Another Vegas trip was in the books. Of course, the main driver for these Vegas trips nowadays is my father in law; he has been out here for a number of years at this point. Seeing him, spending time together with his daughter and grandson, is really what it’s all about. My wife always talks crap though… if my dad lived in Idaho, you wouldn’t want to go visit him every year… Well, I’m sure Idaho has good potatoes and all, and I definitely dispute her claim, but… I’m not complaining. Actually, my grandparents lived out in Vegas back in the day, way before I could play Blackjack legally at the casino. I’ve thought about how it would be to retire out there one day myself… you never know. But yeah, spending time with him on each of those 4 days in Vegas was the main goal: mission accomplished.
Each Vegas trip is the same; each Vegas trip is different. We always go see a show; this time it was the Michael Jackson show at the Tropicana. Yeah, we passed on the much more expensive MJ Cirque show; this was more our speed. Plus, when I was looking at the ticket prices, and saw that “VIP” was only a few extra bucks… I splurged. Turned out awesome. We sat right next to the stage. My son got to high five MJ a few times; we were surrounded by zombies during Thriller. He sat right next to my wife on stage, taking a little breather between songs. It was a blast. We always to go one nice dinner. Last year it was Oscar’s downtown; I loved it. I wanted to go back, but my wife wanted to try something different; we ended up at Top of Binion’s steakhouse. It was as good or better than Oscar’s. Really nice joint, awesome view, great food… I especially like the palate cleanser (raspberry sherbert) between appetizers/salad and the main course; nice touch. We tried a couple different places to eat, like Earl of Sandwich and Cabo Wabo Cantina, which were both pretty decent; can’t eat top notch every night… Of course, we had our traditional In-N-Out before leaving on Friday; always love that. Finally, we tried a new Mexican joint that we had heard good things about: Tacos El Gordo. We actually went to the original one after her dad took us to the Pawn Stars pawn shop. It, was, delicious… Had some shoulder/stomach tacos; awesome. Plus, they cut this pork over french fries topped with guac, cheese, and sour cream… boo ya! Highly recommended; they do have one on the strip as well, down towards Resorts World. Pool time was a lot too; this is the biggest plus in staying at the Flamingo. Probably about 10+ hours over 3 days… it was nice that it was cool out there this time around, only hitting the low 90s vs the 110+ we’re used to. Overall, a very good time was had by all.
So… as we land back in Chicago, what I like to do is… think about where we’re going next. It’s always nice to have a vacation to look forward to. I also like to think about a Vegas guys trip; that is LONG overdue. Will my wife give me the green light on that one? Still hoping my one childhood friend gets married and has his bachelor party out there… she wouldn’t be able to say no to that one… haha. Well, maybe a trip to the casino to play some poker in the meantime… until next time Vegas…
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