Viva Las Vegas

The final stage of this road trip....a flight from YYC to LAS (Calgary to Las Vegas).  In the cab between the airport and the hotel, the cab driver told us that the convention in town this week was the Hacker Convention.  "18,000+ registered, and let me tell you, you can pick those guys out a mile away, with the little backpacks and their faces glued to screens."  Siobhan and I had a little laugh, leave it to us to pick "nerd week" of all weeks.  After we checked in, we headed go the little lobby bar, because the free wifi at the hotel was only available in the restaurants and bars.  I don't want to say I go to Vegas a lot (but it is probably exceeds the amount of times I have been a bridesmaid, which is remarkable for any event go do, and interestingly, the two events have never happened at the same time.  I will come out of bridesmaid retirement for a Vegas wedding one day...), but when we sat down at the lobby bar I recognized the bartender.  He did not recognize me though, and to Siobhan's delight, when I flicked open my beloved Surface Pro to let everyone know we had arrived, the bartender said "Are you here for the convention?"  "You're a NERD!" Siobhan squealed!  I did not hear the end of it for the rest of the weekend.

 

Well, Siobhan and I never did make it out of that lobby bar that day.  Eventually "my Scots," Eileen, Lizzie, and George (Lizzie is more of an honorary Scot, since she moved from England but has some Scottish ancestry, but I lump her in there anyway) arrived at the lobby bar.  They had been out touring Vegas all day, and already had some interesting adventures and logging some time at places like the Twisted Kilt....and had a drink on the go on the other side of the lobby, so just popped in for hugs while we waited for...The Dev.  When "The Dev" arrived, he had been in transit for 34 hours from Qatar, so Siobhan and I expected an early night.  However, in true form of the legend that is Dev, something like surviving 34 hours in airports and planes is cause for celebration, and the long island iced teas started rolling.  Our bartender was about to experience the legend of Dev, and the evening was not going to be an early one after all.  Somewhere along the lines, John from Bermuda popped in, who was in Vegas on vacation with family, and a little while later Davey just rocked up, which was quite the surprise since he left Bermuda at the end of July and we weren't expecting him to pop up in Vegas!

 

At some point, Dev started talking to another Australian lad, who was indeed in town for the Hacker Convention.  In the best of Long Island Iced Tea laced intentions, Dev was pulling out all the stops to "be my wingman" and set me up with this Australian Hacker lad.  It was not going to happen. But he was a nice enough lad, and travelling on his own, so we told him the group meets every night at the lobby bar and he is welcome to join.  Still delighted by this hacker convention and nerd line of conversation, Siobhan was delighted to say "I can't believe it you pulled on the first night in Vegas, and a nerd!"  Again, he wasn't really a nerd, just a hacker, but there is no point arguing terminology at 3 or 4am, so I just said "Hey, that's Dev's nerd, thank you very much."  Despite this being an entire 'Act of Dev,' this is yet another thing I will never live down.  There is still lively debate on whether he belongs to Dev or me.

 

Friday morning...er early afternoon...dawned and began with a little shopping.  For once we were not fashion mission orientated, but utilitarian mission orientated.  The strip is not designed for utilitarian shopping, for future reference.  Early in afternoon, Barb and Heather arrived from Edmonton, and we had time to catch up before meeting the group in the lobby bar and heading to the show of our choosing.  Our hacker friend was waiting, and so our group expanded by one.  The taxi driver's were just fascinated with us, because for once they couldn't figure out where the group was from, with a mix of English, Irish, Scottish, Australian, and Canadian accents in the group...and it was even more confusing when we said we were mostly from Bermuda, except for "that guy we just found yesterday," which became the running joke for our hacker friend.  I think he quite enjoyed the humour, which is good, because we used that over and over on him.

 

The show we agreed on was....

 

 

 

...Rock of Ages, and we all loved it.  Loads of 80's and 90's music, the quality of the show was excellent....and they sang Journey "Don't Stop Believing," which is sort of the requisite for any good weekend with us anyway.

 

Pre-show

After the show, those of us still up for an outing made a brief pitstop at the Rock of Ages bar, where we were streamed live (a little too much like my last night at the Hog Penny), so we headed to a favourite Vegas haunt for all of us....Nine Fine Irishmen at New York New York.  This next photo was taken compliments of our hacker, minus solid attempts and hilarity of Shibby and the selfie stick.





 

 

Saturday it was necessary to put in some pool time, with the evening plan being to go to Freemont Street, just to go there, and also because Seether was playing a live free outdoor concert there...awesomesauce!!!  We had to take 2 cabs, and even with the split, we ended up with 6 and so it was necessary to rent a stretch SUV and travel in style.  Here are a few photos from the drive.

 

 



This ride is an excellent investment.  $60 is a flat rate fee, takes up to 8 or 9 people, and he toured us around for over and hour before dropping us at Freemont Street.  He also suggested a stop at a liquor board first so we could enjoy the cruise.  This is definitely the way to travel in Vegas.  Once we got to Freemont Street, we found a streetside pub and got a drink so we could get a couple of chairs, and settled in to enjoy the concert.

At one point I went into the Golden Nugget just for the point of it and put $5 in a slot machine.  This is what it looks like when you win $50!

Dev kept putting his head in the wrong spot for Heather's pictures, and after hearing about it a few times, he just decided he might as well do it on purpose.

Probably the tipping point of the evening was when Dev spotted this 64 ounce beer glass that was oddly reminiscent of the leg lamp in "A Christmas Story."  After that, well....there is a code about Vegas and I will plead that.

At some point a few of those left standing made it to this wheel, the new observation point in Vegas.  They include a few drinks in the ride, which we probably didn't need at this point, but Shibby and I were happy to have completed the original plan, even if it took til 2am or so.