What happens in Vegas....Stays in Vegas....or NOT..

What a whirlwind Vegas is. Every single time I go to Vegas, it is like being a kid again on Christmas morning. The anticipation and the excitement is incredible. How can one place elicit such feelings in us all. One of the things I like the most about Vegas is trying to figure out the people that are there. People watching in Vegas is so cool. You have every walk of life there, from beauty queens to drag queens. You can be in the ritziest place in town, walk in wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt and get treated like you are a millionaire. You can also be in the dumpiest place in Vegas and see the richest people there. It doesn't matter where you go, what you do, who you are with, how much money you have, Vegas truly is the city to equalize us all. Of course having money makes things different, as you can experience a larger wider variety of things but in the end there is so much to see and do there that you could literally never see everything in one trip.

Leanne and I drove to Bellingham on Friday and caught the 4:00 pm flight. For those of you that don't know about this little gem of an airport, you can fly either on Alaska or Allegiant Air. We used Allegiant and as before, we were not disappointed. Decent seats, good service and a smooth ride. You can't really ask for anything more from a budget airline.

Arriving in Vegas on a Friday night at 7:00 was probably not good planning but as it turned out it was fine. We got to the Monte Carlo hotel and I was expecting huge lineups but there was none. We walked right up and were able to check in right away. They gave us a free upgrade and boom we were in our room. Decent room, comfy king size bed, and good size bathroom. What more could you ask for.

The 4 days as always flew by so quickly. I played poker, and not so successfully I might add, but I didn't do to bad. A lot of bad beats and calls from really poor players. I surely do welcome this most times as I usually always have the best hand but I kept getting beat by really poor calls.

trips lost 3 times
two flopped full houses lost

These were all after making big bets and people calling with sub par hands. Oh well that is poker. If I win all those hands I walk out of Vegas up a lot.

On Saturday night we went to a restaurant in New York New York called Gallagher's. This is a steak and prime rib restaurant that is to die for. We shared our meal as the portions were way to big for us to eat.

22 oz Rib steak $36
monster baked potato 8" long and 4 inches wide...yikes $6
skillet of fried shrooms $9
asparagus $9
the most amazing bottle of red Merlot (William Hill, 2007) $40
2 vodka martinis $22

$140 dollar meal that was worth every penny. Every time I go to Vegas I like to go to at least one fancy restaurant. I have experienced some pretty amazing meals down there and this one didn't disappoint. I ended up playing poker at the Monte Carlo later that night till about 4 in the morning.

Sunday we went to see Rick at the Southpoint hotel and I played poker while Leanne shopped at the outlet mall. Did well there leaving up $300. We then came back to the hotel and that evening we made our way to the New York New York. They had a couple of guys doing a dueling pianos thing, singing, interacting with the crowd. What a blast. Needless to say we literally wobbled our way home at about 2 in the morning.
This little bar was by far the most fun for us. We drank, we laughed, we gambled, we just had a great time there.

Sunday was a poker day of sorts. I went to Planet Hollywood and played there for the afternoon while Leanne did some sightseeing. She walked the strip, did some shopping, and came back to get me around 5:00. I was extremely hungover all day but that is ok. I was working on about 12 hours sleep by then and was feeling it big time.

All in all, the trip was fantastic. Leanne and I have truly become inseparable. We miss each other when the other is not there, we love to hang with each other and this trip enabled us to see if we have any differences, likes, dislikes apart from each other. So far we haven't found anything that would even come close to being warning signs. I love loving Leanne. She makes it so easy. I now know that our 3 week trip to Sturgis, South Dakota on the bike in 3 weeks will be amazing.

Thanks babe for a great trip...