non-gambling Girls' Weekend in Vegas
Consider a weekend elsewhere? Why the restriction?
1 - Which restriction? Vegas or non-gambling?
Will prostitutes be patronized?
Neither my friend nor I are gamblers but we wanted to do a girls' weekend somewhere. She's been going through a rough time trying to get pregnant and wanted to choose a city that was more "adult focused" so we'd run into fewer families with little kids, which are really hard for her to see. We've done NYC, we've done New Orleans, and Vegas is fairly convenient to get to for both of us.
You should see some shows, of course. But I have the same question as Smasher: if they won't be gambling, why go to Vegas?
You should drop loads of cash at this bookstore.
Isn't there some big roller coaster in Vegas? Also, I've only been to Vegas as a little kid with my family.
Oh, and there are some very nice restaurants in Vegas, so you should go to one of them.
I can't believe this:
"I am trying to be strong right now," Paris said of her jail time set to begin Tuesday. "I'm really scared but I'm ready to face my sentence."
"I did have a choice to go to a pay jail," said Hilton, without giving details. "But I declined because I feel like the media portrays me in a way that I'm not and that's why I wanted to go to county, to show that I can do it and I'm going to be treated like everyone else. I'm going to do the time, I'm going to do it the right way."
The roller coaster will help her get pregnant with all the eggs it'll shake loose.
It can actually be quite fun to stroll around some of the casinos while not gambling. It's a cultural experience, and the architecture is sort of boggling. I recommend the trompe l'oeil spots like "Paris".
good restaurants
Dave Feldman thinks that Lotus of Siam is the best Thai restaurant around. And he has very good taste.
Also, you might not like this sort of thing, but I thought Cirque de Soleil's "O" was pretty awesome. Also good is finding something totally not on or of the Strip to do, for contrast. Once we went there and saw a Dismemberment Plan show at the Cafe Roma (I think) near UNLV one night, and did casino stuff the other night.
I'd definitely like to do a Cirque show, if she's up for it. Her initial suggestion was Chippendales (ironically, at least I hope) but I'm hoping to parry that.
You could go around trying to find a place that will marry you.
If we're going to do ironic ridiculousness, I'd rather ride the mechanical bull from 15.
What does Becks have against chairs?
A bonus to strolling around and looking at the people playing blackjack is that there will be zero kids on the casino floor.
19 would be kind of cool, especially if you brought along a video camera to document your drunken attempts to get married.
I'd rather ride the mechanical bull from 15.
How awesome would it be to be able post pics of yourself on a mechanical bull?
Peyote can tell you whether or not to eat a cactus. I cannot tell you. Only peyote can tell you.
8: Even strippers, it turns out, enjoy cracking a book on their nights off from booking their cracks.
Wise words.
Clownie is channeling his inner Stan Lee.
It's not really a girls' weekend thing, but there's the Hoover Dam. There are a bunch of good restaurants, but they're mostly knockoffs of ones found elsewhere (Craftsteak, Nobu, etc.), so I'd be more likely to find a nice bar -- having been to a perfectly nice hotel in Chicago recently where the hotel bar guy made crappy drinks, I'm kind of dying for a good hotel-bar-type experience. You could probably search on eGullet and find a bunch of good recommendations.
Sexist. Hoover Dam is very girly.
Peyote. Peyote. Peyote. Cactus. Lamp. Chair. Octopus. Laser. Caterwaul.
It's not really a boy's weekend activity, either. A vacation that might include drunkenly flailing on a mechanical bull doesn't go with the sense of quiet veneration required for a visit to the Hoover Dam. Unless there was a mechanical bull on top of the Hoover Dam, which would be pretty sweet.
Many girls' most cherished memories are of their father explaining exactly how many tons of cement per minute were put into Hoover Dam, and how long it took at that rate.
Interesting: When it comes to statements made by interview subjects, Time Magazine prints the word "shitty", but renders "fucking" as "f___ing".
Lotus of Siam is indeed a really good Thai restaurant -- surprisingly located in a strip mall.
