By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Though they rarely admit it, there are actually people in Hawai'i who don't "get" the Las Vegas thing.

They're the ones who quietly listen to the exploits of Vegas-loving friends and neighbors and pretend it sounds like fabulous fun. They smile and nod and go, "uh huh, uh huh" but inside they're thinking about the long list of things they'd rather do than lose money in a noisy, smoky casino.

Like, stay home and read a book.

Like, stay home and clean yard.

Like, stay home and save money.

But the ones who love Vegas do so with such passion and vehemence that they cancel out any naysayers.

They get starry-eyed talking about the one time they won a couple of hundred dollars. They will go into great detail about all the times they ALMOST hit it big ("That machine the lady was using when she hit megabucks? I was right there. Just two rows away three years ago. That could have been me!"). They cultivate all the little superstitions: frog money, frog necklace, frog bracelet, red underwear. In the days before their departure to the promised land, they go around collecting money from friends to "play for them."

There's a certain set of folks who love Las Vegas just for the whole hotel experience. Other than Vegas, they never leave home. It blows their mind that someone will come in and actually make the bed for them in the morning and leave fresh towels on the rack above the toilet.

And oh how they love the bargains. All-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Whole malls of outlet stores. Cheap bowls of oxtail soup any time of the day or night.

But this business about the Norwalk virus has revealed a whole new level of Vegas devotion.

You would think that news of hundreds of people coming down with gastrointestinal distress after staying at or eating at the beloved California Hotel and Casino would scare folks off.

Heck no.

They're excited.

One such Mega Vegasphile left last weekend on a charter flight to spend four nights at the California. On a previous trip to Vegas (he makes three or four pilgrimages a year to what he calls "the happiest place on Earth") he also came down with a nasty case of ... uh, tummy trouble.

You would imagine, then, that after that experience, he'd be worried about going back. Once bitten, twice shy. Stay at the Luxor and eat vacuum-packed granola bars and bottled water.

Not at all. He was congratulating himself on having such good timing. Maybe the hotel won't be so busy, he reasoned. Maybe he can even get free food!

Meanwhile, those of us who don't "get" the Vegas thing are thinking yeah, or you can just stay home and ... go beach.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.