Tag: Las Vegas

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Off to Do Some Vegas

I’m in the air at the moment, enjoying an upgraded Aeroplan reward flight in what’s called Rouge Premium. It’s business class on a no frills airline. That last sentence is almost unintelligible.

…

Didn’t actually finish this post. I was interrupted by the air host (?) offering me a lunch tray, which was unexpected. The meal was outstanding for airplane food. I was quite happy with it

I landed in LAS and grabbed my bags, rushed up to the transit stop only to find that there was a line of people waiting for the bus, which is strange. this is the first time in 4 or 5 solo trips that there’s been more than myself interested in taking the bus. Hellua way to get around, if you can figure it out.

Made my way to the Hertz to pickup my car, a nice, new Impala. As I was making my way to the suncoast, I remembered I wanted to visit the stratosphere (or the Strat as they are trying to rebrand) to visit The Hat Shop. Made my way over there and bought a new hat! I’ll be sure to do a write up soon.

The drive out to the west side of the city was laborious. Lots of traffic and much distance to cover. Arrived in one piece, checked in and was greeted with this view.

Low floor but I’m not bothered as it’s not costing me a thing.

I’m always amazed with the beauty of this valley. The mountains and the color pallette are striking and not to be ignored.

After a bit of recovery time I went down to secure some dinner. It took the form of a pan roast, as mentioned in this space two weeks ago.

It was amazing and it’s taking all my willpower not to have it for dinner tonight. More on that later.

After dinner I realized how tired I was, returned to the room and passed out until 0300 but that’s another story.

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Las Vegas: Oyster Bar Pan Roasts

Enjoying time in Vegas must always include culinary experiences. Usually it’s to try something that you’ve never had before but many times it’s all about going back somewhere that fed you something outstanding or where you had a truly enjoyable experience.

An article in the LA Times talks about one of the little known culinary attractions that continues to bring people to the oyster bars all over Vegas. Though I didn’t know how widespread ‘Pan Roasts’ are, I do also have a favourite haunt to visit that gives me access to something similar. And even in some of the other resorts I don’t regularly visit (the Palace Station mentioned below, for example) they have a pan roast available that draws the folks in.

“People stand in line 24 hours a day for the pan roasts. They outsell everything else on the menu three-to-one.”

Steve Ely, Palace Station’s Assistant Food and Beverage Director

I usually make a point of visiting The Orleans, just west of my usual strip hotel, The Excalibur, on each trip that I make. Within it’s gloriously overdone Mardi Gras theming, you’ll find Big Al’s Oyster Bar, home to my favorite dish there, the Crab and Shrimp Boil.

This is a great meal to enjoy while you visit the resort. I’m usually in between playing blackjack and heading to the theatre for a movie or the bowling alley to knock down a few pins when I decide to make a stop. Bowl of beautiful broth filled to the brim with shrimp and crab, corn and potatoes, it’s truly a thing to behold. It comes to you so hot that you’ll need to give it a few minutes before you dig in or risk a scalded mouth. What I didn’t actually know before reading the article is what a pan roast is and why I need to try one. There’s one listed on the menu at Big Al’s but I’ve just never gotten past the crab and shrimp boil to see it.

I’ve got a whole ridiculous list of things that keeps me coming back to Vegas, both solo and with the dear wife, but one thing that never gets removed is trying the awesome food and beverage that’s available a reasonable prices as soon as you get off the strip. The same is available on the strip but at a much different price and experience.

The next time I stop by, which will be in October on my next trip to Vegas, I’m definitely going to be trying one of these and I’ll report back. I think this next trip might be my chance to document more of what I love from that city, while it’s happening! We’ll see if I can remember to document during the trip. 😀

Source: LA Times online, URL: https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2019-09-10/pan-roasts-not-oysters-big-draw-vegas

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Vegas Suffers From Its Own Greed — The American Spectator

Everyone knows I’m a fan of Vegas since Sly and I started the ‘Annual Zaal Vegas Christmas Vactation’. I like vacating in a place that is pretty inexpensive, where I can relax and do things I enjoy (movies, shows, food, gambling) with my loving wife of 32 years (inside joke) and get the hell out of Calgary for a few days. Read on to hear my justifications….

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CES 2019

I’ve been absolute shite about keeping this up to date but I’ve got an update that I think needs sharing somewhere off the ‘social’ media’.

I’m headed to Vegas tomorrow for CES. This will be my third year attending but this year is a little different: I’ve joined the Canadian Delegation to represent SAIT (and Alberta/Canada) at the show on behalf of Applied Research. Myself and Emerson Burns (see our Bios here) will be at the show and at the Canadian Pavillion manning a booth for a bit of time. I’ve embedded a map below in case anyone might be interested. Blue pin, top left is where we’ll be for a couple days during the show.

