New York New York & Manny Pacquiao

My last trip to Vegas was such a fun experience. It was so much fun and could have been the best Vegas Trip I've had in a long time if only my wife lady could have made the trip out.

Keven and I made the journey Thursday night after work as the rest of the group (Andrew, his kick ass father - Matt, and Dylan) were planning on coming out Friday evening. We got to town fairly late, especially since I had worked an 11 hour day starting at 4am, so we didn't do much but sleep. We stayed at my fall back hotel, The Stratosphere. This room was actually much nicer then the last room I stayed at, even though the last time I paid more for the "upgraded" room. So day one ended after the long car ride and sleep.

On Friday we got up and went down to the Luxor for some brunch. We then spend the next six hours sight seeing and gambling between the MGM Grand, Hooters, Planet Hollywood, NY NY, and Excalibur. Keven and I got a call from Andrew about 6pm saying they just checked in to the NY NY Hotel. Keven and I grabbed our recently won cash (BLACK 13) and headed back to the NY NY. Andrew's father Matt must be some Vegas high roller. They placed us in a pretty nice room (for free) right next to Matt's suite (free) and gave us a free "VIP" card that let us in the guest lounge and gave us free snacks and such. They also gave us 4 tickets to the Manny Pacquiao VS Ricky Hatton fight for Saturday night, which if you read my last blog is the reason we made this trip! For dinner Matt took us out dinner at Gallagher's, which is a pretty pricey Steak House in the NY NY. We ate like Kings and the rest of them drank like it too. Our tab came back just under $600 w/ tip! Matt covered us all. He was so generous on this trip, and it was real nice to talk to him and to get to know him! The rest of the night was spent on roulette, watching the boys get drunk, and walking miles.

Saturday was fight day! We slept in a little this morning, except Keven, who was up by 6am everyday regardless of how much he drank, or how late he stayed out. He's a machine. We ate lunch at the food court across from the NY NY. I watched my skinny brother put down a Bacon Burger, two Chili Dogs, a small fry, a soda, a slice of pizza, and most of Andrew's Panda Express meal. Yet after I ate my one Bacon Burger and fry, my ass again grew an inch... So after lunch we got our tickets! They were good seats valued at $300 and yet again because of Matt, we went FREE! The boxing event actually started around 2:30pm even though the PPV doesn't air until 6. Andrew and I went as soon as the doors opened and watched all the fights! Keven arrived a few hours later, and Dylan made it for the two important fights.

The Fights. Wow. I'm not a boxing fan by any stretch, but this was so much fun! I had a great time with Andrew watching something that is so important to who he is. During the first under card fight the arena was pretty empty, but slowly the seats were filling. By the end of the night the stadium was rocking! I'd say 80% of the 17,000+ fans were from England. The Champion, Ricky Hatton had the arena packed with crazy fans. They sang all night, even during the other fights. Singing songs to the tune of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland", the Brit's would express their favor of Hatton. They brought instruments and played along. We were surrounded by soccer hooligans. Bad part was that we are all Manny Pacquiao fans and we thought we may get cracked in the head because of the stuff we were screaming! Hundreds of celebrities came to the fight, including names like: Christian Bale, Mike Tyson, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Michael Strahan (which is another story I'll tell later), and Tony Gonzales to name just a small few. Anyhow, the fights were all cool, but the main event was nuts. Little Manny Pacquiao came out and knocked Hatton on his butt twice in the first round before knocking him cold in the second round. Game over. Good night. We jumped in our seats hurling praise to Manny and jokes and laughs at Hatton and his army of Brits. We all became adopted by the Filipinos as we were like the only 4 white dudes jeering Hatton. This experience was amazing!

The next morning Andrew, Matt, and Dylan headed straight home. I took Keven to Toby Keith's bar. We ate a monster burger, Keven got hit on by the hostess (whom I gave Keven's number too) and made the trip home for ourselves. Keven wanted to speed home without breaking any laws, so he refused to stop. By the time we made it to Salt Lake, he made me promise not to laugh if he pee'd his pants. He made it to my house in time to avoid the embarrassment...Damn! Keven had so much fun, he's going back tomorrow. For me, I count down the days to Boston and to New York City!

Las Vegas 09

For those of you who have followed this blog (all 3 of you), you know that I had a trip to Las Vegas coming up. Well that trip has already come and past. It was a trip that went entirely too fast, not in the sense that I wanted to stay in Sin City, just in the fact that I was not ready to go back to work. But alas, this silly world we live in revolves around the mighty(?) dollar, and in this economy I should just be happy to have a solid job (I'm a manager in a grocery store and we all gotta eat).

Brian, Rachel, Jillian, and myself all jumped into my Scion XD and took off for Vegas late on a Thursday night after we all worked. We left early instead of the planned Friday morning departure to give us more time to play as we always seem to just nap our first day if we leave early. Since this was not the original plan we did not stay at the MGM Grand this night. We stayed in an "upgraded" room at the Stratosphere. If you read my blog in which I review all of the hotels I have stayed in down in Vegas, you know that this is my fall back hotel. Always solid. Well, this "upgraded" room and exactly the same as their standard rooms, except for the bedspread. That was it. Still, it was clean and we were just staying for the one night. We arrived at the hotel around 11pm and for some reason they only had two people working the checkout line and had a line a mile long. I waited in the line while Brian made a new best friend with some drunk guy who kept yelling weird things and telling lame jokes. Brian gave plenty courtesy laughs to the fella. This was the extent of our fun at the Stratosphere.

The next morning we all woke up and took off for breakfast/lunch at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. We always seem to make a stop here as the food is good and the atmosphere is fun. After that we checked into our room at the MGM Grand. The room here was nice. The beds were soft. The hotel layout was nice. Everything about the place was great, except for the drunk gaggle of dumb girls who had rooms down the hall. Every night these drunk girls would come slamming down the hall yelling, crying, laughing, hell they even breathe loudly. It took everything thing in my power to not run out at night and beat them down with my verbal assaults. As I write this right now I am searching for clean words to describe them, instead of the four lettered ones that come to mind. Anyways, Friday night was spent eating our weight in Japanese dumplings and shrimp at the Mirage. After gorging there we went to see the Beatles Love show. I have seen this show before and I love it (no pun). However, when I sat in my seat, I sat in a puddle in which I hope was just spilt soda. Brian thinks it's fat guy under butt sweat. Dear god. The hostess brought me a towel to sit on and I enjoyed the show non the less. Brian however, full of Prim Rib and seafood, found the music calming, the temperature too warm, and the lights dark, and had one expensive nap.

The next couple days were spent relaxing. Gambling, in which I never won anything. Walking the strip. Eating good food, and just having a good time. Speaking of good food, Jill and I had dinner alone one night and at at Enoteca San Marco, by Mario Batali. The food was excellent, I had the Chef's special of the day, which were Pork Ribs in a Blood Orange reduction. Jill had a very good Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza. We shared a yummy cheese appetizer and had an excellent Peanut Butter and Banana gellato. We will defiantly be going back to this place.

Overall this was a very good trip, but I can say that I am a little worn out with Las Vegas. I'm going to take a nice break from this city so the next time I go back it will have some of its allure again. I have spent so much time there in the past ten years, it feels like a second home. Now I just need to figure out where I take my late summer/early fall trip. Do I go to New York? Hawaii? California? Florida? Colorado? Too many places to see, too little money....