Vegas Vacation 3: Mortal Katfight − 13 May, 1999
Another morning of sleeping in; after last night, I can't imagine why.
We got up so late, in fact, it was almost time for lunch. A good burger and a beer isn't such a bad way to start the day, so we decided on the Harley Davidson restaurant/museum.
Interesting place. It had sort of a "Route 66" decor, with the obvious focus on motorcycles. The upper level served as a small museum of bikes, photos, and memorabilia of all things Harley. A feature that was initially cool but quickly became annoying and distracting was the display of motorcycles suspended from a track in the ceiling. Six or so bikes slowly made never-ending circuits around the restaurant above our heads.
Oh, and one entire wall was dominated by a massive US flag made of chains. Log chains. I didn't get the tie-in to the motorcycle theme, but it was cool.
As we were digging into our food (which was pretty good), a big motorcycle gang pulled up outside and for the most part took over the place. Must have been regulars because the staff all seemed to know them.
I felt like the four of us stood out like a turd in winter. We didn't feel threatened or anything, but personally, I felt like pussy sitting there without a leather jacket and Viking helmet.
My parents happened to be in Vegas for a short vacation (they had the supreme wisdom to take an airplane). Since they were staying at the Luxor and my wife and I were going to meet up with them later for dinner, we all headed to the Luxor to look for something to do.
We ended up in one of the back hallways where there are a lot of conference rooms. People were milling about all over the place, and as we passed by one particular group, a woman with a clipboard accosted us.
"Would you like to participate in an advanced screening of a new sit-com?"
We all looked at each other. Eh, what the hell?
We were seated in a small conference room with about twenty other people. Everyone was given two "handles" with buttons. We were instructed to hold the green one in our right hand and the red one in our left. As we watched the show we were to press the green button when we liked a part or thought it was funny, and the red one for parts we didn't like.
I don't recall the name of the sit-com, but it was the same, tired crap the networks never seem to get rid of: sort of like Cosby, Roseanne, or Raymond, or any of the other family-type sit-coms. Red button just for the fucking unoriginal concept.
In the first thirty seconds, my brother-in-law and I were bored silly. Our green buttons weren't pressed a single time. The red buttons, on the other hand, were getting a workout. We had a contest to see how many times we could press them in ten seconds.
I think we may have slightly skewed their results.
The show was followed by a paper survey. Oh, we had fun with that, too.
There went an hour we'll never get back, but we did have some fun. We wandered around again until we came to the video game area. Good lord, when did video games go from 25 cents a game to $2.00!?
With home computer and console games being so good now, there just wasn't too much on offer here. The girls played a Mortal Kombat type of game, but the controllers were full-body motion-sensors. Basically, you stood in your "box" and whatever you mimed, your character did on the screen.
It was hilarious to watch. The girls looked like they were having a cat-fight slap-fest, while on the screen the characters were severing limbs and beating each other bloody.
They drew quite a large crowd. Before, no one would go near this game. After the girls were done playing it, there was a line waiting to play.
After the arcade, we spent some time browsing the rather expensive gift shop. Lots of really interesting Egyptian items some real, most just copies. My wife and I both noticed the faience bead necklaces for sale. The tiny beads were found in various tombs in Egypt. We both agreed she had to get one. Though, a hundred dollars is a bit steep for a necklace that has spent the better part of its existence hanging out with a dried up corpse.
My brother-in-law and his wife went out on their own after that, and my wife and I went to my parents' room. After chatting for a while, we headed out to find a place to eat for dinner.
An hour of wandering around found us at an Italian restaurant in New York, New York. Dinner was nice, and we had a good chat -- mom and dad got free tickets to a few shows for sitting in on some sort of time-share pitch. Dad cracks my shit up -- he'll take advantage of those things every time.
Mom and dad went off to a show after dinner and my wife and I loitered around waiting to meet back up with my brother-in-law and his wife.
As we were waiting, I spotted a couple of guys I used to work with back when I was in Ohio. Jerry and Steve were in Vegas for a convention, and it has just let out for the day.
We spent a few minutes catching up, then we spotted the other half of our group. My brother-in-law was studiously playing a slot machine as his wife watched. We hung out for a while and we all played some slots. My brother-in-law eventually got tired of not winning even a single coin back from the machine he was on and moved to another.
Just as we decided to leave, I dropped my last coin in the machine my brother-in-law had vacated.
I won $80. Holy shit, he was pissed. In fact, as we did our drinking tour on the way back to the Frontier, he wouldn't talk to me; he just scowled into his plastic red cup.
Two more days...
We got up so late, in fact, it was almost time for lunch. A good burger and a beer isn't such a bad way to start the day, so we decided on the Harley Davidson restaurant/museum.
Interesting place. It had sort of a "Route 66" decor, with the obvious focus on motorcycles. The upper level served as a small museum of bikes, photos, and memorabilia of all things Harley. A feature that was initially cool but quickly became annoying and distracting was the display of motorcycles suspended from a track in the ceiling. Six or so bikes slowly made never-ending circuits around the restaurant above our heads.
