For my belated 40th birthday present to myself, I decided to go to Las Vegas with my friend Becky who I have known for almost 40 years. We decided on this trip one day at lunch when we were talking about our upcoming 40th birthdays in March. She is one of those friends that has been with me through thick and thin. Meantime acquiring WAY too many funny stories along the way.
By the time our schedules worked out, it was the end of April that we took our trip. We decided to drive, cause Vegas is kind of close and road trips are always fun. We also got a cool hotel room at the Trump tower and had tentative plans to see "The Killers" at the Hard Rock. So we knew we were in for an interesting weekend for sure.
When we arrived in Vegas, three Monsters Energy drinks later, we headed for the "Coke Bottle" by the MGM grand to check out the discount show tickets for the day. We were trying to decide what show to see that evening. Along for the ride, we had two of Becky's friends join us for the weekend. So trying to get 4 opinions of what we wanted to do that evening was a little difficult. As we were discussing our options, I called a friend who is a Ticket Agent and he told me that he can get us "The Cure" VIP tickets at the Palms. Show starts at 8 pm. Ummm..I'm in. I looked at Becky and could tell she wanted to go too. But, the others wanted to relax at the hotel and see something low key that night. I relented because I knew we were going to see The Killers the next night.
We headed for the hotel and relaxed until seeing the "V" show at 9pm that evening. It turned out to be a pretty entertaining show and we ate dinner afterwards. We walked around the strip for awhile and then headed to the hotel for the night. Becky and I stayed up late laughing and enjoying a few nights away from the kids.
The next day we slept in and checked in with the friends. One was heading to the spa while the other was sick and going to spend the day in bed. Yikes. Becky and I headed out to the "Coke Bottle" again to check on tickets. On the way there, I talked with the Ticket Agent friend again to see about "The Killers" tickets. He told me they were last night and we missed them. What?? I swear in my head they were on Saturday night. To add to my pain, I passed on the Cure?? Oh the Agony. I was determined to see a concert that night so we headed to the Hard Rock to see who was playing. Unfortunately, not anyone remotely familiar. In fact I think we would be scared for our safety if we actually went to the concert. The workers at the ticket place told us that this group mostly screamed instead of actually sang. So. Pass.
We finally settled on seeing UB40 at Mandalay Bay, the show starts at 9 pm. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I could live. We headed back to the hotel to spend the afternoon at the pool. Funny, we both have a pool and could lay out any day of the week. But while at the Trump hotel, we need to hang at the pool. After a relaxing afternoon we got ready to head out for dinner and make our way down the strip to the Mandalay Bay. We left our hotel at 5 pm and made it to the Concert by 8:30 pm. Make sure when you are walking the length of the strip that you are wearing sensible shoes. One of the girls with us ended up walking in bare feet!!
The concert started and we were sitting on the beach outside listening to the music and Becky looks over at me and says, "UB40, We Be 40..haha" Perfect Becky, you just came up with the title to my Blog post. Thanks. The concert lasted for about 1 hour and 1/2. The two other friends left before the concert ended to go back to the hotel. Becky and I opted to stay and enjoy it. After the concert we ate at the House of Blues at 12:30 pm. We wandered around the rest of the night/morning trying to find a club that wasn't in existence any more and also tried our luck at the slots. We put a nickel in one of the slots and it only took Game Cards not real money! Fail.
We easily decided to take a Taxi home and laughed at our ineptness at partying in Vegas. We stayed up till 3 re-telling stories that we have told a million times and learned some new ones.
The next morning our friends had breakfast in the hotel, while we slept in. When we met up again, they told us we missed seeing "The Donald" at breakfast. Oh well, I needed my beauty sleep. After goofing around a little bit more, we headed back to AZ, but not without incident. It took us an hour to get through the Hoover Dam. As we were almost through, we got pulled over by Homeland Security to check our car. Obviously, we fit the profile.
I handed my camera to Becky and told her to take a picture of me with the Officer..my Dad would get a kick out of it. I have had a long history of getting pulled over and my Dad has not been amused. As I was outside talking with the Officer, the next thing I know, Becky was asking if he would mind if he posed for a picture with me. What?? I meant for her to take a picture out the window! Anyway, the officer seemed amused and smiled for the camera.
The next thing I knew another officer came up and grabbed the camera and said, "you want to see something funny? I'll show you something funny!" I thought he was going to confiscate our camera..or worse. I froze for a second and he handed me the camera and said, "Here, take a picture!" He made Becky put her hands against the car while he pretended to frisk her. Okay. I took the picture hoping they wouldn't pull a gun on us. We quickly got back into the car, since we just added an extra 5 minutes to the line of cars creeping through the canyon while we had our Kodak moment.
Well, we finally made it home Sunday evening. We came home a little tired, with some blisters on our feet, a sunburn on our noses, regretting not taking the Cure tickets, 2 photo radar tickets to pay (my Dad has a good reason to not be amused) and pictures with Homeland Security. So...yep, our weekend turned out to be interesting. But would do it again next weekend. Anyone??
The Trump Hotel
The Venitian
Paris
Homeland Security and Me
Becky and Homeland Security :)
