First, lets cover the basics. My idea for this vacation was a double. I'd do a normal visit to A's family. Drive down to Dallas, visit for awhile, then drive home. The second half would bypass me driving home, and consist of me driving to Las Vegas to visit with E, and only afterward would I drive home. Driving to Dallas takes two days (17 hours of driving). I spent Memorial Day weekend with A and his family. After finishing the drive on Thursday (18 hours), I spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday there. I then drove Wednesday and Thursday to Vegas. After finishing the drive, E and I hung out on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. On Tuesday we hung out a bit more, then I started my drive back home (33 hours) which lasted Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That is a lot of hanging out and a lot of driving.
I talked about my convoluted trip to Dallas in my previous post. Basically, Google Maps (my driving companion) either wants me to go one of two ways. Drive through Chicago, through St. Louis, barely into Oklahoma, and then to Dallas via state highways. Or, drive through Indianapolis, through Memphis, through Arkansas, and then to Dallas via state highways. I never know what way it wants me to go (Chicago or Indianapolis) until I start driving as it takes traffic into account. My choice is to go south to Indianapolis so that I avoid the clusterfuck that is driving anywhere near Chicago, then turn and go through St Louis, and finally follow the map from there. But this time I was planning on staying on I-44 through Oklahoma until I hit Oklahoma City where I'd pick up I-35 and take that south.
Now, this part is true regardless of how I feel, but it's particularly important when I'm experiencing a migraine. You see, if I'm experiencing a bad brain fog where I can't think, I'm relying on the maps turn-by-turn directions to get me where I'm going. If I have it leading me, I can listen to podcasts or an audio book and just sit back and relax, knowing it is there to take navigation duties off my mind. If I'm focusing on the directions myself, I'm forced to just put on music (and have it quiet enough to be in the background) so that I can concentrate on my next turn.
When I took off on the morning of May 22nd, Google Maps tried sending me to Chicago. Fuck that noise. I know the route to Indianapolis easily enough and could follow that even though my mind was a bit foggy. It was still annoying, however, to have the navigation assume I just missed a turn and keep constantly trying to re-direct me back to its route. And it keeps that up for the first three hours of my trip. Every ten minutes or so "At the Next Light, Turn Left" or "Take Exit 31 toward Chicago in Two Miles". Finally, when I crossed I-80/90 in Indiana, it got the fact that I was staying on I-69 and then started to route me around Indianapolis. Of course, once I got to Indianapolis, I had to remind it I wanted to go via Oklahoma, but thankfully there was something traffic related toward or just after Memphis, and it started routing me to St Louis on its own.
I got a hotel in Missouri for the night and started my next day with the migraine growing worse. This part would suck as I wanted to rely on the directions, but I was going to go against them too. I followed Google Maps' directions into Oklahoma, but then focused on staying on that highway until I-35. I swear, in the extra couple hours I stayed on I-44 Google Maps came on and wanted me to turn off at least two dozen times. I just kept driving until I heard the directions say to turn off onto I-35 (I'm fairly certain one of the turn offs just before the I-35 would have been a shortcut via I-335, I-40, and I-240, but again my brain fog was too great for me to let it take me off 'my route'. All that means for those two hours I was limited to listening to background music, even though I was really interested in the audio book I currently had (Stephen King's Wizard and Glass).
Once I hit I-35, it was easy going. I'll say that going on US highways sucks and this route doesn't completely avoid them. Instead of three hours on US highways (US 69 and US 75) I had to take an hour on US highways (US 82 and US 75). US highways crack me up. They go through towns so they drop down to 25 mph at times. At other times, at least in Texas, they go up to 75 mph. They'll act like they're truly limited access, with entrances and exits, but at the same time they'll have cross streets and even houses with driveways on them. Just imagine pulling out of your driveway onto a 75 mph street!).
Hanging out with A and his family was great as always. The only two things to note was that there was a bout of tornadoes one night and a great deal on BBQ.
I was surprised on the tornado night because our first hint at danger was the sirens going off. As they're no strangers to tornados in the area, A's family did their normal duty. J, A's wife, cleared out an interior closet and the kids climbed in. A and J then wandered around the house, looked out the windows, and looked for information. I was the only one that thought of tuning into a TV station as I'm used to watching the local meteorologist talk through tornado warnings. As A and family don't have linear television, they don't have the 'local' stations. Thankfully, I was able to find the local Dallas ABC affiliate was streaming their meteorologist and had that on my phone.
