Anniversary in Vegas 2008

The flight in to Vegas was absolutely nasty for someone with a head cold, but as that had nothing to do with the service we received, we have a very favorable opinion of Frontier. The seats are certainly rather posh for a discount airline -- with plenty of leg room, wide seats, and leather upholstery -- and those alone count for most of one's experience on a plane. So, Frontier is a go in the future.

The shuttle service from the airport, on the other hand, was so incredibly jarring that my already strained sinuses twinged with pain every time the driver slammed on the breaks. And of course, we were the last ones to leave the shuttle, so I had to endure the better part of an hour of this. Considering that our previous experience with Grey Lines included leaving me behind while my purse, luggage, phone, and husband were driven off, I don't think we'll be using them again.

Our first impressions of our hotel, on the other hand, are very favorable. We're staying at the Desert Rose Resort this year, which is located just off the Strip, behind the Hooters Casino with the MGM and the monorail within extremely easy walking distance, much more so than our daily trek from the Stratosphere to anything else last year. It's more of a family-oriented place, too, but not in a kiddie way; the environment is much more laid back and relaxed than any of the casino hotels, due mostly to the fact that it's significantly smaller. It doesn't hurt that the basic room is a veritable suite, with a full kitchen, living room, dining area, and separate bedroom, two closets and TVs, and a balcony. There's also onsite laundry (complete with a laundry basket in every room), a decent-sized pool that we hope to try out tomorrow, a guest social every evening in the lobby, and FREE BREAKFAST. Yes, that's right, there are free breakfasts in Vegas at hotels that are reasonably priced. Mostly, this place rocks.

The only thing we had the energy to do this evening was to try out Battista's Hole in the Wall, which we sadly missed last year. Getting there was a bit of a mess, as the monorail broke down for about 20 minutes, but the food was decent, if a tad bit expensive. It probably would have been more worth our while if we had taken advantage of the complimentary house wine and cappuccino, but we don't drink either of those beverages. A wandering accordianist came by our table all-too briefly, and played the Wisconsin Badgers fight song when we told him where we were from. I would have much preferred if he had played something romantic as well, as this is our anniversary trip, but eh...he had a big restaurant to cover. Also, if anyone ever sits in the corner of the chicken coop cubby thing, we left our mark on the wall there next to umpteen million other scrawls of commemorative graffiti.

The complimentary breakfast at our hotel is rather sparse -- cereal and bagels with your choice of juice or coffee -- but it's still free food, so we were pleased, just not wowed.

Our first stop of the day was the Fashion Show Mall to get our half-price Carvinal Buffet passes. Unfortunately, Tix4Tonight is no longer offering passes for the Carnival Buffet, so we ended up standing in line for 15 minutes in the hot sun for nothing. Thirsty, we sought out the food court, had some diet Cokes from Wendy's, and found a good deal on bottled water and gift ideas at the ABC souvenir shop -- no relation to the TV network. We plan on refilling our water bottles all throughout our trip, which should save us a ton of money in the long run.

We did have a bit of luck with the huge Super Slotto machine in Treasure Island, which we wandered through on our way to and from the mall. The machine has benches for two and a big, colorful bubble of lotto balls in the middle of the screens. Added to our winnings from NYNY, we're up $27.49 on the slot machines so far today!

Next, we headed over to the NYNY casino for some exploring and lunch. We were very happy with Greenberg's Deli where we snagged a full meal with dessert for under $10. We scouted out the entrance to the Manhattan Express Roller Coaster for when we plan on going in a couple of days, and saw a hilarious version of the Statue of Liberty. The casino floor is rather nice with some good ambiance -- construction aside -- but it was a little disappointing that there wasn't a sky ceiling like at the Venetian or Paris. Still, very nice, and much better than the quick air-conditioned link between MGM and Excalibur that we used it for last year. We'll probably play slots there a little more in a few days.

After cleaning up at the hotel, we set off for the Rio for dinner and Penn and Teller. Despite our lack of vouchers, we ate at the Carnival World Buffet, and were surprisingly disappointed. We thought the food was better last year, meaning that we either had a distorted opinion of our first Vegas buffet experience, or the quality has gone down hill. There were some lovely items -- the shredded chicken for tacos and the chicken wings -- but most of the meat was fatty, the pizza was mediocre, the fare was varied but plain, and everything was lukewarm after the two minutes it took to get from the serving tray to our table. Decent, lots of different styles of food, but boring and mediocre, especially for the price. We agreed that our memories of the Luxor buffet are much better than what we had tonight, and it's five bucks cheaper.

