Family Weekend

Alright! It's time for me to finally stop procrastinating and write about what a wonderful freakin' weekend Pam and I had when some family came into town. Why has it taken me so long to write it? Well, once I blog about it, that means it was over, officially. It was certainly hard to let go of the great times we had a week ago (over a week ago, yikes, I'm really late on this).

Mom, Dad, Mom-Mom and Aunt Dee Dee arrived Wednesday night, around ten o'clock. Which, if you think about it, is really late according to their internal clocks, which were still set to Eastern Standard Time. But they rallied just enough to soak in some of the Las Vegas culture before bedtime.

Pam had work until one at The 'Rise, so I walked over to the Mirage and met them. A sight for sore eyes, that bunch. It was such a relief to see some familiar faces, and to have company! I can get a little stir crazy, spending so much time by myself, so this was to be a weekend to fix that.

They checked in, and we caught up over the unpacking of the bags. Thankfully, some soft pretzels and wine got through that strict airport security. Nothing says Philadelphia like soft pretzels, and it was a nice taste of home. The five of us got a late night meal at the Mirage's BLT burger (where the sandwiches were tasty, and the "house-brewed BLT beer" was just Pabst Blue Ribbon, according to our waiter), and then decided to take a quick jaunt down the strip, just to see the sights, as sort of a precursor to the weekend.

They made it until approximately the same time that Aunt Dee Dee would be normally waking up for work, before calling it a night. What troopers!

Thursday morning, being on different sleep schedules, Pam and I arrived at the Mirage swimming pool a little later than the rest of the gang. Holy moley, what a nice pool they have over there! Especially compared to the Candlewood's rectangle filled with tepid water, this place was gorgeous. Palm trees, lounge chairs, waterfalls, poolside bar, it was the perfect place to hang out during a warm Nevada spring day. The slushie mixed drinks didn't hurt either. It's always five o'clock here.

Only our morning was spent poolside, as there is too much to see and do to be wasting it away getting tipsy lounging under the waterfall. So after one excruciatingly long but necessary bus ride (seriously, the double decker bus that travels up and down the Strip, the "Double Deuce," may just be the slowest ride you'll ever take in your life - double points if you're surrounding by very loud, very drunk people!), we ended up at our favorite place in Vegas, Fremont Street Experience.

First order of business was the zip-line. Pam and I joined my parents as we zipped across the whole of Fremont (pictures forthcoming). It being my second time, I can thus confirm that the way you are strapped in, it is infinitely uncomfortable for men of my height each and every time. But I guess you forget how much your crotch hurts when you're flying high in the air like that, because it was still awesome.

Starving, we had dinner at... ah crap, what was the name of that place? The fish place right there on the corner. Ummm... let me go look it up on Google Maps... Aha! Mickie Finz Fish House! That's right. I forgot the name, but not the food. Oh boy, their fish sandwiches are mighty fine. I could tell that everyone wanted to get the 64 oz. fishbowl martini, but we wanted to save some room for the rest of the night.

And what better place to go when you have a little room in your stomach than the Heart Attack Grill? No, we still didn't get any burgers, but the price was right for 24oz. Hamm's for three of us. My mom got one of their fruit shakes that probably got her a little bit more tipsy than she planned on. And none of us, unfortunately, manned up and ordered malt liquor. Next time!

They were also filming while we were there, and by the looks of it, it was for some kind of Telemundo equivalent of "Man vs. Food." (Pam contests it was the Telemundo version of "Regis and Kelly.") Telemundo is right next door, after all. We see the Quadruple Bypass Burger be delivered, marvel at the monstrosity for a moment, and the next moment we turn around and the dude is finished! Turns out he didn't even eat it. It was all fake. Telemundo is a sham. It all looked real to me!

(Side note: Just one day after we were there, apparently a lady had a "medical episode" that was, let's be honest, probably a heart attack. I can't imagine what everyone's reaction was. How can you have sympathy for someone that gets a heart attack at the Heart Attack Grill. Should you expect to NOT have medical issues, honestly?)

The rest of our Experience was the opposite of malt liquor and heart attacks, which means it was pretty darn swell. Aunt Dee Dee met Gene Simmons, Mom-Mom took pictures of old men in diapers, I bought a balloon hat, lost $25 by betting red instead of black, and we all had a bunch of those faithful $2 Coronas. The light and music show above us on the Fremont 1500-foot screen was supposed to be Don McLean's "American Pie," but for some stinkin' reason it ended up being Jon Bon Jovi. It was such a good night, however, that not even Bon Jovi could ruin it.

The bus ride home was long.

Friday was our travel day. The folks rented a mini van for the day, and we all schlepped off to the Hoover Dam. Though Pam and I had been there before, we took a tour this time, checking out the generators below the concrete of the dam, and bearing witness to its plumbing majesty.

A temporary plan for the day included a trip to Lake Mead, but it just wasn't in the cards, and that was totally okay with me. I'd probably rather go back to the Mirage's pool instead of jumping in a lake. Instead of Mead, we walked main street in Boulder City, and drank that wonderful elixir of the Boulder Dam Brewery. My favorite beer ever was no longer available (and will never be again, according to a worker we talked to the other day), so instead of the Dam Brewtal Ale, we settled with lesser, but still good, brew.

Our time back in Vegas began with a nap. Cut me some slack, I'm not used to waking up at 7 o'clock! But soon enough, we were again fighting the sun on the walk to the Mirage. The Flyers were on their way to losing Game 5 at that point, so we joined my Dad at the sports book and watched that for a while. After the game, everyone was accounted for, so we walked down to the Bellagio Water Show and prayed that it wasn't "Time to Say Goodbye" yet again. Give it a break, Bocelli.

After some pizza at our usual, unnamed pizza place underneath a McDonald's (wait, does the pizza place have a name? I have no idea. But I like their pizza), we hung out at the Mirage some more, doing what the kids call "pregaming" before the show we were seeing that night.

Kevin James and Ray Romano were on the bill. I think their show title was called "Paul Blart and the Woolly Mammoth From Ice Age Make 100,000 Jokes About Sex While You Sit Next to Your Parents," or something like that. I did laugh a lot though, I'll admit, despite the fact that, yes indeed, that was Paul Blart Mall Cop that was making the jokes. Great show!

