Our Vegas Trip Part 2- The gang is all here!

 By Mark Rodriguez

The day has finally arrived! The big reunion with our classic VGM crew after not having seen them since 2019. While there were some snags along the way, we still had a good time and made some fun memories.

Day 4-

After running all over Vegas for the last few days, we decided to take it easy that morning and just have time to ourselves. We had a simple breakfast, nothing too crazy, but the most notable thing was Wendy ordering a Bloody Mary that had bacon in it.

We actually tried the slots and Wendy won 47 dollars. She started with 20 bucks and cashed out 67.88. After that we met up with Johnny and hung out with him for a while until it was showtime.

Once it hit 5 in the afternoon, we all met up at Neonpolis in downtown Fremont. From there we checked out the arcade bar, The Nerd. Finally Wendy got to meet our old friends, Lan Moore and WickaDarko (who now only goes by Wicka) alongside Tasia and Sweet Pete who she met prior. 

Unfortunately, the arcade bar was not what it used to be. Some of the 'highlights' that we encountered were drinks that cost 15-20 dollars (and I mean a single drink), arcades that cost like 10 bucks of credits to play that went by in seconds, and a charge for bowling when it was free at one time. While they had a few sit-down type arcade machines like Daytona Racing and Jurassic Park, but nothing like a row of arcade machines of things like Street Fighter, Turtles in Time, Double Dragon and the like. Everything was credit based on a card you had to purchase and most games ate up those credits per single game. We were turned off and it soured the overall mood. Luckily for us the night was just beginning.

Our next stop was Toy Shack, also in the general area which has a huge collection of toys, both old and new, anime figurines and other merch. I was impressed by the huge display of 80's Playmates TMNT figures. Wendy got herself a Hello Kitty shirt and an anime figurine of Dragonball's Chichi as she looked during the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai martial arts tournament. While I missed out on what exactly what they got, I noticed that Tasia and Wicka also got some goodies. 

Then we made our way to First Friday, which took a while due to how crowded and crazy parking was for everyone involved. It was also our first exposure to Vegas cold. It wasn't that bad once we started moving though but Wendy was actually kind cold. I'm so used to Vegas' dry heat, I never considered what dry cold would be like.

First Friday is like an outside art and music festival that takes place every first Friday of the month on the Arts District. The last First Friday I went to was back in 2015 as none of my previous Vegas trips have ever coincided with the first Friday of the month. After a while, the gang all gathered there.

First Friday was fun and we saw a lot of art galleries and live musical performances. The main thing Sweet Pete and Tasia wanted to check out first and foremost were the food trucks. Wendy and Johnny finally got to taste spam musubi. We also checked out the several art galleries inside the surrounding buildings. Johnny and I also found a book store with all sorts of rare books, occult books and even some banned books.

We walked down the streets and got some goodies here and there. In my case I was planning on getting some of the food truck stuff to go, but nothing really grabbed me. Moore says he recognized most of the trucks as being the same ones that show up at LVL UP Expo and other such events. We ended the evening with some street guys doing some magic tricks. We don't know how they did it but somehow they took a ten dollar bill that Wendy signed and after a lot of razzle dazzle, they cut a lime in half and pulled the bill from there. Naturally it as the same ten dollar bill that Wendy signed. Due to it being covered in lime juice, they got to keep it, and Sweet Pete and I just had to tip them for such a show.

After all that we all headed back to where we parked our cars and called it a night. After all that walking around throughout the Arts District and such, we had no problem sleeping that night.

Day Five-

We took it easy in the morning and had breakfast at the hotel. We hit the slots and I racked up combined earnings from the day before and today and had 75 dollars I could use for the day to give my actual wallet a rest.

Our first thing of the day was visiting the Fashion Show Mall since Tasia brought up that the Hello Kitty Cafe is there. Wendy just had to check it out, so off we went. Upon entering the mall, the first thing that caught out eye was Green Crush, a place that sells fresh waters, similar to what we had in Mexico. Normally they would be stuff like lemonade, coconut water and whatnot, but this one has combined flavors. Wendy and I had cucumber-lime flavor and Johnny went for strawberry lemonade.

Afterwards we hit the Hello Kitty Cafe. They served treats like ice cream and cookies, but Wendy was more interested in the merch. She got herself a tote bag and a shirt, while Johnny got himself a cookie. We all took turns posing with the Hello Kitty statue at the back of the cafe.

Afterwards we found an ABC store that sold all sorts of stuff, most noticable that spam musubi everyone seems to love so much, and some Hello Kitty keychains. The rest of the mall had the typical clothing stores you'd see at any other mall, so we headed out.

The next thing was visiting the Cinemark Century theater within Sam's Town Hotel and Casino. There we met up with Jack Knives and we all went to see Spider-Man 2.1. Similar to the 90's TMNT movie, the theaters are doing a limited release of the Tobey McGuire Spider-Man trilogy. Our main focus was Spider-Man 2.1 on account of extra scenes added within the movie. 

After the movie, we met up with Lan Moore and we checked out the Mystic Falls exhibit with the waterfalls. Johnny and I have been there a few times back in the day, but we never got to see the music and water show performance, so that was cool. Then we headed out to Smokey Joe's Cafe, a restaurant within the Casino that Jack had always wanted to check out. 

The food was pretty good, though the cole slaw that came with Wendy's meal was too bland for her liking. They also gave me a pulled pork sandwich instead of the pulled pork meal, but it tasted amazing either way. As we eat we discussed world affairs, like our expectations of the upcoming Street Fighter movie and whatever the hell the plot of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure was. Y'know, serious stuff.

Afterwards we said our goodbyes and parted ways for the evening. Even though it was more of a chill day, all of the running around from the last few days have caught up with us, so we needed some much needed rest. The trip is starting to wind down, but we still have a few more places left to see before we call it a wrap.