Penn and Teller, on the other hand, were great. Our old favorite acts were there -- including the goldfish trick and the magic bullet trick -- and some interesting new ones were added -- such as Chad's new favorite, the nailgun trick, and the rubber ball that I'm convinced is controlled by magnets. The guy behind us was rather rude, complaining about how he "had" to be there early and how everyone signing the envelope for the psychic trick was an idiot for going up on stage, but fortunately he was quiet for the show itself. We were also disappointed that Penn disappeared after the show instead of sticking around for autographs, but Teller was there at least, and we got him to sign our season one box set of B.S.

After the show, we hung around the casino for the Masquerade in the Sky and were handsomely rewarded for our patience with beads flung from above and nearly $60 that we wrested from the slot machines. We subsequently lost some of our gains at MGM and the Luxor, bringing our running total of winnings to $50.43.

We had a nice dessert at the Luxor, then walked back to our hotel via the Excalibur and the Tropicana, where we are currently crashing after a very long and profitable day.

We got a very late start today, waking up around noon, so our schedule has shifted around a bit to accomodate. First off, we had hoped to visit the off-strip museums today, but the Liberace Museum isn't open on Mondays. Then, after some essential errends for missing toiletries were taken care of, it was too late to get to the Atomic Testing Museum. So, we're making tomorrow into one big museum day; hopefully, we can fit all three in. Other changes included skipping several items on today's list on general principles -- Augustus Cafe and Mandalay Place stores were too expensive, plus Lush Puppy was disappointingly sparse -- but considering we built in a lot more flexibility to our itinerary this time around, that's perfectly okay.

We started off the day by taking the tram to Caesar's Palace, where we had lunch at the Cypress Way food court. Like so many places here in Vegas, the food was good but overpriced, and the wait in line to order was horrendous. Then, when we finally got our food, Chad's burger was wrong and he ended up having to scrape off all the unwanted condiments. The strawberry lemonade that I had, though, was very nice, and I made sure I got my money's worth with a refill.

We didn't have as much time for shopping at the Forum Shops as we would have liked, mostly because I wasn't feeling so hot at that point, but we did manage to tool around the FAO Schwartz. Chad was delighted to see that the Trojan Horse dominating the outside is no longer filled with Thomas the Tank toys, and I wanted to buy up all the Ugly Dolls in their huge display on the ground floor. We'll probably go back to the Forum again before the trip is done, so hopefully more details to follow.

Next, we walked (yes, walked, our feet are still feeling it) down to the Miracle Mile shops inside Planet Hollywood. Joy of joys, they haven't been completely remodeled, as there are still sections with the old Aladin's Desert Passage facing, complete with Venetian-type sky. It actually looks really, really nice in there, and there are a wide enough variety of shops that every budget can be accomodated. While we were there, Chad picked up a belt from Urban Outfitters, as he had forgotten his at the hotel this morning and his shorts were at a serious risk of falling down.

Continuing our ill-advised pedestrian odessy, we made our way down to M&M's World. We were expecting a huge store with tons of M&M's memorobilia -- and we were not disappointed -- but we were pleasantly surprised by the 3D M&M's movie that we stumbled upon on the third floor. All in all, the place is very cheesy, and kids run rampant, but it was a cute place that doesn't have to cost you a dime, unless you want a souvenir.

Finally, we rounded out our shopping by heading down to Mandalay Bay, and were disappointed by the lack of anything affordable, plus the unfortunate discovery that we'd been to the doggie boutique I'd been so looking forward to seeing. And the one thing I wanted to buy -- a DVD for dogs -- they weren't selling, even though the bloody thing was playing on several monitors in the store. Really disappointing, but the Excalibur made up for it when we found an adorable Knight Light -- he protects you while you sleep! -- for Kai at the Dragon's Lair gift shop.

At various points throughout the day, Chad and I had been playing the slots to rest our feet, and the great luck we had yesterday has completely dried up. By the time we got down to Treasure Island for our serious evening gambling, our gains from the Rio were nearly gone, and by the time we called it quits, we were down to $16.43 in winnings. Good news is we're still in the black, but today hurt nonetheless.

