Corona Vegas!

Call me a gambling man but we ventured back to Sin City for the weekend. This time it was with my parents and we stayed at the Flamingo hotel and casino on the strip. We left Burbank early on Saturday and stayed through Monday afternoon before returning.

My parents were looking for an escape from the monotony and Marzz and I are always looking to head to Vegas. The game plan was quite packed with various activities or ideas of things to do that would fill our time and not revolve just around gambling or drinking.

Our hotel of choice this time was the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Check-in was very easy, they did a temperature check and then had us use an automated kiosk that printed our room key cards and a printed receipt. We ended up with a great view of The High Roller from our room, which is listed on their website as an upgrade you can pay extra for, but we just got lucky!

When we were in Vegas two weeks prior, the governor of Nevada had ordered the closure of bars while we were there. It was a minor set back but ultimately didn't affect us too much because alcohol is so abundant in Las Vegas. In preparation for our return, knowing the bars were still closed, I made a purchase from Amazon.com of a insulated, cooler backpack. It worked amazingly! I brought a couple of Ziplock bags and filled them at the hotel ice machine, popped in a few tall cans of beer and it was the perfect solution as we traveled throughout the strip. It worked so well in fact, I plan on doing this everything regardless of Coronavirus or not.

Overall we had a great time and ended up visiting a lot of places. We began with the Shelby auto museum which is located just south of the strip past Mandalay Bay. That evening we enjoyed the Wynn Buffet, a place that Marzz and I had never tried before. The food was good but the waitress style buffet left something to be desired. There's really no substitute for a traditional American buffet.

The following day we went to Red Rock Casino and had an early lunch. Followed by a visit to City National Arena where the Las Vegas Golden Knights were getting a fan send-off from the parking lot as they traveled to Canada to begin the NHL playoffs. After the team pulled away, we visited the large team store located there called The Armory. Next was more Knights related stuff when we visited the T-Mobile Arena where they play their regular season games.

For the afternoon, we spent it looking at exotic animals, fish and sharks at Mandalay Bay Shark Reef experience. We got a great deal via MLife Rewards, scoring two complimentary tickets and two half priced tickets making it a steal! This stop concluded our running around and once we returned to the Flamingo Hotel where we were staying, we didn't return to our car until we departed Vegas the following day.

Our evening was spent having a nice dinner in honor of my parents 52nd wedding anniversary at Bugsy and Meyer's steakhouse located at the Flamingo. Then we headed to the world's tallest observation wheel, The High Roller and got some amazing views of the strip and surrounding area. Next we went just outside on the Linq Promanade to the Candy Bar and had candy infused alcoholic drinks and vodka filled gummy bears.

We ended our evening playing some slot machines and taking it easy after a jam packed day of running around. The next morning my folks did some last minute shopping and we gambled a bit. For a change I hit a nice jackpot on a Walking Dead themed slot machine, netting me over $160 on a 50 cent bet and luckily I had only sunk about $6-7 dollars thus far. After the jackpot was finished, I quickly cashed out and left with my winnings.

Las Vegas is the oasis in the desert and during this Coronavirus, it almost feels more like a heaven than before, providing an escape where it feels good to be out, people are happy and having fun. You can eat indoors, drink and do activities. Vegas may have the nick name of being Sin City, but lately, I think it could be our savior....at least from this virus business.