Vegas Vacation

107 degrees during the day and it only got hotter at night... at the clubs...and on the dance floor.... err, that was lame! Haha! But it really was THAT effing hot and our group did all we could to stay in doors amongst the air conditioning during our weekend in Vegas.

Jenna and I drove from LA Friday afternoon and got to the new Aria hotel at around 8pm. Some were already checked in and were eating while the rest were intermittently trickling in, via airplane, from various locations in Norcal. By 8:30, the drinks were flowing, the people were dressed up and everyone was feeling goooood. [Insert picture of our alcohol bath here]

Now, I don't know many people in LA and therefore do not drink much anymore. Scratch that, I never drink anymore. Every now and then, Jenna and I will pop open a bottle of fine wine to drink with our weekend dinners or during a movie night. (classy, I know). But as far as the 'hard' liquor goes, it's been pretty absent from my life. So, as people began playing drinking games, it became clear (again) that Jenna was right about me... I was a cheap date! Luckily I didn't get as red as Madi.;)

After we were all pre-partied up, our group of 12 (8 g's, 4 gu's) headed out to Tao fully aware that we were on some special guest list. I don't have any pictures of the fun events that occurred on the way to the club, or pictures from the long wait to get into the club, or even pics from inside the club but I remember that it was fun! We actually ended up waiting in the 'VIP' line for a loooong time and when we finally got inside, it was so frickin packed that we couldn't even move! We decided to split and have fun on our own. Here's some highlights from the first night:

- Pretty sure I saw Lloyd at our midnight dinner but when I asked others in our group they were like, "huh? Who?" So i didn't make a big deal of it. (Sarah!) and lo' and behold, he was performing the next night at Haze inside of our hotel, Aria! oops.
- I am awesome at photobombing. Sorry to those I bombed.
- I am also awesome at stealth stickering. Karen's friends were sporting many VIP bracelets by the end of the night.
- Mel, you are funny!
- Jeff IS a smiler!
- And it's a good idea to have a large ratio of girls to guys.

The second day was mostly about the pool. Seeing as the weather was a nasty hot 105+, the majority of us spent our midday in or around the pool... Albeit the more 'family-oriented' pool. haha. Then came the highlight of the day: the BUFFET!

When you think of Vegas what comes to mind? Partying, Girls, Gambling, Shows and Buffets! We decided to try Aria's buffet, aptly named The Buffet. We arrived at the buffet at 3:30ish because we wanted to pay the lunch price but stay long enough to enjoy the dinner menu. AND, thanks to some expert complaining, we were able to get some hotel credit and chop our buffet price down to $10/ head.

My first plate consisted of a shit load of eggs but mostly because I got a pile of the wrong kind first and then had to add a pile of the 'correct' eggs. Along with the scrambled eggs were sushi and some sort of beef. The beef sucked. It was dry and pretty hard to chew. The eggs were delicious though! haha.

Here's some sliced turkey (BLAND) with some fried plantains, more scrambled eggs, cheese and roast duck salad. The roast duck salad was BOMB and Jenna and I cried when it didn't carry over from the lunch menu to the dinner selection. The fried plantains were also scrumptious but a little heavy.

This is the dinner prime rib that everyone was waiting for.... just eh, for me. And the mess that is off to the side is a chicken curry on white rice.... Another eh..

Dinner did offer some better food choices and they seemed to add a more asian flare to the buffet. I had a couple Shui Mai's and some other asian dumplings. The chow mein was adequate and baked salmon was pretty delicious. The bowl of fresh fruit rocked and I gobbled up all the black and blue berries in sight. Also, I enjoy another round of fried plantains!

Dessert is where I shined (not the buffet) as I craftily constructed a spot-on Diddy riese-ish ice cream sandwich using two chocolate chip cookies and a scoop of coffee ice cream. The texture and softness was superb and although I was already stuffed at this point, I ate the entire thing. (the mango pudding thing on the side, however, was not delicious and therefore, not eaten)

After dinner we ventured down the strip to visit the M&M store. Here's a pic of a goofy looking Woody on the strip.... we also gleefully watched some large black man dressed in drag dance very seductively for passerbys. Ew.

Sorry that I'm not posting any actual pics of the jump, but here is a card to signify Jeff's jump of faith off the top of the Stratosphere! He is nutso and we are legally bound to never call him chicken ever again. Lets just say Jeff is a crazy monster who rocked that jump (and the jumpsuit!).

Oh, here's Jeff walking to his doom! I doctored it a little if you can't tell.

That night, we rushed our asses off to get to club Haze inside of our hotel. It was packed beyond belief and if you're a guy, you absolutely get ZERO love from the bouncers/event coordinators. Another thing worth mentioning is the interactions with the 'club promotion guys' who you always meet in Vegas. Sometimes you have a great experience and get totally hooked up. Eg. Jenna and her SB friends getting a private area AND bottle service!!! WTF!? Our experience for Haze went like this: Madi talks to Brad at the Aria pool and he agrees to text her that night. A couple hours later, Madi then talks with the flirty (and equally idiotic) Darren on the strip and his curtsying ass tells us that he'd get everyone in for freeeee. Well, only Brad ended up texting us that night AND he could only get the guys in for a discounted price of $30. Well, we get there and spot Brad and somehow manage to hook up 4 guys with a free pass. We also spot Darren and Madi goes over to confront him about the missing text. (Know that Darren has Madi's number but we dont' have his)

the conversation as I saw it through read lips and madi's retold version:

Madi: "Hey, how come you didn't text us?!"
Darren: (and why do i always wanna call him 'Darren's Dance Grooves"?) "What? I did text you didn't I? [checks his phone] Oh shit, sorry about that, I feel real bad. Tell you what, call me once you get in there and I'll buy you a drink."
Madi: "OK! :)"
(she comes back over to us to tell us what happens but then realizes that she doesn't have his number and therefore can't call him for that free drink!!) muahahah, pretty funny in my mind!

Anyways, some craziness went on and we ended up going up and down between our room and the club until Jenna could no longer take the pain of her coughing. The 2 of us decided to hang out in the room while the others mingled in the club crowd and watched Lloyd perform on a 3'x3' stage! OH, but for the 2 minutes we were in there I saw boobies and got groped. Fun times!

Sunday was a very slow and relaxing day and I was really dreading the long drive back to LA. Jenna and I went window shopping around the Planet Hollywood miracle mile area and then ate sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich. We shared the Caribbean Jerk chicken sandwich and the Full Montegeu which were both perfectly toasty and SOOO scrumptious in their individual ways. We took one last look around Vegas and headed down 15 towards LA.

7 hours (!!!!!) later, we were back in the cool 80 degree sactuary that is Alhambra.

Thanks Danville friends for the memories and for the fun!