Wake up time for Mark.

Allied Limo to Midway, conf# 22969 $52.00 630-736-9900 866-690-2200

ATA Check-In Counter / Check Baggage / Seat Assignment.

Seat 5F ATA: 1-800-435-9282

Changed seat to aisle, emergency exit.

Had shoes removed and laptop removed and laptop bag was searched twice and x-rayed twice.  I must be a sore thumb.

Before boarding was searched again with wand, and had laptop bag contents searched again. Plane delayed due to de-icing previous airplane at gate and due to security checks on the airplane, and then because of a problem with one of the doors. Finally took off a little after 11:00 A.M.

Arrive McCarren Intl. Airport.

Shuttle to Mirage Resort (3400 S. Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89109)

Front Desk Check-in (normally 3:00 P.M.) 1-702-791-7111

Conf. Mark # for Feb 21: 16316C For Feb 22: 2 Queen 15S9U9

89 130 130 100 90

Conf. Paul & Todd # 15X8N0 (2 queen)

Room not ready but got key, dropped stuff off in room, went and spent $20 on slots. I had read on the internet that the slots at the mirage were tight, and they were right- I lost it in no time flat when I moved to the dollar slots.

Temp supposed to be in mid 70s (highs) this week but it feels hotter. Very Sunny. Coming here from Chicago is like leaving behind Gotham.

First food of the day- the Mirage Buffet. They only had one side open. There was no line. Liked the Beef Tips over the linguini. Cheesecake was average. Seemed a little pricey, $16 for a bite at 3:00 is overkill. But she said that was their dinner cost, so I guess they started the dinner buffet 2 min before I showed up.

Saw lots of things Michael would recognize.

Settle into hotel room, get ice chest if possible, ice and milk, cups, bars

Purchased one small bottle of vodka from their Casino store. $17 for small bottle. They don’t have Sky, or Seagrams. I took the vodka to the room and dropped it off. The cleaning lady was cleaning the room.

Went back down and asked the taxi hailers where the nearest liquor and snack store was. They pointed and said, "through the trees" past TI. I was going to take a taxi there but they said it wasn’t far and that it would just make the taxi driver mad.

So I walked it, several blocks down the strip and back. This time I got a bottle of Champagne, Seagrams 7, and a six pack of sprite.

Plan was to have $300 in wallet and use that for today. Due to many last minute cash sucking things, I wasn’t able to start out this morning with the full load.

At any rate, at 8:40 P.M. Thursday February 21, 2002 I have $48 in my wallet to last until midnight.

Paul leaves for Frank’s House

He called as I was on the Las Vegas Limo shuttle to the Mirage. Said he was going to leave in an hour. He should be there by now, as I type this at 6:46 P.M. Chicago Time.

Now changing my laptop clock to match LV time.

Front desk just called with an offer to upgrade to a suite with a strip view. Taken! Suite has 3 rooms, living room room with bar area, dining room, bedroom. Has VHS deck and 5 disk CD changer and complete stereo system. Bathroom has a butt washer in it, a shower stall and a big Jacuzzi tub. On one of the top floors of the Mirage, has a good view of the Venetian and TI. Has two couches and a dining room table that seats 4. The bar also has a refrigerator.

Susan called me from her cell phone. She was in their van. She said she has either food poisoning or a bad stomach virus, and had gone home early from work.

5:57 P.M. Local time (changed PC clock) and it just got dark.

When I was walking outside it would see that the town seems to be quite busy- no signs of recession here.

Have not heard from Paul or Todd or Frank yet. Am about to call.

6:46 LV Time – talked to Paul – he still driving, he didn’t leave Shreveport until 6:00. Says he will be at Frank’s at 9:00 P.M. He was very thankful and pointed out how impressed he was with the level of detail into the planning of this trip. I told him we should make it a point to all spent 1-1 time with each other.

Tried calling Todd at the Le Meridian hotel in New Orleans. He was not in his room.

Tonight, need to go down and buy a deck of cards. Then come up and practice and study the rules of blackjack, and basic strategy that was printed out. A board game would be nice also, probably impossible to find around here.

Talked to Shriram for a while. Told him I was looking out over the strip.