Red Rocks, a state park (I think) of amazing sandstone canyons and such, is just west of town. There's also a place that I didn't make it to where you can shoot all kinds of guns in their shooting range -- even AK-47s and shit.
"Paris" really is a sight. And the sound of all those slot machines is worthy of John Cage.
There's also a place that I didn't make it to where you can shoot all kinds of guns in their shooting range -- even AK-47s and shit.
Several places in Vegas area that rent Class 3 as I recall. Looks like both American Shooters and The Gun Store are within city limits.
The forums at Caesar's Palace have a really awesome lingerie shop in them. Not cheap, but fuck it: it's Vegas and you don't gamble, you gotta drop some cash somewhere.
Oh, and y'know, if you want to spend money, stay at the Mirage; if not, stay at the Flamingo (you can always find some kind of special). I could spend a perfectly nice weekend simply lying by the pool at the Flamingo drinking. The Mirage is fancier.
it's Vegas and you don't gamble, you gotta drop some cash somewhere.
Right. At the Reading Room at Mandalay Bay.
Haven't done that yet, but definitely will put it on the list for next time.
What is so unique about this Vegas bookstore? The article linked in 8 says that "[t]here isn't enough room in this article to detail the many other ways in which this bookstore differs from the Waldenbooks in Lansing, Michigan", but the higher concentration of strippers among the clientele seems to be all that sets it apart.
38 - I assume you're talking about La Perla. Sorry, but I can't bring myself to drop $250 on a bra and $100+ on the matching panty.
the sound of all those slot machines is worthy of John Cage
seems more like a philip glass thing...
Of course you're not kidding.
I got a lovely silk gown there on sale. They do have sale items.
Cirque du Soleil: Cats on trampolines.
Go out drinking, then recuperate from your hangovers the next day in a spa. Also, the Liberace museum is way fun.
What is so unique about this Vegas bookstore?
I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
51: The words "naked" and "trampoline" can't even call each other without an international prefix. And John Ashcroft gets to listen in from home. Just for kicks. Ack. Not fun.
Our camp at burning man has three adjacent trampolines, and I've seen more naked people doing crazy, dangerous things on them than I can count. Great fun*! I also learned that sex on a trampoline can involve a startling amount of altitude.
* possibly great m-fun? I've been trying to figure out what that one means for a while.
sex on a trampoline
That sounds like a recipe for a truly tramautic injury.
55: we must accept risk if we are to achieve greatness in life.
Oh, about Vegas: Harrahs has a nice pool and doesn't check room keys. If you're even vaguely a nerd the Star Trek bar is kind of a gas. There are some really good clubs around, if you can deal with that kind of thing, although I have had more fun in clubs off the strip. Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill is f'in' hilarious. The topless pool scenes are kind of nasty, from what I hear.
That's all I can think of right now.
Oh! Nickel slots. Free drinks, less risk. Crappy watered down drinks, but reasonably free!
Oh. There's those fifty-nine Cirque du Soleil shows around, too. I prefer the aerial science fiction spectacular set to the music of Jackson Browne. I kid, but yeah, they've sort of glutted the market.
Re #11, now this:
Hilton will be housed in the facility's "special needs" unit.
So much for getting tossed in with the general population. Gotta wonder what those special needs might be...
"Special needs" sounds like "protective custody", for inmates who are endangered out in the general population and those with special medical needs, etc. If so, it isn't really a privilege, but protects the prison system from a humungous deep-pockets lawsuit if anything bad happens to the deluxe hotel lady.
On the other hand, we may see the warden of the prison getting a cushy job somewhere in the Hilton system the day after Paris graduates.
I wonder if she's got people working on a script for a reality movie yet?
This is like the weirdness of the late Roman Empire.
Play the penny and nickel slots! It's a dippy kind of fun.
52 is indeed a great comment. I've been enjoying the peyote series also.
Lounge poolside, see Spamalot, go get drinks at Quarks in the Hilton. Drink a lot. Play nickel slots. Avoid the Luxor at all costs.
