Viva Las Vegas

Well, I did it. I left Anna for the first time in her life. Last week Dave had an interview in Las Vegas, so I decided to meet him down there on Friday and we'd spend the rest of the weekend there. It was really hard to leave her and I could barely say goodbye to my mom when she dropped me off at the airport because I was trying to keep it together and not break out into tears in front of Anna. I was however ready for a much needed break and a weekend of relaxation. (Warning: Again, this is another boring travel journal, don't bother to read, but you should however scroll down to the bottom of the post for a funny picture)

The first sign that it wasn't going to be as relaxing as I thought was the 2 hour flight delay leaving from SLC. The airport was crowded with all of the Sundancers leaving town to head back to LA-LA-land and so I went and got myself some hot chocolate and a cookie and sat down for some good people watching. I think it's funny how cool some people think they are. I was admittingly jealous however of the bags of swag they were taking home. I love getting free stuff.

Finally I arrived in Vegas and Dave was waiting at the airport for me in his super cool hybrid Prius rental car. I would love for that to be our next car purchase (well, maybe for Dave, I might need something bigger once another baby comes around) It's awesome. You start the car with a press of a button and you can switch from fuel to battery any time. Anyway, we went to pick up 2 guys that Dave knows from the interview trail and dropped them off at their hotels to save them a taxi. We got a great view of the scorched Monte Carlo. That was crazy.

Viva Le Reve
For Dave's birthday, I got him tickets to Le Reve (the dream, in French) at the Wynn. It was amazing!!! The creativity and pure strength of the performers was exceptional. It's one of those shows where I am constantly wondering how they came up with this stuff? And where do they find these people that can do this? And how did they practice without dying? It was truly an amazing show. The whole time I was wishing my SIL Ashley was there to see it because I know she would love it and appreciate the choreogrpahy. Since I can't even begin to explain it, here's a little video that doesn't quite do it justice, but since we couldn't take pictures, it's the only way I'll remember.

Trump? Wynn? Palazzo? How many more hotels do they need?

We strolled through a few of the new hotels (new to us, we hadn't been there for 5 years) This is a cool waterfall inside the new hotel Palazzo which is connected to the Venetian. They are now building this giNORmous hotel/condo development called the City Center. It's basically going to be a city on the strip with it's own post office and zip code and everything. Condos start out at just a mere $600,000 for 600 square foot studio. Most range in the $1.2 million and one of the buidling is 90% sold out. Who's buying these?!?

Saturday
I was so excited to sleep in and get a good night sleep while we were Anna-less. Well, our hotel didn't exactly help with this goal of mine. We stayed off the strip in some (what seemed to be) nice condos, but having a nice kitchen and a flat screen TV doesn't matter when the bed and pillows are uncomforable and there are sheer blinds in the bedroom so the sun shines in as soon as it comes up. Isn't that illegal in Vegas? I am usually not a hotel diva, but I didn't want to toss and turn one more night, so we switched hotels and moved to the Luxor. After the hotel switch we strolled the strip and did a little window shopping and people watching. Vegas is by far the best place to people watch. It's facinating because I think people act different when they're in Vegas for some reason. Like they're all millionaires and really hot. We went shopping at the Planet Hollywood shops and we happened to be there the same night as Miss America pagent. That's some good people watching too! Pagents are just a whole different culture to me. Nothing against them, but it's just different and facinating to see all these 10 year old girls all made up and walking perfectly with their little crowns on. Maybe we would have tried to go to the pagent, but we had other plans...

Saturday Night Fever
The Plastic Surgery department planned a social for all of the interview candidates on Saturday night. Most schools generally do somehting like this for the students to get to know the residents and attendings a little better outside of the interview setting. Spouses (or signifcant others) are invited too, but this of course was the first one I could make it to. We had talked with some of the other guys that interviewed and we were all excited because the social was at this super posh restaurant at The Palms. (yes, very hip) So we get to "9" and after about a half hour of cocktails (virgin mojitos for me!) we realize that they are not feeding us. Lame! It's all you can drink, but pay for your own food. The $169 lobster was tempting, but we decided to pass. As the night went on, it got pretty boring talking to drunk people who kept saying the same thing over and over "You just got to be true to yourself, man" and so I was trying to look for someone famous. No such luck. I guess there was a pro football player there, I saw him, and of course didn't recognize him, and I can't even remember his name. Hmmm. Still boring. About 11:00 we were ready to try and sneak out, but then they said they had a hook up to get us into the club there. Now you know Dave and I are not the clubbin type, but we were curious. And from what I know about celebrity gossip is that the Palms clubs are the place to be. So we thought, we might as well stay to check it out. I didn't realize getting into a club was such serious business and frankly I don't get the whole process. I've only been to 2 real clubs in my life. This was one of them and the other time was when I was with my brother and his friends in Vegas after the WAC tournament. Both times we got the "VIP" hookup, so we were able to get escorted right in and get to sit in our own "special" tables. But the weird part is, you pass this huge long line of people waiting to get in. Don't they get mad when they see people go in before them? Especially if they're not famous? Anyway, obviously I'm not to hip on the club scene. We went to Club Moon which is on the roof of The Palms and it has a pretty cool view of the strip.