The tornado ended up going about five miles north of A's house. It was the closest call they've had and damaged some businesses and neighborhoods they know. I was shocked though, by the warning time they had. Between the initial siren and the tornado finally passing by, there was an hour of warning. AN HOUR! I remember hearing the siren as a kid and there might have been 15 minutes of warning (often, less than that!).
The BBQ was a surprise. When I'm visiting A and family, we normally BBQ at least once. I'm not talking about grilling as we do that too, I'm talking low and slow BBQ. We did a rack of ribs that cooked for 6 hours and were spectacular. But this time, the local Kroger had whole briskets on sale. Take a moment, and guess the price of a brisket. This is a ten to fifteen pound, relatively cheap cut of meat. I'm used to getting a 'Prime Cut' brisket for about $5 or $6 a pound. Kroger had it on sale for $1.79 a pound. Prime Cut Brisket for less than $2 a pound!
So Memorial Day we BBQ'd the brisket for 10 hours. Unfortunately, my migraine hit me particularly bad that day and I missed A and the family taking the brisket to his parent's house for dinner. I got to munch on the leftovers and it was okay.... but then again home BBQ'd brisket is spectacular to begin with, so even only 'okay' brisket is damned good.
Tuesday was all about washing my clothes as I simply don't own enough casual clothes to take this long of a vacation. Finally, I got back on the road on Wednesday.
Now, I've driven the Michigan to Texas trip many times before. There are hills around St Louis that make driving interesting (3 or 4% grades that really make you feel like you're driving 'downhill'). There's a little dryer land in Oklahoma, but it's still farm land. And both Oklahoma and north Texas are both 'hot'. But all in all, the terrain and views from the car windows are the same. Relatively flat hills, trees, green. On vacations as a child, I've seen other terrains, but this was the first time I've taken these as an adult on my own. Because let me tell you, west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada are NOT like Michigan to Texas.
First, I had to take the US highways from Dallas back up to I-44, but it was a long 3 hours. It was mostly the 75 mph fairly limited access highway, but I still stayed on the radio as it would occasionally drive through a town. Once I got back on I-44 near Amarillo, the terrain was foreign to me. It was dry, baked, and flat. I don't think there were actual cactuses, but it was more shrubs than trees.
And then I hit New Mexico and the mountains began. Initially these were mere hills, but they were raw rock on the sides of the highway. I wish I could have taken more photos, but as I was driving most of the time I only got a couple good examples. This wasn't anything spectacular (there WERE spectacular vistas to be seen!) but it's one that I snapped outside of a truck stop I rested at for a bit.
I mean... come on! I just don't normally see raw rock hill/mountains like that on a daily basis and it kept the driving interesting. Here's another one I snapped at a rest area:
It was a fine drive to Vegas. One thing I had to get used to was how sparce it is out that way. I'm used to far more exits with services where I live and drive often. When I'm driving from Michigan to Texas, I can stop when I want. There's going to be either an exit with a gas station or a rest area nearby. If I want to wait a bit, I'll soon come across an exit with a truck stop so I know I'll have a good clean rest room, an area to stretch my legs, and a wide selection of snacks and foods and drinks.
But between Dallas and Vegas? Yeah, no. I'd go thirty miles or more without any services. No gas stations, no rest areas, nothing. And when I got off the interstate on my last leg up to Vegas? Yeah, there was a stretch of 95 miles with no services. No gas stations, no rest areas, nothing. Thankfully, I'm always prepped to drive for two hours straight with extra snacks and drinks, and if I needed to, I could have stopped on the side of the road to pee.
Getting into Vegas was tough as it's a major city and suffers from the same major city traffic problems. Thankfully, it was only a couple blocks from the highway to the hotel. As I mentioned in the last post, we stayed at the Circa, a new downtown hotel/resort/casino. Here's the view I had from my car as I neared it:
Now, there are a lot of ways I could go over the Vegas trip. I could talk about E and I hanging out, the sites we saw, the experiences we had or the hotel experience. I could go chronologically and cover all of that or I could list them all independently. I want to break it into two parts though, with a coda covering the migraine. First, I'm going to discuss Circa as it is bad. Then I'll cover hanging with E and the experiences we had as that was good.
Circa. This might be the first experience I've had where my age might color my experience. It also might be my migraines, but I don't think it's either of those. Circa is just bad. First comes the parking. They own the garage next to the resort (Ironically called Garage Mahal). You can valet park at the hotel though so I pulled up to their drop off area, handed my keys to the valet, took my valet ticket, got my luggage, and walked into the hotel. Or rather, I had to get my ID out first and flash that. You see, Circa is 'adult only'. You have to be 21 to enter. I get it, no kids is a good thing and I appreciate it. But come on... I had to flash my ID every single fucking time I entered those doors. And remember, I smoke, so when I step outside for a cig, I have to flash my ID a moment later to get back in. And it's not even just flashing the ID, as they take it, scan it, look at it, compare you to the photo on it, and then hand it back.