The combination of fear and exhilaration is astounding; something that I’ve seen innate value in for the past two years finally becoming something we might use as a vehicle into more potential projects.

I hope I don’t fuck this up, I hope that we can derive some real value out of this and that it turns into something we contribute to on an annual basis. I hope this is something that I can build off of and develop new streams of potential project partners, close to home and abroad.

Don’t expect a ‘Facebook dump’ of selfies and activities while we’re away; I think my boss wants to hedge a bit and see how this trade mission goes before announcing our participation to stakeholders that might look down their nose at two ARIS employees being sent to Nevada simply because of the location without considering the value of the mission. Though when the weekend starts and the pressure has lessened you might get a couple of photos posted of Emerson and I blowing off some steam.

We’ll see.

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Average Day with Sly In Vegas

  1. Breakfast of some type
  2. Walk up the strip
  3. Shop for shoes
  4. Walk up the strip some more
  5. Stop for a donut
  6. Walk up the strip
  7. Shop at the Miracle Mile Shops
  8. Stop for a beer (Sin City Stout and Weissbier are AWESOME)
  9. Shop at Sephora
  10. Wander through the Cosmo to check out potential dinner locations
  11. Get a bus to the Towne Square Shopping mall
  12. Visit the Sugar Land shop to buy candy (mmmm candy corn)
  13. Watch a movie (Mary Poppins Returns)
  14. Go for dinner at the Yard House. Amazing Jambalaya and Sly loved the Nashville Chicken)
  15. Attend Xmas Santa and Snow event! Great fun!
  16. Get bus back to the Strip
  17. Stop at Walgreens for more water and snacks
  18. Return back to the hotel
  19. Provide wife with Netflix on the TV
  20. Head downstairs to gamble a bit and make MGM appreciate my loyalty
  21. Back upstairs to record the day, listen to some videos and have some relaxation time.

This was a perfect day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Though we’re not really planning anything, a visit to the North Outlet Shoppes and a late lunch at Pizza Rock are on the agenda. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to spend some time at a table if I can find something for Sly to get up to.

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What Does It Mean To ‘Holiday’?

We’ve just spent the last 25 days out of the country, visiting the Mouse and taking a Caribbean cruise. I think this might be the perfect amount of time to vacate as I’m much more relaxed than I was at the end of our trip last year. Disclaimer: I’m sitting in the Delta Lounge, off my face on Long Island Iced Teas.

How is it that we as a society decide that working ourselves to the bone over a 47 week period (due to my time at SAIT, I get 5 weeks of vacation) is okay? Why is that the norm? Why do we put up with it? How do we fix that so that we’re balancing our working lives with time away from work?

An even better question might be how do we make sure those 47 weeks don’t occur in one lump batch and make ‘mini holidays’ a norm again? I think I mull these ideas over at the end of every single holiday I’ve taken for the past eight years which doesn’t invalidate them, just makes me wonder if I’ll figure the answer out sometime soon.

My wife actually gets more time off than I do but she’s employed at a school and only really gets her long break during the summer because I get more flexibility in my schedule. I’ve considered Fall and Spring breaks and how to integrate them into my work schedule but this can’t be done for Sly.

Which is a conundrum because, unfortunately, I love her and love traveling with her. Not having her with me really does change the texture of a trip somewhere. On the one hand I become more adventurous, striking out in random directions to explore and find things that I wouldn’t normally do with Sly by my side. On the other, I don’t have the most important person in my life with me to share those experiences. I attempt a sort of ‘hacky’ pseudo-experience where I send her pictures and texts all day, telling her what I’m up to, where I am and what I’m seeing.

Did this last year with a spring trip to Vegas and it worked out pretty well. Five days off work and a quick jaunt out to Nevada gave me the recharge I needed to get me back in the fight at work.

So I’ve already started thinking about my next trip and it will probably be something quick and cheap (aka Vegas) that will get me out of the city for a few days and allow me to relax a bit.

This trip was incredible and I’ll probably want to write-up a few lines about it and some of the neat things we saw and did while away but I’m sitting in the Delta Lounge at MSP relaxing before our next flight which will take us home and I’m in more of a mind to sit and try to keep this travel glow going as long as I can.

Well maybe just a taste:

Sunrise on the morning of my 45th birthday

I’ll have more later.

Cheers!

Z

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Blackjack: What is Basic Strategy?

Almost everyone knows the goal of blackjack: try to get closer than the dealer to a card total of 21 without going over. Pretty simple, no? But is it all guessing about what you need to do when you get a particular sequence of cards? The easy answer is no and hopefully I’ll give you a bit more information about how you can educate yourself on the right decisions.

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