The wine we drank didn't really sit that well in my stomach - my stomach is weak - so we called it a night after that. Wait, weak stomach, what am I talking about? We went to Terrible's the next day for their infamous $10 Champagne Brunch, and that is certainly not for the weak of stomach. Mimosas and bacon do a body good, ya know.

Next up on the itinerary was what Aunt Dee Dee was looking forward to the most, the Kiss Rock 'N' Roll Mini Golf, where the putters rock and roll all night and party every day. Each putting green was dressed up like a psycho circus, and when you got a hole-in-one you were encouraged to shout it out loud. I won't say who won, but for five of our golfing sixsome, tears are falling, including Beth... uh, I mean, Mom. And for yours truly, it was rocket ride to that low score. As for Pam, her score proved her to be a hard luck woman on the green. You wanted the best, and you got the best, for when I grab that golf club, I'm a killer, and when it comes to hole in ones, I lick it up. Better hide your heart forever if you want to play against me. And... uh.... Shandi.

So yea, that was a good time playing mini golf with the family. The only thing that would've made it better was if Mini Kiss had made an appearance. Maybe next time.

With the mimosas still rolling around in our stomachs, and defeat hanging over the heads of everyone who didn't win the mini golfing, we took it easy in the early evening. But around 6:30, Pam and I made our now-familiar walk up Flamingo Road and met the gang at Batista's Hole in the Wall, an old-school Italian restaurant that did not disappoint. The table was adorned with garlic bread and on-the-house bottles of wine, and each meal, in typical Italian fashion, was HUGE. It was such a pleasure to enjoy this meal with family, as we stuffed ourselves with food and toasted to an excellent weekend with the folks we love.

After our post-dinner cappuccinos (surprisingly delicious), our destination was Treasure Island to check out their pirate show. It was... not good. Embarrassing. Kinda crowded. I suppose it was worth seeing it just to say we saw it, so maybe if you know someone else that saw it, you can both laugh and roll your eyes. Oh well. A good consolation came in the form of $1 Natty Light cans being sold right outside the bar in TI. ONE DOLLAR NATURAL LIGHTS. Tasted just like college.

The six of us went to the Mirage's free Stripside show afterward, the volcano out front erupting, cleansed the palette of the dirty taste of that pirate show. Fire explosions make for a visceral experience.

And after that, and a few more drinks and a few more hours of just enjoying our company, the weekend was over too soon.

Mom, Dad, Mom-Mom and Dee Dee were all wonderful company indeed. We really enjoyed having them out west with us, and it was sad to see them go, but gosh darn, what a great, great weekend. Pam and I hope they had just as good a time as we did.

Look for pictures from the weekend soon.

Tupac

Hey, did you know Tupac was shot and killed right by our hotel?

It happened right on the corner of Flamingo and Koval, which is like three blocks from where we are staying at Flamingo and Paradise.

They were stopped at a red light at that intersection, according to Wikipedia, at 11:10, when Tupac started yelling at some girls to come meet him at a club. At 11:15, he was gunned down at that same intersection. Yes, they were at the red light for five minutes. The red lights are seriously that long out here.

It was front of the Maxim Hotel, which doesn't exist anymore. This is what the intersection looks like:

(click to enlarge)

So when you come to visit, let's drink some Colt 45 at that corner and raise a toast. Then perhaps we can go see Tupac in concert.

-5°C

Mostly quiet here on the western front, unless I'm forgetting something. Jeez, why is it getting harder and harder to remember what we've done in the past few days?

In the past few days, we've done such exciting things as: See a movie! Eat Jack in the Box! Both work our respective jobs! Actually, that's probably the main reason we have seen much action recently. We've both been working a lot. Hey, big pay checks, and why not?

We did do one thing that was spectacularly cool though, both figuratively and literally, last Sunday. For our friend's birthday, we walked to Mandalay Bay (two months in and I'm still loving this lack of open container law), and met up at an Irish Bar. Next door was the real treat though.

It was called Ice Bar. Basically, we were drinking in a big freezer. For a cover charge, you got to rent a big parka and gloves, got some free drinks, and chilled in this freezer, where everything is made of ice, and it stays at a constant -5 degrees Celcius. Yup, even the glasses that we drank out of were made of ice. This, all in the name of trying something new, and it was totally worth it. What a neat little experience.

Here's some pics that I've decided to steal from Facebook:

Neat-o, right?

Anyways, that's about it that's worth writing about in the past few days.

For tomorrow: we finally get some company! My parents and Mom-Mom and Aunt DeeDee are headed out and scheduled to arrive around 9pm PST. We're hurting for company and definitely looking forward to a great weekend.

So until next week, probably, I say, goodbye.

Stray Observations

Just some stuff I've noticed since we've been out here. Nothing too big, and nothing to warrant its own post, but I'm bored, Pam's working until the calender turns to tomorrow, and I feel like typing something.

• It still freaks me out how close to the ground the incoming airplanes are as they pass over our heads (the airport is right up the street). I mean, I wouldn't be able to reach up and touch them or anything, but still, compared to how Philly-International-bound planes would pass by Rockledge, these planes feel like they are in spitting distance. They don't wake me up anymore, thank goodness, but when we're in the hot tub and one passes, my heart still gives a little jump.

• The PPA back home is the bane of my existence. Having a girlfriend that lived downtown had many benefits, but the parking situation down there is horrendous, troublesome, and expensive. That's why it's such a pleasure to know that parking here is a piece of cake. The big parking garages that populate the busiest parts of the city are always easily accessible, always have spots available, and best of all, are free. Not that Pammy's driving her car to the Strip every night, but it's nice having that option and not have to stress over where the car will be parked.

• Traffic patterns themselves differ slightly from Philly. While driving, you're going to be waiting a lot longer at any given light. Every street, it seems, is 6 lanes long - two going each way, and two for the left-turners. U-turns are highly encouraged, because making a left and going around any given block would be like 20 minutes out of your way. For pedestrians, you actually have to wait for the go-ahead from the light to cross the street; good luck jaywalking with all the streets' congestion. And the buttons that change the crosswalk lights aren't just for show like they are in other parts of the country - they actually work here, and you actually have to push them.

• Every single building, whether it be a house, hotel, restaurant, gas station, or casino, has its address displayed so you can see it from the street. That's not something you notice is missing in Philly until you come here.

