I just got back from Las Vegas. Went by myself and had a pretty darn good time. Before I left, the most frequent comment/question I’d get was, “You’re going by yourself? For a bachelor party?”

My response?

“The exact opposite: My grandma’s 80th birthday!”

And so it was that I headed out to Vegas to hand with my family, including aunts, uncles and cousins that I see just every few years. The first night, my sisters and their men walked the strip – all the way from Mandalay Bay to the Wynn. Basically, a looooong walk. We did stop at about 20 places along the way.

We saw just about every casino:

 

Everybody made “sad faces” so I could send my wife a picture to show how much she was missed:

 

And we had a LOT of fun:

One of my cousins eventually met up with us, and we continued late into the night. I believe it was around 3:30 a.m. when we rolled into our hotel. We stayed at Mandalay Bay in an approximately 1,500-square-foot corner suite. It was, well, a pretty sweet suite. Ha. It’s a pretty cool building. And it has a basic waterpark, which we spent most the daylight hours at the following day.

 

That night, the cousins were joined by the parents and my grandma and we visited one of my favorite places: The Old Las Vegas Strip. It’s just grungier and more like what I envisioned Las Vegas was like as I was growing up.

 

 

 

 

Below’s a picture of me at the Old Las Vegas Strip. This is just before the cousins and I all went out to a nightclub. Before we had free VIP table/bottle service. Before we had so much fun. Before an incident involving an ice bucket. Before a long cab ride home. Ohhhh, the innocence of this picture:

 

The next day was all about my grandma, as we celebrated her birthday at my aunt’s house. We all hung out, telling old stories, getting salsa dancing lessons and enjoying rare time together as an extended family.

 
 
That night, we did some light gambling at our hotel and then called it a night. (For those curious, I think that I lost about $50 total gambling over the three nights – not bad considering how much blackjack we played.) The next morning, I got up early and walked down to the famous Las Vegas sign by myself. This picture was taken by a couple I met there who were in town from Alberta, Canada, to celebrate their anniversary:

 

Here’s a close-up of the sign:

 

And here’s the rarely seen back side of the sign:

And with that, I was gone. Another trip to Las Vegas in the books. I was happy to be home to celebrate Father’s Day with my two boys and my loving wife. I missed them all so much, and hope to drag them along next time I head out west.