This past weekend, we made a quick trip up to Vegas for the opening weekend of March Madness. And while the tourney didn’t seem like it lived up to the normal level of madness in the first two rounds, being in Vegas made up for it. As it was my first real trip up there, I got the guided tour from the Vegas veterans and checked out all the local hot spots… at least most of them. We stayed at the MGM Grand, which was a pretty sweet place…
While we were there, we got to walk all around the Strip… checking out New York, New York, The Bellagio, The Venitian, and The Monte Carlo – which had a great little Brew Pub where we watched a lot of basketball on their 3 large projection screens and countless plasmas hug all over the place… below, you can see two of the larger screens…
While I could’ve definitely done without the smokers that seemed to be everywhere, especially in the casinos that you have to walk through to get to just about anywhere, it was a good time… at least they couldn’t smoke in the restaurants. I do have to say that it really made me miss Austin and the smoking bans just about everywhere, but it was a really fun experience.
We ate a lot, and it wasn’t cheap, especially at Emeril’s restaurant… but it was some good food. We rode the monorail, watched more games in Barry Manilow’s converted performance theater in the Hilton that they turned into a March Madness HQ… and even hit up Jay-Z’s 40-40 club to catch a few games on the true 16 foot by 9 foot HD screen with our feet propped up as we sat in couches on tiers like theater seats…
And then on our last night there, we went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel, and took in the Bellagio water show from 460 feet above the strip… it was an amazing view…
All in all, it was a good time… and while my bracket is the worst it has been in years, I didn’t really care that much because watching the games in Vegas with the guys was worth it.
