We (sandy, sharon, & me) left our homes about 3:30am on Friday 18th, for 8 nights in vegas. 4 at Caesars and 4 at Main Street station. Flew southwest, and again, no major complaints with the flights or people. The extra $10 thing gets u A boarding with no need to check in 24 hrs before your flight, reall takes some of the mess of boarding away, for me. Best money spent this trip!

Going to break this into 2 parts, First part Caesars, second part MSS

First part,
Got a very nice room @ Caesars Palace, jetted tub, big bathroom, and a very comfy bed, with extra pillows.
Sharon went to the Qua Spa one day, Sharon and I went and did a little shopping at the Caesars mall.
We all went to see Rod Stewart (still a good show) told it was sold out, but talked to our host and got 3 tickets @ $99 ea.
We knew all the songs! It was a good night.

Food, Payard, great as always
Munch Bar, just say NO to this place. service sucked, and the food was only slightly better.
Mesa Grill, always great, shared some after dinner drinks with the table seated next to ours. I haven't done that for awhile and was in a great mood that evening.
Serindipity, over priced, but darn good simple food. We will go back.
Palm restaurant, dinner was good, didn't like our waiter. Treated us like we didn't belong, or something, we just wanted him to GO AWAY, when ever he tried being chatty. I was served the wrong lamb dish, but I didn't want to make a fuss. It was good.
M resort Buffet, freeby, and very nice buffet. That is high praise coming from me!

Casinos visited,
M Resort, Caesars, Flamingo, Silverton, Rio. In the first 4 days this is all we visited.

Gambling, was pretty much a bust, I would have wins, but they would be eaten up, because I always played them down to the end. Played no table games, mostly all video poker Deuces and double double bonus, 5 & 10 play machines, so it chews into a good win, pretty quickly. Sharon got $100 in free play as an incentive to stay at Caesars, and she played that out on the $5 slots and almost doubled her money, she is better at walking away then I am! I won my sports bet on the Ravens on Sunday, my first $100 bet ever!

Checked out of Caesars, and they picked up the tab for everything, the spa, rod stewart, meals, servi bar, everything! NICE

Part 2
Tuesday we move to Main Street Station, the room is small, but this time it was at least clean, with a shower drain that worked. The AC on the other hand sounded like a plane cleared for take-off! we got our food coupon books and I got $100 slot play, and sharon got $25.

Shows, we went to see Jim Gaffigan at the Mirage on friday, what a human mess of people, never again! You couldn't pay me enough to stay at the Mirage on a weekend, No Way! The show was good, just not worth the hassel IMHO

Food, California cafe, MSS brew pub, Hash House a go go at the Plaza, Fremont cafe, BLT burger at the Mirage (ok, but not on a friday night ever again), Pasta Pirate for Thanksgiving (we will probably never go back to this one again, EVER), Gordon Beirch brew pub for a talkvegas meet.

Casinos Visited,
California, Main Street Station, Plaza, Fitzgeralds, Fremont, Golden Nugget, M resort, Sams town, Mirage.

Gambling was better downtown in general, Here we played some slots and I had a couple of nice wins on Top Dollar, sharon did well on a spin to win penny slot. But mostly I played Video poker, on the last night I won $2300, but it was too late after getting beat up early on our trip on the strip. I won my sports bet on the Ravens on Thanksgiving, my first $200 bet ever!
The best news,
I brought home almost 1/2 of what I took to loose. So this was a good trip. I got to see some of my talkvegas friends i haven't seen for quite some time! Joe, Ralph & Daisy, thanks for coming out and sharing a meal with us! Lets not make it so long until the next time.
Daisy, my Ravens won on Thanksgiving, so I think that YOUR 49ers LOST, by 10 points no less! It was a good game, and yes I would say that even if the Ravens had lost!
The last evening, I had 30 scratch cards for getting 4 of a kinds, all where $2 cards. we had 2, $3 cards between the 3 of us all 4 days of gambling!
I watches my sister hit the progressive deuces at the Nugget!
Sadly, the MSS employees that know me for a long time are getting less each trip. I didn't reconize any dealers and very few bartenders, 3 cocktail waitress, one of whom I cant stand!

Our car rental was Thrifty, back window was all smeared up. But the new ford taurus was a nice ride even with 28K on it. rental and return was a breeze.

Next vegas trip, I don't know?
I leave for Lake Tahoe in 10 days!

Thanks for reading
Questions or comments welcome......