Fine. It sucks, but I kind of get it.
I walked in to the front desk which was off to the corner. Checking in was tough as again, I had a bad migraine. The music in this lobby area was LOUD. Loud enough that the clerk had to speak up. He confirmed who I was, that I was staying for five nights, and the identity of my room mate (E). I emphasized that he needed to get a key when he got in as I had a bad migraine and might be out cold by the time he got in. The clerk then apologized and told me that they were experiencing some construction but it would stop at 5 PM each night and wouldn't start back up until 9 AM. It also wouldn't happen on the weekend (Saturday or Sunday). In apology for the construction he gave me two drink tickets (champagne) to their rooftop legacy club. He then gave me the keys and pointed me to the elevators.
It's not good or bad, but the elevators were the first that I've seen like this at a hotel. First, you had to use your room key to even get access to the elevators, which I appreciated. Random casino guests couldn't even get to them, let alone up to our floors. Then there's two banks of elevators. One for the first 30 floors, one for the next 30. As we were on the 31st floor, I had to use the second bank. But instead of calling an elevator, stepping in the first one that opens, hitting the button for your floor, then heading up, you used a digital panel to select the floor you were going to. It would then light up and tell you which elevator you'd use, pointing roughly toward it. You'd then walk around the corner into the elevator area, and more often than not, see that elevator open and waiting for you. Step inside and you see three buttons; door open, door close, emergency. There are no buttons for the individual floors.
I know they use this system in office buildings, often tied to ID cards to make sure you can only access floors you have access to, but its the first time I've seen it in a hotel.
Anyway, the elevator was quick and the loud lobby quickly dropped away. The room was much like a normal hotel room, but modern and a little fancy. By normal I mean you stepped in, had a bathroom off to one side, had a closet area with a safe, a desk along one wall, two beds (they bragged about the beds being Kings as opposed to Queens), and a big window. But the fancy started at the light switches. There aren't any. Instead, you have these panels with touch points for different lights or groups of lights. For instance, when you initially walk in you hit the "Hi" button and it turns on all the lights. When you hit the "Bye" button, it turns them all off. You can also hit the "Privacy" button and it will not allow room service or maid service keys to open the door (nice!). You can hit the "Service" button and it will notify the maid service that you'd like the room tended to. That one is important as there is no automatic service. If you don't let them know you need them, they won't step in. Not even to freshen up your towels or make your bed. We used them every other day. Here's the entry way panel, as well as the panel between the beds:
It wasn't amazing use of technology or anything, but it was still nice and new. The thing that caught me off guard was the fact that there wasn't a phone. Instead, they had an Amazon Alexa device. It was programed with the numbers for maid service, room service, the front desk, security, and the concierge. So, if I wanted to call the front desk, I'd just speak out loud "Alexa, call the front desk" and then speak through the device. This, at least to me, felt like using technology for technology's sake and not any better than having a phone. But it wasn't bad.
The TV had the normal more modern hotel/resort controls. I could view my account on it, I could check out on it, I could look up information about the hotel on it, I could book reservations at the restaurants and bars on it, and almost as an afterthought, could view television on it. It sucks, but it makes all the sense in the world. The better the hotel, the worse the TV. If I stay at a relatively cheap hotel, I can bet on there being at least four or five movie channels (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime...). I can relax as I eat my drive through food to a fairly new movie and be happy. But at a nicer resort, they don't have that. Instead, they push you to rent a movie through their pay per view service. 15 years ago, it seemed really novel to get recently out of theater movies for $15 a pop at a hotel. But come on... I can now 'buy' those same movies for that price on streaming services or rent them for even less. Frustratingly, this particular TV system was glitched in its guide. I don't know how or why, but it was showing the time frame wrong. Like it was off by two hours on half the channels. So I'd see that TBS was showing Return of the Jedi and Paramount was showing Star Trek Beyond, but neither of those shows were playing.
Anyway, I got in, took some photos of the room and the view, and unpacked. The views I had were of the strip (with the back of the Golden Nugget), the Plaza hotel/casino nearby, and the Circa's Stadium Swim.
