Vegas Vacation

The wife and I decided to go back to Vegas this year for our vacation. For one reason: it is cheap to go there. It cost less to fly to Vegas and stay in a four star hotel than it would for us to go to Panama City. Honestly. You have to check and plan (and not go, say, like next week), but the bargains are there.

We left early on Saturday morning on a Contential Express. This is a small jet. No problems. Great staff. Flew into Houston.

The Houston Airport is a mass of circles and I found it confusing. It also has a statue of George H.W. Bush (the airport is named after him). Houston was playing host to the “Elite Eight” basketball tournament and the stores had a sale on college t-shirts, two for $12.00, which is a spirit wear bargain.

After a few minutes in Houston, we were off to Las Vegas. The in-flight movie was “The Blind Side” about a wealthy Ole Miss booster taking in a huge homeless teenager. Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for this role which is unusual because the character was a white Evangelical that carried a pistol. While I thought it was an enjoyable movie, I didn’t think it was great.

The Wynn

We stayed at Wynn Las Vegas. It put the fancy in the fancy-smancy. It was probably the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at. The help was great—what you expect when you go out on vacation. The room was large and plush. The bathroom was large with a soaker tub and a shower. You didn’t have to wait for the water to warm. It was great.

There are flowers and waterfalls everywhere. The casino is in the middle of the hotel and it is not the first thing you see when you enter. In fact, when you drive up to the front of Wynn Las Vegas, you would have no idea that gaming goes on inside.

There are two downsides to Wynn Las Vegas. One and this is not unique to the Wynn, they stock your room with water and drinks, but if you drink the water, it goes on your bill. Bottled water: $5. No thank you. In fact, at the front desk they tell you that if you pick up the bottle water, you have thirty seconds to put it down before they bill you. George Orwell meet Steve Wynn.

The second downside is that there is really no affordable place to eat in the Wynn itself. Again, this is not unique to the Wynn, but the dinner buffet is $35.00 each. The rest of the restaurants are chef driven and you could easily drop a $100 without batting an eye.

One other thing about Wynn Las Vegas that has hit the internet (particular on guy’s sites like ESPN). The swimming pool is long and shallow (about three feet in depth) and it is probably one of the better pools I have ever seen. The pool help is incredible from the towel kids to the life guards to the folks that will get you a diet coke on the house at pool side. However, supposedly European sunbathing is allowed at the Wynn. This is college talk for women tanning without their tops on allowing you to see their breasts. It was explained to me in college that Europe doesn’t have this ‘hang up’ about women and their breasts and they don’t see the big deal about nudity. From my encounters with Europeans, they also do not have a ‘hang up’ about bathing and deodorant and what it means to wait in line.

When we went to the pool, everybody was doing American sunbathing. It is probably one of those urban myths guys tell each other. “Yeah I was at The Wynn and suddenly every woman was naked and they were all nine and half’s and tens.”

On the next report: Fake Beatles and the best time of day in Las Vegas.