Saturday, September 19th
For
the second year in a row, my early morning flight had been consolidated with a
later one. So a few more hours of sleep and a few less hours of Sin City. For
the future historians that are bound to be reading this, 2020 was the year of
the COVID, which meant a lot of brand new things. O’Hare was light, but not
completely empty...and the flight itself was full. The airport had several
displays on how good the air filtration systems are in planes, and I saw the
range of those who could barely keep their cheap paper masks on to those
wearing full hazmat looking suits.
Due to multiple cancellations through 2020, I had rolled up quite a lot of United credit. Combined with the limited direct flights from MKE to Vegas, I was forgoing my preferred airline in Southwest. United got me to Vegas 20 minutes ahead of schedule. As I deplaned, I was completely confused...I saw Ruby’s Diner...home of a former traditional final Vegas meal...then was whisked to a crazy baggage claim I had never seen before. I later realized United is housed in Terminal 3...and since I have exclusively flown Southwest to Vegas for about 10 years...I hadn’t been is this part of the airport since they redid a lot of it.
Fortune was smiling on me as my bag was one of the first off following the priority folks, and I jumped right on to the bus to the rental car terminal. Things continued going well as I made it to the Enterprise line and there were only two people in front of me. Enterprise is one of the highest rated rental places at McCarran, which is great from a service standpoint, but also meant they are a little stricter with the rules (i.e. Greg had to be present to be a second driver, they wouldn’t take a picture of his ID like Budget did.). I forwent the upgrade, and was walked out to a beautiful...Nissan Kicks. There were two more moments of horror. The Kicks has a hatchback, which means the trunk area is exposed (not good for leaving luggage in while traipsing around). The other was that the guy checking me in apologized for the smoke smell. And it wasn’t cigarette smoke he was talking about.
So that changed my immediate plans. I needed to grab a quick bite to eat, then something to cover up the trunk space. Near Silverton, I had the two options of Del Taco and In and Out Burger. While I like Del Tacos drink selection better, In and Out was allowing someone dine in seating. Did I mention it was 100 degrees outside and not conducive to car eating? I scarfed down my food and headed across the parking lot to Target to buy a sheet. But, since this was back to school season, most of the twin sheets were out of stock...turning the last corner, I found one remaining black sheet for $10. Then hit the massive check out lines. Fortune was with me again, as a clerk pulled me to the side and checked me out since I had the one item and was using a credit card. Made it back to the car before anyone decided to break into it.
My next plan for the day was to head out to Summerlin. One of the downtown breweries we had yet to hit had opened up a second taproom, and I wanted to take a look. I parked the car underground at Tivoli Square and walked over to Hop Nuts. Historically, they had focused on hoppier beers, but looking at the current tap list had revealed that they had branched out a bit more. I pulled a flight of five of varying styles (hefe, amber, NEIPA, Belgian and BA stout). All were good with the stout as the standout.
Nearby was a shopping center, so I decided I’d try to knock out a few souvenirs before climbing behind a wheel. Jack wanted a small Raiders helmet, and Katie wanted a UNLV sweatshirt. Luck was not on my side...REI had neither, and I got blocked off from the nearby Target. I walked back to the car and drove to the North Outlet mall to resume my search. Pulling into the parking garage, the overhead signs indicated over 100 open spaces, but that didn’t stop people from screeching to halts and holding up traffic anytime they saw a person potentially walking back to their car. Eventually I made it to the roof and parked...then wandered around for a while and came back empty handed. To make like exciting, the same principle of long lines was going on coming in the garage, and I was almost run into head on twice by idiots who decided rather than wait in a line, they would gun it around the line into the other lane.
I had passed a Costco right before the outlet mall, so I decided to roll the dice and see if they had a sweatshirt. Turns out this particular Costco didn’t carry clothing, but they did sell twelve pack liters of bottled water for about $6, so I grabbed one and then saw the checkout line sneaking around the store (about 40 people in line). I decided the few $ in savings wasn’t worth the lost time and left, heading to home base for the first few nights.