Dinner was at Kahunaville, primarily because we'd received a 20% off coupon from a hula girl yesterday. The ambiance was great, as you had your choice of noisy party bar or relaxed and quiet dining room with a periodic fountain show. As we're more of the save-the-eardrums type, we gladly chose the dining room. If only the food had lived up to the atmosphere; Chad's teriyaki steak was either very fatty or not cooked properly, and the mushroom chicken I ordered was odd -- not good, not bad, just something I'm not used to that I can't put my finger on. Overall it was okay, but not some place we'll probably come back to, unless maybe for lunch since it's hard to screw up a burger. I do, however, love the LED lei we got for a $10 donation to a cancer charity.

We rounded out the night with dessert at the MGM Studio Cafe, which was absolutely delightful. Chad had a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, and I had the raspberry-kiwi sorbet. We were both very pleased with the portions; my bowl was so huge I couldn't finish it with Chad's help, and his cheesecake was so rich that he wouldn't have wanted more than the cute round thing he got. We made sure to leave the waiter a nice tip, too, for being so friendly.

What a successful day! We managed to visit all three of the museums we wanted to see with minimal fuss, though there were some transportation issues.

Our first stop was the Liberace Museum, as the free shuttle left somewhat early in the day. We listened to an interesting conversation between the Liberace Museum shuttle ambassador and fellow museum-goers about the various shows and the state of old-school Vegas, which was a hoot in and of itself. The museum didn't disappoint, either; Chad and I know jack squat about Liberace and his music, but we were highly entertained by all the ostentation and rhinestones. Car guys will love the car collection (though they might weep in dismay at all the mirrored tiles), history and music buffs will love the piano collection, collectors and junkers will love the antiques, and fashionistas and Vegas fans will love the costume collection. This is a great place to visit, though the gift shop was pricey and the shuttle schedule is a little sparse; we had the option of waiting an hour for the return shuttle or hopping the bus back to the strip, and we chose the latter.

Next on our list was the Atomic Testing Museum, which proved to be the more difficult one to get to despite being closer than Liberace. It's right next door to Terribles, and neither place has a shuttle, so we had to catch a cab. It was a good thing we did, too, because the cab we rode in had a coupon book we hadn't seen anywhere else, and it contained a $2 off admission to the museum, along with a discount for the gift shop! Considering the admission was already a reasonable $12, the discount made the whole experience a real steal. In fact, the Atomic Testing Museum is so incredibly in-depth (it's run by the Smithsonian, so no surprise there) that we easily spent two and a half hours there, and we still felt rushed. Of course, we're nerds, so this sort of thing is fascinating to us, and we would have loved to have spent a few more hours to take everything in. If this is your bag, then you must come here, and set aside half a day when you do so. It's well worth it.

We grabbed dinner at the Victorian Room at Bill's Gambling Hall, which we'd wanted to try last trip and didn't. Both of us had the New York Strip special for $14.99, and we felt we got a good deal. The meat, unlike the rest of our meals so far, had a managable amount of fat on it, and was prepared wonderfully. Our waiter was brisque and effecient, so service was no-frills but not unpleasant. This place definitely gets our recommendation.

For our final museum of the day, we went to Madame Tussauds.  The tickets were fairly reasonable with the $4 off coupon that seems to be availiable in any of the multitude of coupon books one sees everywhere.  The tour isn't guided, but there is a guide book availiable for $5.  The trip starts out with fairly well known stars and starlets -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jole -- and continues on to various rock stars, sports legends, and Vegas icons. There were even statues of Master Chief from Halo and Spiderman. Customers are encouraged to touch and interact with the statues for photos, and it was fairly easy to find other tourists to take photos of us so that we could be together in some shots. Midway through there was a "thrill ride" that the staff hyped heavily with the help of various serious looking warning signs, which were more disturbing than the actual ride. There was a single path with some interesting lighing and haunted house-type sets with actors popping out of corners and doors and muttering to themselves and the tourists while following them around or walking in circles. That part was definitely eh, but the rest of the visit was well worth the trip for the photo opportunities.

