My ass… the people that think that should be shot and see if that is the only way to life…

Ok, so here is the 20,000 ft overview of what happened in Vegas.  To sum it up, that town is like a playground for adults… I wouldn’t bring kids there, unless you want them to be exposed to sin early on.  Yes there are things for families to do, but shit… bring them to Disney World, a place meant for that sort of thing.

We got into Vegas around 10:30 or 11:00 Thursday morning.  It actually worked out pretty good, since the majority of the people arrived around the same time.  From the airport, we hopped a shuttle (should have taken a cab) to the hotel.  We stayed at Treasure Island, or as they try to pull off a new image, TI.  Apparently the abbreviation is cooler than the full name.  Anyway, we were able to check into our rooms right away, which sort of surprised us.  The next couple hours were split between sitting in the pool and gambling. 

Later that night, we met up with a friend (Johnny Lee) and went out for dinner.  We had reservations at the VooDoo Café & Lounge at the Rio.  It was an ok dinner, etc, but was good to get all of us together for a meal.  Actually, this is the only picture of the trip that I have, unfortunately.  The view of the strip was nice from the 50^th floor, however.  So we hung out for an extra drink or two at the outside bar on the 51^st floor.  Afterwards, we went to a couple bars in search of where to go for the night.  We ended up going to Rain in the Palms casino.  That place was a blast and I would definitely recommend it.  The room is like a big circle with a circle dance floor in the middle.  There are different levels/floors/balconies around the edge of the club.  They also have a huge ceiling structure above the main dance floor, which among other things, shoots fire.  It was a very cool thing to watch.  So we spent the majority of the night there until we were asked to leave (details omitted) around 3am or so.  From there, we went to a club called Drais in Barbary Coast.  It has a lounge atmosphere and is definitely a hotspot to go after hours.  We got a reserved table and the night seemed to pass by nicely.  By the time I wandered out of there, it was sunny again. 

Friday started a little later and more sporadic… at this point, my sleep habits pretty much turned into random naps.  I slept for a few hours, went to the pool, slept, gambled, etc… I’m pretty sure that food & drinks were involved somewhere in there.  So, the night approached us and we decided to go to the Hard Rock casino and hang out at the circle bar for a little while.  That’s a very cool bar, and if you feel like gambling, it’s within an arms reach.  We chose to go to a club called Ice around 11 or 12… Since we were with so many guys (around 15 or so), we figured that the only way to get into this place was to just buy a table.  So, we got a table (3 bottle minimum @ $250 a bottle) and proceeded to enjoy the night.  The night gets somewhat blurry from here, but I ended up meeting a couple girls from Tampa.  One, Stephanie, was really cool and damn sexy… we pretty much talked (about what?) for the majority of the night and had some drinks and shots together.  The party moved back to Drais again due to another prompt exit (again, details omitted).  I didn’t stay that long (it was more dawn than pure daylight when we left), but still managed to have a good time.

Saturday was much the same as Friday and involved a lot of sitting at the pool, drinking, and gambling… I felt “not so myself” for most of the day, and only managed to each a half of sub for dinner… That night, we went out to Hard Rock again and Johnny tried to get us into the club there.  Apparently there was a Maxim party, though, so even though Johnny knew someone, it was closed doors.  We did end up meeting up with the Tampa girls again, so that was nice.  The girls went to Rain, and well… since we are less than welcome there, I decided to go take a nap.  I ended up waking up around 4:30 or 5 and going out to meet up with everyone.  They were just hanging out at Barbary Coast, in the casino part.  I have to say that my motivation to go out on Saturday was pretty minimal.  Apparently the lack of sleep and the immense drinking took a toll.  I did, however, find out that Stephanie’s last name is Noriega and that she is a sorority girl (TriDelta).  She is definitely a cool girl, and if I get a chance to see her again, that would be great.

So that’s about it… Sunday sucked due to having a flight at 9:00am, but what can ya do…. I have other stories related to this trip, but I suppose some things should stay in Vegas.  Anyway, I’m looking forward to my next Vegas experience, that’s for sure. 

I told my friend Steve that I would help him with anything that I could for Havalah.  One of the little things that he said that annoyed him was the fact that Havalah’s website did not come up #1 on Google.  So I told him that I would write a short post about her in hopes that at a minimum, the Google ranking goes up. 

Steve and Kristen’s beautiful baby, Havalah, has a disease called biliary atresia and is awaiting a liver transplant.  It is basically a lack of bile ducts inside and outside the liver.  More information can be found here.

There is a fundraising effort going on, so if you feel as though you want to help, there is an answer.  Outside of that, if you would like to find out more, please visit the website devoted to Havalah Elizabeth Wotruba Kolb.