Rates for downtown were pretty reasonable, but nothing beat the Cal. In the past, we had only stayed at it’s sister property a few times, so we felt we were likely not going to go wrong. I parked in the garage and walked it...where I was directed to stand behind a line, remove my mask, and have my temperature checked. I passed and was able to check in. I was directed to the elevators, where I hit the button for the 13th floor. I was surprised they actually had a 13th floor and was more surprised it really was the third floor. The room was large and clean with a nicely modeled bathroom and shower. I did bang my head getting into it the next morning, because they must assume people staying there average about 5 foot 6.
My first mission downtown was to head to the D. They have the last working Sigma Derby machine in town, and it runs on quarters. Historians, did you know in 2020 we also had a national coin shortage? So, if you brought in $20 worth of quarters, they’d give you a $20 bill and a hat. The night before, I emptied my piggy bank, but only had $13 or so in quarters. I was able to get the last $7 by buying quarters off the daughter for real money. Anyway, I got my temperature checked again to enter the D, and secured my hat.
Next up, I walked over to Bangers Brewing, which is a popular stop for us. Under COVID restrictions, you couldn’t just walk up to the bar and order...wait staff has to seat you and bring you your beer. Oh, and you need to order food too. So, I bought a $1 bag of pretzels and got to try three new samples (Kolsch, Watermelon wheat and strong ale). Nothing really stood out this time...so it was on to finding dinner.
I walked Fremont, noting a lot of restaurants were closed. I ended back up at the Cal (temperature check), but their café wasn’t really what I was after, so I headed back down Fremont. I looked in at Evel Pie and Pizza Rock, but the lines were more than I wanted to deal with. I wandered over to the Container Park (a new experience), but nothing caught my eye. Finally, I settled on Whiskey Licker above Binions. Known for their bar (closed due to COVID), I got on the waiting list and was seated within 5 minutes. Service here is incredibly friendly, they have a decent beer list, and good sandwiches. Plus, I had a view of Fremont while eating, which can be entertaining. I ended up going with the chicken sandwich- grilled chicken with bacon, avocado and a fried egg. Delicious indeed!
To rehydrate, I bought a $1 liter of water at the ABC store. At this point, I had been in town almost 10 hours and hadn’t played a thing, so I went back to the Cal to try my luck and get my temperature checked. I played a little VP for a while, and go a nice stiff drink for my troubles. Unfortunately, I also got “in trouble” for having my mask down for too long. Apparently the rules are...take a sip, then mask back on. There was nobody within 25 feet of me, but rules are rules...and the security guard was actually apologetic about it. Which reminds me...the Cal was dead. For a Saturday night , I literally had a huge section to myself. They generally cater to the Hawaiian crowd, and with the ridiculous restrictions in place over there...nobody is traveling to the mainland right now. Bedtime...
Day one stats: 20,441 steps (9.1 miles), 4 temperature checks, 1 free drink, 8 new beers, lost $5.
Sunday, September 20th
I
got up to take a run through the downtown area. I hadn’t had the pleasure
before, so was looking forward to it. It had its moments to be sure. With the
downturn in the economy, the local homeless population has exploded again, so I
ran by a number of those down on their luck. A second issue tied to COVID is
after the shutdowns earlier this year, and with all of the concerns around the
virus, they really are having a tough time getting people to visit. To attract
visitors, hotels are unbelievably cheap. Unfortunately, cheap hotels and
legalized pot, coupled with nearby states with extremely tight restrictions
have been a recipe for attracting a newer crowd to Vegas. I mentioned the car
and the weed smell already. That odor was everywhere downtown and I passed
several people talking about going out and doing weed while walking around the
night before. Rental cars are getting trashed, rooms are getting trashed, and
Fremont at 6:30 in the morning was a disaster zone. Trash everywhere. Props to
the crews that go out and get it cleaned up...their work is cut out for them.
