rock at your own risk
This weekend, we flew to Vegas for about 30 hours, to celebrate our friend’s 50th birthday. We’ve been doing this basic trip to Vegas and back since we were in our 20s. This was the first time we’d been in at least five years.
Turns out the Vegas you visit when you’re 50 and don’t drink is VERY different from the Vegas you went fucking bananas in when you were in your 20s. We pre-gamed Saturday night with a nap, went to a fancy dinner and a fantastic show, and then really went nuts with two desserts: cake pops in the restaurant, and then gelato in the casino.
Off. The. Chain.
I bet on the Kings to win, which they did. I ended Saturday night $19.05 ahead, and I was asleep before midnight.
Sunday, we went to the Rio (WOW it has really fallen into … wow) to play KISS mini golf, and visit this museum that a cynical Gen X punk who doesn’t particularly care for KISS (Strutter notwithstanding) could maybe call a monument to Gene Simmons’ willingness to license his name to literally anything in the world.
Here’s the thing. The best time I had during my 30ish hours in Vegas? It was playing stupid KISS mini golf. It wasn’t even a good mini golf course; it was just stupid fun with my best friend and two of our closest friends in the world.
I got a hole in one, and I ended with the lowest score, so we memorialized the occasion in the appropriate way:
I wanna rock and roll for about twenty minutes and get to bed at a reasonable hour every day.When we were walking to our gate at the airport, Anne and I talked about how different the experience was for us, compared to the way it was when we were younger. I initially thought I’d outgrown Vegas, but I don’t think that’s right. I think that I’m just not that interested in what Vegas has to offer, and that’s totally fine. I don’t like to gamble and I don’t drink, so I’m not exactly in the demo, right? But we still had a GREAT time, and I think that, if we choose to go in the future, it’ll be similar to this trip: a fancy meal, a great show, and we’re back in the Valley before anyone notices we were ever gone.
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i've been to Vegas once. It was during the last year of Star Trek: The Experience at the Hilton and it was awesome. Walking onto an exact replica of the enterprise D bridge was damn near a religious experience.
We live a couple of hours SE of Vegas - we saw Sting there last night. We had a good dinner, watched a GREAT show, and came home. Vegas has something for everyone, you don't have to drink or gamble to enjoy it!!
I got married in Vegas. Renewed our vows their for 10 and 25 year anniversaries. Loved going to Quark's for 10th anniversary dinner 23 years ago!
I personally got thrown out of Vegas, didn't think it possible, but I was asked to leave due to my shenanigans during my bachelor party in my early 30's. My wife married me anyway, not sure she's happy about that every day. We recently returned, me at 55, with two young boys in tow. Our boys were completely overwhelmed and wanted to leave after one night walking on the strip among the mass of drunken and porn wielding humanity. Nevertheless, we soldiered on, had a decent meal, and a wonderful Cirque show to end our Vegas side trip. Vegas is fine, a right of passage, when you are young but, I agree with Wil, too intellectually and sensorially painful when you've reached a certain age.
