Las Vegas 2024

This year it’s back to just me, Mark and Ezra and we’re back in Las Vegas for the first time since 2018 - the year I tore my Achilles. I was on the hook for making the arrangements, so I’m anxious that everything works out. I think the last time I was on the hook we ended up at The Stardust the year before they tore the place down, so…

I wanted to make sure we found a good Sportsbook and first booked Circa which has what looks like an amazing poolside/sportsbook set up, but you have to pay to reserve spots which is a pain in the ass. So I found the Westgate which was rated near the top of all the lists. It’s a bit of pit, but its been ok.

I arrived first - had to drive to Nashville in the middle of the night and sleep for a couple of hours in my car in the Nashville airport parking lot, because I had a 5am flight with a short stop in Dallas. Got to Vegas at 9am PST and got a rental car and waited with the other Ubers for Mark to land. I picked him up and we went to Big Chicken (a place owned by Shaq) as we were both pretty hungry. Caught up on the latest in each other's lives and sucked down some Shaqilious chicken.

I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t find a confirmation email for the hotel, so I called to ask about check-in time - and thankfully I was confirmed (something I panicked about around a month ago and went thru the same process. It led me to create a spreadsheet with all of the MM travel and reservations, etc. Of course, I’m not sure which computer that spreadsheet is on…).

Got to the hotel, but couldn’t check in yet, so we got swimsuits out and checked our bags. We put some stuff down to reserve 3 chairs in the Sportsbook then went to the pool, which was “closed due to weather” which was odd since it was 70s and sunny. There was a high wind warning so they shut down, apparently because there’s danger of pool chairs flying willy-nilly.  We found a spot outside the pool area to just sit and soak in the sun. Not particularly comfortable, but we did get about 45 minutes of good sun time.

We checked in, got our bags, Mark made a solid room switch to get one that had 2 beds and a fold out couch (that’s why he’s usually the cruise director) and we went up to the 18th floor - only Mark didn’t keep the cardboard paper that had the room number on it, so he had to go back down. The room is fine - good shower with one of those high-powered overhead shower heads.

Ezra arrived a bit later and it was about time to get down to the Sportsbook. First game was Clemson-Arizona with Clemson pulling the upset. Second game was UConn-San Diego St, which, of course, was the main focus. It was a bit tight in the first half, but UConn was still up 9 at half after lackluster play. They ended up rolling to a 30 point win and most of our bets hit.

Carolina-Alabama was next, followed by Illinois-Iowa St. Both lower seeds won which caused some negative-mixed results in our betting. We were all wiped out from the day of travel, so we headed back up to the room and crashed.

We all woke and did some exercise - Mark and I at the Fitness Center; Ezra went for a run. Mark and I sat out and got early morning sun until Ezra sent a pic of Siegel’s Bagelmania just a few blocks away from our hotel. Mark and I rallied and met him there for some great deli breakfast-ish (Mark had a huge pastrami sandwich) and a black and white cookie the size of my face.

Walked back to the hotel and then jumped in the car for a drive outside Vegas proper (for the first time) to Red Rocks Canyon to hike. You have to make reservations to get into Red Rocks proper (which we didn’t know), but there are several other trails around that are free, so we picked the next one. It was a mile and a half straight out from the road. Lots of low catci and succulent bushes that lead to beautiful rocky structures. No wildlife, though there was plenty of “evidence” of wildlife that you had to sidestep along the way; and no birds, which was surprising. It was nice to get away from the city for a while, though I joked that if you listened hard enough you could still hear the pling-pling-pling of slot machines.

We drove back to the hotel and got ourselves situated for the second day of games. This was one of those brutal evenings that we always dread. We went with Marquette over NC State in game one - lost. We were very excited to root for Houston to bully the Duke primadonnas and then Jamal Shedd went down with an ankle injury and Houston was done for. We were all high on Gonzaga’s chances to give Purdue a run for their money - not in the cards. And finally, Creighton was our last hope to salvage the day against Tennessee - no dice. We headed back to the room with possible thoughts of rallying for some $10 blackjack - but I should’ve known that as soon as we hit the beds, Ezra and Mark were done for. I was tired too, but I decided to pick myself up and search out some of that cheap blackjack.

