L.A. / Vegas

A while back, Amanda and I took weeklong trip to L.A. and Las Vegas. We were in L.A. to attend the wedding of Amanda’s friend and fellow UDel Alum, Susan Varee, and then we hopped over to Vegas to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. Here’s a recap of the shenanigans.

Trivial Accomplishments
On the way to Atlanta from Richmond, Amanda dominated the in flight trivia under the pseudonym ‘Carl’ (of course). This just confirmed my suspicion that she is super freaky smart. On the way back home roughly 8 days later, I dominated the in flight trivia, confirming my suspicion that nobody else on that flight was really trying.

"Carl" wins again

Meeting a Champ
As we sat in the Atlanta Airport waiting for our connection to LAX, I spotted a familiar face among my fellow Delta patrons. So I turn to Amanda and say, “I think I just saw Diamond Dallas Page.” “No way,” came her response. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” “Well, let’s go find out,” she said. So we stroll over, Amanda fairly indifferent, and me suppressing more geeky giddiness with every step. We approach the man in question and Amanda casually lays it out there. “Can you settle a bet for us? My husband thinks your DDP,” she said. He glances over at me and casually extends his hand my way followed with a cool “How ya doin? Nice to meet ya.”

So we proceeded to geek out on him and he told us what he’d been up to since leaving the ring (check out his YRG website to get info on his unique workout). Then we realize he keeps saying “Hold on” into his earbud. Turns out he was actually on call and totally took the time to talk to us anyway. We thanked him and strode off, but not before he told us to catch him when we land and we’ll finish chatting. Yeah right. Like we’re going to further bug DDP. But man, I really wanted a photo.

After a loooong uncomfortable flight from GA to LA we land. All us passengers make our way to the baggage claim and hang around. Then we spot him again. I guess we were staring with goofy smiles or something, because he looked at us and waved us over. So we spent the next 15 or so minutes just chatting with DDP. We talked a lot about his new YRG yoga workout, but we also talked about how he basically gave the Diamond Cutter finisher to Randy Orton (who uses the move as the RKO, one of the most devastating finishers in wrestling today). He was also totally cool when I asked for a picture. He made us take a second with the flash so we knew it was good, then later asked for the camera to take a goofy long-arm shot of all of us.

Former 3-Time World Heavyweight Champ DDP

Needless to say, DDP was awesome and it was incredible to see first hand the benefits of prolonged yoga practice. I mean this guy’s body was beaten up for years in the ring, and he’s no spring chicken now, but he was as cut and as nimble as they come. He saw his bags on the big rotary belt thing and just bounded off like a friggin’ cat. So, DDP’s gotten Amanda and I into trying yoga now.

Hertz So Good
So we headed over to the rental car company and meet up with Wendy, another UDel alum. After a mini-reunion of sorts, we pile into our 2000something Pontiac G6. I was in love with this car the entire time we stayed in L.A., mainly because it wasn’t a 90 Honda Civic hatchback. Sorry babe.

Hells yeah.

Wedding (all) Day
At 7:00 a.m. we rise and shine for the first of the three services of Susan’s wedding day. We pile in the G6 (yeah!) and head over to Susan’s parent’s house. After taking note of the no shoes custom, we meander in to enjoy food, meet folks, and experience the Thai Buddhist morning ceremony. It was an all around good time. We ate snacks with gold flakes on them (among other things), personally blessed Susan and Steve and met some really nice folks. There were monks there and everything.

The happy couple.

The next service was a Chinese Tea Ceremony at Steve’s parent’s house. I couldn’t really see the action from my place, but it seemed like they got handed a bunch of presents and things from some of the elders in the family, which is always a good thing. Then we headed outside to eat even more. The food was awesome and plentiful (an entire hog), but the kickers for me were the orange and cumquat trees in the backyard.

Then we hop back to the hotel for a little break by the pool before the evening reception. It was a beautifully peaceful day by the pool and we had the place to ourselves. We even got to catch some Zs in the room.

Then we shake off the sleep and head to the Sea Empress for the evening reception and dinner. We sat with some of Susan’s school friends and co-workers. We were in good company with some cool people as we proceeded to eat ourselves silly with tremendous amounts of awesome Chinese food. I would try to list all the amazing things we ate, but it was almost like a dream that I don’t remember. It was just good times and good food.

Turns out, there’s a tradition where guests click their glasses or plates until the bride and groom kiss. Man, that sound kinda got annoying. But it was fun. Everybody clinked and clinked until eventually a glass was shattered. No joke. I don’t even want to know what that means the bride and groom have to do.

After Susan, Steve and their families made their rounds and spoke to everybody, they hit the lights and cranked the tunes. The dance floor was about 5 square feet, and it still wasn’t packed, but you know where there is loud music, Amanda will be dancing. So we cut a little rug before heading back to the room to freshen up real quick before the after party.

