Aug 31: A Small Price to Pay, but Spontenaety Pays Off

WARNING: This post is excessively long in pictures and words, going beyond "captions".

My original plan for Sunday was to go back with Bruce, Jasmine, and Daniel to Anaheim so that I could bum a ride with Helen down to San Diego to check out the Club Massive event at the House of Blues. But first we had to pack up, check out, and grab some food.

Fung-Lin enjoying some In-N-Out burger.


We headed to the Tuscany Suites which is behind Bally's, but off the strip. They've got some cheap $3 blackjack tables...


And these beautiful $4 Monster Burger/fries combos. The dopeness.


We played blackjack and rocked the craps table for a good 2 hours. The Tuscany Group (minus me... :( )


So through some weird turn of events, and realizing that I would definitely NOT make it to Anaheim before Helen left for San Diego, I agreed that I would wait with Stephen and Jenny and go home later that night. The standard "what do we do now..." position.


So we saw Bruce, Jasmine, and Daniel off and head back to the Mirage. Since we checked out of our pimp suite (and sorry, I never ended up taking pictures), Stephen's friends got another smaller room. Some shots of the hotel from the parking lot rooftop.






Some of Stephen's new souvenirs from the weekend.


This is pretty much where the blogpost should have ended, with us driving back to Anaheim. Here's where the blogpost gets longer than it should have been...

Stephen and I take a quick nap before the drive home while Stephen's friends all grabbed some seafood buffet dinners (we were still stuffed from our monster burger combos). So it's me, Stephen, Jenny, and Brian in the room and we have a meeting. Aside from Brian flying back to NY, none of us really needed to leave for Anaheim just yet. I wasn't going to San Diego, Jenny didn't have work, and Stephen should keep his friends company for at least one more night since they don't see each other that often. Especially since the night before was sort of a letdown. So we decide to stay one more night with the belief that our spontenaety will reward us with an awesome night. But what about Brian? Well he puts us to shame by changing his flight plans for a 7am flight for the next morning which would give him about 6 hours before his flight from NY to Germany to Spain (GEEZ THAT'S FOR HIS JOB!). "It's a small price to pay to spend another night with you (Jenny)." -Brian. Fuckin' pimp, but damn the price was an extra $400.

Jennerz was definitely happy.


Bryan (Stephen's Bryan, not Jenny's Brian) spotted this note near the elevator. We thought it would be hilarious to let some of the girls think we upgraded to a bigger room upstairs. They believed us and went to the room and were knocking for a while. Too bad no one answered. MISSION: FAILURE


So we get the party started in the (tiny-ass) room (with no ipod dock and speakers, backbar, fridge, no couches, and 1 bathroom). But with some alcohol, you can't go wrong.


Well...


Maybe you can...


Yea that's definitely wrong. (Hahaha sorry Bryan.)




Fung-Lin and Chia.


Mike, Cindy, Zippy.


Mike feeling the Moreno Valley. "You could titty-f*ck your head!" -Mike. I never thought of that...




I think its 12:30am when we finally get the hell outta the room. We would end up paying for any club to go into.


Elevators.








When did you get those chips...


So we try Jet because it's downstairs and there was no line anymore. We couldn't get the girls in for free cuz of the time so we hop in 3 taxis over to Moon at the Palms.


Excuse the smoke. Chia picked up a bad habit. (jk.)


The girls getting on top of the counters. Stephen almost got kicked out for taking upskirt shots. "IT'S OK THEY'RE MY FRIENDS!" -Stephen. That line didn't work, but luckily he stopped.


Me, Bryan, Stephen. What's Fung doing...






Zippy's got some moves! Nice pose with bonus points for the face.






Stephen gets bonus points for the face too.


Shocker.




Not sure how we ended up in this area or if it was some VIP area. But it was nice to have a place to lounge around.




More souvenirs. Stephen stole this poster (and ice scoop?!?) in the lobby.


He's a big Tony Parker fan... (SUPER GAY!)


Linda was my prom date!




We got back at around 5am. Brian and Jenny should have went to the airport, but instead they pass out on the rollaway bed (my bed!). I end up sleeping on the floor. I even wake up an hour later to make sure Brian got to the airport in time. But he had so much that night that he could barely walk and talk. Jenny ends up taking him to the airport where he missed his flight and the stanby flight is overbooked and delayed. No worries folks, he eventually made it to Barcelona and was okay for his meeting. It cost almost $2k to change his flight again! But luckily that one could be a business expense. A small price to pay hah! YOU CRAZY BRIAN! Thanks for the drinks by the way. :)

No pictures, but a few of us headed to McDonalds and grabbed some breakfast. (Once again, iced coffee saves the day. Props to JFNG!)


Bryan counting some cash.


And making it rain!


It's not what you think though. I think they were paying for food.


Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm friends with this guy.


Hmmm...


We finally check out and say our goodbyes.


Hopefully we'll see ya'll for Stephen's New Year party!! (The title is a work in progress.)


The Michigan crew hung around and did stuff before their flights back home. Jenny, Stephen and I begin our trip back to Anaheim. We leave at 1:00pm. Keep note of the time and light in the pictures.




The drive from the Strip to Barstow took about 4 hours. That was longer than the entire ride from Anaheim to Vegas. F*cking frustrating. We stopped in Barstow for a bathroom and food break. This is off the exit that's right after the Barstow outlets (if you're driving east). I see it all the time, but it's the first time I've stopped here.


To our surprise, it was a random mini-minimall of crap and junk.


I don't know why, but this was just terrible to me.






The only useful thing we found here was this iPod/iPhone charger for Stephen.


And also the Panda Express.


I thought this was a cool too.


Back on the road at about 6pm.




Luckily we didn't face much traffic on the rest of the drive home. Our only problem was staying awake. Our only solution was to crank the system and sing every single song we knew on Stephen's MP3 player. (I should eventually get some video up later.) It was tough, but we made it home at 8:30pm.


So instead of BBQing, I spent my entire Labor Day driving in a car. A small price to pay though for another great Vegas trip. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did. :)