• Not many creepy-crawlies around these parts. You can't walk two feet in Rockledge without getting a face full of spiderweb, and good luck getting through a walk through Pennypack without getting a few mosquito bites. Here, you don't really see any of that stuff (I hope I haven't spoken too soon). We saw a few water bugs on the surface of that disgusting puddle of filth at Red Rock Canyon, and there's apparently a lot of cockroaches at the seedier hotels in Vegas (The Can is clean), but that's about it. Maybe it's too dry.

• Trying to follow the Phillies is kind of rough. I can't complain too much; the internet let's me keep up with our favorite sports team way more than anyone before technology age could ever dream. But I'm spoiled from having that ever-wonderful AM dial and Comcast Sportsnet available at all times. I have the MLB Audio package, yeah, but our internet can be really spotty sometimes. For instance, I missed the last out of the game today because the computer just went silent for no reason. The time difference doesn't help all that much. It's weird having to wake up at 10am to listen to a day game, and those 7pm games on the east coast start at 4pm here, and guess what time Joey has to be in work three days a week? Again, I've been spoiled, but it hurts when I can't be at McNally's watching the game in HD. (Though I did walk over to the local Race and Sports Book yesterday to watch the overtime portion of the Flyers playoff game. They had a ton of TVs, and who knows, the Phillies regular season games might be on there. But it was kind of weird being there by myself, sitting elbow-to-elbow with seedy looking betters and bookies. But hey, one dollar Shock Tops!)

• Paychecks look a lot different when you're working in Nevada. I guess a lot of the state's funding comes from that perpetual money machine called "gambling," so the tax slice off your check is a lot leaner. To someone getting tiny paychecks like me, the difference in a few dollars, but that dolla dolla bill adds up, ya'll.

• Obviously, the big difference when it comes to the sale of alcohol is the fact that you can buy cases of beer in the supermarket. Stupid PA Quaker Law. But the subtle difference that I've noticed and don't quite understand is the difference in the size of those cases of beer between PA and NV. Ever since I started buying beer at age eighteen twenty-one, I've been buying cases of 30 beers cans (colloquially known as a "Thirty Bird"), or 24 beer bottles. Here, the choices are a six pack, a case of 20 bottles, or a case of 36 cans. I don't know why there's a difference. There just is. (And, to be honest, I like the option of buying a Thirty-Six Bird.)

• There's a vast array of fast food options in this area, probably about twice the amount of different brands of food that is horrible for you. You have your McDonald's, and a few scattered BKs and Wendy's, and you have your Taco Bell and KFC, but there's a ton of fast food joints I've never even heard of before this trip, let alone be a glutton at. Raising Cane's, Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr., Del Taco, In-and-Out Burger, Sonic, it's a paradise for obese people and obese people in training.

• Everyone has a pretty flippant attitude about prostitution. At least the ladies of the night had the decency to stick to the back alleys (and craigslist) in Philly. In Las Vegas, good luck walking down any street without some guy shoving an ad for "companionship" into your hand. Seriously, I could be walking hand in hand with Pam while we're wearing our "Yes, We Are In A Long-Term Relationship" matching tees, and this scruffy looking dude still thinks I'd be interested in buying a strange woman's services. Nope, we'll leave that to the unshaven business men Pam sees in the lobby when she's leaves for work.

Alright, that's fine for now. You get it, Las Vegas and Philadelphia have subtle differences, right, okay, gotchya. And now, time to wait for my girlfriend to get home. I'm hoping she is hungry for Arby's when she gets home. Typing about fast food made me really hungry (and surprisingly, typing about prostitutes did nothing to curb that hunger... ah jeez, that didn't sound right.... okay, I'm done. Goodnight).

Chateau

"Hey, let's all go to the Chateau Beer Garden! They'll take your expensive beer and dump it out!"

A Good Week Part IV: Easter Sunday

We had a good day on Sunday. We slept in. We lounged by the pool. We had a fancy meal at McCormick and Schmick's.

But Easter Sunday has always been about family, and this year, being 2500 miles from our family, Easter could have been a sad day. But it wasn't. You know why? Because we have awesome family.

All the care packages we've received in the past week or so have meant so much to us. From parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends, it felt amazing to be remembered even though we have traveled away.

So thanks, everyone, for the snacks and candy and popcorn and English muffins. We really do appreciate it, and we miss you guys so much.

From both of us, we hope you had a great Easter, and we'll see you all soon I hope! Thanks again!

Love,

Pam and Joe

A Good Week Part III: Saturday

"All you do is go to bars and restaurants and eat and drink alcohol" we said to ourselves Saturday morning, in an echo of what everyone must be thinking as they read our blog. It was time to get off our butts and take a hike.

Red Rock Canyon is the local area of nature, I guess you could call it. It's a huge section of the desert, and a beautiful one at that. We took a scenic drive, which was a thirteen mile loop that had specific stops where you were encouraged to get out of your car and enjoy the scenery. Enjoy it we did, and thankfully, we brought along the camera to share some of the best sights.

A view from the car on the way in. The neatest part about the mountains and rock structure were the different colored layers of sediment. It was like Mother Nature painted with stripes when she created Red Rock.

"Do not feed the wild burros. $500 fine minimum." And wouldn't you know it, we actually saw a wild burro. I wanted to ride it - there was no sign forbidding that! - but I was too scared that Pam would drive away without me if I did.

See what I mean about the stripes? Neato.

Pamela soaking in the scene. I sense a new Facebook Timeline Photo...

We're pretty high! Not really, but the crevices went pretty deep in between the rock structures. There was a helicopter flying right near us, and we saw paramedics running along the hiking path with a trauma board, so we think someone may have fallen in one these. I hope he or she was okay, and I hope he or she never accidentally watches 127 Hours after an experience like that.

Reminds me of The Lion King.

I think I was trying to take a picture of the helicopter from this vantage point. I guess I wasn't successful.

We got out and hiked a one mile loop hiking path that claimed "seasonal creeks and waterfalls." I guess the season ended early, because all we found was a little green puddle of bug-infested water. WE FOUND OUR WATERFALL.

Cacti!

A salamander!

Beautiful place, right? It was nice to know that Vegas isn't all neon lights and hangovers. But more so, it was nice to just get out in the sunshine for a bit and enjoy our precious earth.

