Post Mortem, August 2020.

Back. Another weird trip in a weird year.

Despite a couple events it wasn't really very eventful, so rather than the day by day blow by blow I will just summarize some of the themes.

Flights: Both fine and on time, Alaska doing a good job this time. Had no seat mates either trip and all smooth. SF airport still dead on the out, LAS a little livelier on the back in. Pretty surreal flying over the fires in CA on the out flight.

Rooms: Cosmo mostly fine this time for the 6 nights, had the good Terrace Studio, this time with the south facing view, which was fine. I did have to change rooms on check in, they initially put me right next to the elevators and right above the pool. No. Had to wait an hour to get into the better room, but other than that the stay was good. Room was quiet and housekeeping service was mostly on point. Got late checkout free for the fly out day which was nice. Better experience than in June for sure.

Gambling: Up and down, mostly down. I hit 1K on VP on the first night late, other than that it was lose 300 here, win a hundred there; coin in at MGM resorts was a little over $4K, at Cosmo harder to say as it only breaks it down by year but probably something like $6K? For the year I'm only down around $2K between the two of them for 2 trips so that's not bad for over $25K coin in combined. Played mostly VP, a little slots here and there.

Rewards: A good side effect of the gambling, rewards are in a good place post-trip. Got to Mlife Gold easily as expected on the first full day, then banged most of my play into Identity as was the plan. Secured Sterling Identity for all of '20 and '21, and got more than halfway to Gold there so that should be achievable in the coming year. Racked up another $76 in RC for Cosmo during the trip too.

Food: The 3 splurge meals were fine, nothing spectacular. Yellowtail is solid sushi but the roll I ordered wasn't great, Scarpetta I had the Bolognese which was fine but had a truffle thing going on which never agrees with me. Both those meals were comped though so no big complaints. Delmonico was tasty as usual, but again I didn't get the greatest cut of steak, it was slightly stringy. That's twice there now, I may need to start looking for a new fave steakhouse. 

Other than that it was food where you find it mostly. Had some appetizers by demand at a couple places where you had to have them (see below), and did the chicken strip thing at Yard House. Found a good app at Blondie's in Miracle Mile that I had a couple times too. Had a good Mexi meal at Javier's for lunch one day. Nothing much else very memorable.

Drinks: Bought a bottle of Goose on check in, thinking I was going to need it. Hit it several times in the mornings while beautifying. Screwdrivers in the shower are top Vegas decadence. SO, the bars thing. It worked pretty much as I thought it would. In many places you HAD to order food of some sort to be served drinks. Electra, Dorsey, Petrossian, Lift at Aria were like this. Other places you could order w/no food. Vesper, AmeriCan, Rock House, some other places. It was strange and uneven and unpredictable. Probably something to do with permits. 

It wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be. You just couldn't sit at any bartop, and a lot of bars were closed as a result. I was able to hit many of my spots but many were just flat closed or diminished by no bar experience. No VP bars, no Carnival Court, no Chandelier during the day, none of the other dozens of bars I hit on normal trips. Honestly, I would think twice about going if it was still the same way in December. For a barfly it was far less than ideal, but not totally unworkable. I was still able to get plenty drunk without having to use the flask, but it was way more work than it should be. 

Females: I was Captain Invisible as usual, aside from one night. Monday, I met a girl in Vesper late night and brought her up to my room. Suffice to say It's not my proudest moment of conquest, but she was nice and into me and was fun enough to be around and not a pain the next morning. Which is all I can ask for anymore. It was nice to be back on the radar for one night at least.

Spend: Not great. I came home with $1700 out of $5100. And I put $2300 on the CC. I'm waiting for the CC charges to all shake out but most of all of the cash I came back with will have to go toward paying that off. I'm not mad, it's a Vegas trip and Vegas is expensive. I go knowing I may come back with not much more than cab fare. It would just be nice to once, ONCE come back with more than I went with. I just got paid though so I'm not completely busted. If it weren't for that $1K VP hit Saturday night it could have been ugly.

My Old Body: I got along OK in general this time. I averaged about 6 hours of solid sleep per night, and got hour naps a couple of times in the daytime. I didn't stay up crazy late any night, I think I was in bed no later than 1a any of the nights except the hook up night. I kept reasonably hydrated and fed. I took the Drip Drop things a few times, not sure if they helped or not. I did buy a bag of a party favor on Monday. Also not sure if that was a help or hindrance but it made it a little more fun anyway. For the most part I stayed within my bodily means. I've been sleeping like death the last 3 nights since coming back but that's a help too. I would have struggled going straight back to work like in past trips. This come back on a Friday plan is a keeper.

The General Experience: Vegas - I'm concerned right now. The bars thing is what it is, I knew about it going in and made the best of it. Hopefully it's a non factor on future trips. What worries me is the deadness on strip right now. Tuesday night I got back to Cosmo around 12a and wanted to party some more but so few things were open late that the ones that are were jammed with lines to get in. Pre-COVID on a week night I would NEVER have a problem finding dozens of places to hang out on strip. Things are open and buzzing on weekends but I'm not a weekend tripper. 

Looking forward to December, which is already a dead month, what could the strip look like that week? Will everything be shut down? Will Vegas turn into a weekend town this year? There are good signs like Mirage opening up, but places like the Linq and even Palazzo look like they're going to be running the hotel on weekends only the rest of the year. Electra bar there is only Thurs-Sun. If that widens and becomes the norm what do I do? When there are only 5-7 24 hr lobby bars open on a Wednesday night and they're jammed full what do the rest of us do? It's a real concern and I'm going to have to monitor it.

The Skinny: It was about what I expected. Strange, abnormal and about half the normal Vegas experience. Better in some ways than June but also worse in some. I'm glad I went, it was a good and needed break from work, but there are some worrying trends in Vegasland right now that I am going to have to keep an eye on. All in all we'll call it a 6/10 and rack up some new Vegas memories for the brain bank. And the long 3 1/2 month vigil for Xmas week begins.