See previous for the start of this trip. Now, onward to Sunday!
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Sunday morning was all about the Neon Boneyard. You know I’ve been looking forward to seeing where all the old neon signs of Vegas are lovingly restored and on display. It’s an outdoor museum, and when it’s as hot as it has been (as in 107F on Saturday/Sunday), they only do tours during the morning and at night. I got there earlier than my 9am appointment, so they let me take the 8:40 tour and I was happy about that, but even then, it was hot…HOT…H.O.TTTT! Blistering hot. Glad I wore sunscreen, though they even hand out umbrellas for the hour-long tour. It was almost too uncomfortable to even take photos, but I did get some fantastic shots for Instagram and I heard so many cool stories. Did you know that it’s very, very expensive to repair a neon sign? Restoring all of these old signs is clearly a labor of love, and I’m so glad that someone’s doing this. What a cool experience. I recommend it highly to anyone who is into history, art, Vegas, lights, structural things, or even just cool ideas. I’m so happy I went out early and did this. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
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Sunday brunch, bonanza - delicious and filling (all you can eat…ugh) atBorder Grill at the Forum Shops. Food was tapas. Seriously, order anything and everything off the menu - some not so great, but some really hearty and good food, and of course, I was eating off my 15 or so champagne drinks from the night before. Speaking of champagne, $10 bottomless Mimosas, but I stopped at 3 because I had the whole day in front of me and I didn’t want to sleep it away as I’m wont to do after brunches.
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Walking, walking, and more shop-walking (my form of exercise over the weekend). Did you know that at one time I’d made a career out of shopping, and I felt very much in my element? I have been having so many conflicting thoughts about how the retail landscape is changing at lightning speed due to the growth of online, but I have to say that there is nothing in the world like the experience. I love the touch and feel, the trying on of clothes or the visualization of home decor, the thinking about what will go with what…the exploration and the sensory aspect of it all. I love to shop - to me, it’s not about spending money, although that is fun too. But I truly hope that brick and mortar retail will somehow reinvent itself into something sustainable for a good long while. What would we do without shopping?
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Walked back to hotel to have a shower and a tiny rest-up before dinner. I made the mistake of snacking on popcorn back at the hotel.
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Later, dinner at Harvest in the Bellagio was good, but I was not hungry at all. I wanted to go there because it’s farm-to-table and looked super healthy fresh and I’d also read about the happy hour where they cart around this “snackwagon” full of appetizers that you can just pick what you want. So I got there early - right when they opened and sat at the bar, and watched all the couples pull up and grab a happy hour drink.
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There was something super sexy about the bartender. He was older and very soft-spoken and had a very dry sense of humor. I thought we were having a connection until…
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Some guy showed up sitting by himself and ordered some kind of drink that was brought out in a glass chamber of some sort. It looked completely cloudy inside the chamber - you couldn’t even see what was in there. But once the bartender opened the little chamber, all this smoke rolled out to reveal two cocktails. I asked the dude WTF just happened and he started telling me about his drink, which I can’t really remember…whiskey drink of some sort. And then he pulled up a video on his phone and said that he’d had something similar in Paris the night before. I actually thought he meant PARIS Paris, but of course, I quickly figured out that he meant Paris, the Vegas place. Hahah.
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So the solo stranger and I started talking and talking and as it turns out, he was there for the Black Hat and Defcon conventions, which basically means that there were about to be like a million cyber hackers all up in the house. I found out that he was in the entertainment industry, so basically, he does cyber security (?) for movies and such and from what I could understand, he’s the guy who tries to keep movies from leaking before they are released. Something like that. Anyway, we had a fascinating conversation that kind of never ended!
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Somehow…somehow (ha) our conversation turned to online stuff - shopping, communicating, and eventually dating. I knew the guy was married (ring), but I was telling him about all the dating apps that are out there now, and he was all, “you’ll probably think this is crazy, but I was one of the early users of online dating [ed note: yeah, me too, buddy], and I met my wife on match.com.” Uh, not crazy at all, dude! Do you know how long I’ve been internet dating?? But I let him have his special and unique story and I listened raptly. It was actually a very nice story, and it kind of seemed like he was living the dream life with his wife that he’d met on like his third try (he was the first person she’d gone out with on match!), and how they have two kids…and they even called him to face time while he was sitting at the bar. But I also notice that he certainly didn’t pan around the bar to show his fam what was going down (NOTHING, but still!)
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It was now Sunday night. Before I left over the weekend, I’d told one of my work colleagues who was coming in on Sunday evening to contact me when she got in because I wanted to help her with some of the set-up first thing Monday morning. I told her we could go grab a drink. Well, I had also just discussed the Champagne vending machine with stranger (who finally had a name, it was Jason - probably a fake name due to hacker paranoia) and he told me that there was another Champagne vending machine at Fizz Lounge, a bar that’s ALL about the bubbles, of course. And he and I had decided to walk over there (Caesars Palace) from the Bellagio where we were and I told Work Friend to meet us there. I also told her that Jason was with me and that I would explain.
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Made it to Fizz and Jason and I grabbed a drink before WF showed up and I suddenly found it really strange to be sitting in this bar with a married dude who was just so matter-of-fact about leaving a restaurant with a near total stranger, but I guess if you’re on the up-and-up you don’t really have to worry about such things? I also guess that a lot of it is because it’s Vegas, but then I also wonder if I had been a super flirty woman with him, looking for fun and naughty things, if he’d have gone to the Champagne bar as well? What if I wanted to kiss him (I didn’t, but what if I did?), would he have gone along? What if I asked him to come to my room? What, what, what…? He didn’t really seem like that kind of guy, but I also wonder if given the chance, might he be?
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But none of that mattered, because WF showed up and we got these amazing Champagne and Chocolate Experience flights consisting of Blanc des Blancs, Sparkling Rose, and Rose Nectar Champagnes, and then gourmet white, milk and dark chocolates. I can’t say that it was dazzlingly spectacular, simply because I was sitting there with a work colleague (yes, she’s also a friend, but more a work buddy) and a MARRIED near-stranger. It would have been absolutely and perfectly romantic and delicious with a LOVAH, that’s for sure.
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And then I was done, done, DONE for the night. Was going to be a loooonnnggg few days and I had to go to bed. WF and I bid Jason adieu and we were quickly headed for the hotel. That bed could not have looked better.
Work stuff (uuhhhggg) to follow…
xox,
GS
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