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Las Vegas 2002 - Thursday February 21 It was a mixture of rain and snow when I left Chicago at Midway airport the early morning of Thursday, February 21. I got up at 5:05 A.M. after getting a good nights sleep. I really should have done more of my packing the night before, but I managed to get everything together just in time. I had originally planned to drive to long distance parking, but Susan said she would like to drive my car while I'm gone so I took Allied Limo instead. We left the house at 7:10 A.M. (we would have left at 7:00 but I kept him waiting as I finished last minute packing). There was blowing snow that morning and I was wondering if we were going to have a long and slow drive to the airport.
It was a mind boggling long and slow ride to the Airport, breaking all records I've even known. I reached the ATA check in counter at 9:00 A.M. The drive to the airport had to have set a new Geneva-Midway record for duration. It took so long that at one point I became convinced that the driver had taken a wrong turn somewhere. I was in that car for over an hour and a half, but it gave me a chance to read most of my new Maximum PC magazine.
During check-in I was allowed to change seats to an aisle emergency exit, which makes it easier to open my laptop display all the way when there is not a chair directly in front. Then I had to remove my shoes for security, who also searched my laptop bag not once, but twice. I must fit the profile of a terrorist. They were reasonably thorough, which was to be expected given all the bad press they have been getting. Before boarding was pulled aside again, and searched with a wand, and had laptop bag contents searched again. The plane was delayed leaving due to the de-icing of the previous airplane at the gate and due to security checks on our airplane, and then because of a problem with one of the doors. Then the crew had to wait for the paperwork on the door to be completed. We finally took off a little after 11:00 A.M. On the flight, I watched two X-Files episodes from Season Three. I had already seen the first of the 4 episodes on the DVD I brought, so that only leaves one other episode (the last one on this DVD) that I have not seen. I also brought the DVD Shrek because I’ve never seen it and everyone tells me it’s good. I actually started it briefly on the beginning of the flight put replaced it with X-Files when it wasn't holding my attention (what was the big deal about this movie?). After picking up my baggage at McCarren, I took Las Vegas Limo Shuttle to my hotel. Dropping off other people at their strip hotels was agony, as I couldn't wait to get checked into my own hotel. In the future I may simply "cab" it just to get on with the vacation. Time is money! I hate wasting my time when I'm on vacation. Those days are to precious to waste. I went cross-eyed at some point but we eventually got to the Mirage about 2:30.
Upon check-in, the girl behind the desk offered an upgrade from the Tower Deluxe to a one bedroom suite for $100 a night. At first I was reluctant, thinking I was about to completely blow my carefully planned budget before I even got checked in to the hotel. I told them I would do it if they had a suite facing the strip. They didn't at the time but might in an hour or two. So the check-in girl gave me a key to the room anyway so I could drop off my stuff in the room. Dropped off my luggage and then went down to the casino floor and wasted $20 on slots. I had read on the internet that the slots at the mirage were tight, and they were right- I lost that bill in no time flat when I moved to the dollar slots. The temperature was supposed to be in mid 70s (highs) this week but it feels hotter. Very Sunny. Coming here from Chicago is like leaving behind Gotham for Disney Land. My first food of the day- the Mirage Buffet. I hardly ever eat breakfast. They only had one side open. There was no line. I liked the Beef Tips over the linguini best. Most of it was standard buffet fare. Cheesecake was average. Seemed a little pricey, $16 for a bite at 3:05 is overkill. But the cashier said that was their dinner cost, so I guess they started the dinner buffet at 3:00, 5 min before I showed up. What luck. I ate there again the next day with the gang and I couldn't help noticing that the lunch buffet had all the same offerings that the dinner buffet had. I guess they just change out the price at 3:00 everyday. I saw lots of things my son Michael would recognize from the Microsoft/Mirage Casino game. I purchased one