After Madame Tussaud's, we wandered through the Venetian and Palazzo shops before returning to our hotel briefly to get showered and changed. Our last adventure of the night was having cocktails at the Wynn's Parasol Down, a colorfully decorated bar with a patio overlooking a beautiful waterfall outside. Nether Chad nor I had ever had alcohol before, so we limited ourselves to one drink a piece and drank them slowly. I had the Cucumber Lavender Mojito -- started out tasting very strongly of lime (good!) and mint with definite cucumber overtones, then turned somewhat bitter, and finally became tolerable again once the ice had melted -- and Chad had the Raspberry Limonata -- which he found to be very good with a twinge of alcohol in the throat that mine lacked. It didn't become apparent that I was tipsy until I tried standing up, so we have now discovered that I cannot take my alcohol very well, though Chad didn't appear to experience any ill effects.

To our surprise and delight, midway through our drinks we noticed the lights dim and a show begin outside. Two giant, mechanical flowers unfolded outside above the waterfall and floated in time to a piano piece that I should know but cannot recall at this time. Turns out we had stumbled across the Lake of Dreams, which runs every half hour in the evenings, and caught their last show of the night.

After drinks, we hurried to the monorail before it closed for the night and returned to our hotel.

Today, our schedule was pretty flexible, so we went with the flow for the most part. The only two things that were essential were dinner at the Luxor buffet and the NYNY roller coaster.

We started out the day by visiting one of our favorite places in Vegas, Roxy's Diner. We fell in love with the place last year when we stayed at the Stratosphere, and despite our lack of things we wanted to see on the north end of the strip, we had to make a special trip just for this place. It's a little 50's diner near the escalator going up to the tower proper, and it's really fun. The prices are decent, the food is great, and the atmosphere...well, every fifteen minutes or so, one or two of the waiters and waitresses burst into song -- today we heard Expressway to Your Heart, Can't Help Falling in Love, and Take a Letter Maria. You can tell that these people love working there as they smile and joke around and ham it up for the patrons. Love, love, love this place, and everyone who likes a fun and silly time should definitely go here. Doesn't hurt that the food is also a good value for the strip.

Next, we stopped into the Saharah for a little shopping and a little bit of slots before hopping on the monorail. Our intention was to go back to the Wynn, but at the last moment we decided to go to the Star Trek Experience early instead. For some background, this is why we started coming to Vegas, and we are hard core Trekkies. Just before we left, we learned that the Experience will be closing this year, and our visit was a little bittersweet. We made sure to read everything in the museum, went on both rides, and bought as many souvenirs as we could. Outside the Promenade, the staff had made an area for visitors to post their farewells, and we amused ourselves reading the heartfelt goodbyes, and the berating of the Hilton for not renewing the lease. Hopefully, the outpouring of support will save the attraction, but if not, we all had good times there. We'll be going back Friday for lunch at Quark's.

By the time we were done at the experience, it was getting a little late, so we went back to the hotel to drop off our souvenirs, check in with the family back home, and head out to NYNY. The line for the Manhattan Express Roller Coaster wasn't too bad, maybe ten or fifteen minutes, and the ride itself was pretty exciting. We've ridden wilder ones, but seeing Vegas at night, upside-down was pretty cool in and of itself. It was pretty expensive, though, so if we do it again, we'll be sure to get the all day passes and go as many times as we can stand; all day passes also get to jump the line after the first time through. But, it was worth it, especially after the $4 off coupon we found in the invaluable taxi cab coupon book.

Then followed dinner at the Luxor buffet. Formerly known as Pharoh's Pheast, now called MORE, the Luxor buffet is phenomenal. A little smaller than Carnival but with the same variety, this buffet is much higher quality. The whole thing was just delicious. There are standards that you can get anywhere -- like spaghetti and your regular carved meats -- but there were also special dishes that set the buffet apart and give it a unique quality -- like the wonderful talapia and the Cajun cream pasta. I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't any swordfish like last year, but the talapia made up for it for sure. I was stuffed by the time we left, and felt that it was money well-spent.

We decided to check out more of Mandalay Bay and the Tropicana in our quest to find more Monopoly slot machines, which we did well on earlier in the day at the Saharah. We failed in that respect, but we did make some great gains on our winnings after some fun bonus rounds, putting us at $69.77 in the black. Woo hoo!

We capped off the evening with some dessert at the Sherwood Cafe in the Excalibur, mostly because we knew it was open 24 hours a day. As such, it was quite busy just after midnight, and the quality of service reflected that. The wait for a table wasn't horrible -- about 7 or 10 minutes -- but it took even longer for the waiter to take our order, and we weren't the only ones who were kept waiting. The brownie sundaes we got were okay, though, and about what you'd expect to pay for dessert at Applebee's. We might try this place again when it isn't so busy.

