Vegas Baby...U2 part 1

What a whirl wind I have been on. Still feeling like I am spinning a bit, but it has been a fabulous journey. I was bummed that my eggs were still little and we weren't able to do IUI before our Vegas trip but it was probably for the better as we were up late, drank, ate like vulchers and had a great time. We struggled a bit getting from the airport in Vegas to the hotel. It took almost an hour to get our rental car and then another hour to get down the strip and to our hotel, The Venetian. I started getting really ancy and excited. The people in front of us at the Avis rental desk were going to the show and when we were in the car the radio stations were all talking about the show.

I was really getting frustrated by time we checked into the hotel as I wanted to have ample time to relax and prepare for my boys. There was no time to prepare. We literally checked in, changed clothes and inhaled a sandwich at the hotel. Panic started to set in as we were leaving The Venetian as the AARP conference was just getting out. All I could see was a line a mile long to exit the hotel garage. My mind was pushed back to work in Seattle where I am always trapped behind some "blue haired" lady who drives 2mph in our garage. Probably the smartest thing I did on this trip was rent a car for the night to take us to the UNLV stadium. I started realizing that it was about 15 miles outside of Las Vegas and we might have a problem with getting a cab after the show. I did hear that it took some people 2 hours and $200 to get back (bad karma on the taxi drivers).

We started towards the stadium and struggled with the directions. I love the amazing race so I quickly switched into the mode of stranded tourist looking for my next clue box. I noticed all of the town cars and limos heading in one direction, so we followed and lucked out. We arrived about 15 minutes before the Black Eyed Peas started. The weather was about 70 degrees, no clouds in the sky and it felt magical. The stage, the sound, the vibe, it was honestly perfect. We had general admission tickets and did our best to get as close as we could. My friend Lucy and her sisters stood in line at 10am to get into the inner circle of the stage. Her photos are amazing and fill me with jealousy. My husband loves me, but he doesn't love me enough to stand in line for 8 hours just to get a wrist band and wait another 4 hours for U2 to go on.
Do I look excited?


When the Black Eyed Peas played I was sort of surprised by my knowledge of their tunes. Like, I knew the lyrics, almost all of them. I know they are popular, but this aging brain of mine is warped a bit by the music "the kids" listen to. They were seriously fun and Kent and I probably looked at each other for the next two weeks and sang Boom Boom Pow, gotta get that boom boom boom any chance we could. As they played their last song the crowd started getting crazy. Piling in and driving themselves towards the stage. My 5'2" stature proved to not be the winning height as I barely could see anything except the guys neck in front of me.

Hard to tell, but we were pretty close. Can you see the little image of Bono?
My boys would not disappoint though as their stage had the biggest screen that was 360 degrees and I was able to see everything. When the band came on it was a weird feeling, sort of like, am I here, is this really happening. I was jumping up and down and felt free for the first time in a long time. I've been emotionally bogged down for awhile with weight gain and no pregnancy. This U2 show sort of jump started me back into my old self.

The show was amazing. Like honestly, I probably cried 5x. I am an emotional wreck from the clomid and you tack on my favorite band since 1987 (holy shit I am getting old) and there is bound to be some emotions. I loved how my husband endured my stress about getting the tickets, flying to Las Vegas and putting up with 40,000 other super fans. The show could not have been better. I knew within two guitar strums by The Edge what the next song was and the superfan in front of me would high five me with delight. The only downer was feeling like I was going to be crushed at any point and the fact that you couldn't leave to get something to drink or use the bathroom. Oh, unless you have a penis as the boys in front of me proceeded to pee into water bottles during the show. I thought they were smoking marijuana (I crack myself up), as they were acting so shady and covering one another, but nope, they were urinating. Nothing like bottles of piss around your legs to put a nervous damper on the evening. What if in one of my fits of fandom I jumped on the bottle and urine was sent flying everywhere? Lucky for us, that didn't happen.
See the bottle that looks like Mt. Dew...that's NOT Mt. Dew!