Talked to mom and dad.

Trying to figure price differences between having us all stay here vs. keeping the original arrangement. Got to let them know by midnight.

Explore Casino, Pool, Bars.

Figured out that Frank and I would share the suite while Paul and Todd shared a room. Frank told Todd he may return a day early and that same night Todd and Paul can move into this suite with me. The reservation desk may need 24 hour notification before canceling though so we will have to call them once Frank makes his plans known.

I hear the Volcano down below. Every time it starts up again, there are lots of flash bulbs going off.

Got more snacks, orange juice and some Amaretto. Now we have vodka, amaretto, segreams, and sprite. I brought a can of peanuts from Chicago. We still need more snacks and pop though. The problem is the Impulse shop only sells in Units not meant for bulk, with prices to match.

It’s a bit warm in here and it looks like the temp is centrally controlled.  (Later found out you could adjust the temp in the room)

Need to transfer the pictures in a little but and see how the new camera is working out. Lots of pics with this little Canon seem a little more blurry than I would have expected but it may be due to me not holding the camera steady most of the time.

I also got the cards (once used in real play at the Mirage) and some dice. Need to see how to get clothes picked up for cleaning here. Wish I had brought more than 2 short sleeve shirts- it feels pretty warm.

I only have $12 left in the budget for today. If I go downstairs I know I’ll throw it in a slot machine and loose it all. I threw about $22 away down there earlier and hardly got more than a nibble on the machines. I heard that the Mirage had tight slots and that seems to be true.

Order room service food, watch TV movie, eat in room

Need to get a gallon of milk up here.

I have a feeling this town is going to suck the money off of us 10x faster than anyone had even imagined. I’m going to try to stick with my original budget of 300 for Thursday (almost gone) and $400 for Friday.

We may all be leaving for home early with Frank.

Phone Frank, confirm Paul made it there OK

I never called Frank, and didn’t hear from them so I assume Paul is at Frank’s house and getting ready for bed. They are going to have to get up very early in the morning. Same for Todd. Maybe when I arranged the trip I should have had them leaving later…..but on the other hand, why not start the trip as soon as possible, lets get moving on the fun times ASAP.

Realized I either lost or left the USB mouse somewhere.

Also forgot to bring all the pick-a-pepper sauce I bought.

Listening to the Frank Zappa CD. I’ll try to set it up so that it’s playing when they walk in tomorrow.

I just sneezed really hard- hope I didn’t catch something on the plane.

I keep thinking that it will be best to have us all here, not to mention after everything falls where it will, that it will be about $400 cheaper. But I also keep wondering if we wouldn’t all be sick of each other by Monday night if we’re all shacking up together.

I practiced black jack with the cards I bought and listened to the radio.

Wake up time for Mark

Actually woke up at 7:00 and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got some orange juice and crawled in the whirlpool tub for an hour. Need to ask for a hair dryer because it looks like they don’t have one here. Also forgot to

Bring shaving cream. Might as well have them bring more towels as well.

It’s 8:45 here, meaning it’s 10:45 in Dallas. The gang should be in the air.

Took two tylenol just in case a headache thinks about starting.

Need to call AA and see if their flight is on time. Would like to make one more trip to the Impulse store for a few basics, although I hate shopping there because their selection sucks, and the units are all small singles.

AA says ETA is 10:18. That’s only an hour away!

Sharon called at 9:45 A.M. Worried that paul never made it. I told her his plane hadn’t landed yet.

Turned on every light, straightened up. We’re gonna have to get more provisions pronto, down to 2 OJ, 3 sprite, ½ bottle vodka, 1 bottle seagrems, ¾ amaretto.

Call me on cell phone when enroute to the hotel, will meet at front desk

Paul called from the airport escalator, going to baggage claim. I told them to go ahead and check in, he and Todd would get keys to a room and Frank should get a key to my room.

On the Northwing, there are window cleaners working. Imagine they see a lot in a day.

Switch rooms to standard deluxe with two beds, highest floor, nonsmoking

Nah not switching.  Staying in the suite!

12:00 P.M. They should be knocking any minute. Even though they are my some of my oldest and best friends, I’m still very nervous. But when we get down to partying that will go away.

