After spending practically my entire summer home in Los Angeles, I finally went on a trip outside of Los Angeles to the second city that never sleeps, Sin City Las Vegas with my parents and a couple of my cousins last week. If you're looking for a blog post filled with stories about my experience from clubbing, partying, and other things that sociable people do in Vegas, you're definitely at the wrong place!
Aug 30: Day 1
We started out with breakfast at Younique Café where I ate an instant noodles bowl with two slices of good ol' spam. Not to mention it was about six bucks, which was a plus. Then at about 11-something AM, we set off to the freeway.
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| Pretty good book so far, just to add. |
Nothing special happened on the car ride there, except that I managed to read forty-something pages of a book I brought along called Ghostwritten by David Mitchell... without feeling carsick! When I was younger, I was able to play games on my GameBoy Advance SP and read tons of stuff in the car without feeling carsick, but as I grew up, that special ability diminished along with my innocence (just kidding... or not really). It has something to do with my vestibular system maturing, but details are boring, so let's move on. I brought the book closer to eye level this time, and I didn't feel any pinch of discomfort, which was radical. Psychedelic. Awesome.
We reached South Point, our hotel, at about 3:15 PM, if my memory serves me correctly, which makes our journey only about four hours long! Including potty breaks. Can you believe that?! NO TRAFFIC. My parents said it was most likely because it was a regular, non-holiday weekend, and it was Sunday, so most Vegas vacationing adults had to drive home for work. Aaaaaaaha, losers. (Gosh, I'm kidding; don't brick me.) Thanks to those adults, we had a smooth ride, so thank you, working men and women.
Our hotel room was decent. Passable. But knowing that it was on the 24th floor, the second highest floor, I was half-expecting a nice view... and you know how high expectations end up. On the floor. Smashed. Broken. Sizzling from defeat.
The "view" was a bit sad. South Point is a hotel that is directly south of the Vegas strip, hence, South Point, so our view from our window was, not of the strip, but of the astounding... beautifully constructed... parking lot. Oh, and the long stretch of brown desert behind it. Also, the strip was to the left. I only have a picture of the view at night, which looked definitely better, but man, I wish I saved my snap of our view in the daytime... you would've felt a little sad, too.
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| See that green glow? That's... the parking lot. |
After lazing around a little bit in our hotel room and being notoriously indecisive about where we were going to eat that evening (my family is notorious for being indecisive), we got back into the car, sat on our sore butts and drove to the Vegas strip. It was already quite empty from the outside, which is something I don't normally see when I'm in Vegas. (It was about 4 PM, by the way, so the sun was still out; just in case you got confused from my dark picture up there.)
We went to Excalibur and New York New York to play with the claw machines at their arcades, but they were all rigged as expected. I wanted to get this super cute, light brown bear at Excalibur's Fun Dungeon that was wearing a sports hoodie (I forgot what basketball team was plastered on its hoodie), but it was so wedged into the pile that I used like five dollars in vain.
DAMN IT, CLAW MACHINE.
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| "We're-Gonna-Scam-You-Out-Of-Your-Money" Dungeon |
New York New York's claw machines were worse. For starters, most of their claw machines required you to buy a card to purchase "credits," but in addition, their claws were excessively bouncy--or you could say, hope destroying. My cousins tried to get this stuffed animal, and the claw clamped on it completely, but the moment it carried the plushie up, the claw bounced around and the plushie slipped right out of the claw. This happened twice. I hate it the most when claw machines do that. They clamp the plushie, get your hopes up, but then drop the plushie like it's nobody's business and body-slam you and your hopes to the ground. Thanks a lot, machine. You're such a tease.
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| Taken from the middle of the street. |
The unsuccessful endeavor at Excalibur and New York New York made us place our bets on the machines at Midway and the Adventuredome at Circus Circus, which we planned on going the next day. And after walking around the Coca Cola store for a while, we went back to our hotel to eat dinner at the buffet, and went back to our hotel room to rest for the day.
