ability."  Nothing made me feel more confident than that, ha!! 

2.  I practiced taking video with my phone before the fountain show at the Bellagio's because I've never done it before.  I was excited when the show started and I changed from photo's to video.  When it was done, I tried to watch it - no video, huh?  I was upset but I had told our son to do it on his phone too so I wasn't concerned because he said he would text it to me.  Okay, the next day he tried to send it but it was too high of resolution to send.  It was our last day, so I asked if they could take me back so I could try again.  They did and I got it.  I think what happened the first time, I was so excited when I saw the show starting that I may have turned it to video but forgot to start it lol.

3.  Hippie always stayed up much later than I did gambling.  One time he came in at 2:30 a.m. and when he tried to brush his teeth before going to sleep, he found out we had no water.  I called up the front desk and they told us it wouldn't be back on until 4. We never did find out what happened but all we could think of was the poor people that went back to their rooms and were sick, ewww.

4. We both got club cards from where we were staying a few visits before. You earn points when you use the machines.  One time we left gambling to go out to eat.  When we came back, I realized I had left my card in the machine earlier and someone else was playing on it. She had her own card in the machine. I asked the person if they saw it but shesaid no.  The guys had gone their own way to gamble, so son's girlfriend and I went to talk to the people where you get the cards to see if someone may have returned it.  No, no one had turned it in.  Then she looked up my name and said I didn't have a card.  I told her that couldn't be true because I had been using it.  Then she called the front desk and they told her no I didn't have a card.  I kept insisting that I did have a card.  She fiddled with her computer and finally she found my name in it but they had transposed a couple of the letters. Whew!  She gave me two new cards.  When we left there, we looked for machines to sit at, and my machine was open again.  I sat there for a while gambling when suddenly I looked up and saw something peeking out on the top of the machine.  Sure enough, it was my card.  I guess I had never really looked at the card.  They had not transposed letters in my last name, they had not even put the first two letters on the card at all, ha!!

Shopping in Vegas

These are a few places I went shopping when I was inside Bellagio's.

Just kidding although if I would have won big, I might have shopped at one of these places lol. 

Sightseeing

My son, his girlfriend and I went to Red Rock Canyon.

Hippie stayed at the casino and gambled.  It was a pretty neat place.  We didn't stop at the first few places where we could take pictures.  By the time we did stop there were not many red rocks left, ugh.
If I go again, I'll have to stop where the crowds were. 

The sun was peeking through.

I saw this big black bird, I don't know if it's a crow or what.  It was a very windy day.  A little while after I took the picture, it went flying off with another bird.  It was pretty comical, they kept trying to fly and the wind kept pushing them back down.

Trip

We left for Las Vegas on Tuesday and came home Sunday.  The weather was beautiful.  In the 70's and the last couple of days in the 60's.  I gambled with only $100 the whole time.  In the end my total loss was $16, unbelievable, ha...  I consider that pretty good.  Hippie sat next to a woman that won $1300, too bad it wasn't him.  He didn't do well this time.

We went to In and Out for supper one day since we don't have it around here.

We also went to my favorite restaurant Battista's Hole in the Wall.  I love that place.  They give you a free coffee drink at the end of your meal, which I got the recipe for. 

We also went to The Rio for their buffet.  We don't normally go to buffets because hippie and I don't eat our money's worth.  But for locals and guests it's only half price so we went.  Hippie ate more than I've ever seen him eat.  He had crab legs, shrimp and mussels.  I think we all got our money's worth that night.

We've never been to The Bellagio's to see the fountain show so we did that.  How fun.  I took video on my phone but can't seem to get it off my phone.  The Bellagio's had their fall decorations up. 

They were also starting to add some Christmas things.

More later...

Viva Las Vegas

We went to Las Vegas last week to visit our son and his girlfriend.  This time we weren't sick.  Yes...

However, before we got there they had to take their car in to get repaired and it didn't get finished until after we left, ha!!   Good thing we brought extra money.  It was a little bit more then they could afford. 

We were only planning on going to a couple of restaurants that we like anyhow.  We missed going to Battista's Hole in the Wall which I love, love.  Then there's the Firefly that we always go to.  Unfortunately, even if the car was available, it got closed down the Friday before we got there because 39 or so people got food poisoning, yikes!!  Thank goodness it wasn't us... 