small bottle of vodka for $17 from their Casino store, Impulse- conveniently located by the elevators. To bad all the units were awkward- even the bottled water came in strange sizes. They also didn't have most name-brand boozes- no Sky, or Seagreams. How completely and totally lame...well OK I suppose they want you to do your drinking downstairs in the bars near the slots. I took the vodka to the room and dropped it off. At least the cleaning lady was cleaning the room. It shouldn't be long now, right? So I went back down and asked the taxi hailers where the nearest liquor and snack store was, because I wanted to pack the room with supplies before the guys arrived. After all, no sense in wasting all of our time rounding up the supplies. The Mirage taxi hailers pointed North along the strip and said, "through the trees" past Treasure Island. 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. It's not that I'm lazy, I just wanted to do whatever would have been the quickest. It took 25 minutes to get there and I was completely sweaty by the time I got back. But at the store I got a bottle of Champagne, Seagram's 7, and a six pack of sprite. And again, the sizes and brand selections really sucked. My pre-concieved plan was to have $300 in wallet at the start of the day and
to use that for today's expenses. Due to many last minute cash draining
issues, I wasn’t able to start out this morning with the full
load. When I got back to the Tower Deluxe Room, it had been cleaned. I got my stuff out of the closet and took this picture:
It's a nice room with interesting carpet, but I also had a chance to see Paul and Todd's regular room, which seemed to look mostly just like this one. Although I consider the suite upgrade to be worth the cost, I can't wholeheartedly recommend upgrading from the regular room to the Tower Deluxe room unless being near the top of the hotel and having a set of private keyed elevators is important to you (it was to me...but hey I always over-do these things). I had barely gotten back to the Tower Delux room (which had now been cleaned) when the phone rang. They said they now had a suite facing the strip, and that the rate would be $100 more than the rate for the basic room. So I thought, I'll try it out for one night at least. But once I saw it, I knew it was perfect for the kind of partying we were wanting to do. "Understated elegance" was evident everywhere. It had a wet bar, fridge, dinning room, livijng room, entertainment center, bedroom, whirlpool, and floor-to-celing glass windows with a view of the strip. Here are a few pictures One Bedroom Tower Suite suite:
The picture above shows the bar, barstools, counter, and sink. You can't see it from here but there is a built in refrigerator with ice maker as well. The arrangement was perfect for mixing up a few drinks before heading out for a night on the strip. I had read on the Internet that the Mirage had recently just finished a renovation of their rooms, and that indeed did seem to be the case. Most of the stuff seemed pretty new. The hallways, the rooms near the elevator banks, everything was very plush. Frank and Todd's drink of choice was 7&7. I made some drinks using the Absolute, Orange Juice, and Sprite.
Above is the counter behind the bar, stocked with booze from the store called Impulse, which sold a wide assortment of items. I also packed the cabinets with chips, nuts, etc. The check-in desk called me the next morning and said that I had to scram, all the suites were sold for the weekend and they needed me out of there. I explained to them how the check-in girl said I could stay in the suite for the entire stay for $100 over the regular room rate. Fortunately, she had written this down on the computer because this girl found the notes, and said she had to go talk to her manager. After talking to her manager twice, she came back and told me that the first girl really should not have made this deal, because these rooms go for $375 a night, and I was getting it for $180. But because it was written down they would honor the promise. OH YEAH!!
So we got a great deal with the suite. But now that I've seen how nice the other half lives, I'm not sure I can ever go back! Above you can see the dining room table. I moved the flowers to a corner for the rest of our stay. We used the table for playing cards and playing computer games. Check out the 3 layers of curtains. When shut they blocked out all light, but they also opened completely up for enjoying the view. The carpeted areas were flush with the marble floor, which was a nice touch.
