Sin City

Day 2…Yesterday morning we hit the pool around 9:30 am; all the good chairs at the Venetian pool deck were taken. We found chairs in an area that was pretty much empty.

The pool and the chairs we chose were in the shade of the hotel for the day which turned out to be a good thing for our first day at the pool.

Even though it was 99 degrees, it was cool. It was weird. We’ve heard that the dry heat is manageable; not in the sunshine mind you, but the shade is comfortable. 

We spent most of the day relaxing at the pool people watching. The pool has cabanas to rent for a mere $2,000 and up a day. They were all filled, mostly with people in their late 20s & 30s. The cabanas are 788 sq feet, air conditioned with 75” tv, private bathroom and a personal cabana person. Drinks included but not food. 

The one thing that we couldn’t get over was that everyone was drinking all day long, for hours. We are out of practice and just brought bottled waters with us. I felt extremely dehydrated in the morning from flying and not drinking enough water the day before because I didn’t know how often I’d be able to pee. Sorry…TMI but true.

The day drinking took place with people standing up in the 3.5 foot pools…in the scalding sunshine. I really don’t know how they did it without falling over or being fried to a crisp. 

Even in the food court area of the hotel and casinos everyone young and old were day drinking. Cocktails are available even at fast-food counter-only places. Again, young and very old people. All day. It’s 5 o’clock everywhere in Vegas after all.

After lunch, we got ready to explore the strip again. This time instead of walking we got tickets to the monorail. After we found the actual monorail station we hopped on and headed towards the MGM Grand Hotel. 

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I wanted to visit the MGM Grand & New York New York hotels. MGM grand I knew right off the bat wasn’t nearly as nice as our hotel just by the restrooms; always a tell tale sign for me. 

The paint at bottom of the moldings were covered in black scrapes and chipped. The sink areas didn’t compare and many toilets had massive amounts of tp not flushed. See? Bathroom and kitchen cleanliness speak volumes. 

The hotel had some amazing celebrity chef owned restaurants, but that was about it. We high-tailed it out of there. 

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I wanted to love the New York New York Hotel but we immediately came in contact with very obnoxious, loud, drunk younger people. Basically, they were fucking assholes; not in a good “real” NYC way if that’s what they were trying for. Total douche bags.

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The area of the hotel that was done to look like NYC was pretty cool, but not nearly as realistic or well done like Venice in our hotel. The rest of the place was meh.

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We walked the strip heading back down and this time encountered hookers galore, and meth/crack heads. Working in NYC, I saw my share of bums and druggies, but these people were covered in scabs from head to toe; plus they were skin and bones skeletons It made me very sad that this was the choice they made, I thought about it a lot last night and their family’s. How heartbreaking these situations are. 

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Next up, I found where everyone was getting the weed I kept smelling…almost strong enough to get high myself from the second hand smoke. They have marijuana shops on every corner, I didn’t notice them the night before since everything was so overwhelming. My absolute favorite was the place call Ref Vegas with a wacky, waving, inflatable tube guy in front of the place. Lol! 

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You know the scooters disabled people drive around the grocery store? Well you can rent them to cruise the strip; on the crowded sidewalks no less. Drunk off your ass; while smoking a doobie. This was our favorite site last night. A group of four guys were having the time of their lives while blasting down the strip drinking beers and smoking dope.

On our way we both dodged a messed up guy, on who knows what; bleeding profusely from his head, blood was dripping down his whole face. Our quick moving street smarts saw it coming and we literally split in two and he staggered cursing between us. You can’t take street smarts out of people. Another sad site.

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We were almost back to our hotel; starving and tired. We ate at a delicious place called Virgil’s Real BBQ. They were one of the few places that had gluten-free options clearly listed on their menu, so it felt safe to eat there. OMG, we are so glad that we did! We both had the grilled bbq brisket sandwich with melted cheddar cheese and caramelized onions. A couple of freezing cold margaritas with potato salad and cole slaw made for a delicious meal. The staff were extremely friendly and the service was good. Done and done. ✔️✔️

We ate outside at Virgil’s…it was indeed dinner and a show with all the fucked up, inebriated tourists walking by. We took the rest of our drinks with us and finished them back in our room with the lights turned down looking at the amazing view and lights. We lost track of the amount of sight seeing helicopters going by our window. 

Another day in Sin City and I haven’t even mentioned the gamblers and chain smokers yet. 😂