What happens in Vegas... gets told on the blog.
My flight over to Vegas on Sunday was terrible, mostly because I wasn't feeling well from all of those birthday shots of tequila/whisky/Jager on Saturday night. The kitchen sink of alcohol in my stomach combined with heavy turbulence courtesy of Southwest Airlines was a formula for discomfort.
I was feeling much better by the time I checked in at the Venetian, and ate a great roast chicken dinner at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris hotel. After dinner, we got to work and didn't finish until 2 a.m. Then, of course, we had to cut loose and went out to the bars at Caesars until 4 a.m.
Monday was the "busy" day. We spent the entire day preparing for a Happy Hour event we were hosting at Caesars on Tuesday. We held a team meeting at our venue, the Venus Pool, which is a "Euro bathing pool." Thus, as I noted in a previous post, all the women there were topless, save the attendees of our meeting. We confirmed that we were exclusively renting the pool for the entire following day, so we would be clear of any "distractions" at the event.
We ate dinner Monday night at Mario Batali's Enoceta San Marco. My braised pork shoulder was The Bomb. (Sorry Anna, no food pictures.) Because Tuesday was the big event day, we headed in early to catch up on sleep.
We started early again on Tuesday. The event was fantastic. Everyone, including Microsoft executives, press and analysts had a great time, which means that we did our job. I was more than a little perturbed that someone stole my camera case while I was shooting photos at the event, so now I'm 2 for 2 in 2008 for getting robbed on a trip. Fortunately, I only lost the case, a battery charger and some memory cards.
We celebrated the successful Happy Hour with a large dinner at Mesa Grill at Caesars. Following the dinner we headed out to Pure at Caesars where we had outdoor bottle service with a security guard and enjoyed a view overlooking the Strip. (Attn: Old people. Bottle service refers to having a VIP-esque table where there is a minimum order of bottles of liquor required. It's posh.) I arrived back at the hotel 3:30 a.m.-ish.
Sadly, I had to check out of the Venetian Wednesday morning and hop on my crappy Southwest flight arriving back in Seattle at 2:30 p.m., just in time to get home, clean up and catch a Sonics game with Wesley, Katrine and Andy.
Whew.