I made it back from my run and got my temperature checked...then I decided to run over to the Donut Bar for a breakfast donut. Not having learned from my previous visit, I ordered two. However, with COVID, there wasn’t a place to eat, so I had to carry them back to my room...after my temperature check. I made it through one and a half.
Sometimes, the eyes are bigger than the stomach...
I was to pick up Greg from the airport, so I checked his flight status and was puzzled to see it was cancelled. I felt surely that was wrong, but looked up Love Field's website and saw it was cancelled there as well. I texted him and he confirmed the bad news...but he had secured a flight a few hours later.
I decided to use the time to finish the souvenir shopping. First, I wanted a few pops and iced teas, so I decided to go to a grocery store and figured I’d go to one on the south strip. Planning was not my strong suit this trip...after the 15 minute ride, I realized I forgot the sheet and my sanitizer back in the room. So, 15 minutes back downtown and a temperature check later, I grabbed the stuff and tried again. I headed to a different Costco, where the did have some UNLV hoodies, but no crew necks. And no 12 pack of big waters. Undeterred, I tried Sam's Club next. Still no luck, but I popped into the Walmart next door...paydirt! I even had to call Katie since there were choices. With plenty of time left, I headed over to Dicks near Sunset Station to get the Raiders helmet. Souvenirs complete.
The spoils of victory at Smiths...
For
lunch, I didn’t feel the need to go too big. Tried to get to Del Taco again,
but they were drive thru only, and I don’t think even that was working. So, I
went across the street to Sunset Station got a temperature check, and went to
their Fatburger. I stayed healthy (ha ha) by ordering a turkey burger. The food
takes a while and is a bit overpriced for what you get, but still is
satisfying. I then hit the machines for a little bit, lost a few bucks, and
then looked at my watch. Too early for the airport, but I wanted to do
something else. I settled on checking out South Point. The casino there turned
out to be pretty full, so I ended up wandering for a few minutes, then heading
to McCarran.
Big mistakey of the hour...as I got into the airport, I wasn’t recalling what Terminal Southwest flew into. The signs said T1 and T3, but didn’t identify the airlines, so I gambled and lost. Worse yet, the two aren’t connected, and parking rates start at minute 1, so I paid my $3 and moved to the other terminal. Found Greg, and we were back on our way.
Our first target was the new brewery in the Art District, Beer District Brewing. They had 21 of their beers on tap, and you could do a flight of 6. Due to COVID, you need to order food to drink, so they offer a $1 grilled cheese...which was actually quite tasty. The beers were all winners (2 Scotch ales, a doppelbock, a stout, a white stout, and a fruit beer). The CocoNillaCan Stout was incredible and the best of the bunch.
Is there a happier sight?
After nearly turning the wrong way down a one way street, I got us over to another section of the Art district. We were going to try...but after taking a quick perusal of the place, went over to the new taproom for Crafthaus to try their Oktoberfest. Solid stuff! With plenty of beer tasting now complete, we went back to the Cal to drop off Greg’s stuff and get a temperature check.
Hooray, beer!
We moseyed over to Fremont. We started at the Plaza with a temperature check, then hit the silver strike machines. With $20 buy-in’s, I pulled out one strike and Greg got two. Next, we ended up at Four Queens. No temperature check here, and we sat down at some VP machines and held out for a while, breaking even for the run. I got two drinks for the trouble, then it was dinner time. Greg had scored $50 in comps at Chicago Brewing Company. We hadn’t been in years, and so we got a beer and some pizzas. The pizza was solid, as was the Hefe.
Chicago Brewing Beer and Pizza
We wrapped up the evening with a temperature check at Cal and another round of VP and drink. Lots packed in the day!
Day 2: 18,683 steps (8.3 miles), 7 temperature checks, 3 free drinks, 7 new beers, lost $19
Monday, September 21st
With another night down, we headed out onto Fremont one more time. This trash wasn’t quite as heavy this time, and we walked back to the Donut Bar. This time I limited myself to one donut, which was the way to go. And they had a small area outside for eating, so we didn’t have to haul the donuts back to the Cal.
