Tag Archives: Alex’s Las Vegas Bachelor Party

Gameworks

sonic championship

Today I discovered that Gameworks in Las Vegas is a great arcade! We went there to play Pac-Man Battle Royale, an awesome cocktail cabinet featuring 4-player versus Pac-Man action. I won the first time we played, but gem beat me the second.
We also ran into Sonic Championship, the Sonic fighting game! I never expected to run into one of those. It looks sort of like Virtua Fighter (yeah, bad) and has a story with a strange continuity issue; you’re trying to collect the eight Chaos Emeralds. Anyways, it was actually pretty fun. Whenever you get hit, rings fly out too! gem beat me. 🙁
They also had Sonic-themed air hockey! Hell yes! Sadly, she beat me at this too. Lastly, we played some Mario Kart Arcade GP. Unfortunately gem’s unit’s camera didn’t work. I got 3/4 and gem got 4/4. We sucked!
All of this cost us only $7, which wasn’t bad considering they were all some rare games and it cost $2 just for the game card. I wish we had some of those games closer to home!
I’ll always remember this arcade… because I just might have bought a Sonic toy to take home. The cashier asked, “do you have a Sonic fan at home? If you want to write down his email, we can send the Sonic catalogue.” No, no Sonic fan at home. He’s right here. And yes, I’ll take your catalogue!

The Freakin’ Frog



The Freakin’ Frog, originally uploaded by theuser.

The Freakin’ Frog. Oh my god. It was amazing. No one (include the cabbie) had heard of it. It looked like a little hole-in-the-wall joint from the outside but we were pleased with the bar inside. Upstairs it had a whisky attic that was unmarked. You have to ask about it to be taken up there, and it boasts the largest selection of whisky in the United States. It was cool to see, but we didn’t buy anything.
Okay, the food! First we had the chips, and they were fantastic. Checking out the bar, we found that the two bartenders do all the cooking themselves right there at the bar in a small deep-fryer and grill at the bar. They cut the tortillas and fried them right there!
We were warned a bunch about how hot the chili was, so of course we ordered chili cheese fries. It was so good! Yeah, it was a bit spicy, but still safely in "white people spicy" levels, not Asian or Mexican spicy. I ordered the BBQ pulled chicken sandwich, which was fantastic, and I had some maple bacon steak as well that was pretty damn tasty and nicely medium rare. I also had a bite of Devin’s fish sandwich that was good.
The food was amazing. I very highly recommend eating here if you’re ever in Vegas!
But there was more than the food! We asked about some beers that weren’t on the menu, and our waitress, Jenny, asked if we wanted to see the beer cooler. Remember how the Freakin’ Frog had the largest selection of whisky in the United States? It apparently also has the largest beer collection in the Western United States. The cooler was huge and packed with beers, and Jenny stood there in shorts easily discussing beers while I shivered in jeans!
We were told that they have live music every night, and while we were enjoying our beers a three-person acoustic band set up on stage. They played soft rock covers and while they were nothing special, I always enjoy live bands.
After talking with Jenny more, we found that the owner, Adam Carmer, was her professor at UNLV. Despite her never having witnessed Adam finish a drink, he’s a beer a whisky connoisseur. Jenny was a lot of fun, and Jack, the biker-looking, large bearded bartender was pretty friendly and awesome.
The pricing on the beer on tap was average, but some of the rarer beers in the cooler were pricey. The food was absolutely amazing and very cheap though. Combine this with the superb service and atmosphere and you get a great bar to which I’m definitely going to return.

The rest of the weekend



The rest of the weekend, originally uploaded by theuser.

Saturday afternoon was time for Texas Hold’em! I didn’t really want to play anything at a table, so I hung out with them and watched, betting on who would do well. Pretty much no one. Mike ended up with some money left though!
John had driven to the casino, so when we decided to go back to his casino, Hooters, we all walked while he drove. We never did make it. It’s like a magical casino that can cloak itself I guess. We stopped somewhere else after getting lost and just started drinking. When it was time for dinner, we headed to the Freakin’ Frog!
(I wrote about the amazing bar here, but it got so long that I’ve cropped it into its own post. Super great though!)
After dinner and drinks, we drove back to the Flamingo, hid from some cops, etc. Devin may have mooned the camera in front of a cop car. Back in someone’s room, we drank a bit and hung out even though the girls trashed the room completely. Oh, and a guy I didn’t know very well showed us a body part that I didn’t really want to see. 🙁
I was pretty tired, but Alex was up for more, so Alex, Mike (awesome guy by the way), gem and me walked the strip for hours!
When we got back, I took a nice bath and then went to sleep around sunrise!
On Sunday, gem and I watched the fountains at the Bellagio before heading to the M&M World Store. We bought some for us and a bag for Alex and Darnell in their wedding colors. Then we went to the MGM to see the lions! They were cute and napping! We played some penny slots because we like Lobster Mania. It took our dollars, but then… ta da! gem won $6! Amazing! But then we realized we lost the M&Ms 🙁
My grandparents picked us up and we went to Ta Ta’s, a Japanese restaurant for dinner. We ate with Uncle Rocco, my cousin Akira, and her friend. Afterwards we stopped by my great-grandmother’s house and then my grandparents’. We scratched Tilly’s (their tortoise) chin and looked at some of their various souvenirs from countries they’ve visited. I also saw my grandfather’s expanded collection of gems he’s found, cut, and polished and the award he’s won. It’s really impressive! I hope I do as many great things as they have. Oh, and I also saw his huge collection of DS games. He plays every night and has beaten most of his collection. He gave me Flower Sun and Rain (a Suda51 game) and Mystery Tales.
We went back to the M&M store, made our purchases a second time, and then checked out the Coke store. They had a soda bar! It was amazing! I do happen to love soda. We tried the World Tour sampler of Coke products from around the world. It was pretty interesting! Then we met back up with the guys for more drinks and adventures across the strip!
This morning we were going to head out, but I decided to check for Pac-Man Battle Royale locations. Turns out it was at Gameworks on the strip! We checked out, walked down there, and was amazed the arcade. I’ll post that separately too!
Anyways, some drama happened between a few people, and Daniel was left without a ride back to CA. He was going to have to fly back or rent a car, and we couldn’t have that! He’s with us in the car right now. We stopped at Peggy Sue’s for lunch and are now about an hour from home. Lunch wasn’t too special, but the burger with ham and pineapple was tasty.
And that’s the end of my weekend!

Bang bang!



Bang bang!, originally uploaded by theuser.

gem was angry at that sheet of paper!
So, our trip so far!
The way out was decent. We a couple new CDs and a CD we hadn’t heard in a while. We also played MadLibs and made fun observations personifying various construction vehicles and power lines!
There were some mix ups on the first night, so after meeting up with Alex and the group, we split up. I tried to get together with my family, but long story short, that failed, and we ended up eating at the Village Seafood Buffet. Expensive, but oh god so good. We also watched some TV and saw the flamingos!
We met up at a bar and drank with everyone, which was a lot of fun! Some people had trouble learning to take jello shots 🙂 Then we took an overpriced limo back to one of our rooms to drink champagne and play with their dog, Tegin!
This morning we went to the shooting range. I had shot a little at a YMCA camp when I was much younger, but this was basically my first time shooting. We had three different handguns and a rifle. I enjoyed all of it! The amount I shake with the rifle was crazy. Using the scope was harder than I expected too. All in all, I was much better than I thought I’d be.
Then I went on a quest to find an ATM. It took so damn long. I then rushed to the pool to find the group but had to go back to the room for a forgotten ID. I never did find them.