Part 3: Vegas Vacation

In addition to spending time with the happy couple, I took a few more days off from work, and my friend Phil and I decided to stay in Vegas until Thursday. Neither of us had been to Vegas before, so it was a good opportunity to see the sights and get a full Vegas experience.
We did get our fill of casinos and buffets. Paris had the best buffet; I noticed an award on the wall, even. It was the most expensive, but at $25, they had by far the tastiest options, and the best cooking. We tried for the sit-down restaurants there, but one had an ungodly long wait, and the other had a dress code. The host counted three strikes without trying: t-shirts, shorts, and sneakers. MGM Grand had a good buffet, as well. The Luxor's was "actually, not that bad", as was the one at the Hilton. The Hilton's was free, though, which made it taste better...
We wandered through most of the major resorts. The Wynn and Bellagio were obviously the most glamorous. We didn't go to any of the secondary casinos. Even the Tropicana and Flamingo were getting more of a trailer trash clientèle, so we did not bother trying Bill's or Terrible's. The hottest guy of the trip was spotted heading to the pool at the Flamingo, though, so we did give that hotel a few bonus points. He was wearing a t-shirt with a big "24" on it, so he became known simply as "24".
Sunday we decided to head out to a gay club. Phil jumped on Manhunt to do a little research, and we ended up at 8 1/2. It was dead. There were literally 4 other people there. A few more would come in, look around for five seconds, and leave again. We had just agreed to leave for Gypsy (right next door), when the guy from Manhunt showed up. He had that desperate/hopeful look in his eye. He was "Suprised" how dead it was there. He never goes on Sundays, but has been there on other days of the week, and it's busy. Yeah. Great. He suggested Gypsy. Phil asked if it would be busier there (despite his obvious lack of authority on the subject), and he offered to drive us to Krave if Gypsy was dead, too. Mind you, that would have been a total of like 4 blocks. The cover at Gypsy was $7. Manhunt-loser-guy didn't offer to pay our covers for us. He tried talking to us for a little while longer, and I was looking extremely bored with him. I guess Phil started playing the South End attitude because all of a sudden the "smoke was getting to him" and he left.
Smoke is a problem in Vegas. We in Massachusetts are lucky to live in a smoke-free state. All enclosed public locations are smoke-free, except for a few cigar bars with special licenses. Clubs and bars make you go outside to smoke. It is a wonderful thing. Vegas has not passed any such laws. They do prohibit smoking in restaurants, so that is a good start. But the casino floor and any club are more toxic than we are used to.
Gypsy has a resident drag queen named Chanel, who is worth seeing. She did four sets that night. The first was kinda J-Lo, the next was slutty Pussy-Cat Doll, the third was very Lion-King shaman, and the fourth outfit was Pinhead from Hellraiser. NIN and Marylin Manson are not usual drag show songs, but she announced she's into "fucked-up shit" at the beginning of the show. The pageantry and energy were much better than anything I've seen since the glory days of Mizery back at Quest in the 90's. Wednesday we went to Lucky Cheng's drag dinner show. More of the sedate, strut around, kind. It was fairly dead, so it was hard to get the energy level up. There was a table full of straight people who were "shocked" by some of it. One of the performers was very believable as a woman. She is heading to Thailand I think it was for a contest. The straight guys were a little messed up by that one, because she was a beautiful woman, so they were into her, but she's not really a woman, so they were not sure they should be into her. Later that night we headed back (it's at Krave) for the wet boxers contest. Fun! I was SO ready to leave, though, when it ended. This random guy with his hag started chatting me up, though, and I was doing my best to push them away. They misinterpreted by disdain as not liking the club itself, and felt the need to cheer me up. Phil then started chatting up the guy, and they wouldn't leave. I was getting progressively more interested in leaving. The club was draining, and I was bored. The guy, however, turned out to be a possible good work contact for Phil, so I was forced to wait through a prolonged schmooze. We did eventually leave, though. Like 3:15...
The crowds at the gay clubs were pretty similar to what you see anywhere else. There was one hottie at Krave, but Phil thinks he's a prostitute. I was getting more of a drug dealer vibe. But, he smoked. There was a 99% chance of that, anyway. As Phil said, the gays in Vegas have apparently "not gotten the memo". Just about every single one of them smokes. There was one cute guy at Gypsy, and yes, he smoked, too. He seemed to be married to a sugar daddy, as well. So, the viewing pleasure of the trip was held by the employees. Phil totally fell for "barback". He was more bussing than barbacking, but Phil didn't like me calling him "busboy". Great body, cute face, and wearing glasses. Phil feels he's a PhD student! The bartenders were also quite hot. Krave had a cute bartender, but he looked a little too much like 19 years old. The shotboy, however, was cover-model gorgeous. We all agreed (yes, including schmooze-guy and fag hag) that he is straight, though. He wouldn't admit to anything either way, like a good tip-receiving shotboy, but we KNEW.
In addition to clubs and casinos, we did go to Hoover Dam. Cool place. It's a very interesting side trip to take. There was even a cute guy in the tour group to hold our interest! It short, it is a massively huge slab of concrete, so there isn't a whole LOT to see there, but it was a nice break from the noise and lights.
We also went to see Zumanity, the adult-only Cirque du Soleil show. Good show, hot guys, too many breasts, and one creepy contortionist with no ligaments. The gay kiss got the most awkward applause of the show. The lesbian kiss was much more widely accepted. I had a thing for the Pan character, which is who everyone guessed I would like. We wanted to see "O" as well, but never connected. And we went to get tickets for Rita Rudner one day, and she had decided not to perform that day. The ticket lady said she is that way; her schedule is more random - just whenever she feels like it. So, we missed that as well.
We did a spa day, as well. Neither of us had a hot guy as our masseur, but mine at least did deep tissue massage with a little force behind it. Also got facials. It was rather windy out, though, and I got pelted in the face with sand/dirt blowing off construction areas. There is a LOT of construction on the strip. I don't know how usual that is, but there had to be ten different construction sites along the strip.
I had been told that three days is about the max for a Vegas trip. Between the wedding and being my first time, I figured we'd be fine. It was definitely a long trip, and we were running low on interest in casinos and buffets, but we had things we didn't get to see, so there is still reason to go back. Our last night in town, we were playing $5 blackjack at Tropicana. We stayed a little too long, and burned through a little too much cash because the dealer, Kostika, was kind of cute. Phil guessed he's Greek, which I can see, but we never asked. It was a good trip, I had a lot of fun, and will go back some day, I am sure!