Las Vegas looks smaller in the day. At night it looks huge. The difference is amazing. When we were flying in, I noticed lots of the mountains around Las Vegas are snow covered at the tops.

12:30 Everyone shows up. Teresa calls less than 15 seconds of Frank walking in and keeps him on the phone for 15 minutes. Forgot to break out the Champagne, Paul was on his phone talking to Sharon.

Man!  I wanted to make a toast or something and instead everyone jumps on the phone with their spouses like they haven't seen them in 3 weeks.

We went to the Mirage buffet, ate and then walked around the Mirage Pool, then Ceasars palace, which was huge and confusing beyond belief. It’s like walking into one long dead end. You reach a certain point deep, deep in the belly of the casino where you realize the only option is backtracking %100 to get out. Found the shop that sells the $90 Ceasars Palace robes. Declined.

Came back to the Mirage so Todd could take a nap in Paul and Todd’s room. Paul came back up to my room but left after about an hour. I had told Todd I would call him by 8:30 P.M. so that we could head over to the Las Vegas Hilton for our Benihana reservation at the Benihana Village.

Took taxi over to the Las Vegas Hilton. Todd asked the driver all sorts of bizzare questions:  what the worst crimes were, what was the current college drug of choice, what are the best nightclubs to go to.  Frank and I teased him after we got to Hilton that we left a scary impression with the driver. It it was like Todd was conducting a TV interview for 20/20 or something.  Saw a sign for the Star Trek Experience.

We drank at the Benihana bar for an hour and then ate with 3 other girls, 2 of which looked about 14.  We all hoped they didn't understand what we were talking about 1/2 the time.

Then we took a taxi to Harrah’s, and got our Skintight tickets, went to the show. I left a couple of times to get another drink.  At one point I felt my eyes getting really heavy and I looked over to my right and Paul was nodding off, and I look at Frank to my left and his eyes are all squinted and he looks like he half asleep also.  I thought, this is great, these girls are 5 feet in front of us (we had front row seats) busting their ass and we're nodding off right in front of them.

We went back to the Mirage where Todd went to his room to go to bed (he looked very tired) and Frank and Paul and I sat on the suite bed and talked until Frank said he had to get to sleep. He said he has been awake for over 23 hours.

CPK or Lunch Buffet weekday hours are 11:00 A.M. – 2:45 P.M.

Midnight Show "Skintight" at Harrahs (Tracking# SV100563) 1-800-871-7127, bring id and credit card to pick up tickets.  Confirmation # is "Trainer"

Show was only about 20% capacity, not a lot of people attending.

Crash in Room.

Frank went to sleep. Todd went to bed. Paul and I stayed up until about 3:30, then Paul left. Found out next morning he went out on the strip until 5:00 A.M. and won $150.

Buy Robe at their Forum shop $90 white and gold

1:31 P.M. Got back from eating at the café downstairs. Frank and I woke up about 10:00 A.M. Todd and Paul went to their room to use the bathroom, because I didn’t want the to use ours.

Met in the suite, started walking south down the street, past ceasars palace and we went into the Bellagio and won a coin there Todd had to wait a while as they had to fill the machine back up. . Went into the Garden, saw chandiler.

Went into MGM Grand. Went and played in the video arcade, Went Emerils, Paul got a cook book for Sharon there, we won a MGM coin there in the coin slot machine.

Went to the New York New York, won a coin there. Paul bought some stuff from their magic shop.  He basically had to buy the magic set to learn the trick, which they showed him in back.  We played with the "levatiting card" kit back at the hotel the next night- it's basicallu done by using an impossibly small strand of fiber and a spot of wax.

Walked back to the hotel room and hung out there. Then Paul and Frank went down into the casion. Todd and I were supposed to follow but stayed up here and talked instead. I bumped my cell phone as I was putting it on and it called Kelley back (Todd had used it last) and she heard everything we said between 11:29 P.M. and 11:56, when she called my cell phone back and wanted to talk to Todd. She was upset about a conversation she overheard between Frank and I in the TI bathroom, as I had paraphrased to Frank the troubles Todd had related to me that him and Kelley were having. Oh brother. We dropped some money at TI. Todd lost $200 at blackjack.