It was easy to find in this place - they only have one small section of table games. I sat down with $100 and had some favorable early hands, but the dealer had a knack for besting me by 1 (19 over my 18, 20 over my 19) and had a special talent for dealing herself 21s, which I found downright rude. I sat for a while, stopped when I was down $50, took my chips and went to bed.

Saturday morning was cloudy and cool. Another morning gym session followed by a walk to Bagelmania. We pretty much ran back our orders from Friday, but I threw in a latke, which was a good call. It started to rain as we were walking (yes, it apparently does rain in Vegas), so we hopped back in the car and drove over to the Sphere. It’s the new venue that U2 was playing at, unfortunately, only through early March. Now it’s pretty much dormant, but it’s an impressive addition to the skyline. A massive orb with endless projected visuals on the outside. As we approached, for instance, the trippy, undulating swirl suddenly turned into an enormous basketball with the March Madness logo on it. We stopped on the side of the road and took some pictures and video. Then it was off to Downtown Vegas - another area we’ve never really explored.

I had initially made a reservation at the Circa hotel, because they have a sprawling outside pool area with a massive wall of screens that mimics a sportsbook. Seemed like Valhalla for our crew, but some further investigation made it clear that it was costly to reserve seats at both the pool sportsbook and the indoor sportsbook. And, of course, we always have concerns about a venue’s priorities towards the games (over entertainment). I get the sense that, regardless of the games on the screen, Circa’s pool area blasts music 24/7 and I’m guessing it ain’t Phish.

We walked around a bit. Took a look at the indoor sportsbook area, which was impressive, but very clearly a “pay for good seats” model. The outdoor pool area is so popular that if you’re not a guest they charge $30 general admission and require you go through a metal detector. We weren’t even allowed to poke our heads outside to get a view. We headed back out to the “Fremont Street experience,” which is a semi-covered promenade mixing the seedy nostalgia of old Downtown with a huge neon-infused, bass thumping revitalization project. We walked a couple of blocks to get the idea and then headed back to the car, as it was approaching game time and UConn was the first game of the night.

We grabbed our saved seats at the Westgate and I quickly realized that sitting was going to difficult, because I was nervous about Illinois. I had watched them a few times, against IU and in the Big Ten tournament, so I knew their players and how dangerous they were. The first half was not pretty - both teams struggled to score and my fears that UConn would be vulnerable if they didn’t hit 3s came to fruition. Regardless, Donovan Clingan dominated and UConn was up by 5 at half somehow. Then…UConn opened the 2nd Half on a tear. Held Illinois to 2 points for the first 10 minutes, went on a 30-0 run, and it was lights out. Total domination (though they still weren’t hitting 3s). 

Towards the end of the game, an older guy in a strikingly orange polo came over. It was clear that he was part of a contingent a few rows over that was rooting for Illinois and since the three of us yell and scream for UConn like we have millions of dollars riding the game, I thought he might want to punch me in the face. Quite the contrary, he extended a hand in congratulations, noted how surprisingly dominant UConn was and then implored me (more than once) that I promise him that we kick Purdue’s ass.

We were flying high and didn’t much care about the second game - Alabama/Clemson. We had more focus on the UConn women’s game as they were trying to get the Elite Eight against Duke and we had tied some bets to both men and women covering the point spread. The girls prevailed, but only by 8 points due to a missed free throw by Paige Bueckers (Thanks for nothing, Paige). We all had a teaser that minimized the line to 3.5, but Ezra also had money on the straight line, which was 8.5 :(.

Alabama eked out a win over Clemson and we hit the over, so things worked out. Traditionally, Saturday night in Vegas included dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Caeser’s Palace, with a trip to NikeTown next door while we waited for our name to be called. This year, Ezra found a nice Italian place near the hotel. Very old school - except for the 4 tvs over the bar broadcasting some kind of survival reality show. Killed the vibe. Food was very good, but we were all distracted by the two men and a woman at the table next to us who were loudly spouting off like a thread in all caps on Truth Social. They covered many topics I can’t remember or couldn’t clearly follow (without leaning into their manicotti), but I did take away this nugget: “I’m positive that she probably got stomach cancer because she was on social media a couple years ago hyping how she got the vaccine.” God, I love people.

