Casinos and Parties and Suites, Oh My!

To facilitate the tough choice of homebase for our Vegas exploits, Keith and I narrowed the hotel search to a few choices in a price range that leaves you more Hamiltons to bet on Black. Because you know it's all about the Hamiltons, baby. Granted, nobody should plan to spend much time in their repsective hotel room, but the thought is Mark and Josh's suite can serve as a meeting venue to pre-party. We were mindful of the surroundings to keep good times options close at hand. One of the AIDeS I used was this trusty casino map- a mental compass for when you're stumbling around town at 4 in the morning with no inclination where to go.

Luxor: Egyptian motif near the end of the strip, next door to Mandalay Bay. Equipped with its own club, Ra, offering a VIP private room for $2,000, giving us 3 bottles of booze and a $2 G bar tab, not to mention VIP-tang that wants to hang. We're looking at ~$307 for 3 nights, including pitching in on a suite for the lucky ones.

Bally's: You can watch the Bellagio fountain extravaganza across the street. Caesar's Palace is kitty corner. Nice sportsbook for all those NBA and MLB parlays you may have. So far, the cheapest we've encountered, around $288 a person for 3 nights, including the suite. Right in the thick of things.

Mandalay Bay: The finest of the choices, but also the priciest. It's at the end of the strip, but it's worth it. Fantastic pool area, nice lobby lounge bar scene, upper crust clubs inside, top notch casino, House of Blues on premise. ~$350 a person for 3 nights of luxury, suite included. The only question, do the pros of a magnificent hotel outweigh the cons of extra loot from the pocket and minimally farther distance from everything?

The easiest method would be for everyone to rate the three choices, 3 being the highest, 1 the lowest and e-mail back to kirby2304@yahoo.com. Write-in votes are more than welcome as well if we missed a hidden gem that wasn't explored. T-minus 3 months left. Start sleeping now...

Cannonball!

Viva Las Vegas! The good times are gonna roll and who's gonna stop them? Words can't truly describe how awesome this party figures to be. It should at least top Chuck Norris leading a karate lesson on tennis courts. Mark and Josh are primed for a fitting farewell so let's not disappoint. It'll be tough finding fun in the middle of nowhere but we'll find someplace entertaining.

In the meantime, I suggest you watch this.