Oh, and one entire wall was dominated by a massive US flag made of chains. Log chains. I didn't get the tie-in to the motorcycle theme, but it was cool.
As we were digging into our food (which was pretty good), a big motorcycle gang pulled up outside and for the most part took over the place. Must have been regulars because the staff all seemed to know them.
I felt like the four of us stood out like a turd in winter. We didn't feel threatened or anything, but personally, I felt like pussy sitting there without a leather jacket and Viking helmet.
My parents happened to be in Vegas for a short vacation (they had the supreme wisdom to take an airplane). Since they were staying at the Luxor and my wife and I were going to meet up with them later for dinner, we all headed to the Luxor to look for something to do.
We ended up in one of the back hallways where there are a lot of conference rooms. People were milling about all over the place, and as we passed by one particular group, a woman with a clipboard accosted us.
"Would you like to participate in an advanced screening of a new sit-com?"
We all looked at each other. Eh, what the hell?
We were seated in a small conference room with about twenty other people. Everyone was given two "handles" with buttons. We were instructed to hold the green one in our right hand and the red one in our left. As we watched the show we were to press the green button when we liked a part or thought it was funny, and the red one for parts we didn't like.
I don't recall the name of the sit-com, but it was the same, tired crap the networks never seem to get rid of: sort of like Cosby, Roseanne, or Raymond, or any of the other family-type sit-coms. Red button just for the fucking unoriginal concept.
In the first thirty seconds, my brother-in-law and I were bored silly. Our green buttons weren't pressed a single time. The red buttons, on the other hand, were getting a workout. We had a contest to see how many times we could press them in ten seconds.
I think we may have slightly skewed their results.
The show was followed by a paper survey. Oh, we had fun with that, too.
There went an hour we'll never get back, but we did have some fun. We wandered around again until we came to the video game area. Good lord, when did video games go from 25 cents a game to $2.00!?
With home computer and console games being so good now, there just wasn't too much on offer here. The girls played a Mortal Kombat type of game, but the controllers were full-body motion-sensors. Basically, you stood in your "box" and whatever you mimed, your character did on the screen.
It was hilarious to watch. The girls looked like they were having a cat-fight slap-fest, while on the screen the characters were severing limbs and beating each other bloody.
They drew quite a large crowd. Before, no one would go near this game. After the girls were done playing it, there was a line waiting to play.
After the arcade, we spent some time browsing the rather expensive gift shop. Lots of really interesting Egyptian items some real, most just copies. My wife and I both noticed the faience bead necklaces for sale. The tiny beads were found in various tombs in Egypt. We both agreed she had to get one. Though, a hundred dollars is a bit steep for a necklace that has spent the better part of its existence hanging out with a dried up corpse.
My brother-in-law and his wife went out on their own after that, and my wife and I went to my parents' room. After chatting for a while, we headed out to find a place to eat for dinner.
An hour of wandering around found us at an Italian restaurant in New York, New York. Dinner was nice, and we had a good chat -- mom and dad got free tickets to a few shows for sitting in on some sort of time-share pitch. Dad cracks my shit up -- he'll take advantage of those things every time.
Mom and dad went off to a show after dinner and my wife and I loitered around waiting to meet back up with my brother-in-law and his wife.
As we were waiting, I spotted a couple of guys I used to work with back when I was in Ohio. Jerry and Steve were in Vegas for a convention, and it has just let out for the day.
We spent a few minutes catching up, then we spotted the other half of our group. My brother-in-law was studiously playing a slot machine as his wife watched. We hung out for a while and we all played some slots. My brother-in-law eventually got tired of not winning even a single coin back from the machine he was on and moved to another.
Just as we decided to leave, I dropped my last coin in the machine my brother-in-law had vacated.
I won $80. Holy shit, he was pissed. In fact, as we did our drinking tour on the way back to the Frontier, he wouldn't talk to me; he just scowled into his plastic red cup.
Two more days...
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Comments:
bmccosar (April 29, 2008. 09:31pm)
When I lived in Chattanooga, Eastgate mall used to be haunted by those survey people. We called them "The Venus Mall Trap." The only time getting snagged by them paid off: we got to see the preview trailers for Star Trek IV about a month before everyone else.
edunn (April 30, 2008. 03:09am)
You should have your wife try playing the Wii! Do you have one? My husband just got one and it is awesome. even I like it!
intrepideddie (April 30, 2008. 05:30am)
"Venus Mall Trap" -- that's fantastic! The mall survey weenies are annoying. That's got to be right up there on the list of thankless jobs. Fortunately, now I don't have to pretend that I don't see them as I walk by. I just pinch one of my kids really hard and make them cry. No one bothers you when you've got to deal with a screaming child. Of course, I then have to buy cookies or ice cream to make up...