The Stadium Swim is a big deal at the Circa. You can see just how big the displays are and I imagine it would be great to sit or swim out there while watching some (or several) big sporting events. BUT, I don't like swimming even under ideal conditions, let alone out in the Vegas 100+ degree heat. Nice view though.
With my migraine banging away, I decided I didn't even want to go down for food, so I found that I could order up from Saginaw's. In a fun twist of fate, they bragged about Jack Saginaw setting up their deli restaurant Saginaw's and their coffee shop Top Jack's. It was interesting as he's one half of the duo that opened up Zingerman's in Ann Arbor Michigan. I know Zingerman's very well and love it. To have that kind of deli experience is a nice reminder of home. Or so I thought it would be.
Turns out, the food sucked and was at elevated Vegas/Resort prices. I could barely see the menu, so when it was delivered I had to squint at the receipt to see it was $61. That's for a toasted Rueben sandwich, some cheese sticks, and a bowl of clam chowder. Not horrible.... but not good. The woman delivering the food had a nice smile, and seemed to recognize I was in pain as she was very quiet, so I put on a $10 tip. Only later did I realize they'd already added gratuity to the bill, so I paid the tip twice.
The food itself was bad. The meat in the sandwich was cold, the bread was rubbery. The cheese sticks were made out of a cheese that I didn't recognize and didn't have any sauce that made them better. And the chowder was gritty (CLEAN YOUR FUCKING CLAMS!!!!). I ate my food and promptly went to sleep. Thank God I convinced them to give E a key.
And too bad I didn't give it more thought than that. I got to the hotel at 3:30 PM and E wasn't getting in until 1:00 AM. He ended up getting delayed and arrived at the hotel at 3:00 AM. They gave him a key and he got up to the room without problem... until he unlocked the door and found that I'd put the privacy lock on. He could open the door, but only by an inch or so. He texted me twice (hearing my phone bing each time), and finally called (hearing my phone ring), all without waking me up.
He finally had to yell through the barely open door to get me awake. I'll go over our reunion and our experiences later, but let me go over the rest of the hotel experience.
The construction was obnoxious. I'm sure sound carries strange in hotels, but it sounded like they were using a jack hammer directly above our room. Maybe it was one of those vibrating things to get carpet and carpet glue off, but still... they used it when I got to the room on Thursday, they used it on Friday, they used it on Monday, and they used it on Tuesday. Why the fuck would you rent out a room that would get that much noise.
That alone would have prevented good rest considering my migraines. I could make the room fairly dark, but I couldn't get it quiet. Then there's the music in the lobby/casino. It was maddeningly loud. Whenever E and I would walk through it, we'd literally have to raise our voices to be heard. Not quite to shouting levels, but far closer than you should ever have to raise your voice in a place designated for fun. And I want to be clear, we went into other casinos. Caesar's, the Bellagio, and the Venetian in particular. All of them had music playing and were full of people having a good time. None of them were even close on the music levels at Circa.
At one point we needed a corkscrew. A bottle of scotch that E brought had the plastic cap break off and no way to pull the cork out. When we called down for a corkscrew, their first answer was that they didn't have one of those. When they asked what we'd need it for and E explained, they asked if a wine opener would work. A wine opener. In other words.... a CORKSCREW! They said they could get one right up to us. An hour later when they finally got it up to us, they said they couldn't leave it with us. The person delivering it had no idea why but at least offered to call his supervisor to find out. We let it go, used it to open the scotch, and returned it to him.
I'd wanted to have a nice steakhouse dinner. One of the best meals I've ever had was a night at Ruth's Christopher's in Chicago. This was back in 1994 on our class Photography trip. I could barely afford it and was shocked that you ordered everything individually. Steak, steak topping, potato, side dish, in addition to drinks and dessert.
Quick aside.... I always used to mess up spelling dessert. Was it desert or dessert? I had to google it and never remembered it by the time I had to spell it the next time. While posting about it with E, I asked him how to spell it and he said it had to s'es "Because it's dessert and you always want more". I'll never forget that and will now always know how to spell dessert, even if I'm having it in the desert.
Anyway, I wanted that steak house experience and know that it's a Vegas 'thing'. There are dozens of 'Vegas Steak Houses'. While researching which steak house to go to, I found out that one of the highest rated ones was Barry's Prime located right in Circa. It was also the most expensive that I saw. A comparative price was for a dry aged strip steak. Some places had it for a low of $40. Most had it around $60. Barry's had it for $109. But I figure if you're bold enough to ask that price and get it, then it has to be at least good, right?
