Our Vegas trip (so far)

 By Mark Rodriguez

So far we've been in Vegas for three days, and like previous mentioned, it was more about seeing our old stomping grounds and seeing our old friends than it was about seeing the sights. Here's a quick rundown so far of the highlights.

Day 1-

This was pretty much a day to get settled into town and whatnot. One of our friends, Tasia, was nice to enough to not only grab us at the airport, but to take us to Town Square. One of the main things we wanted to do during this trip was to take Vegas-style wedding photos, and Tasia offered to buy Wendy a lovely dress at a fancy custom-made fashion boutique called Wassa Boutique.

We checked out the Town Square and then hit an In-and-Out Burger, which we don't have at our general area back home. Afterwards we went to Tasia's house where we got to meet up with our old friend Sweet Pete from our earlier 2010-2011 VGM episodes. Wendy got to listen to our old behind-the-scene stories as Johnny, Peter and I reminisced about filming those episodes with Pikachika, Rakiarmas and Lan Moore. Afterwards we checked into our hotel and called it a night.

Day Two-

This day was a bit busier as it was our first full day in town. We started it off by going to eat at a Hawaiian style restaurant called L & L Hawaiian Barbecue. I got to try out Kahlua Pork with Cabbage which was pretty good. Wendy had a Moco Loco and Johnny had Chicken Katsu. It was all pretty good but the portions were larger than we were expecting even when they were the mini-versions.

After taking leftovers home, we went to visit Velvet Underground which was the comic book shop where I used to buy my weekly comics. This was back in the time of IDW starting out the TMNT comics, the initial release of the New 52 and me buying all the Batman and Robin (Dick and Damian) graphic novels. This new location is a lot larger than before and it's almost a maze of comics of all types, new and old, popular and indies. Sadly the owner, Riddle, wasn't there, as I was curious if he would still even remember me after so long, but it seems that nowadays he works at random days and times. I was lucky enough to find copies of Robocop # 2 from the 90s comic series and Catwoman # 2, also from her 90s run.

Then we hit the Pinball Fall of Fame, which also moved to a new location over the years. There were lots of new pinball machines, including the X-Men pinball based on the 90's cartoon, a newer 80s TMNT pinball machine and one based on Venom. Wendy also found the real old pinball machines that didn't have flippers. An absolute game of chance, you just spring the ball and let it fall where it may. We also found the 'Zoltar Speaks' fortune teller machine, which was featured in the Tom Hanks film, Big. So far Wendy hasn't de-aged or aged overnight.

We finished the night by going to The Garage, a favorite bar Johnny and I used to go to back in the day. Wendy doesn't know much about drinks, so the bartender was nice to enough to make a custom pineapple-mango sweet drink for her. Johnny and I drank some Tequila Sunrises. Their Happy Hours are pretty much a two-for-one deal, where buying a drink gets you a poker chip that you can later exchange for a second drink. Certain foods like meat-lovers pizza or chicken tenders with fries cost less during that time as well. We also requested some songs so we could sing along to them, including Baby Got Back. Not only did I sing along, loud and proud, Wendy said it was possibly the straightest song I could have chosen to sing at a gay bar. After several Tequila Sunrises and Wendy Specials, we called it a night.

Day Three-

We started the day by visiting another old place of ours, the Tiabi Coffee & Waffle Bar. I had a maple bacon waffle with chopped almonds, white choco drizzle, powdered sugar and whipped cream with a Reishi Cacao drink. I chose the iced version though there's a latte version as well.

Wendy had a wafflewhich with turkey sauage, egg and cheese witha side of home-style kettle chips. She had ube lemonade for her drink.

Johnny had a wafflewhich with bacon, egg and cheese with the house salad on the side. He had a regular leomade for his drink.

The food was amazing and very filling. Wendy got a kick of them bending a waffle in half and make it into a sandwhich. I just had to grab some honey lemonade for the road. They were out of mango lemonade but that gives us a reason to come back some day.

Afterwards we hit the Fremont Experience, where Johnny and I lived nearby back in the day. The first thing we did was go to the Little Neon Chapel and get our wedding photos taken. Luckily they had a changing area so we didn't have to walk all over town in our nice clothes. Wendy finally got to rock the dress that Tasia got her. Also we just had to reference that one wedding scene from Salvatore Ganacci's 'Take Me to America' music video. Look it up.

While we were at the Fremont Experience we saw a few highlights. We bought a bunch of souvenirs for our friends back home, especially Wendy's dad. We walked past The Heart Attack Grill, just so Wendy could show her friends that such a place exists. We want to survive our trip so we didn't actually go in. None of us weigh 350 pounds so we couldn't get a free burger.

We also got to eat at White Castle, which both Johnny and Wendy were crazy about. I ate at White Castles a bit when I was a kid, so I don't get the huge appeal, but a lot of people really lover their White Castle. Wendy hasn't had White Castle since the 80s. We also walked down the Experience, taking notes of what is and isn't there, including where Insert Coins used to be. We also walked past the tourist area and showed Wendy where Johnny and I used to live before the Siegel Suites took over all of the apartments in the area. 

Afterwards we went back to Johnny's for a bit to chill and recharge our batteries. We decided to hit up The Garage one more time. This time I tried out the tenders and onions rings, which was easier than trying to eat a full meat lovers pizza all to myself the nighr prior. It was a chill night, no song requests this time around, and we soon called it a night. 

The next few days will be a bit busy since we'll be getting together with several of the VGM gang. Everyone, naturally, has their own jobs and schedules, but we'll be trying our best to coordinate everybody. We'll see how things go from here.