The Vegas Rundown

I forgot even the Denny’s can look fabulous…

But this trip was different in that I now actually know someone who lives here, artiste Dott Schneider. The first few days my husband and I spent doing the strip thing, we were staying off strip but close enough to walk. This was only the second time I didn’t have a car to get around, so boy did I walk! It was a bit much. First things first was to get to my favorite bar and 24 diner (i like to keep it secret so I won’t name it here). It was weird around the bar area because all these dudes were on dates with women that either could be their mom, or just really badly aged strippers. Sitting around the fire, they all wore fur coats too! Whatever, I just wanted my spot and my tropical drink…

We were all about tropical drinks, went to Trader Vic’s which was great since the L.A. one got displaced a bit; it was nice to see some familiar drinks like the Scorpion and be in a clean non-rowdy tropical venue. We tried hitting Kahunaville in the Treasure Island, the “party bar”…that closes at 11pm. I guess many places close early I forgot, so many people drag their kids out, they probably have to be in bed and all. Of course not like we didn’t see 5 and 6 year olds wandering the strip at midnight with their drunk parents, trying to weave through hoards of fraternity ass hats. That’s some good parenting there people. Classy!

We aren’t much for gambling, in fact, I don’t think we ever played a table game on any trip. This trip was just about hanging out and hitting the Puma and Ben Sherman stores. The Puma store being a total waste and not as awesome as you’d think a Vegas strip store should be. I meant to go visit some galleries, but alas, no car and odd gallery hours made it difficult. I saw none. I don’t know what it was, but the strip really irritated me this time around, more than usual. As husband said, “if I was rich I’d go to Monte Carlo, not this hell hole!” We hit a couple divey places to get away from tourists and their children, but encountered even worse local townie scumbags who decide to start talking at you the minute you make any sort of eye contact. Hey, $1 beers are great, but not when you have to talk to scumbags and they lecture you about not having kids! At least we got the strip out of the way and had a nice overpriced lunch at the Forum shops in front of the fountain of the Gods, or whatever it was. On a side note, don’t ever eat the prime rib at Bill’s Gambling Hall (formerly Barbary Coast), it has gone through some changes and is way ghetto nowadays.

So by Sunday my friend Dott came around to take us out. She’s having a show at the Epicenter next month by the way — go dig it. The minute she picked us up, “Freebird” was blasting, we both had Canadian Tuxedos on, and we knew this was going to be fun. First we hit the Triple Seven brewery for breakfast beer and nachos. Then we went to her place of work at the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum where we encountered a funny car, and the racy calendar she has over her computer…

Good beers and an awesome bartender named Nick who cooks burgers, slings booze and studies for college all at once. Well, he was nice enough to let us into the attic, the Whiskey Attic Club. We can’t drink that stuff anymore, but it sure was fun to look. Dott was in heaven…

you had to bow down to the guy for letting us take a peek. Thanks Nick!
After this was a trip to the Double Down. We didn’t see a band, but we were told we had to just pay a visit. I don’t know, kinda the same as any rock club to me, but we had some Stella and hung out for a bit, Dott was a one-woman band on stage anyways…

Then we drove around some more and went back downtown to just wander…

After a stop at Don Juan’s for some Mexican food (which we kept calling it Casa Bonita and singing the song) it was time to head home. The next day we were taken around a bit up in the hills after some lunch and a viewing of The Simpson’s movie over at the Dotto residence, and then drove out to the desert. It had been a while since I was out there, it was nice, although seeing all the broken bottles and trash everywhere from party people really ticked me off.  I was hoping to see a Jack Rabbit, but no luck. Still it was a nice way to spend the afternoon knowing we were going to be in snow later that evening. We even found some coyote and mystery animal remains. We tried finding the head of one decomposing body, but no head anywhere, just shotgun shells…