On Sunday weren't having a particularly great day, and wanted to end it with a cocktail. E had the good idea of going to Barry's prime, figuring we could sit at the bar, have a drink, see the atmosphere, and look at some of the plates as they got delivered. Great Idea!
When we got down to the entrance there was the receptionist's desk with three ladies behind it. One was obviously the receptionist. One, it turns out, was a waitress waiting to speak to the receptionist. I never figured out who the third woman was as she never spoke. All three of them, when we approached, were speaking to a man at the desk. I thought he was a customer at first, but when he walked away I saw his vest and that he was carrying a cardboard coffee cup and realized he was a staff member at the restaurant. So when two customers walked up to the receptionist at an expensive restaurant, they were ignored by FOUR EMPLOYEES for two solid minutes. I'm not saying a couple seconds or a few moments, I'm talking about a one hundred and twenty second wait. Go ahead, count out that time, and see if it's not insulting to wait that long at a restaurant where you might be spending in excess of $500 for a meal, especially when the wait is employees chatting with each other.
We finally got their attention and got directed to the bar. We weren't walked to the bar, she just pointed the way.
When we walked in, I was immediately unimpressed. First, the music was just as loud as the casino. There was no way we could have a comfortable conversation over expensive pieces of cow here. Then, when we finally got to the bar, there were television screens up at it. I think most bars should have a TV at them and yes, having sports on is appropriate.... but the bar at a steak house? Having four TVs all on various sports? Blaring so that they can be heard above the obnoxiously loud music? Not cool.
Next up was the bartender. Again, this kind of bartender has her time and place. Like at a strip club or a hot college town bar. This woman was sexy and cute and dressed in a way to show off her body. Skin tight pants showing off every curve of her young ass, thighs, and thin waist, and a top that pressed her small but pert breasts together and presented a LOT of cleavage. She was perky and happy and gave me absolutely no confidence that she would know anything about making drinks. I'm sure she could make the things on the menu, but I doubt she'd know how to make things off of the menu or could discuss intelligently how to alter the menu so suit our tastes. You'll understand more later, but just know that this is after we visited The Laundry Room, so I was a little disappointed in this 'flash over substance' method of bartending.
The cocktails on the menu were actually cheaper than those we'd seen at other bars. That should have been enough warning for us to just leave, but we went on. I ended up ordering a 'Fields, Forever'. It was a clever title for a strawberry flavored cocktail. It has "Grey Goose Strawberry & Lemongrass Essence, Yuzu, Strawberry Ginger, Lemon Juice". I get that it will taste of strawberries, and I like strawberries, but with the lemongrass, yuzu, ginger, and lemon juice, it should still have a bright, citrusy, even sour flavor.
Watching our bartender make our drinks made my expectations go even lower. She was slow and seemed to be directly focusing on her memory to make the cocktails. When she got both E's and mine ready in their shakers she picked them up, one in each hand, faced us, and started shaking them at the same time. In a blatant way to flaunt her breasts. I swear to the Goddess, she could have been doing this on stage at an adult theater and wouldn't have been out of place. It wasn't even good shaking of the drinks, it was 100% show.
If I want to be completely critical, I should also add that she didn't have a body good enough for this kind of show. She had youth and she was pretty. But she wasn't beautiful and if they weren't crushed together to make cleavage, I'm sure her breasts were barely a B cup.
When she broke the shakers down and finished the drink I saw that she rolled what turned out to be my glass in granulated sugar. Half of the glass... in sugar. The drink was VERY pink.
I just noticed the coaster and it's appropriate quote of "I can't hear what the Fuck he's saying" - Fast Eddie.
When I took a sip I was assaulted. I mean.... fucking ASSAULTED. It didn't taste sour or citrusy. It only barely tasted of strawberry. It tasted more than anything else like Strawberry Cereal. I mean like Franken Berry!
And then the worst part hit me. Yes, the worst part isn't the rude employees at the receptionists desk, the overly loud environment, the sex for sex sake bartender... it was the sugar. Granulated sugar doesn't stick to glass you see. So what she did was roll the glass in simple syrup before rolling it in sugar. I barely touched the glass and I couldn't get that goop off of my fingers. I tried with both a glass of water AND several napkins. It even transitioned to my other hand, leaving me with two goopy disgusting hands. And that leads to the last disappointment in Barry's. The bathroom.