After the show we left and had a very very late dinner. We gambled a bit and went to bed. Our suite was fabulous and a king sized bed awaited us, hallelujah. Oh, I can not wait to move so that we may get the luxurious king sized bed we are so craving. The following day we woke up super late and went to find something to eat at 1:00pm. We were both starving and sort of out of it. We walked around the Venetian and pretended like we were still in Italy. Does this look like the Grand Canale (not really) but we did stumble upon Mario Battali's restaurant B & B Ristorante.


Oh it was so yummy. Here is a picture of our starter cheese course.




I thought I had died and gone to heaven...truffled honey and the best blue cheese I've ever had. Brandy marinated cherries and goat cheese, I'm hungry just thinking about it. Once we finished eating we walked around to some of the other hotels and then sat outside at Mandalay Bay and had over priced cocktails. I was trying to look trendy but really, a pony tail doesn't get you far.


I was fortunate enough to hook up with best friend from childhood, Lucy. She came to the Venetian to chat with us for about 45 minutes and it was great to catch up. Lucy and I use to sit in my basement in Helena MT and blast U2 and Bon Jovi. We were in the 6th grade and preparing ourselves for the next jaunt= Junior High. We would make coffee cake, drink diet Pepsi from a bottle, sun tan and rock out to my dads incredible sound system. The speakers were those super old (but not then) giant beasts that were like 4 feet tall. The bass would shake the house and stress out my dog. It was awesome. Seeing Lucy and her sisters just walked me down memory lane. I didn't have my camera so I am snatching one from her blog. Thanks Loose!


After we chatted with Lucy we headed over to Caesar's Palace to see Bette Midler. Again, how awesome is my husband to sit in a venue with Bette's fans...as she calls them, the Gay's, the Jews and the old hippies. The show was hilarious. I loved how many times she made fun of Celine Dion and Cher and the rest of the city. She gets it, she is a total performer and was worth every cent. We stayed at Ceasars to eat at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. My husband is not a dare devil with food but I felt like he should have earned a gold star for ordering the duck taco! Woo hoo to Kent, the man who only eats 4 vegetables. After our late night dinner we left the show and sort of walked around to the various casinos. Vegas is so deceiving and gigantic. You think something is a block away, but it is like a mile. My dogs were barking constantly so we returned to our hotel and chilled out there.

Sunday morning I woke up before Kent and read a little. Then I watched some TV and I finally pitched a fit as I wanted to get up for our breakfast at Bouchon. We discovered Bouchon in Yountville on our mini-moon and haven't forgot it. We showered and got dressed and were thrilled to sit outside. I should have taken photos, but I didn't.


We started with their pastry basket as they honestly have the most amazing pastry chefs. What arrived was not a basket, it was an honest to god platter and we devoured it. I had a croque madame and Kent had waffles with bananas and pecans. OH..we were stuffed but happy. We ventured to the pool but there was no way I was going to get into a swim suit. So we walked to other hotels and lost more money. I am lucky in love, but by no means am I lucky with gambling. On one incident I put my money voucher in the $1.00 machine, hit my bet and watched myself lose $40.00 in 3 seconds. I am no high roller, I like my penny machines where I bid high (a whopping 2 dollars). I seriously screamed when I saw $40.00 leave my credits and felt defeated. I laugh about it now as the game I played was called Keeping Up With The Joneses. Well apparently that wasn't going to happen in Vegas. The rest of the day we hung out and then met Kent's cousin and her family for dinner. We had a nice time and it was good to meet some of Kent's family, as he has so little. Plus their son cracked me up. He was like this very mature 12 year old, like almost too mature. Nothing like a 12 year old kid looking at you and saying things like, "this is the best chicken Parmesan I have ever had" or his quizzing on "what types of shows have you seen while you are in town?" I honestly thought he might pull out a pipe at one point and start smoking and order a scotch on the rocks.


Monday we found ourselves packing and returning to dreary wet Seattle. Vegas is this really weird place. Like I'm not quite wealthy enough, not skinny enough but I'm definitely not on the trashier end either. I think it is what you make of it. We enjoyed the chill out time we had together, seeing my friend and my boys. It was worth every stupid penny I lost! Which by the way we did win some of our lost money back at the airport because how can you sit and watch CNN when Wheel of Fortune is beckoning your call.