Today is our anniversary, so we decided to do some of the more refined things on our list, starting with the Belagio, which we completely skipped last year. As we were walking in, we were treated to one of the famous fountain shows, featuring "God Bless the USA"; the choice of song was kind of cheesy, but the water jets were very impressive. We snagged brunch at the Belagio Cafe, located inside the Conservatory. As to be expected at the Belagio, the food was a little expensive, but I was happy with my French toast and Chad enjoyed his burger. Once full, we explored the Conservatory, which we didn't know about before we stumbled upon in, and snapped a bunch of pictures of the Americana theme -- complete with miniature Mt. Rushmore and giant baby eagles -- they have going this summer; we think this explains the choice of music they had outside.

After buying a few things in the gift shop, we headed over to the Belagio Gallery of Fine Art. They're currently featuring modernist painters, which was a little disappointing because I was looking forward to seeing some Rembrant's and Van Gogh's, but we had a good time anyway. I particularly liked the Georgia O'Keefe pieces, which seemed very stark and vivid, yet soft. That and it was easy to tell when she was painting a picture of a deer skull, whereas I really can't appreciate the vast majority of cubism. Still, for $15, it was an okay experience.

Next, we attempted to return to the Wynn yet again, but got sidetracked by souvenir shopping. First we tried the Forum shops that we missed last time, but didn't find anything to our taste, so we tried to catch the Fall of Atlantis show. Unforunately, it was closed for some unknown reason, so instead we got a snack at the Cheesecake Factory right there. Great cheesecake there, though most probably know this already since it's a national chain. Still, we've never been, so it was a good discovery.

Continuing our shopping habit, we walked over to the Fashion Show Mall again, where we picked up a bunch of gifts for our family. Then, finally, we made it to the Wynn, but our time was short so we only played the slots a little before heading back to our room to change. Good thing we did, though, because we won over $40, bringing our winnings back up to a more-than-respectable $69.12. Hooray for cows from space!

By the time we got back to our room, my feet were hurting like a muther, but I foolishly thought I'd recovered enough by the time we left to try out my heels with my nice dress; considering we had reservations at the Effiel Tower Restaurant, I don't really reget my choice, as I don't think they'd appreciate Crocs at that swank place, but my feet hated me by the end of the night.

On the plus side, dinner was absolutely fantastic. We were whisked away in the elevator and had a minimal wait for our table, thanks to the reservations, even though it seemed they were a little disorganized that night. We were seated toward the back of the restaurant, but every table had a decent view of the strip and the Bellagio fountains, and we were treated to shows several times during our dinner, though obviously without musical accompaniment. Our waiter was very friendly, though the bread guy was a little hard to understand with his rapid and accented speech; I almost ate the butter, thinking he had brought us more cheese. As to be expected, dinner was VERY expensive, but it was some of the best tasting food we've ever had. I had the couscous -- which turned out to be an appetizer, but oh well -- and Chad had the fillet mignon. For dessert, we split a chocolate soufflé. We’d definitely recommend this place to anyone and everyone looking for a nice, romantic dinner.

After dinner, we headed to Napoleon’s, a champagne and cigar bar inside Paris . The place was extremely loud due to the dueling piano act -- the cocktail waitress wore earplugs, and we ordered by pointing at the menu -- but it was very, very fun; we sang along with the songs, all of which were audience requests, and enjoyed the song wars between Led Zeppelin tunes and chick songs. Chad and I didn’t like the drinks we got very much, a concoction called a “French Kiss” that we suspect was a bad chocolate martini, but we’re not connoisseurs by any stretch of the imagination, so folks who are used to alcohol might like what we had more than we did; good news is I didn’t get tipsy this time. By the time the piano act was over -- somewhere around 1:00 a.m. -- it was definitely time for bed.

To start off our final full day in Vegas, we wandered over to the MGM and took part in the CBS Television City test audience program, where they pay you in discounts and coupons to watch TV for 45 minutes and answer a bunch of questions. The program we were testing was a new game show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris called American Know It All. The show was rather boring, despite our love for Harris, but hopefully our feedback will help improve it or kill it before it makes it on the air.

