from our trip to Vegas, Dec 7-10, but the Homeowner's Assoc. Party at the clubhouse, last night, didn't help. Trip started out with a plane load of cowboys, and I asked one sitting close what was going on and he couldn't believe I didn't know there was a Nat'l Finals Rodeo out there. He looked at me kinda weird when I asked if it was too late to enter the 'Bulldogging' event, cuz I always thought that looked real easy. Was really interesting as the town was FULL of cowboys and cowgirls from one end to another. Cowboys DO have fun. Was kinda worried cuz our room at Bally's was so cheap, but had a friendly desk clerk and got a room on the 21st floor overlooking the strip and the fountains of Bellagio. Spent most our time at Paris, which connects to Bally's with an amazing walkway that is set up like a Parisian neighborhood. Some great restaurants along the way as well as live music (My fav was the dueling pianos/sing-along). My buddy Tay, (or VegasTolly) chauffered us around and was the perfect host, providing free show tickets to 'Yesterday', an amazing Beatles tribute band, and a comedy show at the Tropicana. He also included a trip 'downtown' where we saw the new 'Golden Nugget', which was really awesome and got the famous shrimp cocktails. Along the way, we stopped at the 'Venetian', which is my new favorite hotel/casino, and visited the Las Vegas Pawn Shop, which is run by 3 generations of 'characters', plus Chumley, and is featured on the reality TV show, 'Pawnstars'. A nice side effect of our time with Tay was that we never lost at a table we played with him. Kinda unusual for Vegas. One afternoon we walked up the strip to the new 'City Center' project which is totally off the chart, even for Vegas. A ten billion dollar project that seems like it would have cost MUCH more. Lost $ at the first couple of tables we played, then played even or ahead for the next 3 days and had a fantastic finish at a table whose dealer busted more than I'd ever seen in all my years in Vegas. Paid for all our expenses as the dealer got A LOT of 22's. Along the way, had the best prime rib, as well as the best French Onion Soup I'd ever had. Only bad part was flying the $59 flights on Southwestern, when Carol and I couldn't sit together, BUT, met a frequent flyer who had piles of Free Drink coupons he gave me, so it wasn't ALL bad. Great trip, that went WAY too fast.
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