I'm also the only person alive who really, really likes the shady older section of the strip, past the Stratosphere. i don't even gamble, but I find those old casinos simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.
Mon Ami Gabi in Paris is pretty tasty and not terribly pricey. Or you could go to Rum Jungle in Madalay Bay and watch all the girls in bikinis swing above you. I think there are black lights involved. And techno music.
Beck, send an email should you want more detailed info, I think I've spent a good quarter of my life in Vegas at this point.
62: The Peyote Series will save NBC's tumbling ratings come this fall. It's much better than Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Katie Couric is livid.
here's a tip:
don't accept drinks from strangers.
my wife has been working on a case of a woman who went to LV and was raped by several men after they had slipped one of the date-rape drugs into her drink.
the LV cops and the hotel are working very hard to prevent her from having any recourse to the law, e.g. refusing her access to the hotel video surveillance tapes which show her being led off from the hotel lounge in a stupor. The management has admitted that they know who the parties were.
but the hotel and cops are very keen to make sure that what happens in vegas stays in vegas, so that rapists can be assured of a good time.
it's not a nice place.
I think Harrah's may be the casino I find almost endlessly depressing: much more on the enormous but junky, faded, buses full of senior citizens end of the spectrum.
A Lotus of Siam report. Some more Las Vegas threads. You can see Cook E. Jarr at Harrah's for no cover, 2 drink min.
I don't really have the stomach for Vegas. I find it like being inside an epilectic seizure.
I find it like being inside an epilectic seizure.
Non-stop excitement! Exactly.
Man, I really need to go gambling again. I'm getting the itch.
totally go shoot guns at one of those ranges. I myself have never been to vegas but one of my best friends had a great girls weekend there and it sounded like to trip to the range was the highlight.
I think it's traditional to take mescaline, also.
to 65: kid bitzer, um can they do that? I mean, the LV cops are conspiring with the casino against the victim...? they're denying she was raped at all, or... they suck, in any case.
70--
"it was consensual", goes the standard line.
and, yes, from what i understand (at second or more hand), the LV cops are conspiring with the hotel and the perpetrators against the victim.
look, you don't want a bunch of bad publicity to scare off tourists, do you? spoil people's vacations?
Go - with a limited amount of cash in your pocket and no ATM card - to Fremont Street. Gamble in the old casinos. They are ratty and fading and the drinks are free and at the cheap ($5) blackjack tables you'll get more personal attention and have a better time. Wander outside for the Fremont Street Experience. It takes five minutes and if you're drunk you are guaranteed to laugh at something.
The roller coaster is in the New York themed casino, the name of which I can't recall but I want to say is just New York.
On the third day, when you realize the urge to burn the whole city and dance in celebration of the sight atop one of the nearby ridges, go to the Hoover Dam. Eat at Roberto's along the way.
"What happens in LV stays in LV" has various meanings. Covering up for rape is only one of them.
Way back when the Gov of NV was thinking of running for President as the Family Values candidate. (Laxalt, I think). People talked him out of it. Many FV people look askance on prostitution and gambling.
Though I'm sure that David Brooks Rod Dreher could explain how prostitution really strengthens the institution of marriage.
Though I'm sure that David Brooks Rod Dreher could explain how prostitution really strengthens the institution of marriage
An old and boring argument.
37: I recently attended a bachelor party in Vegas, and we went to the Gun Store and shot full-autos. They've got a nice range of iconic guns -- the groom shot a classic gangster Thompson, for example -- and they're pretty efficient about letting you blow the hell out of paper targets. It's super-close range, rapid, and very, very, very supervised, so it's not like you're exactly going to get a feeling for what it's like to shoot the gun; but, speaking as someone who doesn't enjoy target shooting, I had a good time none the less, and am kind of pleased that I can tell people that I've fired an M-16.
Vegas is not actually the best place to go to avoid families & little kids. It's a regular Times Square these days.