Great trip report Lee.

A few questions and comments for now.

Were you wearing new socks?

Your rental car looked like a nice car.

Did you get to meet the locksmith at MSS that you are accustomed to seeing? Are your valet friends still there?

Would you recommend Jim Gaffigan? I've seen him on TV and I think I have a newer recording of him on my DVR that I haven't seen.

There were a lot of complaints when the new rental car farm opened. Is that a smooth operation now or just a necessary evil?

Did you notice more "street performers" on the strip or downtown?

Thanks for taking time to meet us at the brew pub. It was good to see ya.

Did y'all really need the A/C with the cold weather that hit Vegas last week? LOL!!!

It was great to see y'all and I agree it won't be that long (2 yrs) before we meet up again.

Thanks for reading Vickie!

JMT, Yes I was wearing both new socks and underwear, it didn't seem to work it's magic this trip! LOL
I did like my rental car, Ford has come a long way! But my everyday driver is a Infinity FX35, and I would still take that over the Taurus! LOL
No lock smith needed this trip, and the room was clean. My only knock was the AC unit which was loud, so lound you could hear it in the hallway as you approached our room. It was so loud, the first night I forgot our room number, and heard the AC running, so I knew what room was ours by sound!
Our Valet friends are mostly there. And we keep making new ones too.
My sister really liked Jim Gaffigan. And he was a fine performer, but I wouldn't go see him a second time. Watch your DVR and you pretty much seen the show.
Rental car pickup and drop off, are ok, I liked the old way better, but even now, I have no counter time, it's right to the car. Even thrifty has a screen that tells you where your car is now, it's smooth enough.
Street performers, the streets are filthy with them. My word, enough already!!! BTW what does big bird and ernie, and wonder woman have to do with Vegas??? And that guy that can fit in a box, why doesn't he just stay in there???
Thanks for reading Joe!

Ralph, we are east coasters, we like it cold! Besides it keeps the wife close....wink wink, if ya catch my drift! LOL
Thanks for reading, and hope to catch up to you next trip!
Lee-PA

Lee - sounds like you had a good time as always, despite the losses. Like you, I won a nice jackpot on my last day but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for my earlier losses.

I really love the Mesa Grill. I don't think I've ever had a bad meal there. I really should get back.

I walked by Payard's one day but it was really crowded and I moved on. What do you usually eat there?

Thanks for another great TR - good luck in Tahoe!

Lee - are you still playing Super Times Pay? Do you play it all the time or do you go back and forth with other games? Just curious.

Mike,
Payards, The burgers are wonderful, but I like something called the "Madame" It's a ham sandwich, toasted with cheese melted over it and a sunny side up egg on top. A small salad on the side with sun dried tomatos. I could eat one NOW! You really need to sit down in the reasturant to get these however. The counter service is limited.

Mesa Grill is my favorite Caesars food outlet, we try to eat here & Payard every trip.

I still do enjoy the super times pay machines, and they now have double super times pay machines (caesars as one, right by shadows bar) where super times pay is activated on both the come out deal and the draw, and it can come out on both on the same hand! Exciting if you get something good! But I have been suckered unto the double pay machines where you get payed on the deal and then repaid on the draw. On a ten play quarter machine, it's 100 quarters a game, 50 for the deal and 50 for the draw, Thats $25 a turn and it goes fast, but it can come pretty fast too playing double double bonus. It's gotten so, I switch to dollar triple play to slow it down! LOL

Thanks for reading, I know we don't eat as well as you do, on your Vegas trips, but we have a few good spots.

Being a "swamp rat" from the humid bayou country that turned into a Harley riding "desert dweller" of the its a dry heat environment, I prefer mine hot and sweaty....wink wink, if ya catch MY drift! LOL

Hope to see y'all again soon.

Lee - the Madame sandwich at Payard caught my eye when I checked out the menu - next time for sure!

I tried the Double Pay machines once and got killed so I never went back.

Have you tried Ultimate X Poker yet? It's pretty addicting but man, it can eat up your money fast if you don't get a good hand now and then.

Lee, I saw my video of Jim Gaffigan. It had a lot of humor. The one thing I remember from the show is...

Why don't I make the bed when I get up in the morning?
The same reason I don't tie my shoes after I take them off.

Mike, it can go quick on those double pay machines! But catch a little luck on the deal, and wow!

JMT,
Nice! I liked the show, I was a bit disappointed the show was 80% stuff I've seen him do on Tv before.