We walked back to the hotel and tried to find some cheap blackjack tables. For us, $10 is optimal, $15 is a stretch for me & Mark, so we pooled some money around one seat when we found Ezra at a $15 table. We got slaughtered, much like I experienced the night before and stopped playing when we lost half of what we started with. Mark went up to bed and I watched Ezra for a bit. He was up big early, but then the virus hit him too. There was a group of Asian gentlemen who weren’t following the set rules of blackjack - and, of course, got all the aces and sevens when stuck with a fourteen against a dealer’s six. Since it was going so well for Ezra, I jumped into an empty seat when the Asian guys left, and dropped my other $50 in swift fashion. Ezra was in the same situation, so we called it a night.

Sunday morning (Easter) started the same as the others - slowly and with a bit of exercise. Ezra decided to run to UNLV (approx. 3.9 miles) and meet us at Faiman court. It was sad when we got there, because the hoop we’ve always played on was gone, leaving a cracked backboard. The rim opposite was playable, but the net was in tatters. We were resigned to a general shoot around and non-contact games like HORSE, because two-thirds of us are not in the shape we used to be - need a good hour of warm-up to keep from tweaking major muscle groups. I, personally, took a moment to acknowledge the spot where my Achilles popped six years ago. It’s insane that I’m still dealing with numbness, discomfort, and nerve damage from that day - and probably always will.

The games were earlier on Sunday and I got checkout pushed to noon, but we all still had to pack, so timing was tight for Bagelmania. It was “hopping” on Easter Sunday - with a bunny mascot, bunny ears for the kids (Mark and Ezra included), and a crooner walking around serenading anyone who would listen. The boys went for the trifecta and ordered their usual, but I went with the chicken and waffles - good move.

We raced back to the hotel, placed bets, took showers, packed, reserved seats in the sportsbook, etc. We watched the first half of the Tennessee-Purdue game in the room and then said goodbye to Ezra. Mark and I took up shop in our usual spot and we proceeded to hit all bets as Purdue won a tight game by 8. Zack Eddy had 40 and 15 and Dalton Knecht poured in 37 for UT, but it wasn’t enough.

Mark and I were very excited to root for NC State over Duke - knowing full well that Duke generally tends to ruin a lot of our spiteful bets. It didn’t start out well, as NC State wasn’t able to find the basket in the first half. Thankfully, Duke wasn’t much better, so it resulted in a very low scoring first half with Duke in the lead, but still pretty close. It seemed like Duke would just run away in the second half, but NC State turned the tables. DJ Burns took over the game, Kyle Fillipowski fouled out and NC State won their first trip to the Final Four since Derrick Wittenburg and Lorenzo Charles and Jimmy Valvano in 1986 (?). Always a high point of the tournament when Duke loses before the Final Four. Even though they technically overachieved this year, it has a big asterisk due to the injury of Jamal Shedd in the win over Houston.

We laid out by the pool for a short while, but it was too cloudy and windy, so I suggested we hop on the monorail and go to Caesers. I needed to look for a gift for Margo and they have great shops. So, we still ended up visiting NikeTown and I found a shirt for Margo in a souvenir shop. We wavered over whether we wanted to eat dinner, so we monorailed back to Westgate, quickly got slapped around at another blackjack table and decided we should get to the airport and look for food options there.

When we returned the car we had gummies left so I took a full one hoping it would help me sleep on the plane before Mark dumped the rest. At this point we were ravenous, so we ate at California Pizza Kitchen and devoured our pizzas without so much as a word. The gummy was hitting me at that point - as was general tiredness - I found myself just zoning out at the gate as we waited for boarding time. 

It worked, because I don’t remember much of the Vegas to Dallas flight - and I never really sleep on flights. Mark and I said goodbye as we were in different terminals with the idea of meeting in Phoenix next week up in the air. 

My connection to Nashville was fine. Went quick and I may have slept a bit more, though I felt like I was trying to find a comfortable position the whole flight.

Either way, I wasn’t tired when we landed and was able to drive home without any concern. I got home a few hours ago and will try to get to a yoga class to help undo some of the tweaks.