That said, I echo Lotus of Siam, Red Rocks, and Fremont St. (But the Experience is stupid, even if you're drunk. Sorry, McManlyPants. Or are those Slacks?)
How has no one mentioned the unmissable Peppermill?! It was better before the video screens, but the flame *is* eternal.
If they're in town, go see the Las Vegas 51s play (51, as in Area). Cheap tickets, mellow scene -- no video screen! it's old-school baseball bliss. Not kid-free, though.
40: it's Vegas and you don't gamble, you gotta drop some cash somewhere.
Right. At the Reading Room at Mandalay Bay.
Wrong. Mandalay Bay is the one anti-union holdout on the Strip. Gawk at the book-reading strippers if you like, but don't spend any $ there.
Corrected link for the 51s: www.lv51.com
"the groom shot a classic gangster Thompson, for example -- and they're pretty efficient about letting you blow the hell out of paper targets."
Do they have future-mother-in-law targets?
The Monte Carlo is another very nice, recently refurbished, and not outrageously expensive hotel option.
If you really want to splurge on a hotel, stay at the Venetian. Every room is a suite, and they're *very* nice.
79: Actually, the targets were a little upsetting. They didn't have any classic bullseye targets: all were human-shaped of one kind or another. I stuck with a generic silhouette, but most of the options were full-color images of what were supposed to be arabs, or, as I recall, one of Osama Bin Laden. I think a couple of others were pictures of generic "criminals."
I personally don't have a problem shooting at a picture of Osama in particular, but the generic "arab" targets had an uncomfortably racist gloss. So, just a caution to anyone trying the place out.
Shit, I lied. It's the Venetian that's the scum-sucking, union-busting, running-dog land of evil. Go spend buckets of dough at Mandalay Bay. Send w-lfs-n a crate of of books whose covers have been grazed by the saline-enhanced breasts of dancers squeezing past one another in the crowded aisles.
But the Experience is stupid, even if you're drunk. Sorry, McManlyPants. Or are those Slacks?
Tsk. You're going to have to try better bait if you want a bite. That aside, I said she was guaranteed to laugh at something without further specifications; my experience was that the crowd was hilarious in its own right.
Why not go instead to the twin cities, and visit the Mall of America?
we went to the Gun Store and shot full-autos.
Autos full of people or just clowns?
Second the Kraab's recommendation for the Peppermill. It's got no slot machines, which you'll appreciate once you realize how relentlessly monetized every square foot of space is. Vegas is also having an epicurean explosion right now, so book your restaurants. And stay away from the Venetian (also for Kraab reasons); if you must check it out, my rule for going in places that are under union boycott is to buy nothing and have a really smelly bowel movement.
The pawn shops can be fun, especially if you consider that they are stocked with misery. Last time I was in Vegas, I was running a precinct team with America Coming Together in the last days before the 2004 election. I wandered the Fremont Street Experience and heard a cowboy band covering "Proud to be an American". Then there was a nifty light show. Recommended!
I have nothing of value to offer, having never been to Vegas, but my understanding is that of late there are a lot of very good restaurants there. If it were me, I think I'd take all that money I was going to piss a way in casinos and spend it eating myself into a stupor.
There are excellent restaurants in Vegas, but they're laughably overpriced.
86: It's not that I have anything against killing clowns, of course, but I am a firm believer that their deaths should be quick and humane, and with my marksmanship, the opposite is guaranteed.
BFF and I have been talking and she really, really wants to go see a strip show. I really have no desire to see Chippendale's. It (1) seems lame and (2) beefy dudes in a bow tie do nothing for me. Anyone know of a less lame strip show than Chippendale's? I don't know about BFF but I'd be up for a good female strip show before a lame male one (e.g., Chippendale's).
The Thunder from Down Under is on every billboard in town. Does that mean it's good? Doubtful.
I don't really know Vegas strip clubs, even if I am eternally marked as the official strip club booster of unfogged. I've never been to one.
I would say a topless showgirl thing might be more fun than a strip club.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get out of this. Is some douchebag like this gets up in my face, I'm going to reflexively cockpunch him.