A Good Week Part II: Thursday

I had to go to work at 2:30 today, so I had to cut it off somewhere. Writing about Monday exclusively made sense, because that was a crazy night. Tuesday and Wednesday I can probably just skip. What happened on those days? I can't even remember. Neither can Pam, I just asked her. I mean, I had work Tuesday, she had work Wednesday. Umm, I think we made pancakes on Wednesday night? We probably went in the hot tub at some point too? I have no clue. It couldn't have been too important.

Thursday was a little different. It was baseball day. God, I love baseball season. Waking up on Thursday to the sultry sounds of Scott Franzke and Larry Anderson was like waking up on Christmas morning. And yes, I had to wake up early due to the time zone difference. Phillies games at 10:30 are weird ("Poor you, I had to wake up at 5:30 you brat!" yells Pamela in the background). I made sure peanuts and beer were available, because what Opening Day would be complete without beer and peanuts? Even at 10:30. And hey, the Phillies won! I remember what that feels like, when that happened all the way back on Thursday. Maybe I'll feel that way again sometime soon (breathe, Joe, it's a long season... breathe...).

And I say it was baseball day because not only were our Philadelphia Phillies debuting their 2012 campaign, but also Pam and I were headed to our first Las Vegas 51s game that night. My buddy picked me up around 6:00 - Pam would meet us there after work - to head over to Cashman Field, which is in close proximity of Fremont.

The crowd we were with was definitely a good one. It's great meeting new people when you're far from home, especially when those people are people that you genuinely enjoy hanging out with.

A few thoughts on the baseball game itself. It was cold. Like, probably the coldest baseball game I've ever been to. But luckily, I had two jackets to put on. The first was my brown jacket that Pam brought me from the apartment. The second was my beer jacket; it was dollar beer night, after all. These minor league games are incredible with their promotions. Imagine going to a Phillies game and getting dollar beers, as opposed to their customary $6.75.

It was also pretty neat seeing some names I recognized. The Las Vegas 51s are the AAA team of the Toronto Blue Jays. A few of the players we traded for Roy Halladay to the Blue Jays were on the 51s, like the catcher Travis D'Arnaud, and the outfielder Anthony Gose. It gave us people to root for, even though the 51s got killed anyway. Ehh, who cares? Go Phillies.

So that was our Thursday. We got our Phillies win, we got our hot dogs at the stadium, we got out handfuls of dollar beers, and we stayed warm throughout it all. Pam had work the next day, so my night continued a bit afterward, when I walked to Cheers to meet up with the crowd again. Yes, there's a bar called Cheers, but no, we didn't yell "Norm!" when Norm came in. And no, Norm didn't actually walk in. But that would've been cool.

And that part of the night was definitely on the tail end of the night. Without Pam, what is life really? So I went, played some pool, won some pool, and walked home. I think. Kidding!

Thursday was a great day.

I'll write about Saturday and up until the present... tomorrow... this time with pictures!

A Good Week: Monday

Okay, if I wait much long than this, I'll start to forget what we've been up to. Let's see...

I guess we'll start with last Monday (jeez, time moves quickly out here). It started like any typical Monday, we weren't planning on doing anything exciting. But, carpe diem, right? So when our friends from down the hall invited us out to a Tiki Lounge, I hopped out of my work clothes and we hopped onto one of those lovely city buses to meet up with them (And we didn't get lost on the way to the bus WHAT WHAT).

Frankie's Tiki Lounge was pretty neat. It's owned by the same people as the infamous Double Down (a place Pam now officially hates - no more Ass Juice for ol' Joey here), but unlike the Double Down, their mixed drinks actually tasted good (I assume, as I stay away from liquor for the most part). Pam drank their Mai Tais and I'm told she enjoyed them (at least, I think she was saying that in a very slurred conversation... kidding, kidding). We had a group of seven, and the night was still very young, and we decided to traverse over to the best place out here, Fremont Street.

We had no plans, so the beginning of our latest Fremont Street experience was just walking around and showing around those in our group that had never been there. We thought it would be a good idea to hit up the Griffin, this despite the fact that our previous sojourn to that establishment ended with our acquaintance throwing up all over the bar. But, perhaps fate was with Pam and I that night, and the Griffin was closed. Or maybe they locked the door when they saw us coming, either scenario is likely.

The night had other plans for us, thankfully, and a sign from heaven came in the form of a chalkboard outside the Beauty Bar proclaiming KARAOKE NIGHT and DOLLAR SIERRA NEVADA NIGHT. Yup, it was gonna be a good evening.

You should've heard Pammy. Ah, those pipes were golden. She was No-Doubt-era Gwen Stefani incarnate. The whole bar fell in love with her. It helped, too, that she followed a group of rowdy frat boys that all took joy in singing "I'm An Asshole" and singing the truth at that. But she was awesome. We all got up there (besides our designated driver), and it was great fun, as karaoke always, always is.

This went on until, I dunno, two or three o'clock, maybe? And of course, a diner run ended the night. A night that ends at a diner is officially declared a great night.

So that was Monday. More to come when I feel like writing about the rest of the week. I guess tonight. I'm really procrastinating on this.

Happy Easter

I have no excuse this time. We've had a handful of great nights in the past week, but I haven't written about any of it. Tonight, after we get back from our Easter dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, I'll write up a big long post. Until then, enjoy your Easter, folks! And try not to get too upset about another horrible Phillies loss today. It's a long season.

New Acquaintance Bingo

After a great conversation with a construction worker from west New York in the hot tub the other night, Pam and I stared talking about how many people from how many different places in America we were having the pleasure of meeting in our journeys. So, naturally, we decided to turn it into a game. New Acquaintance Bingo was thus born.

It's just like regular bingo, except instead of numbers, there are names of states in the boxes, and if we meet someone from that state, the box is checked off. Five in a row or four corners wins. Check out our cards:

(click to enlarge)

I just got a blank bingo card, randomly selected numbers between 1 and 50 and matched up the numbers with their corresponding state to create each card.

Two rules:

1) The person from the state must be someone we didn't already know starting on April 1st at 10pm PST.

2) The person must be met by both of us at the same time (so no cheating with "Hey Joe, my new coworker is from Delaware, you should really meet her!")

So that's our new, months-long game we're playing. We met some fine folk from Louisiana last night, but we're oddly still tied, because Louisiana happens to be in the same spot on both of our cards. Maybe a chance encounter in the hot tub tonight will yield some positive results.