The after party was at the S Bar where we shared a lot of laughs with our own karaoke room. There was no shortage of food and alcohol, so it was definitely a good time.

Her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

Roughly 19 hours after we woke to start the day, we were back to settle in for the night (morning?).

So. Freakin. Tired.

Artsy Fartsy
After a trip to the train station for breakfast and a fond adieu with Wendy, we were off to the J. Paul Getty Museum. We didn’t nearly get to see everything there, but what we did see, not to mention the building and grounds themselves, were pretty amazing.

Amanda waiting for the tram, beautiful as always.

The Getty (J.P.)

The Getty was high up

The view from the Getty was great, but I was as equally excited about the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich we shared. So good.

So good.

Then it was back to the hotel for more hot tub and pool time.

Hollywood
For our last day in Cali, we headed to Hollywood to see how the stars live. Literally. We did a cheesy tour or celeb’s homes. “Oooh P.Diddy’s gate is open. It’s never open. Maybe we’ll see him!” (We didn’t.) He was probably busy doing something totally hard ass and gangsta. Like chilling with his neighbor… Bea Arthur. You know, from the Golden Girls. Yeah.

We also cruised the Walk of Fame (of course) and ate at Café Audrey (as in Hepburn) before heading back to LAX to catch our flight to Las Vegas. We had more ice cream at the airport.

You scream. I scream. We all scream for cavities.

This cracked me up for some reason on the flight to Vegas.

Sin City
We finally make it to Vegas where I’m immediately blown away by the lights and sounds. It really is one giant playground, or maybe amusement park is more accurate. I mean we checked into our pyramid, then walked through a castle, past the New York skyline and the Eiffel Tower on our way to check out the dancing water. It’s really like no place else. Except maybe New York, Paris, Venice, Rome, Egypt, you get the idea.


We stayed at the Luxor, which was pretty cool. We were on the 23rd floor and had an amazing view inside and out.

Amanda loves Egyptian stuff.

The Luxor was pretty easy to find at night

While we were there we saw Cirque De Soleil’s Mystère, which was pretty out of this world. The stuff that they did was mind-boggling. It makes you really appreciate what the human body is capable of. Not mine, mind you, but a human body.


Other shows and entertainment that we saw include:

Iron Man – yeah, I eventually wore Amanda down with my begging for us to go check it out even though we were in Vegas of all places.

The Sirens of T.I. – We were actually on the other side of the strip and popped a squat to see Treasure Island’s free show outside. Turned out to be a tame strip show. What a disappointment. SPOILER ALERT: The whores triumph over the meatheads.

Dancing Waters of the Bellagio – cooler than you’re probably thinking.

(dancing water not pictured)

Dancing Statues of Caesar’s Palace - not as cool as you’re probably thinking.

Dancing statues not pictured.

Amanda also loves...Trojan horses?

Gondola boats & singers in the Venetian – Ride in a boat! Be serenaded! Get stared at by everybody not in a boat getting serenaded!

Fremont Street – It was day time so we didn’t get to see the lights on, but it’s an interesting side of Vegas nonetheless

Familiar Faces on Fremont Street

By Thursday I had watched enough in-room gambling channel “This-how-to-not-lose-money” shows that I felt confident enough to tackle some tables. So I decided that before we left I would do some Roulette and Blackjack no matter what. Just those two though. Because, basically, after watching the in-room Craps tutorial 5 times, I was still confused.

So we hit the Roulette tables first. They say, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Well after two quick spins of the wheel, $20 dollars of Gibson money was staying in Vegas. I quickly abandoned my interest in Blackjack and we wandered around to find a less expensive means of gambling. Hello penny slots. (Side note: I don’t know if anybody’s done this joke, but it’d be really funny to set up a Penne Slot. Ding. Ding. Ding. Jackpot! *Noodles pour out of the tray*)

So we settle in to a seat and plug away (after learning how to actually play from a cashier person). I guess Vegas wanted to make up for my startlingly rapid loss of $20 bucks at Roulette, because we won $25 on the penny slots. That was easily the best it got as far as the slots. I think all together we lost about $45, but we had fun. (Thanks for the $20 Aunt Marti!)

After figuring out how to lose money at a slower rate. Note the smiles.

We also spent a lot of time poolside at the Luxor. The music was awful. Thank God for my iPod and Moleskine. By Saturday, the stimulation overload was starting to get to me and I was longing for the quiet country nights.

But all in all, it was an extremely nice trip and a great anniversary with my best friend, TV. Just kidding. It’s Amanda.


If you made it all the way through to this part, God bless you. And thanks for being interested.