So it's been 2 weeks since my return to Vegas and it was a blast. I learned that sometimes I just like playing things by ear. I also learned that I just don't have the energy I used to have in terms of rushing to VIP reservations, and that’s okay.Â
We arrived after 4 hours on the road and decided to delay our strip club adventure for the next night. We checked into the Silver Sevens Hotel and Casino which is located just off the strip behind Bally’s Hotel. We check into our room and make a mad dash toward the ice machine and fill up the bucket and the four plastic cups that came with the room. We placed the bottles and mixers in the sink and poured the ice in over them to chill. We pre-gamed in our room then decide to make our way to The Cromwell which was up at the corner to see what was left of the night. Two of us were on a desperate search for Fat Tuesday! So we make our way through The Cromwell, through The Linq, through Harrah’s and Casino Royale and finally we spot the sign that points us to Fat Tuesday and we bolted!  Only to find that we were an hour late. We learned the hard way that the Fat Tuesdays locations on the strip typically close between 1 am and 3 am.
So if you are Fat Tuesdays fanatics as well, to spare you any disappointment here are the Las Vegas Fat Tuesday locations and their hours of operation per Google as follows: Â Â
The Miracle Mile Shops @ Planet Hollywood | 10 AM - 3 AM Â Â
MGM Grand | 10 AM - 1 AM Â Â
The Shoppes @ Mandalay Place | 10 AM - 1 AM Â Â
The Grand Canal Shoppes @ Casino Royale | 10 AM - 2 AM Â Â
The Stratosphere | 10 AM - 2 AM Â Â
The Forum Shops @ Caesars | 10 AM - 11:30 PM
After that, we were pretty hungry and we wandered the strip for a bit and enjoyed some slots and delicious Bloody Mary's at The Linq! Â I highly recommend you sit down at the slots for a while at The Linq and order yourself a Bloody Mary and your taste buds will thank you. So savory! Do make sure you tip the fabulous waitress as well!
Another discovery I made was how nice it is to get done up just a bit, and enjoy some slot machines after a long road trip into Vegas.  There's music playing, you're winning money and you're being served drinks at the slots.  I felt very happy to be away from reality and back at my second home.  My girlfriends had smiles on their faces while they drank their cares away and enjoyed the present moment to the fullest.  That's where Vegas can take you if you let it. You just have to break your Vegas hiatus like I did and fucking get there! You deserve to have a break from the grind and in fact, that kind of self-care is so necessary to your overall mental health and happiness.Â
It was 5 am and we decide to head back to our hotel at Silver Sevens Casino so we could rest for our day club reservations in several hours.  However, we didn't wake up in time and felt like we didn't want to rush to get there by 2pm. It was 1pm by the time we all woke up and we wanted to take our time with our day.  We decided to take it easy this trip and just book all of our reservations directly with the venues in the future. We can go hard next time we come back (and save up even more to get it done the right way).  It might also be best to stay at the hotel where activity reservations take place to save time and energy. Pool parties typically go on through the evening so we weren’t in the mood to follow the rules and get in our guest list line by 2pm so we decided to go with the flow and ditch our plans.Â
You don't have to stress about time if you are open to partying off the beaten path. Silver Sevens has a pool with cabanas on a first come first serve basis. So VIP status is still possible. We mostly enjoyed ourselves by taking in what our hotel had to offer and I think I’m going to make that a new habit when I visit Vegas. Every hotel offers their own version of escape so why not book all my activities within the hotel of my stay. Which brings me to the buffet!Â
Years ago I heard that the buffet at Silver Sevens Casino is under-rated. I doubted it but through a luck of the draw we got to experience it and the buffet was SO FUCKING GOOD! Talk about home cooked meals that stuffed our bellies up beautifully and excited our taste buds! I'm talking some fire mac and cheese that I'm still drooling about in my dreams; fried ravioli; fried chicken, seafood and the whole shebang!  Never underestimate off-strip hotels and what they have to offer even down to customer service.  A huge shout out to the wonderful staff including hotel security for taking care of us.  This past trip bonded me and my friends and I look back on it fondly. More thoughts to come including enjoying Vegas in the fall.
PS - I noticed something else as well.  The group of people I went with this time, were a different breed.  For me, that's a good thing. It really matters who you go to Vegas with.  Make sure your gut is telling you it’s a go when it comes to who you travel with. The company you keep can really affect your experience. There's more to life than VIP experiences in Vegas.  With my friends it was a different kind of VIP state of mind.  It was very spiritual and I was reminded that this journey on life just might be more magical than it appears to be.  In Vegas we had some deep heart to heart moments while the sun came up.  Which is why we decided to stay up so early in our rooms the first night after walking the strip briefly to return to our rooms and enjoy deep introspective conversations. I gave a tarot reading to one of my friends for the first time.  Not only did it touch her, but part of the message was intended for me.  The reminder: keep living. While you're here, do what you can. Soak up what life has to offer and create your own path while here.  Get back in the driver's seat of your life.  Don't just work hard on yourself internally but play hard and let that stress fly free!  We need places like Vegas to remind us of our own simplistic nature as well as our ability to transform our own lives.  A road trip is not just a good time but a soul time too.  Especially in Vegas. I think we all left feeling like a VIP.Â