The Rest of the Weekend

My last blog post ended short because the Ron Ron had become the Sammy Sweetheart and I was the one holding Pam up from going out on time. Let me be clear on this: Pam was ready to go out before I was. I want to make that statement definitive and certain. This is a rare and momentous occasion. Pam was ready. To go out. Before I was. I was so shocked I almost dropped my laptop.

But ready she was, so blogging ended and our night truly began. Friday was awesome. We met two of our Vegas friends at a neat bar called Insert Coins, which is similar to Barcade in Philadelphia. It combines the lure of old school video games with the intoxication of alcohol to create one fun night. Just hanging out at the bar was fun in itself. We tried to get our own private booth to play Mario Kart 64 (the best party game of all time), but it's obligatory to order bottle service if you want the Mario Kart 64 booth, and there was no way the four of us were shelling out $150 to play Mario Kart 64. Eh, whatever, I played enough drunk Mario Kart in college.

We walked over to the Griffin that, unlike last time, was pretty darn crowded. But that was okay, the fireplaces and Hamm's were just as nice. Our friend was so enthralled and ecstatic to be there that she threw up all over the bar (hey ma, look, it wasn't me this time!). After that, it was Pam and I on our own. I don't think we'll be showing our faces at the Griffin for the next few weeks just in case.

It was only like midnight at that point, and this was our weekend, gosh darn it, so we trekked on, and checked out the last remaining Fremont bar we hadn't been to yet, the Beauty Bar. It was modeled after a 1950s beauty salon, except for, ya know, the loud pop music of 2012 blaring about. One weird thing we noticed was that a lot of people kept walking to the back and disappearing behind a closed door. There's no way all these people are going to the bathroom right?

So we go through the door ourselves, and end up out back in the huge outside party area. It was really bizarre. I felt like we were in Narnia or something. What bar in Vegas let's all their patrons into their backyard for some drinking under the stars? So that was nice.

And our final adventure of the night involved our mortal enemy of the west, that scoundrel bus system. We finally, finally found the bus transportation center that all the buses for the city ran out of. We were Moses in the dessert, finally finding the promised land. But, like Moses, we struck the rock twice instead of once, or rather, a rock struck our scheduled bus before it got there, and a window was all smashed up. We had to wait an additional 30 minutes to catch that elusive ride home. When it comes to the RTC bus system, we are so totally lost in the dark (or rather, I am, I guess. Pam is not pleased with my lack of bus know-how).

Saturday was a lot more relaxing, and thus, there's not as much to write about. There's the food, of course; for breakfast, we went to the Blueberry Hills diner, which I can promise you boasts a mean biscuits and sausage gravy. That cured half our hangovers, and the other half evaporated at the hot tub. I can't imagine life can get much better than a relaxing March weekend by the pool.

For dinner we checked out that Crab Corner, and feasted Baltimore style. The crabs were almost as good as those Maryland beauties, and almost means they were very, very good. Just hanging out with Pam and cracking open some blue-shells, it was dinner to be happy about.

So our weekend is over, but that's okay. More adventures to come! Now, time to watch some Mad Men with my Pammy.

Ron-Ron Juice, Episode 2: The Week That Was

Ron-Ron Juice is what the guys of the Jersey Shore drink when they wait approximately four hours for the girls to get ready to go out to the clubs. The basically sit on the couch and drink into oblivion, yelling random and probably obscene nonsense while the gals cake their makeup on and bathe in perfume. This is me, waiting for Pam. Not nearly as long, not even close, but long enough to blog. And this is me, drinking a little bit. Not nearly as much, not even close, but enough to be considered "pregaming." And this is me, blogging, during that time. Ron-Ron Juice Time. CABS ARE HEEYAH.

For those of you joining us this time searching for tales of extravagance and lunacy, you've yet again come to the wrong place. We're having fun, but sometimes schedules just don't work out. When you picture Vegas in your mind, you're picturing the never-sleep non-stop party, but that's for people who are here for three days and then have their normal lives to recover from that bender. When you actually live in Vegas for more than a long weekend, it's harder to get into that lifestyle, because it's not a vacation. It's life (for the time being, anyway).

So no, we didn't have a Hangover-esque night in the past week. Since we've last updated (which was about a week ago, sorry fans! And by fans I mean our immediate family!), we've had some good times, but not really blog-ready times. We took it easy last weekend because Pam worked Friday and Saturday. Saturday night it rained (it rained!?) so we stayed in and drank a little bit and played Trivial Pursuit and enjoyed each other's company.

This whole past week was all about work, unfortunately. Pam worked her requisite three full days at Sunrise, and I my requisite three not-so-full days at my place of employment that I'm weary of posting on the Internets in case I ever decide to trash talk it on said Internets while still gainfully employed by said place of employment. After hours, we watched Sopranos, we cooked meals (how have I never used a crock pot before this month?), and we took it easy. Consider this a work/vacation. We're on easy street here.

Today was finally our day of respite. I have work Sunday through Tuesday (had to take off for Phillies opening day, right?), and Pam has off until Wednesday, so today and tomorrow are our proper weekend, and it's been darn lovely thus far.

We slept in today (despite the damn elephants living upstairs, apparently. Seriously, walk lightly, my neighbor!). That was nice. After a few errands (bank, post office, Target, boring) we hit up the Atomic Testing Museum. We hoped it would be informative, exciting, and fun. One out of three ain't bad, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, learning about the atom bombs was neat. Neat is the perfect word. I never realized how complicated the bomb testings were, or how often they occurred, and frankly how darn close they were to Las Vegas. Stand at the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard in the mid 50s, and you could see that mushroom cloud explode into the suddenly cloudy sky a mere 65 miles away. Despite the thick layer of propaganda underlying the whole exhibit ("those damn hippies that were protesting the bomb were against freedom, dammit!" was an ongoing theme of the museum), I found the exhibition pretty swell.

However, what we expected to be a highlight - the brand spankin' new Area 51 Exhibit - turned out to be a huge dud. What can go wrong with aliens and UFOs and cigar-smoking men in dark suits? I'll try to explain. What's the main reason you'd go to a museum as opposed to reading a book? The actual artifacts. You can read about an atomic bomb, but to go to a museum and see an actual piece of it is the real thrill of an exhibit such as this.

