I am writing this from sitting in McCarran Airport (appreciating their free WiFi), getting ready to board the plane home. Bethany and I had a great time in Vegas, with a tri that mixed in a lot of good food, time with family, great shows, some gambling, shopping and time watching sports. In the end it turned out to be a wonderful weekend, which is going to make starting this next week all the more harder.
For a recap of what I did, check out my Twitter updates. I didn’t get a chance to update things on Sunday, as I wasn’t allowed to use my phone for most of the day, so I wanted to offer a few updates from yesterday, as well as add more from the last weekend as well.
We flew in to join Bethany’s dad and step-mom on their weekend trip, and met up with them on Friday to head over to Hugo’s Cellar. We shared an amazing meal, complete with opening a few bottles of wine, and enjoying some great steaks. I ended up eating a Prime Rib that was 24 ounces in size! It took everything I had to down it, and I definitely was feeling a little weird afterwards. The food was absolutely delicious, and Hugo’s is fast becoming a tradition to my Vegas visits. We were so tired from our day that Bethany went right to bed as soon as we got back to the hotel. I went down and played some slot machines and ended up winning a bit.
We spent most of Saturday shopping, touring and gambling. We went back to the hotel in mid-afternoon to get ready for a fun evening. We started with an early dinner at Mesa Grille in Caesar’s Palace. I ended up eating this lamb shank that was so tender that I could peel it with my fork. We hurried through dinner in order to make our 7pm Blue Man Group show at the Venetian. This is the second time Bethany and I have seen Blue Man Group, and while we could anticipate the surprises, we still found the show just as amazing as it was the first time. It was also really neat sharing the experience with Bethany’s dad and step-mom, I was happy that they enjoyed it.
We took the Monorail back to MGM. When we arrived at the station, I ended up going down the wrong escalator. Realizing that I was heading the wrong direction, I tried to run back up the first few steps and ended up taking a fall, putting a pretty big gash in my knee. I wish I had a better story to tell about my warrior wound – but no, it was embarrassingly caused by my inability to follow directions. To be fair, the signs were pretty deceiving. Unfortunately my knee hurt worse than my pride and I spent the evening in a great deal of pain, but I think I’ll be able to get by without needing stitches. It still hurts to put pressure on the knee, but I’m still able to get around for the most part.
Sunday we checked out of the MGM and headed over to their Sports Book to watch NFL Sunday. We got there a 1/2 hour before the games start, only to find that the place was packed with no seats available. We went over to New York, New York to see if we could find some open spots and found their smaller Sports Book even less accommodating. We took in the morning games over lunch at ESPN zone and then tried to go back to MGM. We ended up at Caesar’s Palace’s Sports Book.
While being there was definitely exciting, I have to admit that it’s a bit over-rated. Our inability to find seats for the morning really contributed to our frustration, along with the fact that many of the seats at Caesar’s were being hogged by greedy people saving seats for their gambling friends. We were disgusted with a particular table that in the 3 hours they were there – 2 of their “reserved” seats were sat in for five minutes. At least at MGM every seat was literally filled. We managed to get seats just in time for the Broncos game and took the whole game at the Caesar’s Sports Book. I ended up losing 3 of my 4 bets, with my Titans upset barely coming through (Tennessee still lost the game, but did beat the spread). I learned the hard lesson of not betting on my favorite team. The Broncos managed to pull out an over-time win, but I still had a feeling of disappointment with them not making the spread.
This turned out to be a great weekend trip. The length was just about right, where we had enough to do without losing to much money. Speaking of losing money – I did pretty decent. I have less than I withdrew from the bank on Friday, but when I think about all of the cab fares, drinks, tips, and other miscellaneous cash expenses – I fared out ok.
Bethany was also wonderful this whole trip, especially how she took care of me after I hurt my knee. She really helped me get through Sunday and was really patient with the gimpy Jer. It makes me appreciate and love her all that much more.