
The much hyped Vegas trip has concluded which brings an end to what some of my friends have refereed to as Ericapalooza or the month of Eric. The Vegas trip went very well. There was a little worrying about bringing that many people together and wanting to do different things but everything work out.

We arrived Thursday afternoon, checked into our hotel at Mandalay Bay, then headed to the Mirage to pick up our tickets for Beatles Love. We wandered around the hotel and eventually made our way into the Venetian where we wandered around some more and picked a place to eat at the Grand Lux Café. This was the first of many delicious meals. Unlike my past Vegas personal trips, this was a trip where we ate pretty well instead of eating $1 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds. I had the Crispy Caramel Chicken and Shaking Beef combination plate with rice. It was delicious and I only could eat about half. We went to Beatles Love after dinner. I really did not know what to expect. A bunch of my colleagues had seen it and loved it. I have only been to one Vegas shows in all my trips and it was to see the Blue Man Group. I enjoyed it and had awesome seats but was also glad that the seats were given to me because I do not think they were worth the $150 price tag. All I can say is Beatles Love blew my expectations out of the water. The show was amazing. Well worth the $100 to $150 ticket (we got ours for free). The show was constant action and stimulation. It makes me want to now go and see the other Cirque du Soleil shows. We followed that up with a quick and only stop to my favorite cheap beer place of Casino Royale. We met up with another couple there then went to Freemont Street to meet the rest of the group. In all honesty, I was not impressed with Freemont St. It was cool seeing all the old casinos but its allure wore off in about 5 minutes. I was expecting more from the overhead screen. With that said, I would recommend it to anyone who has not seen it but I wouldn’t make a night out of it.

Friday was the big day with all the events. I had a huge omelet at Raffles Café in the morning. The $25 restaurant.com deal paid off and as our meal for two was still $20’s after the $25 coupon. We then hit up the cabana that we rented for the day. We had a lot of choices amongst the 5+ pools and I think we made the best choice. The size and location was perfect. It was well worth what we paid for it. It had a tv in it (which allowed us to watch the Cards lose to the Cubs), a safe, and frig along with chairs and a table. Another perk (which we did not realize till the next day) was that we had multiple waitress/waiters for us which made it easy to get drinks. The drinks were expensive but worth it. We ordered a lot of fruity drinks, food, and buckets and I was dreading the bill. I was pleasantly surprised because the bill was only half what I was expecting. We really lucked out because I know there were numerous buckets and other items missing. After the pool action was the planned group bday dinner at Rum Jungle. This was my pick and I read some pretty awesome reviews and the prices were good. All the guys got the Rodizio. It is basically all you can eat meat and sides. Meetza, as my friends call it, included beef sirloin, turkey breasts, pork, chicken, chorizo, lamb, and beef tri-tip. It was delicious. Probably the best meal I have ever eaten. All the meats had delicious rubs and seasonings. We just kept eating and eating. For those not familiar with Brazilian, they basically walked around the restraint cutting off chucks of the meat at your table off a slab skewered with a sword….pretty freaking cool. The only bad part was the bill. The waitress said that she could split it but obviously couldn’t. It took her over an hour just to bring back the split bill and took another hour plus to pay after I specifically told her we were missing items but she said we were okay then came back saying we were short. Needless to say I paid for 3 meals, filed a credit card dispute, and finally had them take one charge off after three calls. At least we got a free round of drinks and a good story. We stayed there once the club opened but the place was pretty empty and did not have the top dance floor open. We walked over to one of the bars in the casino that had a big dance floor. It was playing some good songs but we left after 15 minutes because we were exhausted.

On Saturday we walked around the strip. It was pretty exhausting. It was hot but I never did sweat. Someone told me that is because it evaporates before you realize it. On the way back, we realized that the new City Center has a free tram from Bellagio to Monte Carlo then we hopped the free tram from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay so we had an easy way back. We chilled at a different pool off the beating path when we got back which was relaxing. We followed that up with a delicious hamburger at Red, White, and Blue. Josh got the biggest hamburger I had ever seen. Saturday was also our big clubbing night where we were meeting the bachelorette party of my other friends. The chose Haze which is a new club in Aria. We got there super early so we did not have to wait in line (long). We waited about an hour since the place wasn’t even open when we got there at 10:15PM. The place was okay but it definitely was not up to par with other big Vegas clubs. Also, paying $7 for a small glass of water or soda was ridiculous.

Sunday was our departure day. I had another delicious omelet in the The Cafe in THEHotel. We paid another $25 after $25 off from the restaurant.com deal. Everyone else had an early flight where we had the latest flight so we wandered around to the Luxor and also checked out the aquarium in our hotel. It was pretty neat and larger than I expected but the $20 price tag is pretty steep. Overall it was an excellent birthday and trip.
