Flying westward is a special little type of time travel. The flight out from New York to Vegas is about five and a half hours. So while you’re trying to grab the last bit of shut eye you’ll get for the duration of your trip, you’re racing the sun westward. When the bump of landing jolts you awake with just a little bit of drool. As you take your phone off airplane mode, the clock shows up, and thanks to the timezone change, your trip across the country only took two and a half hours. I can’t tell you how many times this has kicked my ass. You leave in the early afternoon and arrive late afternoon, which means the whole night is yours. That first night in Vegas is murder, because if you crash early, the rest of your trip is doomed. You just have to power through that first night, and hope that you don’t make too many decisions you can’t come back from.
Since this trip wasn’t about gambling so much as just relaxing, I had to adopt a new mindset. Usually, I try to go pretty under the radar and slip by unnoticed. I don’t like bothering people, and I don’t like being waited on. Of course, all of this went out the window as soon as I had a limo waiting for me at the airport upon arrival. We were then whisked away to the VIP lobby, which up until this point I had no idea existed, and were checked in. Our personal express elevator bank jetted us up to the 55th floor, and upon opening the door to our room, my mouth dropped.
This room is a two bedroom penthouse suite. Magnificent doesn’t even begin to describe it. There was a fully furnished living room with surround sound, a dining room, as well as a fully stocked bar. There are two bedrooms, each with a full tv and media set up, and three bathrooms. One bathroom was for guests, because god forbid they use the bedroom bathrooms. The master bathrooms are beyond opulent. Each one has a free standing bathtub in the middle of it, two full vanities, a water closet (fancy enclosed toilet, which also has a bidet), a shower with a sauna and seating built in, and finally, a walk-in closet. The bathroom is pretty much as big as my studio apartment in NYC. It took me about an hour to fully explore the enormity of the suite.
That’s pretty much all I have to say about Day 1. It’s 6:30 PST and I’m just waking up from a nap to recover from the previous night. I’ll fill in the details later, but just know that for now, I’m actually living in a suite that would be my dream apartment if I ever have the money to spare. Holy effin’ crap.