We ate at the TI café there.

P.F. Changs OR Lunch at Stratosphere

Went to the Stratoshpere, Won a coin there.  I asked a sharply dressed fellow about going up to the Cocktail Lounge and he started writing something on a piece of paper and he said, "Here, this will save you $15.00".  It was a pass to the lounge!  And from there we would be able to get to the observatoin decks for free.

So went up to the Lounge on top of the restaurant "Top of the World". Had drinks up there, in the level that is above, but open to, the restaurant below.  , went up stairs to the observation deck, went up another level and went to the open air observation deck, then we rode the Big Shot on top.  I took a picture of the monitor that had captured our picture on the ride.

Went to the Venetian, won a coin there. Cashed out on some Frog machine someone left, who obviously didn't understand they had won the jackpot, they just had to pick a bonus multiplier.  Yeaaa!!  Took a few pictures of the artwork on the ceiling in there.  .

Went to the Impulse Store and got a few supplies for partying before Ruths Chris tonight.

Ruths Chris Steakhouse 3900 Paradise Road Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 702-791-7011 / Reservation made for 4 "Trainer"

Changed to 7:30 P.M. We will drink in our rooms before going to Ruths Chris.

Took taxi to Ruth’s. It was in a strip mall and was OK, but not as good as the one in Chicago. The steaks were not even as big.  But we did enjoy a really good red wine, a blend called Bajoules. Todd’s steak looked a little darn rare to be, and he said as much. Which is why I tend to lean toward ordering my meat cooked medium.

Seating for the "O" Show (go to bathroom right before!).

"O" Show Begins

"O" Show Ends

Explore Casino – Try Table Games (low minimums at Circus Circus)

Take taxi back to Mirage, Eat at All Night Café / Crash

Mirage Buffet (should not be to crowded on Monday) OR Can go to Stratosphere for Lunch after renting car.

Today was our Hoover Dam day, but I was having a blast each day on the strip and didn't want to take the long drive out to Hoover Dam.  I love Hoover Dam but I saw it with Susan the year before.  So Todd and I stayed behind and Frank and Paul rented a car and headed out for Lake Mead.

Todd and I hopped a Taxi to Aladin, and ate chicken lettuce wraps on the patio at P.F. Changs.  The weather was perfect.  We left and explored the Monte Carlos, the Luxor, Mandalay Bay.

That night, we all re-grouped after after Paul and Frank took the car to MGM Grand to return the Emrils Cookbook he had bought for Sharon.  It turned out she already had that one.

We worked out way north along the strip, stopping in the Riveria and then the Circus Circus.  Todd and I played several very enjoyable hands of blackjack with a nice couple.   Then we got a new dealer and everyone started losing.  

We didn't leave the Circus Circus until 3 or 4 A.M. but he headed over to the PepperMill Inn, which has a very large menu.  I ordered a cheeseburger and fries.

Pick up the Dollar Rent-A-Car Rental (702-791-7425) mid size $75 - dodge stratus.  

Frank actually optioned for the slightly cheaper economy size car.

---Discontinued all tours since Sept 11, 2001

Restaurant on Lake Mead – 2215 Thomas Ryan Blvd. LV, NV 89134 1-702-240-1310 Closes at 9:00 P.M. (But is on the other side of town as the Dam)

Examine lights on Freemont Street

Examine world’s largest Golden Nugget

Go for broke gambling, downtown has higher payoffs, lower minimums

Top of the World – open daily from 6 P.M. to 11 P.M. nightly. Reservations made for 10:00 P.M. for 4 people, business casual dress but must wear shirt with collar, Mark Trainer. 1-800-99-TOWER

Lunch served 11-3 P.M.

Taxi or Shuttle pickup to the McCarren International Airport

Fast Food Lunch at Airport

Midway baggage claim

Call Allied Limo at either 866-690-2200 or 630-736-9900 after picking up the luggage, they will give limo license plate number that will pick you up in 10 minutes. $52.00. Conf# 22970.

Mark Arrives at Home (plug in laptop!)