Only one of these is mine this time.
After food, we got a temperature check and then needed to kill a little time since we had a noon lunch reservation. First, we hopped into the car and drove to Total Wine and More in Summerlin to look at what they had to offer. Grabbed a few beers, then headed back to Cal for a temperature check and a little time on the machines. Lost a few bucks playing VP, but scored a screwdriver. Behind us was the video Craps game. How the workers at the Cal don’t lose their minds listening to video cries of “Press the button!” all day is a mystery. And that got us to lunchtime.
For lunch, we had settled on Able Baker Brewing. They were a favorite last year and had a number of new and interesting things on tap. We each went with a flight (hefe, Oktoberfest, Bock, and a BA Quad...and a bonus stout), and I chose the fish tacos...which were great. As with last year, all five beers I tried were top notch with the Quad as the winner. Feeling pleased, it was time to check into home base #2.
Able Baker...probably my vote for best brewery in town
Many, many years ago (over 20), we were a week or so out from our trip when I got an offer for rooms at the Bellagio for $120 a night, which was about $20 more a night that wherever we were staying. The group at the time decided the extra cost and proximity to the start of the trip were not worth the hassle of changing, so we didn’t...and I had regretted that since as we never saw rates that low again. That changed with 2020 and COVID, as rates fell as low as $50. We jumped on it, and by arrival time, our room was ready.
The Bellagio still is in great shape and a beautiful property. Although there were no temperature checks to be had, there were plenty of hand sanitizer stations, hand washing stations, and stations where you could take gloves and a paper mask. I saw one lady help herself to several paper masks. Which, having tried one, makes no sense to me. In the room, they provided sanitizer, two cloth masks and a little “key” for things like pressing elevator buttons.
Home base for the final stretch
After dropping our bags, we headed north up the strip. We cut through Caesars, Mirage, and TI, then got a refresh of our Wynn cards and sat down at a machine in Encore for a while. I finished ahead a few dollars and got a free drink. One the way out, one of the cocktail ladies had two Coronas and offered them to us since her quarry had left. I took one and realized my palate has changed dramatically over the years. Corona and Coors Light were my former Vegas go to drinks. I couldn’t even make it through half of this one...
Don't try this at home...
Greg and I had several dinner offerings on the south end of the strip, so we started heading back south. We cut through Palazzo, Venetian, Casino Royals, Harrahs (home of a cake vending machine...), Linq, and Flamingo. Cromwell was closed (as were Planet Ho and Park). We also cut through Bally’s and Paris, then across through Crystals to NYNY. We looked at Nine Fine Irishmen, but passed since it was a little busy due to the football game. Did I mention the Raiders had moved to Vegas and were hosting their first MNF game ever? With no one in attendance? All the fans and those from New Orleans were stuck watching it on TV.
The LAS VEGAS RAIDERS!
We settled on going to Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill in the MGM. One small problem...the reward we wanted to use had to be printed. So we found a business center in the MGM and spent $4 on internet and printing...and I spent 20 minutes trying to redo my password because I was paranoid after using a public workstation.
The menu was still solid...we both went with Rigatoni with a Bolognese sauce, which was huge and phenomenal. Could barely finish it, but so happy with our choice. I couldn’t even bring myself to buy a water to rehydrate since I was so full. On the way back, we did stop in Cosmo, where I lost my $20 buy in, but got one drink...which I could barely squeeze in my body. We rolled back to Bellagio and called it a night
Fabulous
On the way back, we also experienced a new terrible phenomenon. Apparently idiots are renting handicapped scooters and riding them up and down the strip sidewalks since walking it too hard or something. My favorite part was when two of them came out of the elevator next to Cosmo along with a blast of weed smoke. Vegas needs to address these things quickly.
One of the MGM safety stations...
