Leaving Las Vegas

Friday evening Kevin, Amy, Elise, myself and another couple were treated to a nice dinner at Tremezzo in the Aladdin hotel. We all went through a couple bottles of nice wine (I didn’t order so I couldn’t tell you what they were). Most everyone had the surf and turf special: Australian lobster with a tomato-based sauce and a 6 oz. baby filet with a gorgonzola and port sauce. That sounded really good to me but since most everyone was ordering that, I opted for the grilled lamb chops with a black olive sauce. It wasn’t easy to palatte the chops. I didn’t think about it until the waitress brought our order that she neglected to ask how I wanted mine cooked. The chops were overcooked, grisselly, fatty and the sauce couldn’t hide the bad taste.

We left Aladdin around 9 p.m. and we split a cab down the strip. Kevin and Amy went to MGM Grand to watch Dennis Miller. Elise and I rode over to Luxor to see the Blue Man Group. Elise really enjoyed the show. I think I went into it with too high of expectations. It was entertaining and there are elements of the show that are mezmerizing… Like I said, I think I went in expecting too much.

We left Luxor at close to midnight. We rode the monorail back to our room at Bally’s so we could change and grab some left-over booze from our party the night before. We walked over to Harrah’s because I wanted to go to the oxygen bar that I saw when we went on our foot tour of the strip on Thursday evening. Oxygen bar was closed.

We walked back to our hotel and hit the single deck blackjack tables until 5 a.m. We busted.

We woke up early on Saturday and attended two good seminars. The first seminar was “Hiring For Success”. A lot of what the speaker talked about I agreed with. Most of what he preached I didn’t agree with. He’s a corporate coach teaching how to hire corporate employees by “throwing the interviewee off-guard” and using scare tactics.

The second seminar was “Niche Marketing”. I went in thinking it was going to be a seminar on advertising and inside sales. Instead it was an endorsement for specific niche profit centers for pharmacies. It was still an interesting seminar.

After our last seminar we went to the trade show where I handed out Wellness Works swag in an attempt to create a buzz and get some business cards. The last folder and bottle of jelly beans were handed out and that was it. We were done. We walked back down the strip and I treated Elise and me to the oxygen bar and a water massage. It was much needed stress relief after being at this conference all week.


Old Strip

After making friends with the manager of the aqua massage oxygen bar we walked way the hell to the far north end of the strip so Elise could see some of the older Vegas casinos like Stardust and the Frontier. We stopped in and bought souvenirs for staff and made the long, leg-killing trek back to Las Vegas Blvd and Flamingo Road in the 116-degree air.

A quick change of clothes back in the hotel room and we headed downstairs, through the casino to the grand ballroom for AmerisourceBergens closing party. Again, all the food and drink you could ever imagine. There were fancy Italian deli platters with peppers, olives, cheese and genoa salami, prosciutto, etc. etc. Lettuce wraps with spicy chicken, ginger and carrots and peanut sauce. Chicken satay, build your own tacos, veggie quesadillas. That’s just what I ate – there was a lot more.

After dinner we were entertained by the Doobie Brothers. Elise really got into it. I’m not really a fan, but had a great time nonetheless. The Doobs’ show ended after a couple hours, everybody cleared out of the ballroom and poured into the casinos. Elise and I ran upstairs, regrouped and went downstairs to try our luck again. I tripled our money on a couple slot machines. Elise was very impressed, insisted that I continue playing slot machines and thought I was the coolest thing since Girbaud jeans. I quickly lost my winnings. Elise didn’t find me as cool any more.

We blew the rest of our allowance at the single deck table. Vegas got us this time.


Sippin’ a G-String

We woke up relatively early this morning, packed our suitcases and went to the pool. We had a couple G-Strings (Pina colada with Midori) and panini sandwiches while we soaked up some desert sun.

We met Kevin and Amy in the lobby shortly before 2 p.m. and took a cab to the ever-so-busy Las Vegas airport. For whatever reason our flight was delayed for almost an hour. We had to catch a connecting flight in Phoenix. Our flight was delayed in Phoenix because of micro-bursts. We’re on the plane right now, an hour or so from Austin. We probably won’t get home until 1 a.m. and we both have to be at work first thing tomorrow morning.

Oh well… we had a blast on our trip to Vegas.

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