MDogg: My “Vegas Musts”

Vegas Bright reader MDogg shares his “Vegas Musts.”

Even though I could go to Vegas once every six months or so, my wife says every couple of years is what I have to settle for. For some reason, we always seem to focus our activities on the Strip. Even though we talk about venturing out a bit, we never seem to get the chance. With that said, here is my Strip-centric list of Vegas “musts”:

One of the first items on the agenda is a stop at Nine Fine Irishmen for some Fish & Chips! I have to get this out of the way as soon as possible. Otherwise, those Fish & Chips are one of the only things I can think of when it comes to mealtime.

Second on the list is a stop at the closest Walgreens to our hotel to stock up on the important things such as Captain, Crown, and Coke. Nowadays there seems to be a Walgreens (or CVS) outside the front door of every major hotel, which makes it very easy.

Speaking of eating and drinking, we always do the dress-up thing and go out to a fancy dinner. We don’t have a regular place we go to. In fact, we pick a new one each trip. This generally pays off as I can only think of one time we were disappointed. Sometimes we do our fancy dinner before a show, sometimes not. In fact, that’s something else to add to the list—one or more famous Vegas shows!

Depending on the weather/season, we book at least a day just to hang out at the pool and order drinks from the comfort of our lounge chairs. These drinks are always “charged to the room” (who wants to carry cash or cards at the pool?) and every time I am surprised at how much extra our bill seems to be at check-out time.

Since it is my wife’s vacation too, I oblige and we take some time to go shopping. We have to hit the Miracle Mile Shops, Fashion Show Mall and then cab it to Las Vegas North Premium Outlets (not all in the same day—I don’t know if I could handle that). The cool thing about Miracle Mile is I used to let her shop while I went and got some of the cheapest drinks on the Strip at Fresh Grill & Bar. Sadly, I hear that place has closed. I guess I might have to go gamble at Planet Hollywood instead.

We also usually (but not every time) do the gondola ride at The Venetian, walk up and down the Strip to see what is new and what has changed, and of course, just people-watch! One thing I love about Vegas is how many international tourists are there. I just hope they have other stops on their American tour planned, as I could only imagine what they tell the folks back home if Las Vegas is what they think all of America is like.

Wow, reading this before I submitted it, we sound like huge alcoholics. We aren’t, I promise. In fact, another Vegas “must” is a day or two (or three) to recover when we get back home.

Ah, Vegas. I’m looking forward to seeing you again soon, my old friend.

Photos: [Sammasseur]

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