Las Vegas, Part I

My weekend was filled with family, friends, neon lights, tiaras, sweaty aussies, champagne, food, cocktails, massages, g-strings and breakaway pants, stages, dogs, sunshine and a whole lotta love! I celebrated the life that I am leaving behind and the life that comes next. It was bittersweet, fun, and hands-down amazing.

Thursday was my last day as a married, to Rich, woman. I spent it frantically getting prepared to take Friday off of work to go to Las Vegas for the weekend to celebrate my freedom with my mom, sister and her family. I went out to wine lunch, I bought my summer vacation flights to Tanzania, Barcelona and Paris (post on that later), had all of my regular scheduled meetings, ran to BART to meet my mom and was off to SFO where we propped up in the airport bar for a much deserved lemon drop before our flight. We touched down in Vegas, oh man that airport is huge!, my sister picked us up, we headed back to the house for dinner, wine and some quick catching up and then we were asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

On Friday, I woke up a divorced woman. The judgement was official as of 8am, man is it surreal to know that I am not married anymore, my life sure took and unexpected turn. We ate a light breakfast and headed over to the Country Club for couples massages, my sister and I went first and my mom and Tabitha’s step sister went next, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. It was amazing. We steamed, showered, laid out by the pool, gossiped, ate lunch, drank more champagne and relaxed. It was truly one of the best afternoons. 

We have never seen these mispellings of our name - oh and they are the same name...oops

We went back to the house to get ready for our night out on the strip and for Thunder From Down Under, yup, you read that right! We headed first to walk through The Container Park then walked over to the Scullery for a cocktail. We arrived just in time for a small comedy show, so we stayed and watched the first act. Vanessa was hilarious! 

We had to leave early to be at the Excalibur in time for Thunder. (I will share my Thunder Down Under show experience in a separate post. The story is that good that it deserves it’s own post.) We walked into the hotel and were stopped for a mini photoshoot, so we took a few with the men there. They were pretty hilarious. We had to pose in scandalous ways; it was a great precursor to the actual Thunder show.

After the show, we headed over to the MGM for dinner at Hakkasan. It is a club and restaurant in Las Vegas and since I had been to the restaurant in SF before we decided to try it in Vegas. The food was delicious and the company was perfect. We had a blast! It was the perfect way to spend my first day single, again :-)

Saturday, we got up and went for a nice, leisurely walk to the country club and back to the house. We headed over to the Cosmopolitan for lunch at Milos Estiatorio. Oh.My.God. It was delicious! We did the pre fixe lunch menu with wine pairing, all of the food was so fresh and delicious. It was yummy in my tummy! After lunch we walked around Crystals and window shopped. My sweet nephew was pooped so we headed back to the house for naptime and to get ready to go out to dinner.

 

Sadly, the babysitter cancelled last minute, so Tabitha’s mom and step-dad offered to ‘take one for the team’ and stay home to watch little Vincent. Tabitha, her husband, my mom and I all went out to The M for cocktails and then to David Clawson’s restaurant. It is located off the strip in a kinda odd spot, next to a Pizza Hut, but is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Las Vegas in 2014! It sure did not disappoint. The food was served tapas style and was perfect for the four of us to share. 

We got pastries for breakfast from the M on Sunday, enjoyed them with tea and coffee and enjoyed the warm air and sunshine before we headed back to the Bay Area. It was truly one of the best weekends of my life and everything happened exactly how I wanted it to. It was a great way to celebrate me and my new beginning.