Yeah, by "strip show" I meant cheesy over-the-top topless showgirl thing, like in Showgirls (e.g., the best bad movie ever).
And, yeah yeah, those e.g.s should all be i.e.s.
90: The Palomino is the strip club I went to; it's pretty clean and non-horrifying.
Yes - don't go. We spent a few days in LV last year and were bored to tears.
Then we rent a car and visited Chloride - just an hour or two across the border in Arizona.
We couldn't believe our eyes - it's mostly inhabited by poor ex-US military cast-offs - the cemetery has to be seen to be believed - crosses made of electical conduit pipe etc.
Our Brit friends, accustomed to thinking that Americans are all, well, rich/middle class [except for the downtrodden black folks] were AMAZED.
OMG, Y'ALL. MY FRIEND IS DRAGGING ME TO THIS.
At least there are no bow ties...at least there are no bow ties...
Sweet, you're taking my recommendation.
101: Nice. Gawd, I wish there could magically be pictures available of this whole thing.
I would settle for pictures of the expressions on Becks's face.
She got "VIP" seats, whatever that means.
Nevada Magazine readers voted it the Best Adult Revue. Not bad.
Hahahahahaha!! I'm willing to bet that means cocks IN YOUR FACE.
whatever that means
Think "lap dance".
I don't want cocks in my face! If something's going to be shoved up in my face, I think I'd almost rather have it be tits.
If you haven't seen the hot new opening number that is a tribute to America 's Motown sound, you better get to the show. The guys are having a good time as they "sing" and dance to songs like "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "25 Miles" The anticipation builds with a 10-second countdown. The then, there they are, our hunky guys dressed in fitted burgundy jackets standing in front of microphones and offering their contemporary spin on the legendary musical sounds. But, it's even more fun when they peel off their jackets, vests and shirts to display their sexy "six pack abs" and more.
"VIP" seats
Backstage passes?
109: glistening, oily man-tits.
109: what happens at UnfoggeDCon, stays at UnfoggeDCon?
Upon googling, it appears that "VIP" means "first 8 rows".
Your friend has done the blog a huge favor. When's the trip?
I'm sure you're marking it on your calendar.
You better believe it. I can't wait for your post.
Why on God's green earth would anyone go to such a thing? Vegas brings out my inner Savonarola.
Pictures won't do it justice. I want a movie! One that traces the whole epic journey of a young woman uncomfortable with the idea of attending a nude male revue who ends up on tabletop shouting "Take it off! Take it off!"
This show is really an amazing phenomenon. It is a smart reply, reaction and answer to all of the topless female shows and strip clubs that are so prevalent in Las Vegas. I am sure that for a long time now, women have been saying, "What's out there for me?" The "Thunder" is that answer to all of that. Enthusiastic female audience members are lining the walls to see this show, and they are not being disappointed by what they see inside.
There's certainly nothing here you haven't seen before. It's basically seven men, all from Australia, all toned and tanned within an inch of their lives, who dance, strip, shake, shimmy, and try to incite the women in the audience to higher levels of outrageousness. Whether the guys are leaping into the audience to plant soul kisses on unsuspecting female admirers or pulling them up on stage to put on a show for everyone, there's always something wild happening and most of it made me shake my head and giggle.
This will not be me:
When the amiable and funny host of the show Marcus Deegan said he was going to give away a pair of Thunder from Down Under silk boxer shorts to whomever in the audience got his attention, I saw at least half a dozen women stand up and rip open their shirts to flash their breasts at the guy. For a pair of boxer shorts!!! I'm not going to even mention what happened when he went to give away a calendar.
Those shorts are rarer than beads, Becks. And so, so bloggable.
pulling them up on stage to put on a show for everyone
Oh, dear god, please. Pleeeeeeease.
Becks, your friend needs to take pictures of your reactions. If necessary, I will mail her a camera.
Apparenly Becks' friend told her I'm booking us the VIP seats. I want to do this right. I want COCK in my FACE.
