Vegas

It's been a few weeks since I returned from Vegas and the blisters from wearing high heels every night are now gone. Other than my credit card bill and clothing that smelled like an ash tray, the blisters were one of the few pieces of physical evidence of what an unbelievably fabulous time we had in the city of sin.
We've given ourselves different names over the years, "The Stanford Wives" and "Flirtinis" to name a few. But how we came together is simple; our husbands (or as we recently celebrated on this past trip...one ex-husband) were all pursuing their MBAs at Stanford. As our husbands met and became friends (and golf buddies) the eight of us ladies became close friends. The wives got together once a week for happy hour and then someone proposed a trip to Vegas. We had so much fun we vowed to do it again...and often. We try to get together once a year for some much needed girl time. After our initial trip, we went to Vegas a few more times after the boys graduated, but then had to take a sabbatical from that locale while most of us took time to breed. In the interim, we went to more tame locations, Chicago, Boston, and Phoenix. 2010 marked our triumphant return to Vegas. And what a triumph it was.
In November, I sent an email proposing the trip and within 24 hours we had found a weekend that worked for everyone, booked flights and a hotel. And after years of staying at sub-prime Vegas hotels, this year we decided to stay at The Venetian. Our goal for the weekend was to spend time together, have a few too many cocktails, shop, regroup at an incredible spa, gamble, dance and flirt just a little. "What???? A bunch of married ladies flirting?" Yes. It's nice every once in a while to prove to yourself that ya still got it. Vegas is one of the few locations in the world where men will approach a group of eight married ladies wearing substantial hardware on the left hand, and offer to buy them drinks.
There is just something about Vegas, it's so easy. Anything and everything you need is available without ever having to leave your hotel. It's no secret, that is in fact the goal of the casino owners. And I must say that at the Venetian...mission accomplished. It's all there.
So what did we do? One of my besties and I flew in on Thursday night. She and I were flying from the east coast and both had babies in the last few months and were due for some extra zzzs. We ended up having a few champagne cocktails at the champagne bar and catching up until 2 in the morning. We slept in, hit the breakfast buffet (hard), did some shopping and then awaited the arrival of the rest of the crew. It was great to see everyone again as we are now spread out across the country, me in Boston, 2 in NYC, 1 in North Carolina, 1 in Chicago, and 3 in the Bay Area. One of my favorite things about this group is that when we get back together, we pick up where we left off with no awkwardness. We ate lunch, had a few drinks and did some more shopping.
We went to a trendy-Mexican spot for dinner in the Palozzo (the new hotel/casino part of the Venetian). The place was filled with large groups of girls on similar weekend trips like us. Not gonna lie, we felt a little old. BUT, we felt confident that we were in much better "places" in our lives than the 20-somethings we were surrounded by and were much happier being 30-somethings. Well, maybe I would have preferred my 20-something body instead of the 4-month postpartum one I had to drag to Vegas... but I without the baby-weight, I wouldn't have my babies!
After dinner we opted to go to The Hard Rock hotel/casino as we'd done on Friday night during all of our previous trips. It ended up being our only bad decision of the weekend. The crowd looked like something you'd see at an Alabama IHOP at 4 in the morning. While there, we heard that Hard Rock had rooms available for $39/night. When you're giving rooms away that cheap, you're bound to bring in some major riff-raff. Apparently, we didn't get the memo that this was no longer 'the' place, but now we know. Some of us played some blackjack and we ended up leaving when I was up $3. That's right... I know when to quit! :) We were thrilled to get back to the Venetian to mingle with pretty people again.
Saturday, we hit the breakfast buffet (even harder), then checked in to the spa for the day. This is the part of the trip that separates the 20-somethings from the big girls! We know spas. And spas in Vegas are incredible. The Venetian has a Canyon Ranch spa that did not disappoint. Before our appointments, we sat in the sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, salt grotto and experienced a "tropical rain" shower, which was like a spa version of a ride at Disney. You get in the shower, push a button and then it rains with varying temperatures and pressure. We then waited for our spa appointments in a lounge filled with round sofas, huge pillows and oddly enough Kirsten Dunst. The massage was solid and our entire experience was the perfect way to relax and detox.
After the spa, I hightailed it to the sports bar at the Palazzo to bet on and watch the Kansas/K-State basketball game. Priorities, people...priorities. The bar was sweet, it had stadium-style seating with sofas and chaises. And I even managed to sit next to some other KU alumni. Two of my girlfriends ended up coming down to watch the game with me, but I'm told they didn't come to watch the game so much as to watch ME watch the game. Apparently, it's an experience. What can I say, I'm a fan, albeit a loud and often-obnoxious one. The Jayhawks won the game, but thanks to a last minute, half-court shot from K-State, we didn't cover the spread so I lost $50. Dang.
And now the highlight of the trip....Saturday night at Tao. We opted for getting a table with bottle service at Tao, the nightclub at the Venetian. From beginning to end, we were treated, and thus felt, like rockstars. First and foremost, we were dressed to kill. We bypassed all of the lowly serfs standing in line and were immediately ushered behind the velvet ropes into Tao. They gave us an awesome table, with the dance floor on one side of us, and former "Bachelor" Andy seated at the table next to us.
Here's my advice... if you're doing bottle service... make sure you're the one who gets to put down the credit card. It will ensure that you are not only treated like a rockstar, but the band's lead singer. As soon as we sat down, there were four Tao people fussing over all of us, and mostly me. 1. the nightclub host - he made sure the table was to my liking and got us all situated. He came by to check on us throughout the night; 2. the waitress/bartender - she was decked out in Frederick's of Hollywood and as nice as the girl next door. She made all our drinks and shots, and kept our glasses full all night long. We ended up ordering a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum. Between the eight of us we finished both and then had to dip into the Bachelor's bottle of vodka at the next table (did I tell you my girls can throw 'em down???); 3. the barback - he kept our bottles of mixers and tub of ice full, kept the table and floor clean and escorted us to the bathroom (yeah, you read that right); 4. the security guard - yup, we had our own security guard. He watched over our purses while we went to dance and made sure that no one got near our table unless we invited them. I mean seriously, how could you possibly not have the time of your life with all that going on???
I think we left Tao around 3 or 4 then it was back to the room for a quick nap before the flight home on Sunday morning.
Needless to say we all had an amazing time in Vegas. The funny thing is that some of the girls were kind of vanilla on going back to Vegas and a few were not too keen on the table service idea at Tao. I think everyone agreed by the end of the weekend that both were awesome ideas. To quote Tiff as she yelled it across our table Saturday night while sharing cocktails with the Bachelor and other randoms, "WE'RE NEVER GOING ANYPLACE ELSE!!!!!!!!"
Cheers to that.