Sadly our final full day of Las Vegas. We could’ve had another but due to previous obligations in Austin (doctor appointment, concert, so on) and an error about which vacation times to take. Tried to make the best of it anyway.
Oddly, the day began with breakfast at Denny’s (a frequent hangout near the timeshare thanks to its free, yet sporadic Wi-Fi). Somara insisted on a “proper” meal to start the day. I would’ve been cool with our supplies but I wasn’t going to argue, I was going to force our video poker challenge to a tie-breaker on Monday before we boarded the plane!
The gambling venue for round six of the video poker tournament: The Luxor, home to a memorable stay in 2005 with Jose and Glenn. Their parking facility has a nice walkway going by the pool. We also went by Luxor’s weird brothel-themed, fine-dining establishment…The Cathouse. Yes, prostitution and pate seemed to be a logical combination.
Somara clobbered me to become the new reigning champion for 2010. Now we have a very solid set rule set to continue this tradition in 2011 and I’m going to win. Details of her victory are below.
We proceeded to explore Luxor and eventually Mandalay Bay. It was nice see that Austin-based Ghostland Observatory would be appearing at House of Blues soon. We would also be missing the Blondie/B-52’s show by a couple weeks. A good amount of time was killed at this odd niche shop called The Sock Market, gifts were purchased for our little Sunday-morning friends. I did get an answer regarding the Minus 5 Ice Lounge from a staffer, the temperature is metric, not standard.
Then we geeked out at the Starbucks near the timeshare to catch up, post, whatever; I had to bang out the immediacy of that Cheap Trick concert!
After we grew tired of writing and felt the sun wasn’t going to brutal on our skin, we checked out the lazy river Tahiti Village completed last year. I already clocked several laps on it Friday while Somara was napping but I wanted her to enjoy it. Definitely looking forward to this amenity on all my future stays.
Swimming made us hungry and we agreed on Italian food. What better place to go than Venetian. Back when we got married in 2003, Jose joined us at some informal restaurant we think was called Canelleto. That wasn’t it because it didn’t have a dress code last time. With this casino having Venice and Italy as its theme, finding a replacement didn’t take long. It was certainly more than what we normally paid at Olive Garden but I think they compensated in speed. Next time, should we crave Italian, we’ll investigate the joint near the timeshare.
Venetian as a casino remains impressive, especially in that it hasn’t been gobbled up by the big two corporations (Harrah’s and MGM-Mirage) yet. How it has managed to stay independent like Wynn-Encore is beyond me, I’m not an expert on the business of casinos, just losing money at them slowly. All remaining wagers for friends were completed here and we made our traditional, final bet on 27 (wedding anniversary) at roulette. Sooooo close too. I saw the ball roll in and right out of 27! It wasn’t quite the Bugs Bunny cartoon, it was the fickleness of Physics not Math. Not much of a bummer though. Financially, 27 has served us well. It has won twice, granting us $700. It has lost maybe a dozen times with losses mounting $120 at most. I jokingly state it’s an omen for the coming year. Since we didn’t win, it means we’ll just have to plan better, as we have, to kill off the timeshare, new car and final student loan.
The other enjoyable element was making a rough list during dinner about what we want to do in Las Vegas for 2011.
Gambling Report (Finale):
- Video Poker: Somara 4, Steve 2 ($40, $2.50), she got four Kings to give her enough of a lead to win with a few more hands. Somara is the official winner of the Maggi Republic’s Third Poker Invitational.
- Somara: -$127
- Steve: -$168.50 (Hooray! Lower than last time)