I know there is a long history of bathroom attendants. I get it, even as I don't like it. I don't want some guy watching me use the bathroom, even if it's just to wash my hands. I certainly don't want to tip a person in a bathroom that's just watched me piss and wash my hands. Sure, they sell breath minds and candies and stuff, but if I wanted that I'd have brought it and certainly don't want to buy it in the same room that I just pissed in. The one feature I get out of a bathroom attendant is that in that fancy of a restroom you're normally given a towel to dry your hands with. Instead of throwing it away, you just leave it near the sink and the attendant uses it to clean up the sink for the next user and then disposes of it in a nearby hamper.
In this day and age, I don't carry cash. I have some bills on my wallet, but my wallet was left in my purse at the bar with E. Even if I had it, I'm not sure I would have tipped this bathroom attendant as there wasn't even cloth towels. The paper towels were nice... but come on, don't cheap out on that last little bit.
The final insult from Circa was parking. I told you I let them valet my sweet sweet Tiffany. When we went to get it the next morning I remembered they said you'd pick up the car across the street at Garage Mahal. First, that's unacceptable. I dropped my car off in front of the hotel, I'd like to pick it up there. Yes, they have a walkway over to the garage, but it's on the second floor of the hotel and you still have to walk down to the valet area. I shouldn't have to walk that far to get my car. So to start, the whole premise is bad.
It gets worse though. When we walked across the street to the garage (we started outside as I had a smoke first), there was no sign saying where to go for valet pickup. We walked in the garage entrance by a few feet, but didn't want to go further as there wasn't a walkway. We were literally walking where the cars would be driving up. And there was no sign or indication we were in the right area. So we walked around to the exit, but it was the same. We walked in a few feet and saw no sign or indication for valet pick up and were walking where the cars would exit. We ended up walking back to the hotel and asking about it. The woman at the entrance, the one who had to check IDs and let people in, didn't know. She had to call the valet manager out and he explained it.
We could either go inside the hotel, go up to the second floor, use the cross walk above the street, then take the escalator (or elevator) down to the main garage floor, and we'd see the valet pickup area off to the right. Or we could walk across the street again, walk into the exit area (right where the cars would be driving) go 100 feet, and the valet pick up area would be on our left.
Fuck. That. Noise.
Valet parking, on the website, was listed as $32 a night. Self parking in the garage was listed as $22 a night. Why oh why would I pay $10 more for bad valet? Sure, it's nicer to drop off the car but it's still inconvenient to have to wait for your car, considering that you're already walking over to the garage. It's be easier to walk right to the car, get in, and drive away. Right?
Well, it's complicated. When we paid for the valet that first day, they only charged us $15. It wasn't clear at that point, but the $32 price wasn't including part of the 'resort fee' that was charged to the room. Resort fees are normal, but it wasn't made clear that in included a 'discount' on the valet parking. Anyway, we just figured they mischarged us, took the car, and self parked it when we got back. When we went to pick up the car the next day and pay for it at the kiosk, it tried to charge me $40. No. Just... no. We went down to the valet pick up area as no one was working in the garage kiosk area, and asked why it was $40. She explained that because of the UFC event, the garage prices went up to $40. Even if you parked for an hour, it was going to be $40. She was nice enough to listen to our complaint, realized we were staying at the resort, and said she'd fix it so we'd only pay $15. She then suggested we utilize the valet parking to make sure we weren't over charged (it's here that we realized it would be $15 a night).
We got into Tiffany, drove down to the exit, and put the ticket in. It asked for a credit card, so I put it in... and it charged me $40. It's then that I saw her walking toward us with a credit card machine in her hand. She was frustrated as we'd already paid and she couldn't refund us the money. She had been intending to charge us $15, and then manually raising the bar for us to leave. She said that we could take the receipt into the front desk, ask to speak to the valet manager or the hotel manager, explain how we got charged $40 and ask for a Garage Pass so that we could self park for $15 a night.
Fuck. That. Noise.
I was already so disappointed in Circa that I considered it a $25 lesson. I'd just pay for valet and take advantage of them parking the car. I also started 'tipping' $5 on each pickup as that's just expected. But the last night and last morning had extra disappointments. The last night we arrived late. Around 2:30 AM. We drove up to the valet drop off... and were promptly told that they don't valet from that location that late. We'd have to drive over to the garage where they'd valet the car. So now they don't even offer the convenience of dropping the car off at the entrance of the hotel. And then in the morning I found out that they'd been screwing with Tiffany.