We stay at The Orleans because its close to where our son lives so he and girlfriend could walk up there.  Luckily, they have tons of places to eat, plus a place called the Chocolate Factory which I took full advantage of. 

We got there late Monday and left early Friday morning.  I gambled a whole lot and only lost $72 which I thought was rather successful, lol.

It could have been a more expensive trip.  On the last night, I left my cell phone on the video poker machine and went up to our room.  When I got up there, I realized I left it and hippie had come up for something.  He went back down and lucky for me, it was still at the machine, whew!!

The first day we got there it was 99 degrees, it broke the record for the day.  This week they are supposed to get back to more seasonable weather.

 

Vacation

We were in Vegas last week to see our son.  Unfortunately, hippie and I both had colds which mine only got worse.  I didn't do much gambling but then I didn't lose a lot of money either, ha.  In fact, I played with the same $100 from Monday until I cashed it in Friday (the day we left) and only lost $8.50.  I did press my luck and put $20 in before we left and lost that.

We did go out a couple of times to eat. 

They also opened a Mob Museum downtown which we went to.  It was great.  We could have used more time there but I would definitely recommend going there.  They give you a wrist band and you can come and go all day.  There were a lot of movie clips and interactive things to do. 

The weather was gorgeous, in the 80's the whole time.  We came back to 46 and raining. 

Las Vegas revisited

People we went to Vegas AGAIN (that now makes 3 times in less than a year, lol)  Since our son wasn't able to come home for Christmas, we decided to go visit for his birthday after all he was turning  the BIG 3 0.  We got their on the 20th and came home the 24th.

I must say we had beautiful weather.  The weather the first day was 59 (felt warm to me) and the rest of the time during the day was sunny and in the low 70's.

The day we got there before we checked in, we went to breakfast at a place called The Omelet House  http://www.omelethouse.net/ Our son has talked glowingly about this place since he moved to Vegas.  The omelets are huge and I mean HUGE.  They are about half the plate.  I only ate half of mine and we dropped the leftovers at their house on the way to the casino/hotel. I would recommend the Omelet Place if you eat a lot, lol.

We stayed at The Orleans again.  We gambled the rest of the day.  I never was hungry for a meal after the omelet.  My son and I did go to Baskin Robbins and got a chocolate shake. After the kids left (not really kids but for this post that's what I'll call them, ha) , I went up to unpack and hippie stayed gambling until 11 p.m. and brought me a chocolate croissant from The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  It was yummy.

Tuesday, I awoke to the alarm going off on my phone, I turned over pretty quick and landed on the floor.  I hit part of my head on the nightstand and hit my butt pretty hard. Ouchie!!  I think that's the first time I ever fell out of bed and I wasn't even drunk, LOL.  I had set the alarm because we were meeting the kids.  We went to a place called The Neon Museum http://www.neonmuseum.org/ They have a lot of old neon signs from different casinos and other places, some of which they are restoring and putting back onto display.  The neon signs I showed in my other posts about Vegas from Freemont Street were from there.  The guide told some interesting facts about the signs.  I would recommend going to this if your ever in Vegas.  After that we ate a place called Firefly http://www.fireflylv.com/  They serve very small amounts of food so you could get several kinds of things.  I wasn't very hungry so I got the chicken skewers and it was enough for me.  I think the kids said it was a Spanish place but I would recommend this place as well.  I think we just went to the food court and ate stuff there for supper.  We gambled the rest of the time.  Because it was Fat Tuesday, they had a little band go through the whole casino every hour and they gave out beads. 

We hadn't planned on doing any shows.  We wanted to mostly relax and gamble, kinda low key.

On Wednesday was our son's birthday.  We went to the food court for lunch.  His girlfriend is a Vegan and he doesn't get a lot of meat so he got a hamburger from Fuddruckers.  For supper we went to Battista's Hole in the Wall Restaurant again http://www.battistaslasvegas.com/where he got a big steak.    Since it was Ash Wednesday for me I got cheese ravioli which was excellent. We also had that excellent cappuccino, yummy. Another place I would recommend.  It was very crowded but luckily girlfriend made reservations and we didn't have to wait long.   Then back to gambling.

