TRIP 1: $UCCE$$!

CHICAGO, IL -- It's been a couple of days now since I got back from Las Vegas, and what a trip! Saturday we ate breakfast at the Paris Casino & Resort, then took a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The tower is an exact 1/2 scale replica of the real tower in Paris... it's still pretty high up, and it offers impressive views up and down the strip in all directions, including the one above looking south towards Planet Hollywood, the MGM Grand, Tropicana, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, and Monte Carlo. After that we walked to the Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, the Venetian, and the Mirage. We had lunch at the Carnegie Deli at the Mirage, which was insane. They have a policy of not serving any less than 1 pound of meat on a sandwich, and that's only a minimum. We couldn't even see the bread, it was more like an enormous plate of meat. After that we hit the casino floor - I made some quality money playing video poker, blackjack, and especially on roulette. They have these new roulette machines (like video poker) where you play for yourself (not at a table). Utilizing that I was able to take advantage of the math much better, turning about $100 into about $230 for a pretty good evening. That night we saw LOVE, the Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil production that's attracted quite a lot of attention (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/love/intro/intro.htm). The show was fantastic; it was one of the best I have ever seen combining elements of music with sight. The theater was built specifically for this show, with two mini-speakers in each headrest and several sets of projected video and images on screens, walls, and the stage. If you're ever in Vegas, LOVE is a must-see.

Sunday we spent the day at the south end of the Strip, venturing from the Tropicana to the MGM Grand, to New York-New York, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, the Hard Rock, and Hooters. I won all of the bets I made at the Sports Book: one on the Pittsburgh Penguins to win their NHL Eastern Conference Finals game against Philadelphia, which they did 6-0, and two on the Cubs to win their day-game against Pittsburgh, which they also won. I also made some small bets on the Badgers to win the BCS Championship (they're at 30-1 odds) and on the Iowa Hawkeyes to do the same (they're at 100-1). I pitched in with some other people in a much larger bet on the Cubs to win the World Series (9-2). If any of those three teams win, I'll have to take another trip to Vegas to claim the winnings! After the Sports Book, we headed to the Manhattan Express Roller coaster at New York-New York (http://www.nynyhotelcasino.com/entertainment/entertainment_therollercoaster.aspx). One of the best roller coasters in the world, it is one that I vividly remember not wanting to go on during my only other trip to Vegas (some 7+ years ago), and given my love for thrill rides that developed between then and now, it was the only roller coaster I've ever regretted not going on. Well, that's no longer true - I couldn't convince anybody else to do it, but I bought the picture of myself for proof! After that exhilarating experience, we headed to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which was surprisingly small. As such, it was very manageable, which is a nice change from the other mega-casinos on the Strip. In addition to the artifacts that line the interior, I totally kicked ass at the blackjack table. In 45 minutes, I turned $40 into $235. Not too shabby! In the entire time I maybe lost 4-5 hands total - I got very lucky but also played all the right moves, and it's more fun when there is that element of skill involved. Of course, later that evening at the Hooters Casino (yes, there is a Hooters Casino in Vegas: http://www.hchvegas.com/flash.cfm) I blew about $100 of those winnings getting incredibly unlucky playing blackjack, but I still came out significantly ahead on the day. Our dealer, Eddie, was a great guy - despite completely kicking our asses, he made us feel good doing so, teaching us such rules as the "Michael Jackson rule" (never hit on over 11) and the "Mother-in-law rule" (when you have 12-14 and the dealer a 6 showing... you want to hit her but you can't). We ended the day by winning a poker set playing slots. Totally random, but it's actually a very nice poker set.

And then Monday we left. Overall, the trip was phenomenal and I can't wait to go back. Best of all, perhaps, were the free drinks. We discovered that you can sit and play the 25 cent video poker games for a good hour with only a dollar or two in the machine (since if you know how to play your odds are practically even), and the girls bring you drink after drink of whatever you want for FREE! On the weekend, on top of the nearly $400 I made in winnings, I probably consumed near $200 in Corona completely for free! What a deal!?! In sum, if you're 21, go to Vegas - it's a sure hit.

Since I got home I've been working hard on planning the rest of my summer. I signed my contracts and am waiting on the exact flights for my Boston and San Francisco trips June 11-July 17 and August 2-15. I also started some more specific planning for my upcoming road trip to see STS-124. NASA did confirm launch for May 31st, but to save money (and time) we're going to shorten the trip and drive more each day. Instead of leaving this Sunday or Monday, instead I'll be leaving either Tuesday or Wednesday (for the same launch day on Saturday). I'll be driving out to Tulsa, OK, then down to New Orleans, LA, and finally east to Cape Canaveral, FL. Today I got my luggage tags and specific packing list for our fishing trip to Great Bear Lake, which is exciting. Finally, I made more progress on submitting my contracts and applications for my late-summer trip to Israel. The trip, from August 15-24th, is now about 85% odds going to happen (up from 60-70% a couple of posts ago), and I should know for sure within the next couple of days.

So that's the summary! Tomorrow I'm up to Madison to continue wrapping things up there. I'll give an update when I have one, but for now I'm back and forth between Chicago and Madison. Trip one, Las Vegas, was a success!