I get that valet parking isn't easy. Both I and E are tall so the seat sits all the way back. The valet parkers that I saw were all short, so at the least they'd have to adjust the seat up. But they shouldn't be touching the radio. I use Android Auto so that I don't only get my maps from my phone, I get my music. When I walk away from the car, the audio features just turn off. Back at home, I might occasionally listen to some FM stations and have several programed in. It's almost always left on either 94.9 or 106.1. So I was a more than a little upset when we got in the last morning to find the FM radio on 107.9, a local country station. I don't listen to country and there is no 107.9 anywhere near my home. One of the valet parkers turned my radio on, turned the audio source to FM, tuned it to 107.9 and listened to it. If he did that, what else did he do? Did he mess with the navigation system? Did he change any of the settings of the car? Did he mess with the ambient lighting?
Fuck. That. Noise.
So, I couldn't recommend anybody to stay at Circa. It was just a bad experience from beginning to end. It sucks, because the property is new and nice. The people seem to honestly want to help and are pleasant... they're just stuck behind bad policies. And maybe worst of all, they're not associated with any major hotel chain. When we checked out, I got an email asking me to take their survey. I jumped at the chance so that I could give them my honest opinion. Deep down, I hope that most businesses WANT to be better. I mentioned the music volume, comparing it to other casinos. I mentioned the Barry's experience, comparing it to the steak house we ended up at (more on that below). I mentioned the construction. I even mentioned their "Legacy Club" rooftop bar which was disappointing. And finally I railed at them about the whole parking situation. Most of this was in the "Any more comments?" section and it took me 45 minutes to write out the multi paragraph answer (I bet they regret not putting a character limit on it!).
If it were me, reading that response, I'd at least reach out. I'd offer something to make up for a clearly unsatisfactory stay (discount on later stays, casino credit... whatever). At the very least, I'd apologize and offer hopes that they might do better in the future.
I haven't heard back from them. Nothing. Sadly, that fits with the experience I had. They don't care. They have my money and I can only avoid their service in the future. Next time, if I don't want to stay downtown, I think I'll stay at Caesars. That was a nice hotel!
Okay, so that was the bad. Now onto E and I.
We started our visit just after he came in. I'd been sleeping for like 7 hours at that point and he was still on the traveling high so we went down to check out the Fremont Street Experience. That's the huge area of Freemont Street that's been covered and converted to pedestrians only. It was like 4:00 AM, so it was all but closed down but it was nice to see as the lights and light show were still on. There were several street walkers there... like, OBVIOUS prostitutes... but they didn't approach. A lot of the bars and clubs and such were closing down and we saw a lot of employees walking through. It was nice.
E's uber driver directed us to a breakfast place called Stacks and Eggs. It was interesting and had some great ideas... but ultimately it doesn't matter how tasty the batter is or what toppings you put on it (I had red velvet pancakes with berries, chocolate and cream cheese drizzles, whipped cream, and powdered sugar on top) if you end up with rubbery pancakes. And I ended up with very tasty rubbery pancakes.
We next went to a nearby grocery store to get some bottled water. I'd stopped in the convenience store in Circa's lobby but ended up paying $12 for a Gatorade and bottle of Mountain Dew. We spent $22 at the grocery store for a six pack of water, three large bottles of water, a two litre of Mountain Dew, and a bag of chips. The big bottles were kept cold in the room and were better than drinking out of the faucet, while the six pack served as a bottle of water each day in my purse.
After shopping, my migraine was still pretty bad so E found a speak easy, figuring it would be quiet. The speak easy was located below the Mob Museum. When we walked up and asked about it, we were told we could either visit the museum and then be guided into the speak easy afterward or we could go directly to it. I'm so thankful that I wanted to have a drink and assess whether I was up for a museum instead of just doing the museum first. To get to the speak easy we were directed around the side of the museum to an unmarked staircase down. At the door (also unmarked) we'd have to "Knock twice and ring the bell". She also gave us the password: moonshine. When we got to the door, that honestly looked like it lead into a store room, knocked and rang, a peep hole opened with a guy asking not only if we knew the password, but checking if we were "coppers".
On one hand, yes it's very cheesy. But on the other hand, it gave the whole experience some genuine reality feeling. This IS how speak easys worked back in prohibition.
The cocktail there was nice but it was also obviously made for show. Once it started to get loud we went back upstairs and enjoyed the museum. Afterward we had one of the best alcohol related experiences I've ever had.
E found another speak easy, this one called The Laundry Room. It was located behind another bar and evidently inside the old laundry room from a hotel in the prohibition era... yes, it was a speak easy back then. To get in you have to make reservations as it only seats 22 people. You pay to get in. You are paying for 90 minutes. There's an extra charge for "gourmet popcorn" and there is a two drink minimum. They'd also automatically include gratuity.
