Birthday Weekend in Vegas

My birthday and my sister's both fall in the month of October and since she just moved to L.A., we decided to celebrate this weekend and go out for a night in Vegas. They left after work and got in in late on Friday night after a somewhat hellish drive on the I-15. When they arrived, we cracked a couple beers, opened our presents, played dice, and ate the devil's food cake I made until about 1:30 in the morning.

We woke up on Saturday and decided to hit the road to Valley of Fire so that my sister could see some of the beautiful scenery that makes living here bearable. Aside from the usual road rage I exhibit when driving through the Spaghetti Bowl to get out of town, the drive to the park was uneventful. Aaron and Andy discussed politics the entire way, so I had to enforce a smackdown on all political topics, at least until we got out of Valley of Fire. We went to the visitor's center and drove the scenic drive, and then did a little bit of hiking, although we were limited by Pocky's bum knee and couldn't really make our guests truly suffer on anything epic-length. Next we drove down along the Lake Mead shore and into Boulder City for lunch at MIlo's and some beer. Erin set the pace by ordering two beers for herself in the first round! (She got an Pyramid Apricot and a Guinness to make her variation on a black and tan).

After returning home we relaxed a bit and then got ready to go down to the Strip. Don't ask me how we ended up at the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton...but somehow, my sister decided that it was a good idea and who am I to argue with someone on their birthday? We did the rides (which were pretty good and amusing) with live actors and lots of special effects. Then we hit the gift shop and the theme restaurant for some food and the featured cocktails. Our table started with a Borg Sphere, which included 10 oz. of liquor and came steaming in a massive fishbowl. We were all pretty loopy by the time we left. I even got harassed by one of the alien guys (Aaron says in was a Ferengi, but whatever)...

The city blocks in Vegas are very long and we ended up walking in a huge circle in a dust cloud looking for a place to gamble. One would not think it would be so hard to find such a place...but we walked through a construction site, past the closed (and soon-to-be-imploded Frontier) and past a strip mall with nothing but a very neon Denny's before we got to the Wynn. We walked around a bit, past the Maserati dealership, but once we were exhausted we went to the sports book to rest our feet and have some more cocktails. After a few drinks and a race that I really should have put some money on, since I kept predicting the winners, we went to the slots. Lady Luck smiled on Andy and he hit a nice hand on video poker, so that made everyone happy. Having accomplished our main objectives, we went home and played some Texas hold 'em before Erin made us go to bed.

This morning we got up and finished off the cake before heading over to the Peccole Ranch disc golf course. This gem is one of the only positive things we have found in Vegas, and makes our neighborhood somewhat more enjoyable. Little did I know, Andy is actually quite accomplished at disc golf and I ended up humiliating myself as I hit every single tree and light post on the course and kept calling the discs, "frisbees".

After a great Mexican food brunch, we said goodbye to my sister and sent them on their way. Unfortunately, they hit a major wind storm and had to drive through sand and overturned semis all along I-15 back to L.A. There is also a major fire in Malibu, near where they live, so they may not be making this commute again anytime soon. It was a great weekend and we spent a lot of time laughing ourselves silly, which I guess is basically the best part about having a sister.