Some pictures I took that day.
Aug 31: Day 2
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| It's a bird!! It's a plane!! It's a... half-bald Superman!!! |
After a Phở lunch, my parents dropped my cousins and me off at Circus Circus so we could lose all our mon--I mean, so we could play the claw machines at the Adventuredome and Midway.
We decided to visit the Adventuredome first. There weren't many people there, which was probably why most of the carnival-like games were closed... but that was okay, since we really wanted to tackle the claw machines anyway. We spotted one that had these stuffed things called "bun buns" that looked like smaller, similar versions of tsum tsums (hmmm... maybe a little too similar). They looked cute, so one of my cousins inserted the quarters.
Needless to say, she got one on the FIRST try.
We immediately went like, HOLY F*CK WE GOTTA TRY THIS AGAIN. I gave it a go, and after spending a few dollars, I GOT ONE TOO. And you know, just like how the process of gambling is like, once you starting winning and seeing how winning is even remotely possible, you start trying again. And again. And again. And that's exactly what we did. I spent a few more dollars and got another bun bun; my cousins spent a lot more money trying getting the dog bun bun, but failed... I was happy with my two bun buns, but my cousins wanted to try their luck in Midway.
So, naturally we flocked to Midway. There was only one more claw machine there that had bun buns, and they tried to get the dog bun bun again there but... it just did not work out. It was as if that particular type of bun bun was cursed to be absolutely unattainable. I felt kind of bad since they spent a lot of money, but they managed to get a pig bun bun, at least.
Alright, and I admit, greed got the best of me and I spent a few more dollars to get the polar bear bun bun. IT WAS TOO CUTE NOT TO GET, OKAY? It was kind of amazing how I managed to get it though, because the one I wanted was wedged in between two other bun buns. I basically spent one dollar to wiggle it out, miraculously the claw successfully grabbed it and dropped it on top of the pile, and I spent another dollar to get it. It was clear as day. Best.
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| My bun bun babies. |
After watching a couple of those free circus shows that Midway hosts and my parents coming back to meet up with us, we headed out to the car to drive to The Venetian hotel to walk through its pretty shopping center. Then, we moved on over to Caesar's Palace to walk through its pretty shopping center, too. Then, we ate dinner. Then, we went back to the strip to walk outside near The Linq. Oh, and let me take this time to tell you, the way from The Linq's parking structure to the actual Linq building was like embarking on a journey. We had to go through one building, go through a tunnel, walk into another building, use the elevator to go up, go through another building to use the elevator to go down, and some other voodoo shit to get to the actual The Linq hotel and casino. I felt like Indiana Jones.
Then when we finally walked out of The Linq to walk around, we nearly got lung cancer from the amount of smoke we could smell in the air; we should've brought an oxygen tank for the each of us. Plus, the air was uncomfortably warm. Classic Vegas desert summer weather mixed with secondhand smoking is not fun.
But besides experiencing uncomfortable weather, I saw The Linq's ferris wheel for the first time... I heard the prices are jacked up at night, but when I'm older and have a paying job and can afford the ticket, I would definitely want to go on that thing at least once. It's for 30 minutes, so why not.
Anyway, eventually feeling slightly tired, we went back to the car (going through that Indiana Jones-like experience once more) and drove back to our hotel, ending our day.
When we figured it was time to stop playing, we redeemed our tickets for more superhero voodoo dolls for my cousins and more mini ninja figures. We also got some bracelets and some erasers that were shaped like eggs and bacon LOL (I got the bacon--I love me some bacon). Shout out to the ticket redeemer guy, especially: I wanted to get another ninja figure by trading it with this chicken keyring I had just chosen, but the chicken keyring technically wasn't enough to get me the ninja. B-U-T, the guy said it was fine and allowed me to "trade" it anyway, even though I was 20 tickets short. UGH SUCH A NICE GUY. YOU ROCK.