The automatic gratuity kind of made the hairs on my neck raise up as why do you have to include it automatically unless people don't want to pay. But whatever. When we got in, I was thinking it might be cheesy as the receptionist brought us in a secret door (seriously, it was just a section of wall at the back of the bar that I would have never guessed is a door). Once inside the secret door we were in a small alcove where she went over the rules. Not only the rules I stated above, but emphasizing that there is no photography inside. She also mentioned that this is a very 'non Vegas' experience as it's quiet on purpose so we're not to raise our voices. And finally, if we're getting inebriated, we'll be asked to leave as this is a place to enjoy beverages and not just get drunk.
While I hated not being able to take photos of the drinks, the rest actually made me happy. Quiet, hushed tones, its about the drinks and not the booze.... sounds like my kind of place!
When we sat down the bartender introduced himself as Andrew. He gave us a kind of resume, explaining that he was very experienced at making cocktails, gave us a menu and suggested just reading the 'Tasting Notes' unless we wanted to know exactly what went into the beverage, and then offered us an aperitif cocktail. He wouldn't tell us what was in the aperitif, only to say that it was relatively low alcohol and meant to help open up our pallets. It was delicious!
As I couldn't take photos, don't have a great memory to begin with, and they don't have their menu online (it's made up fresh daily), I can't recall the exact cocktails I had. I'll say that for my first beverage I was not only looking at the tasting notes but also the ingredients and the method of mixing. I ended up with one of the cocktails listed under 'sours' and.... it was the best cocktail I've ever had. Best. Cocktail. Ever. Full stop.
For my second and third cocktails, I trusted Andrew far more. I told him what I liked about the cocktail and asked for a suggestion each time. He didn't disappoint as they were easily the 2nd and 3rd best cocktails I ever had, only slightly less tasty than the first. After the third cocktails, we admitted to Andrew that we were a little disappointed as we'd like another but were close approaching the 90 minute mark. He pleased us further by saying that the limit was only enforced if they needed the space and as they weren't fully booked, he'd be happy for us to stay longer.
That fact that they weren't fully booked made me both happy and sad. This is on a Friday night.... they should be booked solid and that made me sad. At the same time though, it meant we could have another cocktail and that made me happy.
E had the good idea of putting ourselves in Andrew's hand. He had a term for it that for the life of me I can't remember, but he told Andrew the term and Andrew seemed very pleased. He then asked a series of questions including what flavors we liked (not just booze, but smoked meat, cigar, lemons, strawberries...), what flavors we didn't like, and what after tastes we wanted to experience. He then went to work and several minutes later, delivered our cocktails. After one sip I had to re-adjust my cocktail list as this was now the best cocktail I'd ever had. It wasn't a recipe... he told me what was in it, but I started getting glassy eyed after the sixth ingredient. He just took his notes from me, added his expertise, and then made a beverage that I'd like. And he was so right!
I only have two regrets regarding the Laundry Room. First is that we did it so early on our trip. It honestly made all other cocktails taste bad. Of course the sugary mess at Barry's was bad, but even good cocktails later tasted like they were fakes wanting to be a real cocktail from The Laundry Room. The other regret was not going back. It honestly would have capped any day we were there perfectly.
We left after this wonderful final cocktail and even if we weren't 'finished', our inebriation should have disqualified us for further imbibing. We weren't drunk, but we were tipsy. We walked over to a nearby highly rated restaurant and had some tasty small sharable plates. These were all presented as far more gourmet than they sound. The first three seemed about right. Meatballs, risoto, and deviled eggs:
After Absinthe we watched the Bellagio fountain show, and explored the Bellagio boutique high fashion shops. They were all closed, but even looking at floor displays of Dior, BVLGARI, House of Chanel, Cartier, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co was neat. We had a fine meal at a Japanese Raman restaurant called Shokku Ramen. I'd love to say that we chose it because it was the best or most highly rated Raman in town... but it was late and they're open 24 hours. The food was good and interestingly they had two televisions showing anime including the one facing us showing one of my faves, Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now
- Debbie Gibson's Lost In Your Eyes
- Madonna's Open Your Heart, Borderline, Holiday, Like a Virgin, and Material Girl
- Bananarama's Cruel Summer and Venus
- Bangles' Hazy Shade of Winter, Eternal Flame, Walk Like an Egyptian, and Manic Monday
- Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and Time After Time
- Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclips of the Heart
- Pat Benatar's Love Is a Battlefield, We Blong, Hig Me With Your Best Shot, and Shadows of the Night
- Irene Cara's Flashdance... What a Feeling
- Heart's Alone
- Nena's 99 Luftballons
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