Random Vegas Trip on an hour's notice? Why not?

So I’ve been to Vegas before, but I always wanted to be out there when they hold the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  Every year electronics companies and industry people from all over the world descend upon sin city to show off of and check out all of the new technology that it is on the horizon.  I’m talking everything from new TVS, videogames, cars, all kinds of stuff!  All the new stuff gets demonstrated and prototypes are shown off, you get to see stuff that may be coming out next week, or in 10 years, or sometimes stuff that will never even actually be released at all.  The convention is huge, and I’ve followed it for years but never actually attempted to go.

As you may or may not know, for the past year and a half I’ve been working different events and promotions for different companies.  I pick up random work promoting different stuff, it’s pretty fun and I can find work pretty much anywhere in the U.S. for short periods of time, and for big conventions like CES there are usually a ton of opportunities.  I had already flirted with the idea of working it last year and I knew I had some friends doing it this year so I applied to a couple of things out there.  I was kinda lazy and only applied for like 2 things; of course I didn’t hear anything until after day 1 of CES was already in the books.  This was a Tuesday night and they wanted me to come down to work weds-fri, but since there were no more flights that night I had to tell them that I couldn’t do it unless I could just work thurs-fri.  And of course they didn’t hit me back up until like 830pm on weds night.  But I said what the hell? Let me check flights really quick, sure enough there was another flight at 830 that night. I told them that I had to contact my friend to see if I could crash in his hotel room, and that I’d call them back when I knew.  I told em if they find anyone else first, go ahead and hire him or her.  I successfully scrambled to make arrangements and called back 20 minutes later, unfortunately they found somebody else.  But then I thought about it for a minute, why not just go for fun and try to check out CES? I literally stuffed my backpacked with a couple changes of close, and within 10 minutes I was off to the airport.

The back-story was pretty much the most important part of this post haha.  Just kinda wanted to highlight my thought process and I guess my spontaneity.  I stayed with my friend at the Main Street Station hotel, which is in downtown Las Vegas.  Downtown is considered “old Vegas,” and it was cool to check it out a little more in depth since that was where I was staying.  A lot of places on that side of town are much cheaper than the strip for food and drinks.  The hotel I stayed at has it’s own brewery and I think they had 4 of their own beers on tap, they were pretty good and only cost $1.75, they also had $1 margaritas 24/7.  Even the breakfast was cheap, I think it was only $7.99 for the buffet, and while I could definitely tell I was not at the Bellagio, it was definitely decent and a good bang for the buck!  I did obviously end up hitting the strip as well.  It is definitely a bit overwhelming with all of the craziness!  People passed out drunk at 8am, Elvis impersonators, and all sorts of other wild characters out and about at all hours!  Another highlight was hitting one of my favorite place in vegas, it’s called The Stage Door Casino. A couple of friends and I randomly discovered this gem during our search for a US Bank ATM machine.  It’s basically on a side street across from where Bally’s is, it’s just down past Bill’s Gambling hall a couple of blocks.  We pretty much saw sign saying they had $1.50 drinks and were drawn in.  Ever since then when I’m in Vegas I’ll be sure to stop in for the $1.50 drinks, which are free if you are playing, even the nickel slots at the bar.  Everything is super cheap there, get a jumbo hot dog and a beer for $2.50, $4.00 patron shots, the list goes on and on.  The places is not visually impressive at all but the bartenders are all pretty nice and it’s cool being around a bunch of locals and listen to them a bit and how they ended up in Vegas, one your sick of all the other tourist stories.  I highly recommend checking that place out.

On my last day in Vegas I finally hit up CES.  I say finally, but the reality is that not just anyone can even get into the convention.  If you’re not working it, you basically have to work for the press or be involved in the electronics industry; you can’t just buy a ticket.  I was able to secure a pass using secret measures and I’m sure glad I did.  I saw some mind blowing TVs, the new 3D ultra-hd tvs were especially insane!! I also saw a bunch of weird crap too, like a strange headband with robotic cat ears that supposedly read your brain waves and move around according to how you are feeling.  Not sure who buys stuff like that but it was interesting non the less.  I must have walked like 10 miles just trying to see everything in the convention center!  CES was awesome; I need to work it next year! Already got it in my calendar, I’ll have to be much more proactive next year.  So for my last night in Vegas I wanted to go out with a bang.  I’ve gotten pretty into electronic music over the past couple of years and I saw that one of my favorite artists , Nero, was doing a show there that night.




  I hopped online, order my ticket and was set! Well except for the fact that I had to buy dress clothes to get in, but hey what the hell right?  It ended up being a blast!!! Money well spent!!! Just a word to the wise though, if you go to any of these clubs in Vegas and plan on drinking, I suggest drinking before you go as you’ll be looking at paying $10+ a drink when you get in.  This show happened to be at Club XS at the encore,  and I saved a few dollars a drink by simply going in, getting my hand stamped, and having my last couple of drinks at one of the casinos other bars.  Note to self, they were still like $8.00 a drink so next time I’ll probably show up and get my hand stamped as soon as the club opens so I can venture further away than the encore to get my buzz going.  All in all it was a great time though, another random adventure in the books, it was definitely a little depressing getting on that flight the next day, but I’m sure I’ll be doing it again soon!!!