Over the weekend I got to enjoy the sights of Vegas with my family; it was the third time I’ve been there, but the first time I’ve been of legal age to do anything, ya know, Vegas-y.

Odd, now that I’m reflecting back on it, that I’ve had three completely different experiences in Las Vegas. The first time I was maybe 12 or so, enjoying the Las Vegas that still had an appeal for to go to Las Vegas with kids for family vacations. We stayed at Treasure Island, enjoyed some of the family shows in our hotel, MGM Grand, and the horrible wasteland that was Circus Circus. My gawd, what a horribly depressing crap hole that hotel was back then, and I can only imagine now. The enticing two dollar breakfast was too much for my parents to pass up; my only real memory of that hotel- besides getting sick from all the smoke in the casino -was the waitress cussing at us when we asked her for more orange juice.

It was only on that vacation that my mom would gamble using the best bitcoin casino sites in the times she’s been to the city; she grabbed her bucket of nickels and thought, it’s only ten o’ clock, I’ll just run through this bucket of nickels and call it a night (my parents would only hit the cheap slots; you’d be surprised how much mileage you can get with just fifty cents. Plus, who wants to run through a few dozen dollars at premium slots in the same amount of time five dollars would bring in a nickel slot? Unless, of course, you thought you actually had a chance of winning, which is pretty damn absurd.) Later that evening my older sister, about 17 at the time, went down to the floor casino in her pajamas and asked my mom if she was coming to bed anytime soon.

It was 4am.

And as soon as my mom realized that, she was so shaken up that she pretty much never gambled again, or at least with a bucket of coins at her side. And thus was the end of our family vacation to Vegas.

The second time we went to Vegas, my sister was turning 21, while I was still only 15. But this time it was on my dad’s new boss’ dime; he was a good ol’ boy making a ton of money off his oil rigs, but spent it faster than he was making it, and loved showing off. He was able to do just that by putting all of us in the MGM Grand Casino, with a suite on the top floor. Not a penthouse suite, but a really nice room nonetheless…so nice that my mom was shocked that they stocked bottles of Chanel in place of the cheap bottles they usually put for guests; she must have filled two bags worth of Chanel before we left. (As I’m typing this I’m starting to realize I’m painting my mom as some sort of gambling-addicted petty thief, bwahaha. Not the case at all, but anyways…)

So we would dine with my dad’s boss, who I’ll call Gary because that’s his name, and boy did we dine. These were the kind of restaurants without any prices, with waiters placing your food on the table at a synchronized pace with a dozen other waiters, where the waiter would tell Gary that they caught the swordfish off the Atlantic coast at 11am this morning and flew it to the hotel, “per your request sir.” I was more miffed that they didn’t have anything remotely resembling a hamburger and fries, but I made do with my $150 entree. It was the most delicious pasta I’ve ever eaten.

After every meal my sis and I would thank Gary for a great meal, and my sister even hugged him, but it was my dad that told us not to go that far again. Mainly because his kids would also eat with us, and not for one second did they show anything resembling gratefulness or thankfulness at any time. Gary wasn’t used to us thanking him like that. My dad didn’t want him to feel like he was lacking that affection from his own kids.

…though, I doubt Gary missed anything at all as far as affection goes. The next day at lunch we met his very classy and gorgeous girlfriend Jennine, who was studying for her law degree. My dad became visibly upset at our surprise guest, for reasons that weren’t apparent to me. She was so well dressed/spoken that she could be going to the UN luncheon from our restaurant for all I knew and I wouldn’t hesitate to believe it for a second. She was such a classy, respectful, wonderful woman, who I would later find out from my dad’s anger-infused speaking after we left the restaurant that she was a prostitute.

And thus ended our second trip, as “rich” guests on the town in Vegas.

Which brings me to my most recent trip, this time as just an average joe in Vegas, able to enjoy the sights and sounds as an adult this time. Well, not in the way Vegas had intended: I don’t drink and I don’t do any smutty activities, which pretty much left me with gambling. The irony being now that I could enjoy gambling, I hardly had any money for it. Thankfully my Sprint $50 rebate check came in and I was able to win $55 or so on the slots, and lost about $80 total, mostly through penny/nickel slots with my sister (my mom stayed in her hotel room). We had gone on this trip with my sister as she wanted to see the final Bette Midler show before it was over on the 30th, which isn’t really my thing but why would I pass up a free trip to Vegas?

I still want to go back if only to check out the City Center, pictured on the top of the blog. It’s under construction now but it was really massive and quite a sight to see. But it was also kind of depressing to see just how horribly dark Las Vegas has become since I’ve been…pornography littered the streets as employees stand next to each other about a foot apart trying to shove strip fliers in your hands to meet their daily quota. Maybe that’s why they built the new monorail that stands above Vegas and takes you to most of the casinos…it’s best to look down on Vegas. The shuttle bus back to the airport had pretty much everyone complaining on board about the amount of money they had lost on their trip, and swore that this one would be their last. How many times have they been to Vegas? Twelfth, they told me.

They’ll be back. And I probably will too.

Picture Credit: safebettingsites.com