Day 3: 23,571 steps (10.5 miles), 2 temperature checks, 3 free drinks, 5 new beers, lost $21
Ah, Vegas. What will you think of next?
Tuesday, September 22nd
Sadly, the final day. After the pasta, I slept like a rock and was surprised to wake up and find it was nearly 7:00. I threw on my gear to run the strip a little bit. I headed south, which kept me outside, but up and down several flights of stairs. I also made a tactical error by avoiding one set of stairs in the Aria driveway...not realizing by staying on the road, I had to run on the actual strip for about 50 yards until there was a suitable place to get back on the sidewalk. I somehow survived, though my watch reset and went back in time to Sunday. So I look like I was a work out fiend that day in my Garmin history...
After the huge dinner, I really didn’t need breakfast, so we decided to just head south. We learned there’s a covered walkway between Bellagio and Vdara under the non-functional monorail (thanks COVID!). It’s actually a quick walk. We kept going all the way down to Mandalay Bay. We each had some free play to use, so $25 of that later, I was walking around with an extra $20.
Secret walkways...well...maybe not so secret...
We did mosey back up the strip, cutting through the Trop (recently reopened) and MGM. Then stopped in at the brand new Target. Where we got...a temperature check! And a bottle of Coke Zero for me.
You can never go wrong with a Target nearby...
Wanting to keep it “light” for lunch, we decided to go find one of our favorite fast food places in the Valley, Habit Burger. We drove out to Sunset Station (with a small detour into the heart of the UNLV campus since I made another bad tactical decision ). Rectified, we soon were eating in the air conditioning (still 100 degrees). With some time to kill, we wandered over to Sunset Station and got our temperature checked. We played at a few of the VP machines...I failed to quit when I was way ahead and ended up with a $21 drink. Lost a little more cash at a video BJ machine, then called it quits.
Our main reason for being out in Henderson again was to try yet one more new brewery...Mojave Brewing. We wandered in and perused the tap list. I went with a lovely flight of four (Blonde, Cream, Cider and Tripel)...all really well done with the vanilla blonde the winner. Knowing traffic could get crazy (spoiler alert, it really didn’t with the low capacity), we headed back to the strip.
Still going strong at Mojave!
We dropped the car back off at Bellagio, with our intent of going to dinner at NYNY around 6:00. I popped the one beer I grabbed at the Total Wine as we walked downstairs. We tried a little free play at Bellagio first, but I ran into a number of problems getting it to work (at one point, I was being told my free play was active at machine 71702...whatever that was). While futzing around, the waitress came by, but we were so preoccupied, we missed our drink. Eventually it came through, and while I recovered some of the buy in, it wasn’t the greatest session. I bought in with more free play at another machine and did a little better - 80% return overall between the two.
As we moved south, we did try our luck at a few machines in Aria. I had a little more luck here...and the drink offer came when I was prepared. Up a few dollars from the buy in, we headed out to grab food at Nine Fine Irishmen. Greg had secured a 2-1 meal offer, and went to go collect the voucher. To our horror, we learned that it was currently closed during the week. We also had a 2-1 offer at Lupo in Mandalay, and checking the website, saw they had openings. After walking down there...they had a lot of openings, since they too were closed during the week. Thanks COVID!
We had passed RiRa, which is the Irish restaurant in Mandalay, and knew it was open. I still had the hankering for Shepherds Pie, and consulting the menu to make sure Greg had something he'd eat, we got a table. With tons of liquor and Irish rock star paraphernalia (Rory Gallagher?), the setting was right. I got to try an Innis and Gunn I had never had, and the Pie was excellent. A reasonable portion size too!
Great food and atmosphere at RiRa
We started the trek back north. During a short pit stop in Aria, I won $7, then we finished the night in Bellagio playing some video poker. I turned $100 of free play into $98 of real money and secured one last drink. Then, it was sadly time to pack up and turn in.
EPILOGUE: Wednesday, September 23rd
Postscript:
