As you all know, “What Happens in Vegas” is supposed to “Stay in Vegas.” However, I believe there are a few amendments to this saying. Lauren would tell you “What Happens in Vegas, Gets Tagged on Facebook”…and for the purposes of this blog, it will be “What Happens in Vegas, MOSTLY Stays in Vegas…Except for the PG-13 stuff.” So – for all you kids 17 and under – here you go :)
“Vegas 2009” – Rated PG-13
Warning: This blog is LONNNNNNNNNNG. I’ve broken it up into sections, labeled per day, in case you may need a restroom break. :)
DAY 0:
I wasn’t going to order a new swimsuit this summer. I don’t really need one. I have enough to take on a 7-day vacation and be able to wear a different one each day…and then some. However, who wants to wear a 3-year old swimsuit in
My ride (Katie, also one of the 2 friends who ordered a suit with me) arrived to take me to the airport at 4:15pm…just in time for the UPS guy to FINALLY deliver the suit. I had already warned the person sitting at the front desk in the operations office that Yes Indeed, I was expecting a personal package at work stamped with “
Scooping the swimsuits up, we headed to the airport and although we excepted dreadful holiday traffic, we made pretty good time. In fact, I was early enough to technically catch the nonstop flight that left at 5:50pm and found myself wishing I had selected that one vs. the 7:00pm flight that connected through
After take-off our flight was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule which was actually a good thing for me because my connection time in Denver was a mere 25 minutes. Have you been to the
Upon landing, I checked my phone and discovered it was 9:29pm (this is when we touched down)…and realized making that 9:35pm connection just may not happen. Any other vacation, this wouldn’t be as bad…however this was the last flight of the night out of
However, knowing
I made my flight…and arrived in
We tried to minimize our excited chatter back at Sarah’s apartment as we knew that we needed to get up at 4:15am. Why you ask? Because we were ROADTRIPPING to Vegas…and with high hopes of maximizing the day there at the pool, we wanted to arrive in the morning.
DAY ONE:
Friday morning we packed the car full of our stuff, grabbed Starbucks (opens at 5:30am) and hit the road. I had brought my GPS with me which proved to be a smart move…and also an ipod hookup as both Sarah and my cars seem to be blessed with broken CD players right now.
During all of our pre-trip discussion, Lauren had teased Sarah and I about our packing list. Blow up mattress (5 of us in a room to save $$$), cooler, liquor and mixers, a pack of water bottles, wheat thins, Cheese-Its, peanut butter, bananas, apples, bagels and cream cheese. She said, "What is this, a camping trip?"
Yet, not more than 30 minutes into our drive, Sarah and I (sitting in the front) hear the cooler crack open and the next thing you know, Lauren is nibbling away on a banana. Soon after? An apple. “Oh Lauren,” we jeered, “you like that food we brought?” Later, after she had a water…she admitted defeat and that we were actually pretty smart to bring those snacks.
We approached the Hoover Dam about 30 minutes from
Our hotel of choice was the Rio Hotel. We selected this for two reasons: 1) we originally were going to Vegas to spend time at an event my friend LeRon had put together for the weekend – it would include for us a “Cheap” hotel room at the Palms, free drinks and cool events all weekend such as a Penthouse party, pool cabanas and more. However, Jay-Z booked 200 rooms at the Palms unexpectedly (he was performing at the Palms) and our room was now gone. 2) SO…Sarah was able to get us a deeply discounted room at the
When we arrived at the hotel, it was about 10:30am. Our planning was almost perfect as our other 2 Vegas-Mates – Jessica and Jackie, who were driving from
Lauren thought it would be a good idea to select the beach chairs that were on the sand…which later proved to be a bad idea as the sand was over 100 degrees and getting up involved some scalding of the feet and delicate placement of our flip flops to remain nearby to slip on. Soon after arriving at the pool, our room was ready so Sarah and Lauren took the first shift of moving our stuff into the room – with myself, Jackie and Jessica following suit later.
Around 3pm, I had had enough of the heat and we decided to go to the Palms pool to check out the infamous “Ditch Fridays”. We all packed into Jackie’s convertible and headed to the Palms. I’m not sure what I was expecting…however what I saw definitely did not qualify. There were people EVERYWHERE…and most girls 
wore skimpy swimsuits with high heels. I felt like I was in a music video… There was absolutely no room to set anything down so we just walked around for awhile until Sarah spotted LeRon (mentioned earlier). I had told him we were heading there and he had grabbed a cab from his hotel to come meet up with us and say hi. About 4 days prior to our trip, LeRon’s event was cancelled due to a major sponsor backing out. However, he and some of his friends and intended guests were still planning on having a great weekend and our group of 5 developed the same mentality. How can you not have a good time in
We hung out for awhile at the pool and then decided it was time to grab some food and go back to our room and start the process of getting ready for the night. We agreed to meet up with LeRon and Co. later and headed to a Mexican restaurant in the Palms. This idea proved to be a great one. We had unlimited water (I think Sarah had about 6), unlimited basket of chips and salsa (very filling) and ordered 2 appetizers to split. Total bill each? $7 – including tip. Holler.
After resting a bit in the hotel room, and getting 5 ladies through the shower, we put together our outfits for night #1. I wound up borrowing a tangerine colored dress from Jessica that helped my tan and allowed me to wear the white shoes that I wanted to...only problem is Jessica is about 2 sizes smaller than me so the dress’ length was more so that of a shirt. But, who cares, right? This was
We hung out at XS for awhile at the guys’ table, complete with free drinks, until we decided to head out to meet up with LeRon and his friends. Originally, we met them at Jet at the Mirage, however Jet didn’t have any tables left so we took off and went to Pure instead (Caesar’s Palace). LeSean (Otherwise known as “Shady”, a nickname he’s held since he was a little kid), LeRon’s brother, was celebrating his first weekend in Vegas. He recently was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles so was able to afford nicer arrangements in Vegas than I would have, let me tell you. Also along were many of LeRon’s friends who I have gotten to know over the past 5 years so it really was a fun group to be with. Jessica and Jackie wound up meeting up with other friends at that point in the night, but Sarah, Lauren and I stayed with Shady’s group and danced the night away at a table in the main room at Pure. There were a few wipeouts, dancing-wise and at one point Sarah thought a man on the microphone was rap-singer Fabulos, when instead it wound up being Larry Johnson (NFL running back). However, I can’t blame her. I had no idea either…AND she had gotten all 5 girls in the club for free, bypassing the line in the process.
We all skipped the “after hours” spot called Dre’s that everyone else seemed to be headed to and all wound up at home by 5-6am…Jessica and Jackie included.
DAY 2:
Miraculously, no one felt any negative effects of the alcohol the morning of Day 2…so we grabbed some bagels and water and decided to go to
The guys actually turned out to be super cool. 2 of them played for the Jets (Ahmad Carroll and James Ihedigbo) with the other being a close acquaintance. The 3rd guy was a little wacky, not gonna lie, and had his arm in a sling. But the best part was he didn’t have any ordinary sling. It was a GUCCI sling. Too funny. They were all about involving the crowd in dancing, playfully dumping water on people (it was hot!) and buying freeze-pops from the waitresses and handing them out.
A bit later Shady and crew arrived and rented a Cabana which was pretty awesome. Not only was it stocked with drinks, but it had food, a flat screen TV, chairs and a chaise lounge bed. We hung out with the crew the rest of the afternoon because deciding it was probably time to head in, grab some food and get ready for Night #2.
We ate dinner at a place that is in the Cheesecake Factory family (one step up I believe) located in the Venetian. Once again, a brilliant choice. Free water, free bread and butter to fill up on and then ordered a gigantic $30 appetizer and a large salad to split. Total cost each person: $12 – including tip. Man, we’re good.
Back at the
Once we bypassed the lines (thanks again Sarah) for a second night in a row, we headed inside and walked around a bit. We wound up running into Shady, who insisted we come up to his VIP table. It’s location was up on an elevated platform (above the rest of the club), on the left side of about 3 VIP table areas. Right after getting up there, we discovered that The Dream (songwriter, artist, producer, etc.) was about to enter the club and would be performing. Where would he sit and perform? At the VIP table immediately next to us on that platform. Could our luck have been any better? He came in, (Green Hat in Photo) with fiancé Christina Milian on his arm, and the place went nuts. He hung out for a bit and then put on an awesome performance, not only performing songs he is known for singing…but songs he has written for other artists as well. To describe it as “awesome” is a bit of an understatement.
By the end of the night, we realized we had been dancing for over 24 hours straight. Personally, my feet were killing me and I think we were pretty worn out. We were told to come to after hours at “Dre’s” again…however, I decided not to go and the rest of us girls decided the same.
DAY 3:
Checkout was at noon – so we slept in a bit and then packed our belongings and checked out. However, instead of taking off back to Phoenix and LA (about a 4.5 hour drive), we decided to spend the afternoon at the infamous “Rehab Sundays” pool party at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. After working some magic at the door (2 hour general admission wait) we set foot inside the pool area and who is the first person we run into? Ahmad Carroll, our friend from the
We checked out the scene (this place was HUGE with casino tables IN the water, a DJ and over a thousand people at least I bet) and headed over to their table. We but our stuff down at their VIP spot, grabbed a drink and started….dancing. Of course, right? Lol. We didn’t really have too much to drink (although lots of water) because at the end of all of it we had to drive home. But we made friends with the guys surrounding us too and had plenty of food to eat…good stuff of course like soft tacos and sliders. YUM! We ran into some people some of us knew like Ryan Torain (former ASU Football player), Stephon Heyer (former Maryland football player, now with the Redskins) and this guy named Tony who I have known through a friend for a while (never met him though – I know, weird…so cool to finally run into him) who is a model and dancer in Vegas.
Around 5:00pm, kicking and screaming…but tired…we decided our Vegas stay needed to come to an end so we said goodbye and thanks to our new friends and headed out of town. The drive wasn’t that bad – there was much more traffic than the way there so we didn’t get home until 11pm or so (with a few stops built in). After sharing our stories with our friend (and Sarah’s roommate) Heidi, who couldn’t make the trip at the last minute…we headed to bed - after all, Lauren had to be at the airport at 5:00am to fly back to NYC.
DAY 4 and beyond:
Lauren made her flight and I slept until probably ten or so. I was a zombie most of the day, meeting up with my friend Heather for lunch at RA on Mill Ave…and then left Sarah around dinnertime when Erin came to pick me up and take me out to the Westside of town where I would stay with her, JD and little Brayden until my flight left the next day.
Overall the trip was awesome – although it should come as no surprise. I don’t think it is possible for Sarah and I to have a bad trip (ask
:) The End
Disclaimer: Although you just read the PG-13 version…please no worries. While there WAS events excluded to protect the innocent (and guilty) - There were no arrests; no inappropriate behavior (for the most part, lol); and no waking up with a Tiger in our room, baby in the closet, a missing tooth and a missing groom (“The Hangover”). You can rest easy Mom ;)
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