After eating stuff to fill our stomachs, we set off on the road back home, but about halfway there, we stopped by the ghost town of Calico where we spent a good hour. The workers were friendly, and there was this elderly worker who looked like Santa Claus who said hi and came over to us to talk about the things we could do at Calico. I felt bad though, 'cause none of them seemed appealing since the weather was so freakin' swelteringly hot (not even kidding you), and we really didn't want to do anything other than walk around... and I felt bad for him for having to sit out there, too. I wished him a nice day, which was the least I could do. :( I hope he's doing fine.
Also, there was this trio of French people who saw my shirt that read "BONJOUR, AU REVOIR" on it, and one of the guys said, "Bonjour!" I didn't realize my shirt had said that, so I waved questioningly and mumbled a confused "Bonjour" back, until the guy did a little motion with his hands and said, "Your shirt! Bonjour, Au Revoir!" And I was like OHHHH, LOL. That was a cute moment... That's going into the books.
We went straight home after Calico, so we shall almost come to the end of this recap.
I feel that I missed out on a lot of walking at Vegas this time around. I didn't even visit the Planet Hollywood area, which I almost do every time I go to Vegas. But I know I probably would not have wanted to walk around anyway, since I couldn't even stand walking outside The Linq... at night... Oh, and also, it felt a little lonely without tons of people walking about the streets, assuming that's all due to the non-holiday weekend and the skin-melting weather... A nearly empty Vegas was good, but it was also a little depressing. I figure the best time to go for me, personally, would be near winter time, since people start crowding, and I get the benefit of colder weather. (I'm a cold weather kind of person. I love scarves and layering up.) I've been to Vegas for New Year's, and the stay was really comfortable and memorable.
Then when we finally walked out of The Linq to walk around, we nearly got lung cancer from the amount of smoke we could smell in the air; we should've brought an oxygen tank for the each of us. Plus, the air was uncomfortably warm. Classic Vegas desert summer weather mixed with secondhand smoking is not fun.
But besides experiencing uncomfortable weather, I saw The Linq's ferris wheel for the first time... I heard the prices are jacked up at night, but when I'm older and have a paying job and can afford the ticket, I would definitely want to go on that thing at least once. It's for 30 minutes, so why not.
Anyway, eventually feeling slightly tired, we went back to the car (going through that Indiana Jones-like experience once more) and drove back to our hotel, ending our day.
Pictures I took at The Venetian... Definitely want to stay here one day.
Sept 1: Day 3
My cousins and I decided to wake up a little early to play in the hotel's arcade again before we checked out of the hotel. After they spent 30 minutes smacking pillows on top of me and poking my back to wake me up, we got down there at about 10 AM, which was when the arcade opened. And get this: we managed to get a whopping total of 1024 tickets within 45-50 minutes... Like, holy moly, we could've definitely gotten more if we had more money and time to spend, to be honest. |
| Proof! |
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| To the ticket redeemer guy |
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| Calico Ghost Town! So western. |
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| My shirt! (That's not me, though) |
I feel that I missed out on a lot of walking at Vegas this time around. I didn't even visit the Planet Hollywood area, which I almost do every time I go to Vegas. But I know I probably would not have wanted to walk around anyway, since I couldn't even stand walking outside The Linq... at night... Oh, and also, it felt a little lonely without tons of people walking about the streets, assuming that's all due to the non-holiday weekend and the skin-melting weather... A nearly empty Vegas was good, but it was also a little depressing. I figure the best time to go for me, personally, would be near winter time, since people start crowding, and I get the benefit of colder weather. (I'm a cold weather kind of person. I love scarves and layering up.) I've been to Vegas for New Year's, and the stay was really comfortable and memorable.
OKAY, to end this post: the Vegas trip this time wasn't exactly the best--I didn't go see any shows--but it was a good opportunity taken to get out of Los Angeles. Now, it's time to get back into my comfy pants.
Oh, and Vegas,
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