After that, we headed back to Quark’s for one last farewell to our favorite attraction. Chad had the Class-M Pizza, M is for Meat, and I had my usual Warbird, which is a very tasty pair of grilled chicken breasts with rice and veggies. Mine was a little overdone, and strangely flat, but still quite good.

After lunch, while we were picking up a stuffed Trek bear for our niece, we signed up to get our picture taken on the bridge of the Enterprise set. This turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve made this trip, as we not only got a kick ass picture out of it, but we also got to play on the bridge. I made sure I sat in all the important chairs and poke as many buttons as I could, giggling like a complete maniac as I reveled in my geekdom. I even recruited someone for FSF, our old roleplaying group. Oh, and Chad had fun, too.

And since we still felt we had not spent enough time there, we went back to the Wynn to finish exploring and try our luck again at the space-cow slots. The exploration was highly successful, as that place is full of interesting and whimsical architecture and art. The cows, however, betrayed us, and ate back all our previous gains and then some. We consoled ourselves with mask shopping at the Venetian for Chad ’s sister Paula, and a snack at the Flamingo.

Then, it was time to get ready for KA, the Cirque du Soleil show at the MGM. We ended up arriving a little early, so we snagged some frozen lemonades at Starbucks before getting in line to enter the theater. Much to our delight, we were able to take our drinks in with us, as they sell drinks and popcorn in the theater anyway. We made conversation with some friendly drunk ladies behind us in line, which helped to make the waiting more bearable, the crew was late getting the theater ready for our show. But at least the ushers were all friendly and in-character, though we’re still a little confused as to what their role is in the KA universe.

Finally, we were let into the theater, and we found our seats right away. We sprung for the really good seats, so we were only a few rows back from the stage. This proved to be a somewhat dangerous experience, as the pre-show entertainment included fireballs erupting from the pit where the stage would later rise up, and we got blasted with waves of heat fairly regularly. The pre-show also included some of the characters wandering through the aisles and swinging from the scaffolding throughout the theater, leading up to the entrance of the two antagonists, who proceeded to throw an “audience member” into the pit for bringing in a camera and a cell phone.

The show itself was positively spectacular. I’ve heard that Cirque fans don’t like this particular one because it emphasizes story instead of the circus acts, but we felt that it had just the right amount of both. It seemed much more like a ballet with acrobatics and martial arts thrown in. The stage was absolutely amazing, as it is set on hydraulics and completely mobile -- meaning it can not only be raised up, but set vertically, spun, and split apart in two sections. The spectacle was absolutely fantastic, and we’d recommend it to anyone, even though the special theater and stage means it’s one of the more expensive shows put on by Cirque du Soleil.

To end the evening, we had dinner at the Studio Café. We balked at the price for their entrees a little at first, but the food and portions were so good -- Chad got six gigantic chicken fingers, and I got a huge bowl of chicken alfredo -- that we didn’t mind the cost.

Once we got back to the hotel, we did our laundry, packed up, and went to sleep exhausted.

Today was the day we left Las Vegas for another year. We woke up a little late, finished our packing, grabbed some showers, and yet still had some time to have leftovers from the Studio Café for breakfast, which marked the first and only time we made use of our kitchen.

We spent most of the day picking up last minute gifts and souvenirs at any shopping area that was within walking distance of our hotel, as our monorail passes had expired the previous night. We did find some great stuff for my dad at the Coca Cola store in the Showcase Mall, and some nice deals on kitschy stuff at a souvenir shop a few doors down from there. Then it was back to the hotel to wait for our shuttle bus back to the airport.

Now, ordinarily, I’d stop the entry there, but luck was with us today. To kill a little time while waiting the three hours for our flight, we decided to play the slot machines they have littered around McCarran Airport . Unable to find our normal penny slots near our gate, we instead sat down at the Wheel of Fortune nickel slots. We put our normal five bucks in and prepared to lose it all in a few pulls. But lo and behold, after getting down to our last few credits, we rallied for a few rounds, and then hit the bonus round. And oh, what a bonus round! We didn’t exactly hit the jackpot, but we did hit the highest multipliers possible for the bonus round, meaning that for the five bucks we put in, we got $78.50 out, putting our final Vegas winnings at $87.27.

Of course, our trip cost a heck of a lot more than that, but I’d like to think that we made money on this trip after all. We certainly got our money’s worth with all the shows and most of the meals, and we had a great time.