Here we are at our "VIP" table

I needed to use the ladies room desperatly after all of those virgin mojitos and so I left the balcony to try and locate the WC. As I looked around I realized that maybe I should have shared some of my turtleneck and long pants with some of the girls there. They weren't wearing much and must have been cold! I am pretty sure I was the only girl in the club in a turtleneck and I was proud of it! Anyway, here's the funny part, the ladies rooms were closed at club moon and so they told me to use the ones in the club downstairs. OK, so I go down there and realize this happens to be the Playboy Club! Oh my! What am I doing here? But I desperately had to use the loo, so I just look straight ahead and try to find the bathroom. I found the ladies room, but of course the line was a mile long. I waited for a few minutes, but after seeing 3 girls walk by in bunny costumes and lots of slimely guys, I decided that I could probably hold it and that I should just get out of there. I was totally laughing at myself. What the heck was I just doing in the Playboy club? I never saw that one coming. I went back and found Dave and I think he was disappointed that I didn't have a better description of what the Playboy club was like. Anyway, as I was standing there watching all of the "clubbers" around us, I definitely felt like I was in the large and spacious building if you know what I mean. We were ready to go and I think the residents were drunk enough that they wouldn't notice if we snuck out. That was our super cool clubbin in Vegas experience! I guess I'm just not cut out for that scene!

When we got back down to the lobby, I found the loo and there were no Playboy bunnies in sight. We were STARVING and it was about 1:00 am at this point. We had a gourmet meal at Little Ceasers and Nathan's back at the food court at the Luxor. Quite a departure from what we thought we'd be eating that night. And then, we finally got our celebrity sighting. After going to the hippest places in town, all we needed to do was head back to the Luxor and we find the beloved Carrot Top walking past us as we down our crazy bread. It doesn't get much better than that!

Sunday, time to head home

We had to hit the Paris buffet before we left. The crepes were delicious!

We got to the airport that afternoon to head home to find that our flight was delayed. It rained that morning, and I guess they don't know how to fly in the rain, so ALL of the flights were delyaed by at least 2 hours. The airport was so crowded, there weren't any spare chairs, and even the floor space was limited. We were bummed and I was anxious to get home to see Anna. After unsuccessfully trying to get on an earlier flight, we went on a quest to find a seat. We found one on an end and so Dave suggested I sit there and he'd sit on the floor next to me. I'm about to sit down when the guys next to me quickly tell me that the seat is taken. Okay, whatever. We start walking away and some ladies start calling me over telling me that, that was Mike Tyson's seat that I almost just sat in. What? Mike Tyson? No way. His posse would have for sure beat me up if I would have sat there. So Dave said we are for sure sticking around if he's here.

Here's the Iron Man champion in his prime:

And here is now. Flying Southwest. Stuck at the Vegas airport. With a bunch of annoying people asking for pictures.

Dave went up to him and said, "Hey Mike, my wife is a big fan, do you think she could get a picture with you?" Yep, I'm a really big fan. I love boxers who abuse their girlfriends and bite off other peoples ears.

He was actually really nice, and so Dave got a picture with him too. It's a shame we weren't on the other side of him so you could see his tattoo. Seriously, Mike Tyson? How hilarious is that? Now that's the way to end a weekend in Vegas!

My only wish is that what smells in Vegas would stay in Vegas. When you get home from Vegas, laundry is priority #1!

After our exciting weekend in Vegas, with lots of people watching and exposure to the rest of the world, I was most excited to get back home to our sweet baby girl. Just like that Lonestar song, the view I love the most is my front porch looking in.