I'll spare the history and the almosts, I went to Vegas for Halloween. Again.
It was my ninth time in Vegas on Halloween night since my first visit in 2011.
Yeah, I love it.
I don't write a trip report every time I travel to Vegas, but here are memories from this trip, in chronological order, for the most part, spread out over a few chapters.
I traveled with my life partner, who doesn't have the same affection for Vegas that I do. But she enjoys our trips, and I try to make sure she gets to check a few boxes on her personal wish list.
We chose Downtown Grand as our hotel of choice for this trip. Fremont Street is a great show on Halloween night, and we don't stay downtown that often. Staying at the Grand meant I could enjoy the show late into the evening, and my life partner could retire to our room when she had seen enough. (I'll write about Downtown Grand separately in the days to come.)
But before reminiscing about Halloween, here are a few details about the days leading up to Oct. 31.
We arrived on Sunday evening, Oct. 29. We rent a car. It makes a lot of sense for us. Some people wouldn't consider renting a car while in Vegas. It has made sense for me for more than a decade.
We drove to Downtown Grand immediately to check in. Then we were back in the car and off to Ellis Island. Some folks love Ellis Island, others find it beneath them. I visit every trip.
We often have the prime rib dinner at Ellis Island during our trips, and this year was no exception. We've had several cheap prime rib dinners over the years, and Ellis Island does it best. The cheap dinner has jumped in price plenty over the past 10-15 years. It's up to about $27 these days, which isn't the cheapest meal out there, but we always have an American Casino Guide coupon for a free meal, so two plates cost us about $30 total, before tip.
We had to wait about 30 minutes to eat, so we had cheap drinks at the bar, and I played low rolling keno at the bar while we waited. Such a simple pleasure in life, and yet one I can't enjoy here in Minnesota. Sure, I can gamble. Sure, I can drink craft beer. But enjoying a comped beer while playing 25-cent keno? Not around these parts.
We had thick cuts of prime rib for dinner. We didn't order thick cuts. We ordered the simple prime rib dinner. But you'd think we had ordered king cuts. Thick and tasty, no complaints at all.
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| Pictures of prime rib inevitably elicit moronic comments from your friends on Facebook, such as "Is that before they cooked it?" |
After dinner I failed to hit on a $10 match play at roulette. (This would not be the last time.) We sat in the Front Yard and played keno and blackjack at the bar while drinking comped drinks for a while. I managed to hit a small win on keno and pocket a few quarters for my time. Literally. I think I was $1.50 ahead. But the $10-12 I spent on tips for drinks for me and my life partner before and after dinner was the real win of the night.
It was late October 2023, and a few weeks before a much hyped, and maligned, Formula 1 race takes over Las Vegas. Given I spend little time on the strip, driving to Ellis Island from the freeway was the biggest hassle of my vacation. Lanes were reduced along Flamingo Road as we went east toward Koval Lane. And when you get to the intersection of Flamingo and Koval... wow!
Given the F1 race goes down the Vegas strip, it has to loop somewhere to bring traffic back to the strip. I haven't paid much attention to the race plans, but I knew the race would bring the action past Ellis Island. My mind was blown when we approached the intersection at Koval and my choices were either veer off to the right awkwardly to turn onto Koval or climb the giant, odd, temporary bridge that flows traffic over the intersection as it moves east and west along Flamingo. I knew temporary bridges were a thing, but I was not mentally prepared for what I saw. I'm not going to copy and paste a picture from the internet to show you, but this link will take you to such a pic if you really want to see one.
As we turned the corner and onto Koval, it was equally bizarre. It was dark and I was driving, so I didn't get a great look, but the giant grandstands and/or other race structures built along both sides of Koval near Ellis Island were mighty impressive. I realize they are building grandstands on the strip for race viewing, but it's easy to forget how much construction is happening in an already busy, heavily-traveled corridor. I wish I would have had a chance to see it during daylight hours, and walk around a bit. It's such a bizarre, incredible, ridiculous spectacle, I wanted to experience the lunacy firsthand. But I must admit, not having to deal with a lot of hassles during my visit to Vegas caused by F1 was a consolation prize worth winning.
When we left Ellis Island we took the scenic route, which gave my life partner a closer look at Sphere in its illuminated glory. We made it back to Downtown Grand and I spend a couple of hours playing Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em. I never was down much, and I was never up much, either. My life partner, who shouldn't have been as tired as I was, retired before I did. I made it to 2 a.m. Vegas time before I had seen enough, which was 4 a.m. back home. Given I had less than 10 hours sleep combined the past two evenings, I was more ready to sleep off my first night of beers and cocktails in Vegas. And I was a winner. I pocketed $15 for my trouble.
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