Above is the view from near the entrance to the bedroom. It doesn't show up very well in these pictures, but the rooms had lots of small lights- built into the ceiling, shining on pictures or artwork. They were all on dimmers so you could adjust things perfectly. We usually had the stereo going when we were in the suite, and if I had known we were going to have a entertainment center I would have brought more than just one CD along- Frank Zappa's Greatest Hits. We played the hell out of that CD. I could have also brought a few movies, but why? It's not like we were ever without plenty to do. We could have stayed another week easily. The carpet in the suite had a pattern that accented areas, which was a neat touch. Check out how the red stripes on the carpet accent the bed (shown below). These same stripes are also in the bathroom, living room, and dining room.
The piece at the foot of the bed has a TV that rises out of it. You can just see part of the double doors that lead to the bathroom on the left. Frank and I took turns sleeping in the bed and on the couch. The couch was a full sized one and pretty comfortable. We could have added a roll away bed but it wasn't necessary. Paul and Todd had their own room, although the suite was certainly big enough to accommodate everyone if we had wanted to.
Killer bathroom. It's bigger than the standard Hotel 6 bedroom. Here is the whirlpool, I tried it out a couple of times. So did Frank. This bathroom has a separate shower, and hall leading to a walk-in closet and toilet area. The glass shower (not shown) is just to the right of the tub.
We caught Paul drinking from the Bidet before Frank gladly demonstrated how it worked...I still maintain that stinking up the bathroom was not 100% necessary for a successful demonstration, but Frank has always been a stickler for accuracy. Once Paul knew how to operate it, he kept coming to our room to use it. He said it was the best invention since fried cheese. All I know is we laughed our ass off playing with that thing. We got a kick out of the fact that the controls were so sensitive, sending blasts of water nearly to the ceiling every time we turned it on. Which Paul said was a bonus.
Above, the living room area, which had an entertainment system consisting of Bose speakers, a TV, VHS, stereo, and CD Player. We didn't use the TV much. I wish I had thought to bring more CDs. We would meet here each morning before heading out for the day, and each evening before heading out again for a long night out. We complained about the amount walking we did, but I told everyone that we didn't do 1/2 the walking Susan and I did last year. In fact this time we did take lots of Taxis, but more out of a sense of hurry than laziness because we had a lot to do and see and a short time to do it in. It's easy to waste a lot of time just walking from place to place along the strip because it can take 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. Frank slept on the couch one night, upon which I heard various wild animal noises throughout the night. By early morning I heard power tools. I dared not even peek out of my room for fear of what I might find. The next morning Frank seemed more tired than usual and there was a used condom laying on the carpet near the couch. He thinks I didn't notice, but I saw him spot it while we were talking and he very sneakily picked it up and threw it away.
Looking toward the dining room, you can see the entrance to the bedroom in the back. The couch was long enough to sleep on, and very comfortable. We had extra blankets and pillows sent up.
Looking toward the living room. At night, we would pull all the curtains completely open, and watch the volcano erupt every 15 minutes. Todd and I were talking one night in the suite and it sounded to us like it was going off every 5 minutes. It got depressing because we couldn't believe how fast the night was passing. And you know when it's really late when the volcano quits erupting.
View looking out the dining room window just before sundown. Treasure Island is just to the North. There is a tram that runs between the Treasure Island and the Mirage. You can see the reflection of the Venetian in the glass of the Mirage, in both the day and night pictures.
Same dining room window view, just after dark. Las Vegas really comes alive after sundown. You can almost feel the energy of the town in the air. You can't tell from this picture, but there is a volcano down below that erupts every 15 minutes. That night I called Susan, my mom and dad, Sergey, and Shriram. "I'm in Las Vegas and it's totally AWESOME!". I was really pumped up. I made myself a drink and absorbed the night view through the windows. I tried to stay up as late as I could, but by 3:00 A.M. (equal to 5:00 A.M. Chicago time) I was a complete zombie and turned in.
Dice on the laptop. I bought the dice shown above and a deck of playing cards at the Mirage store near the elevator banks, it was aptly named Impulse. It sold everything from booze to towels to gift items. I used the laptop to download the pictures and movies I took with the digital camera (Canon Powershot Digital Elf S200) at the end of everyday.
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