On Thursday, more food court for lunch. Another hamburger for son lol.  They had a bowling alley in the place we were staying so we all bowled two games.  None of us had bowled for a long time but we had fun and that's all that counts.  For supper we went to TGI Fridays and son got a rack of ribs which are his favorite.  Hippie got ribs and lobster so son got to take his ribs home with him.  They took all the leftovers home, from Battistan's too so he had plenty of stuff to eat after we left.  Then more gambling.  When the kids left, I gambled for a little bit and hippie stayed and gambled more.  He got propositioned by a hooker when he was at one of the bars.  Luckily, he turned her down  but he has a good story to tell his buddies now.  I got another chocolate croissant. 

I lost $225 gambling but hippie won, yippee!  We're not sure how much he exactly won because he didn't keep track of it.  He originally put in $100 and played with that the whole time.  We figured out of everything we spent, with the money he won, we spent a little less than $400 which we were delighted with considering all the food, money to the kids for gambling and miscellaneous stuff.    I told him too bad we didn't stay longer we might have recouped our air fair and room.as well  ;-)

I think this should be our last trip to Vegas until next year but you never know.

We came back to the 30's and flurries.  After being in that weather, I can only hope that spring is right around the corner. 

Random Thoughts on vacation

1.  I haven't gotten chapped lips in years.  I did when we were in Vegas.  One day it was very windy, it must have been from that.  Also, I had flyaway hair the whole time, ha.

2.  When we were driving I was surprised at how many freeways were 75 mph through mountains and curvy roads.  Yikes!

3.  In May when we went to Vegas, we tried to see the big golden nugget in the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino and we couldn't find it.  This time it was my goal to see it.  We did.  It was pretty big lol.

4. The first Super 8 we stayed at you could have dogs in your hotel room.   From our room we could see people taking them out to do their business on a grassy area.

5.  I am starting to like flying again even though we hit some turbulence on the way back this time.  The girl sitting next to hippie was freaking out a little, ha.

6. When I got back, blogger was all different.  I'm having some trouble when posting.  Is anyone having issues?

Trip part 3

The next day it would take us until 4:30 to get to Vegas so we drove straight through.  We were pretty tired of being in the car already.

When we got there we went to our son's apartment.  He was sleeping.  He works nights (he has Monday and Tuesday nights off) and we said a quick hello and then his girlfriend took us to where we were staying.  We stayed one night at The Orleans because it was close to where they lived.  The room was very nice and was pretty reasonably priced.  I ordered a pizza and hippie went downstairs and got it.  On the order sheet it just said a whole pizza when I called she asked if we wanted 6 or 8 pieces, I said 8.  Holy Moley, this pizza was HUGE.  It was like an extra large one.  We ate 4 pieces and that was it.    Hippie went downstairs and gambled and I made a couple phone calls.  I never left the room the whole night.

The next day, we had to go to the DMV to get the title turned over and for them to get new plates for the car.  We checked in at 1:30 and got number 833.  When we looked they were only on 500 something.  We got done a little after 5:00.  It is so busy there that they have restrooms and a snack bar LOL. Since it was Halloween most of the workers were in costume.  A good portion of them were themed costumes from the Wizard of Oz.  There was Dorothy, Glenda the good witch, tinman, scarecrow, the lion, the wicked witch, yellow brick road and a couple of munchkin, including the mayor, ha.  Also, non-themed was the joker and a klingon (from star trek).  They all looked really good. 

When we were done there they took us downtown to Freemont Street where we stayed at the Fitzgeralds.  Since it was downtown, the rooms weren't as fancy but for the price they were fine.  On Halloween night they had a parade.  Freemont street was packed.  It reminded me of when you see Mardi Gras.  A lot of people were in costume.

We didn't go see any shows this time.  We walked up and down Freemont Street mostly and ate.  We did go to the Peppermill again.  I bought quite a few souvenirs for myself this time.   We also gambled a lot more.  We played the video blackjack machines and the poker machines at the bar that way we got free drinks LOL.

On Thursday, we took the shuttle to the airport.   We got home around 11 p.m.  All in all we had a great time.  We're thinking of going again in the spring.

 Side note:  I really didn't take any pictures.