Dukie-Dukie: Las Vegas: Day 1 "see you at the finish line"

1 month after our December Vegas trip. Were back again for a rematch. This time we didn't have a specific occasion to visit. Palazzo was offering me a comp room and I couldn't pass it up. I have never been offered a free room. So why not. The quote for this trip was

"See you at the finish line"

Here we are at the airport. Someone brought their dog. So Charyl snapped a pic. It rolled out of the conveyor belt and start barking at everyone.

After checking in. We headed to Fashion Island Mall to pick up some last minute accessories for our night out.

Our first meal in Vegas was Panda Express. Being on a diet really makes you appreciate the simple foods.

I was trying to be someone healthy and choose white rice, but had double orange chicken. I think I failed in the healthy category.

My buddy Ray who also does crossfit with me at Xtreme Athletics. He hasn't been to Vegas for a few years. So we had to break him in.

Some pics of us heading back to our hotel.

We headed the Canal shops to get some ice cream.

The hallway to our room

our bathroom. It isn't the Skyloft but it will do.

Venetian & Palazzo standard rooms sleep up to 6 people. They all come with a living room area where the sofa is a pull out.

our view from our room.

brought a 1.75litre of Grey Goose. Our goal was to finish this before the end of our trip. We already had 2 drinks before taking this pic. Slowly but surely.

My friend Neal who is also my trainer at Xtreme Athletics came with us on this trip. He arrived later in the evening. He also has not been to Vegas for 5 years. He used to go a lot but his last trip was insane. So he swore off Vegas. Every time I invite him he turns me down. He just recently broke up with his girlfriend.... So here we are.

Left: Neal

Center: Ray

Was really hungry so we went out to have a nice dinner. We ended up at Sushi Samba.

So really awesome artwork on the walls of the restaurant.

How do you use chopsticks? Like a knife. stab it.

We did a Chef's choice tasting menu and we had a bit of Sake.

I forget exactly what we had but I think that is an Ahi fish Taco and some Tuna Sashimi.

More sashimi with avocado topping.

some chilled crab with ponzu jelly and cocktail sauce.

I forget what exactly was in this. I think steak of some sort. It was really good. All I know is that it had mushroom.

An assortment of sushi rolls and sashimi

Some glazed fish skewers. It was delicious.

and some desert to finish it off. Some mousse with gold leaf. It wasn't fully thawed so slightly disappointed. Other than that the rest of the meal was good.

Dressed up and ready to hit the town.

Neal had a friend that worked at Christian Audigier Nightclub so we stopped there first for a quick visit. The club is located at Treasure Island. We were there pretty early so it was pretty dead. He got us a round of drinks.

I'm really bad with names, but here's Neal and his friend.

Never seen this inside a club before. Jelly fish.

Charyl and Neal in the VIP area. Bottles here are extremely cheap. If I remember correctly Hennesey VS was $225-250.

Pic of the club from out table. It's a pretty small place.

So after a few drinks we head to our bottle reservation at Lavo. Located at Palazzo. Lavo is a pretty small place. I think it said 4,500 sqft. It was busy. Hard to move around. So I never left my table. I don't even know what the dance floor looks like.

Bottles are slightly cheaper here than other Night clubs. Goose $375

I think our servers name is Megan.

Neal was chopping it up with this girl he met in the club. Angela. She was nice.

I don't remember Megan being so tall or maybe I'm just that short?

So during the night we got pretty wasted. Neal turns to me and tells me to keep an eye on Ray cause he's really drunk. I turn around and Ray is gone. I have no idea where he is. So I go to the bathroom to see if he's in there. Not there. Since we were staying at the Palazzo I assumed he just left the club and went up to the room. Before our night started I made sure that everyone remembered our room number and what floor we were staying on.

So Charyl and I leave the club around 3am and head back to the room to look for Ray. He wasn't there. Where the hell can he be?

So we went back downstairs and Charyl came up with the idea to ask the security guy that checks for keycards before they let you into the elevator. We told him we lost a friend and described him. So he radios sercurity. I mention our room number and he says " oh yeah... I know who your looking for" He's coming right now. So we wait for Ray at our elevator.

Ray rolls up in style. Security told us that they found him on Las Vegas Blvd hugging a fence. LOL. That day I found out that when Ray drinks he is a Magic man..

"now you see him now you don't"