But what the hell can you put in a government funded alien exhibit when the government is actively seeking to put to rest the notion that aliens exist in the first place? Answer: jack. We walked through what amounted to a few dark hallways with a few placards pasted on the wall that copied newspaper articles about supposed UFO sightings. Oh, and here's a room for a journalist who wrote an article one time about a person that saw a UFO. Oh, and then here's a glass viewing case for a picture of a guy that knew someone who met an alien once, but haha not really because aliens don't exist.

Booooo.

We're having a good day though, despite the minor disappointment. We spent the rest of this 87-degree day at the pool, hanging out with some nice single-serving friends from Minnesota. And now we're doing something called spontaneity and taking a bus to Fremont for some beers and some arcade games.

Gotta go, Pam got ready in record time! Blog ya soon!

The List

Four months to go in this neat little western experience. What shall we do until we take the trek home? Here's some stuff we have yet to do but definitely plan on doing.

• The Atomic Testing Museum (in association with the Smithsonian!) is right up the street, and they are soon opening their Area 51 Exhibit. Neat-o.
• The Mob Museum is pretty close to Fremont Street, and would be a particularly fitting museum to visit as we are currently watching The Sopranos.
• Sing some karaoke at Champagne's over on Maryland. Pam's gotta warm up those pipes, I miss her voice.
• There's a bunch of other bars I'd like to hit up too: Beauty Bar at Fremont, Money Plays ("Cheers on acid" claims the website) on West Flamingo, Blue Martini (a fancy bar with a killer happy hour, NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH BLEU MARTINI IN PHILADELPHIA I FREAKING HATE THAT PLACE), and plenty of others. Never enough happy hours around here.
• One more bar: Paddy's Pub. Definitely not the It's Always Sunny bar, but I swear there is a bar called Paddy's Pub a few miles up Flamingo. I'd like to go just to say we were there.
• Visit the Grand Canyon. Not sure how we're going to go about this one yet. We definitely ARE going, no doubt, but should we stay for a few days? Sleep in a tent? Or a cabin? Not quite sure yet. As the season gets warmer and there's absolutely no chance of cold winds (it still can get chilly in March), we'll fit this in.
• There's other national parks around here too, apparently. I haven't done extensive research on the subject, Pam was the one looking places up. Zion? That name has been floating through some of our conversations about taking a hike one day. It's about three hours yonder.
• Get some Maryland crabs at the Crab Corner, knowing that we'll probably never have crabs better than the ones we had on the Baltimore waterfront ever again.
• I can't even begin to mention how many restaurants there are here, even in walking distance, that we'd like to dine at. First on the list is this Moroccan Belly-Dancing restaurant not a block from the Can.
• Drink some more Ass Juice (kidding, Pam!)
• Go on the rides at the Stratosphere. We went to the top, but it was too cold to go over the edge.
• Gotta hit a flea market at some point. This one looks like it'll do. Reminds me of somewhere we'd go when we used to go to the Poconos every year.
• See some shows. We're already hitting up a comedy show at the Mirage when the Kains come to town. It would be nice to get to at least one or two more besides that before we leave town.
• Some other cool things that we need to do on the Strip: go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (and not its haunted wax museum neighbor); go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris; see the outdoor Pirate show at Treasure Island; eat at Denny's.
• Buy one of those long mixed drink container things. You know, the ones that look like this and probably taste like sugar, rum, and armpit. It's such a tourist-y thing to do, I know, but I suppose we have to do it once, right?
• Every time we walk through a casino, we're harassed by a certain type of worker that tries to get us to sign up for a trip to check out a time share. If we go, they say, they'll set us up with a free dinner and show, etc., etc., if only we go check out the time share. I'd like to actually do this. Spend the day looking at a hotel or something, give them a resounding NO, and get hooked up with a free fancy dinner and a free fancy show.
• See the Pacific Ocean. This requires us to go to California, and I'm definitely not opposed to that (no hard feelings, California Nursing Board, we're doing just peachy in Nevada, no thanks to you). I wouldn't mind skinny dipping in the Pacific Ocean either, but I guess that will depend on the logistics of the trip.
• See the Phillies play in another stadium. I wish their schedule was just a little better, but perhaps we can make due. The games in Phoenix and San Fran are mid-April, and they simply do not look doable at this point. Perhaps we could go to Los Angeles mid-July before our drive home to see a game at Dodger Stadium. Again, that's too far away to plan, but it's something to think about.
• No MLB teams in Vegas (apparently the MLB offices believe Vegas sports betting will ruin baseball), but there is a minor league team around here called the Las Vegas 51s. They are an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays and, like most minor league teams, they probably have some great deals.
• Order a Jim's cheesesteak and have it shipped to Las Vegas when I start to get really homesick. Yes, you can actually do that. And let's be real, I'll probably be ordering about six of them.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. I would hope we're never bored.

A Lull in the Craziness

Man, it is hard to write blog posts when nothing exciting happens. Since Pamela's birthday, we've been... going to work? I worked Tuesday through Thursday, and actually had some success at the job. It seems people want to donate money after all. Pam's in the middle day of a three-day stint as well, though please let the record show that I am not comparing jobs other than the fact that we both work the same number of days a week. 36 hours a week saving lives is a liiiiittle bit tougher than 10 hours talking to strangers. So God bless ya, Pam. I'm thinking of you as I sit around all day reading and playing Pokemon Blue.

And uh, hmm, so yea, that's it, unless you count the two dinners we went out for in the past three days. We finally got to Del Taco, and it cost $2.88 for six tacos, so let's say it was pretty much the opposite of our meal at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion in every capable way. Horrible, horrible, cheap delicious tacos. Last night we finally hit up the Freakin' Frog, with their claim of "Over 1000 beers." Not sure about that one, as we only saw about 15 on tap. Maybe the other 985 are in the cooler in the back? We didn't bother, as our mission was mainly food. The cheeseburgers and chicken tenders and fries were all standard bar fare - plain, moderately priced, tasty.

What else, what else... oh! Look what's parked in our parking lot:

Never thought I'd actually see the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile in person. According to Wikipedia, there are eight actively driving around the country. Guess they couldn't withstand the appeal of the Can.

