So Yummy: 11/25/22: Travel report! Day 1 in Las Vegas

I started working for a Very Large E-Commerce Company in February this year. Brought on as a contractor, I traveled to several events around the country. First up was San Francisco in April, followed by Washington DC in May, then Boston in July, and finally, Las Vegas in November.

This event here in Las Vegas means for the first time in my life, I will have visited Las Vegas. The flight in was uneventful enough. 2.5 hrs from Seattle, easy peasy. The LV airport was a bit mall-like, really glitzy, and with gambling games throughout. I made my way through, got my Uber with Larry, a really aggressive minivan driver, and got to my hotel after a 20 minute ride through traffic.

Everything my teammates have told me about Las Vegas and what we'll be doing here has been a little extra. Like, "Bring 5 pairs of shoes," or, "Fill your tub with water because the air is dry," to, "You can rent a second fridge because the one in the rooms is weighted." Huh?

Anyway, I got here to the Palazzo at the Venetian (or maybe it's the other way around) and checked in. Room on the 20th floor, head through the smoky casino to get to the elevators. First, I passed by the high-end watch stores (after all, if you hit a jackpot, you can buy a $32,000 IWC watch (that's what the sales lady said the price was)) and headed over to my floor.

When I got to my room, I saw a DND sign on the door. "Weird," I thought, maybe the cleaners forgot it? I did give a courtesy knock and a shouted, "Hello?" at the door before trying my key. The door opened and I noticed the lights were on... and a dead body was on the hallway floor.

Not really.

There was an open door to the right, leading to the bathroom. On the counter that I could see was a paper wrapper of some sort. And then I saw a towel rack with a clearly rehung towel, so I quickly backed out and headed back downstairs.

Check-in "made things right" by getting me another room, this time on the 38th floor, accessible only by the private elevator bank. Though 38th floor is higher than the other floors, in the private elevator side, it's only higher than the 37th floor, which is the lowest of the private side. Maybe if I had found a dead body, I'd be on the 50th floor.

I got to the new room and it was a little gaudy, but really nice. Walk in and immediately to the left is the double-door bathroom with shower, tub, double sink, private toilet room and vanity. More than I need, but I'm not complaining. Just past the bathroom to the left is the king size bed, which faces a six drawer dresser, with a large LG tv hanging above it.

Keep going and there's the "downstairs," as my colleague, Brittany, called it (she has the same style room). Down a couple stairs is more of a sunken living room, with a L-shaped couch, a round table, a desk in the corner, and another TV over a cabinet. The floor to ceiling windows offer a nice view, of which direction I know not, but sadly, no view of the street below as all I can see is the rooftops of the Palazzo below.

I got unpacked and did some budgeting, did some actual work, and waited for another colleague to show up from her flight. Since she was taking a while to get in, I decided to go downstairs and get the lay of the land.

Tomorrow we start testing for our big event and everyone has said to plan about 30 minutes to get from your rooms to the conference rooms below. I don't think I'll need 30 minutes, but considering elevator traffic, it's a good estimate. I got down to the 2nd floor and jumped off the elevator, as that floor has the little indoor Italy, complete with gondolas. Lots of restaurants, tourist shops, high-end shops (more watches), a rare book shop (again, where are you gonna spend your jackpot winnings?), and did I mention restaurants?

Tons of people about, all sorts, nationalities, body types, financial status. Crazy. I know Marci wouldn't want to vacation here and I don't know if I would either, but man, there are plenty of families that do and did. Really interesting to see, and the people watching here is next level!

Heather finally showed up and then her, Brittany and I met up and headed to one of the first restaurants we saw, Tony V's something or other. Italian, and I had a something something carbonara, along with garlic bread and it was super tasty. The server/bartender was a nice dude and his wife was doing a singalong with a guitarist as the night's entertainment. She was good, but just about as cheesy as the garlic bread we got. They weren't super loud, but man, with my hearing issues and the music, it was so hard to converse with the girls.

We finished eating and headed to our rooms. We have a 9am call time tomorrow and Heather is on EST, so she was pretty wiped out. I came back here and chatted with Marci, watched an episode of the White Lotus and now, I'm hitting the sack as well.