This is Vegas, Nevada!

Las Vegas, Nevada USA.

Viva Las Vegas!

Karlos and my trip to the united states of america was never going to get very far before we made it to sin city... and we were delighted to be able to share the fun with two of our friends from NZ, Stasia and Johnny Mac. We were especially pleased as it was to be Stasia’s 30th birthday during our time in Vegas (planned that way, of course!).

Karlos and I picked up a cheap (well, after tax and insurance was added on, a ‘moderately priced’) rental car, and then went to pick up our road trip buddies for the fun to begin.

Before we left LA we took a trip out to Venice Beach, to visit the Sunday Farmer’s market. This was a great idea – we all got yummy burritos, or in my case strawberry and banana filled crepes, for breakfast, and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine to eat them and (as I especially love to do) people watch. Nothing unusual happened – but I was surprised (pleasantly) by the amount of men who wished me a happy mother’s day, “either today or some day.” This only reiterates my “people in LA are friendly” comment from earlier.

After breakfast we went for a walk down to Venice Beach and, dare I say it, I thought it was pretty gross actually. Well, that’s probably a bit too harsh, I mean, the beach is beautiful soft golden sand (if you forget that there are often needles etc buried within it) and very large. But it was full of odd ball people (we saw just one bikini babe), and the air really stank. Karlos and I took a walk down to the water for a paddle (hah, Karlos will love that I said that!) but one big toe was all that was getting in that ice bath! Soooo cold.

We took a walk up the Venice Boardwalk after the beach failed to impress us (oh New Zealand how you have spoiled us!) and this was a bit of a giggle. The boardwalk is lined with tacky souvenir shops, outdoor gyms with Schwarzenegger-lookalikes for the ladies to perve at, silicon breasts in tight cotton for the men to ogle, and the oddest bunch of people I have seen in some time. I bought a CD from a rapper dude who “never cusses” and said to his mate about me “she’s cool.”

Well, after a morning of leg stretching, it was time to hit the road to Vegas!!!! Woo hoo!
Karlos was a total legend getting us around and navigating – the driving on the opposite side of the road was really natural to him and he was really calm and confident about it. Stasia also did some driving on the freeway, and we got to Vegas within 4 hours – arriving at night time. The lights were dazzling.

We cruised along Las Vegas Boulevard, aka The Strip, and tried to take everything in. On either side, all around us, there were just utter monstrosities of architecture, lights, and bling. Huge electronic billboards advertised any form of sin you wanted – shows for the ladies, shows for the men, and so on. A replica Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower, and the Venetian hotel impressed me the most.

We were staying in the Stratosphere hotel at the bottom of Las Vegas Boulevard, and it reminded me a little of the sky tower back in NZ – complete with revolving restaurant at the top and a sky jump for the daredevils. Our rooms were awesome – really nice and a steal at $25 a night. Karlos found a stash of coins in our room on arrival, and thought that was a good sign... but I wasn’t worried; I knew that I could entice him into a topless dance show and any thoughts he may have of gambling would be long gone (and I was right!).

Our first night in Vegas began with a cocktail in the upper bar of the Stratosphere tower, that had amazing views of the city and lights – we felt so classy, I actually forgot we were in Vegas for a little while! Then we took a jaunt up The Strip, stopping to take tacky tourist photos and chat with men with parrots, and the like. It took us all night, a good 4 hours or so, but we managed to walk almost the whole length and finished up with a cheeseburger from a place called Fatburger that was full of animated African Americans – who made us feel uncomfortable at not being obese.

Day 2 was spent, in large part, sleeping – and whilst Karlos (who still had a mild flu poor thing) slept into the afternoon, I went to the top of the stratosphere and spent some time watching the brave souls who paid to jump from it. The psychology of it all truly fascinated me...

I was then enticed into a beauty shop and convinced to buy some scrubbing salt from the dead sea and body butter, by a very friendly salesman. I figured ‘what the hey’ – the desert air, air conditioning, and static electricity in Vegas had left my skin so dry, it needed some life putting back into it. Ironic that this very product is from the dead sea, I thought.

Whilst I’m thinking of it – I have to say that the static electricity in Vegas is unreal. We would walk through the casino, touch each other, and that was all it took to get an electric shock. Karlos thought this was particularly funny. And don’t even think about touching the handrails, door handles etc, without a sharp jolt. It was pretty funny though, I admit. Watching grown men pull their hand away sharply en route to the hand rails in the elevator, for example, after they’d suddenely remembered that that hurt last time.

Our evening of day 2 in Vegas was just the best. Karlos had a shower and a little bottle of jager that I had bought for him, and he was good to go. We began with happy hour, of course. The bar in the stratosphere casino had happy hour from 4-8pm serving a bottomless glass for just $19.99 – as Karlos would say, “booooom.”

We wisely got there at 6.30pm, but still managed to get in around 5 martinis each before 8pm. Good effort. And daaaaaaaaamn good martinis, seriously. It was nice to be together drunk in Vegas, being carefree, and in that place where you so relaxed you can talk with your partner about anything and it’s all good. Just being best mates and happy to be together.

The night continued on the gravy train and just got better. We met Stasia and Johnny Mac for Stasia’s birthday dinner, at a lovely Italian restaurant. We were told that we arrived like naughty school kids, as we were so drunk and late for dinner. But Stasia and Johnny Mac said that they knew we were at happy hour and so had already assumed we would be late (thank goodness!).

After dinner, of which I admittedly remember very little of, we went to a show called BITE. It was basically a musical vampire show... I guess there was a story line, but it was fundamentally about hot vampire chicks dancing around to rock music in next to nothing. I really enjoyed this show. It wasn’t some tacky, bum slapping strip show (which the boys would have enjoyed anyways!), these women could reeeeeally dance. I was so impressed and entertained by them. We thought that some of them might even have been ballet trained; their moves were so sharp, polished, and sexy. Some of them did some cirque de soleil type stuff, dancing amongst sheets coming from the ceiling. Drunk, in Vegas, we were mesmerised.

After the vampire erotica, we came across a bar with a band playing johnny cash covers. DING DING! In we went. Karlos and I warmed up the dancefloor and had heaps of fun pulling people up to join us. And from there on in the rest of the evening involved much dancing, interspersed with much alcohol. Jelly shots were a highlight, as was Karlos’ topless pole dancing. He even scored a $1 tip it was awesome! We met some cool people, and had a really fun time.

...And after a slow start the next morning, we left Vegas with more good times and happy memories under our belt.

;)

~ Comet xo