Whoo boy! Excitement!! Ha. It's okay. We had a crazy weekend last weekend, and the rest of the week is a cool-off period. We'll try to get into some trouble this weekend, starting with a ton of pizza and Bud Light tomorrow night at 8 p.m. when Pam gets home (damn Sunrise keeps her late sometimes, those bastards!).

Vegas Birthday Celebrations!

As I'm sure most of you know (judging by the facebook birthday wishes and Philly gifts) yesterday was my birthday.  I turned 27 this year in the great state of Nevada and we had a lovely day. The day started off great with pancakes made by chef Joe and a number of care packages from home stuffed with Philly goodies. Now, I'm pretty sure that I'd have been happy with Tastycakes for my birthday back home, but the fact that they are essentially unattainable out here made them even sweeter.  And now whenever I get really homesick for Jefferson, I can wear my new Jefferson nursing t-shirt and it'll remind me of where I came from and where I am lucky enough to go back to in a few months.  And now Joe and I have yummy fruit to snack on for the rest of the week!

Fremont street for ziplining was our first destination of the day.

You actually zipline right over the street! And it doesn't look that far up until you actually get ready to jump! Now I'm sure for those of you that have skydived before this looks like cake but I was pretty nervous until we actually got in the air. It was definitely cool to see all the people under you walking around and shopping and some even cheering you on. I think the harness was the scariest part for Joe (and every guy that was in line with us it seemed).

 

Later on we headed over to a restaurant right down the street called Roy's Hawaiian Fusion. Both the service and the food were fantastic. Joe ate the surf and turf and I ordered the shellfish trio and both were delicious. There was even an insert in the menu that said Happy Birthday Pam!  Not to mention the standard happy birthday dessert with a candle, done in a pretty classy way (no singing of happy birthday TGI Fridays style).  They even took a picture of us and printed it out at the hostess station with a little Roy's frame.  All in all, a great place to have a birthday dinner.

Ziplining and dinner were wonderful, but Joe really made my birthday the great day that it was. Despite being so far away from home and missing everyone, I still had a fabulous birthday. Thank you so much to everyone for making it so special for me. I feel so loved.

Stratosphere

Not much to say. Last night we took a quick jaunt over to the tallest tower in Las Vegas. Check it:

The view from the observation deck from east to south.

Looking down.

Saint Patty's

Is St. Patrick's Day a lot bigger in Philadelphia than in most other places in the country? I mean, I know New York gets wild, and Scranton's celebration is surprisingly huge, but I guess I never really thought about the rest of the country. Las Vegas, strangely, doesn't have big St. Patrick's Day festivities. That didn't stop us from dressing in green and hitting the town to find some fellow Irish folk with green beer on their minds.

Yes, I figured out how to set a timer on my camera.

There was no parade to go to, none in walking distance anyway. There was a small-town parade in the neighboring hamlet of Henderson, but that would've required us to 1) be there at 10 a.m., and 2) take an excruciatingly long bus ride (and 3, I guess, would be us betting our horses on being allowed to drink at the parade. Vegas is more lenient about open container laws than anywhere in the country, but the town next door might not be). So we skipped the Henderson Irish party and stayed local.

And staying local pretty much just means walking up and down the Strip and drinking. Which was fine! I enjoy the Strip, and I enjoy Pam's company, so we had a swell afternoon. It started as any day at the Strip should, at the Bellagio water show. We have already seen one of their shows, yes, and in fact we already saw the same specific show that we saw yesterday afternoon, but goddamn is it beautiful.

The water itself is pretty, but when paired up with this song, I swear to God I got a tear in my eye. I didn't want to take a video and have it look bad and ruin it, so you'll just have to see it for yourself.

But enough crying, it was time to party. After a lunch of a few slices of pizza, we found a cool little block party next to an Irish bar named O'Sheas. They had a cover band playing classic rock, and they were killing it (the drummer was awesome).

Pam was dancing a lot, as she is often inclined to do. But there's only so much Irish dancing you can do, so we packed it up and decided to travel downtown to Fremont Street.

"Why do all the pictures have to be of me?" "Trust me, the world thanks you they don't have to see my ugly mug."

Fremont Street wasn't as crowded because by the time we got there, due to it being cold and rainy. No joke. It was most likely the one and only day the weather is worse here than it is in Philly. You guys got to enjoy sun and pleasant breezes. Meanwhile, Pam and I were huddled under a roof, shuddering with only a 24 oz. PBR to keep us warm.

Fortunately, that didn't last, so we kept walking, and hit some of our favorite Fremont spots - The Heart Attack Grill for huge cheap beers and french fries (fried in pure lard, of course), and the Mermaid Casino, whose bar sold huge Piña Coladas. Check it:

Mixed drinks aren't really my thing (though, I'll admit, the blood orange mojitos we had at a tapas place the other day were indeed pretty bangin'), so I stuck with the green beer.

After the rain cleared up, again, we rocked out to some Irish Bands. There's nothing better than drinking and listening to some Irish rock music on St. Patrick's Day

The Fremont Street Experience is really neat how it's set up. It's one long street, and go right down the street a few dozen feet in the air is a zip line. I took a video of the set-up for ya'll (making it my official second uploaded youtube video. The first).

Tomorrow is Pam's birthday, and we're definitely zip-lining tomorrow afternoon.

Look who we met:

I figured Aunt Dee-Dee would appreciate this one.

All this dancing and walking was making us hungry, so we went to a fish place on a deck where another cover band was playing (seriously, a lot of bands got work yesterday) and I got the most delicious grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich I've ever had, rivaled only perhaps by the fried grouper sandwiches we were eating in Clearwater exactly one year ago (no Crab Traps to wash them down this time though).

For once, Pam was the load that spilled her drink.

It was still really cold and we had a long journey ahead of us to get back to the Can, so we called it a night at Fremont Street. As always, good times. And, as always, we got lost YET AGAIN trying to find the bus. Seriously, the freaking Bonneville Transportation Center is like our Ark of the Covenant; we've tried for millions of years to find it, always to come up short every time.

But find the bus we did, on some random street, somehow, and made it home for some nice hot tub time.

Homeless man walks by outside the (locked) gate. "What, are you guys from the North Pole or something?! It's freezing out here!"

Erin Go Bragh

It's Saint Patrick's Day today. We're out walking and drinking and celebrating with general merriment and gaiety (and not blogging, I set this up so it'd post automatically in the afternoon), but we're doing so with a heavy heart. It's been about a month since we started this western journey, and homesickness is creeping in ever so slightly. So we drink to family and to friends today. We hope you are having a good time back home.

