Recap Part 1 - Post race/Pre blogger weekend

*Warning* - if you are only interested in the blogger weekend portion of the recap, you can skip this and wait for my next post.

Isn't this always the same theme every year? Where to begin, not enough time to meet/talk to people you wanted to, wanting to stay longer but exhausted nonetheless, and now, it's time for the recap and you go on a more than usual reading spree of everyone's blogs to see what you may have missed out on even though you were in Vegas at the same time.

I have already been in Vegas since the Friday before the blogger gathering. I had the half marathon to run and I had two of my friends from Richmond run the half also so we got to spend some time together. My parents also came to meet up with me/watch me run so until Wednesday, I was pretty busy in a different way and actually hadn't had much chance to play poker or gamble it up at the craps table. You all saw my post regarding the half as evidenced by a lot of you coming up to me with the joking disapproval of my time in the half. I expect nothing less! :)

Well, one thing I did notice is that Vegas is big enough that unless you actually try to coordinate your activities, it's actually hard to meet up. Since I wanted to do some stuff during the day with my parents, I figured my buddy from Richmond and his gf and I would drink/party in the evening but in the end, I think we only did that once (even though we've been in Vegas at the same time for 4 days). They stayed at NY NY and of course, I stayed at the IP and so in the end, we just never really did much together. Now I've always made it clear that while I don't consider IP a great hotel (because it's not), it's not the flea bag motel that many people make it seem like. The casino is a dump and there are many little annoying things (like the seemingly world's slowest elevators, very confusing maze-like design of the different towers, bath tubs that don't drain well, etc etc) but then again, how much time do you spend in the room when you're in Vegas? The room itself is actually decent as I'm sure Schaubs will vouch for, now that he's stayed with me at the IP. (I will neither confirm nor deny that we slept in the same bed together) Personally, I'd rather save some money and stay at the IP rather than cough up extra bucks to stay at NY NY or Treasure Island or any of those mediocre hotels that I don't consider as much of an upgrade when it comes to rooms. My total bill from the 7 nights at the IP was like $329 or something like that... I mean really... unbeatable. Well, almost unbeatable. Bayne, shut up. You'll get your props.

Anyways... for the pre-blogger gathering part of my Vegas trip, my definite highlight was taking my parents to the Jersey Boys show at the Palazzo (does it count as "taking out my parents" if they paid me back for the tickets though? prob questionable). The show was amazing. I have always loved Vegas shows. No matter which ones I've been to, I was always amazed with how good a show they put on. Jersey Boys was no different. It was a show about a band named Four Seasons... apparently, they were big in the 50s-60s? I didn't know but this just happened to be the show that my dad showed any interest in (and he's generally not interested in shows). So we go and sure enough, the show was fantastic. Even if you don't know Four Seasons, you definitely know their songs if you were like me and had to endure countless hours of listening to your parents' favorite tunes growing up during long car rides for family vacations. And it was just an awesome show that was funny, touching, and just simply amazing. But as great as the show was, the best part was that you could tell that my parents absolutely loved it and were touched because of all the memories that I'm sure all their songs brought back to them. I think I was the youngest in the crowd by at least 20 years... but I would highly recommend the show to anyone.