Miss ya'll.

Love, Pam and Joe

Friendly Folk

I've been noticing something more and more as I walk around and explore the finer parts of Las Vegas on foot. Walk down any street around here (minus the Strip), and you'll start to notice it too. It's interesting - everyone here is so damn friendly. Why is that?

You would think that it would be the opposite, wouldn't you? It seems like a town that could crush your dreams pretty quickly. You're surrounded by absolutely nothing but booze, gambling, and prostitution. How is it that so many people are chipper enough to wave and wish me a good morning?

I'm not complaining. I love it. Salutations exchanged with a stranger brightens my day. I'm just not used to it. (And I don't mean to exaggerate. It's not like this.) I like walking around here. If perhaps it doesn't quite feel like home (besides Philly, nothing will), I at least am starting to feel comfortable.

So why do you think people are all smiley? Here's some possible explanations.

1) I'm just really used to Philadelphia. It's a well-known fact that people outside of Philly think the natives are brutish savages, but growing up there, I never really saw a ton of evidence to support that. I just kind of assumed that walking down the street ignoring stranger was the way the world worked. Could it be that I've simply been sheltered by the cold-shouldering of Philadelphia?

2) The weather affects people's mood. The sun has been shining since pretty much the moment we arrived a month ago. I can't imagine many people here suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. On a scientific level, sun boosts your vitamin D, which could affect your happiness level. On an intrinsic level, just think about how happy you are when you open up the windows in your house on that first beautiful day of spring, and imagine that day happening every day.

3) Everyone can just appreciate my boyish good looks. That's not it.

4) Everyone is drunk. I know it was 10 a.m. on a Thursday morning as I walked around a few hours ago, but you'd be surprised how many people I saw with alcohol in their hands (side note: People in my age group carry around beers freely, and homeless men carry their beers in paper bags, which is the exact opposite situation that you can often find at the Broad and Olney subway stop). I guess there's always a chance that people are being polite as they float through a boozy haze. Can't rule that out.

5) All the people that are sad are huddled around bars and slot machines. Perhaps the people that are more inclined to say hello are those same people that I would find on the street at 10 a.m. anyway. I'm sure the old man on his way to get bagels for his wife is infinitely more happy than the old man that stumbled home from Bally's at 5 a.m. without anything to show for it.

6) The people that say "Hi" are just the tourists on vacation. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's not the people of Vegas that are friendly, but the people that aren't from Vegas that are happy to be in Vegas. Vacations can give you a certain high that leaves you all smiles, and Vegas is no different.

In any case, it's nice to be surrounded by happy, worry-free people. I don't mind strangers cheering me up as I walk to my job that I don't particularly enjoy at all. Chin up!

Poolside

Sorry about not posting on here for a few days. Sunday we were both working, Monday we got very drunk, and Tuesday we got very hungover, so not much time for blogging.

Sunday was work day, since I have to work two Sundays a month, and there's no way in hell I'm working the day after St. Patrick's Day. Work continues to be challenging. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but my phone calls have all ended in the person on the other end of the line not giving me their damn money. Of course, it doesn't help that I'm calling mainly 95 year olds from poor rural Pennsylvania, but that doesn't seem to be a hindrance for anyone else. Oh well. I get paid whether I'm making successful calls or not, and I have at least two more weeks of total failure before they decide to fire me. So we'll see.

Monday was a bit more pleasant, as Pam and I had our first pool day. What a beautiful day it was.

The pool area is pretty nice, isn't it? It's weird because we've been pretty much the only ones out here whenever we come out. I'm not sure if this is because it's still March and 70 degrees is considered "cold" to Nevada natives, or people just don't go to the pool at The Can. I guess time will tell on that one. There was a couple there when we showed up Monday morning, but I think they saw a young couple with a cooler of beer and thought it'd be better to get out of there. Hmm.

Nice set up, right? We had our iPod set up for some Springsteen tunes (not too early for the songs of summer with weather like this), and a cooler full of what seems to be THE cheap Mexican beer around these parts - Tecate. Cold, crisp, refreshing with a lime.

We had a great afternoon. At one point we were sitting with our feet in the pool, and I, as I am wont to do, started joking around like I was going to push Pam in. I'm surprised it took her this long to threaten to send me back to Philadelphia.

What a beauty.

What the opposite of beauty.

As nice as the weather was, it still got a little chilly at points during the day when the sun went behind the cloud. I said it before and I'll say it again, the sun makes or break the weather here. With the sun, it's too hot. Without the sun, it's too cold. And there's only so many times you can hop in and out of the hot tub.

So with the sun dipping behind the clouds yet again, we called it an end to our pool day, already a little tipsy. Life is good when you can do all this on a Monday, isn't it?

The party continued up to our room, where we finished most of the rest of the Tecate, ah that sweet Mexican elixir of life, and made some tomato and onion omelets. The night was still young, so we headed to our neighborhood bar, the Double Down. I love that place. Pam finally tried the Ass Juice, and she was just as perplexed as I was about the taste of it. I still think it tastes like grapefruit. Pam thinks it tastes like they took all the leftover alcohol at the end of the night and mixed it together. Whatever is in it, it certainly didn't make me any better at billiards - Pam killed me both games.

And hey, look, we have friends! Actually, it was someone from the university near us that I had met on Friday. We got drunk together, I'm not sure if you can tell from the above picture or not. That was sarcasm.

The Double Down was cool, but we wanted to explore a bit, so we ended up at the Hard Rock Hotel just down the street. And guess what I found.

Yes, folks, it's the pool that I got lost at a few weeks ago. And I think I was a little drunker that time I was here, because there's literally a door right from the main lobby that leads to the pool. I'm an idiot.

It's creep as hell though, isn't it? Imagine being lost here for what seemed like an hour.

Anyways, that was our day. It was good times. Tuesday, yesterday, was not quite as fun. Advil was on the menu for breakfast. Pam wasn't hungover though. She just had a headache. And a stomach ache. And she was tired. But she wasn't hungover.

We're both working today and tomorrow, unfortunately, but then we have an awesome four day weekend to look forward to, one that includes St. Patrick's Day and my Pammy's birthday. More adventures to come!