Viva, Las Vegas!

Nobody took pictures. I'm sure that's appalling to Amy and the rest of the Waltons, but I promise you, it's not that uncommon for a lot of people. We still went, I promise.

Let's see, here's the brief recap: Arrive Friday afternoon to have lunch at Hash House A Go Go (not sure where all the hyphens are in there, so I'll leave it alone). Several of us had chicken and waffles, while two of those several decided not to let the other two know that one plate is probably big enough for three full-sized adults. A couple of the guys had to finish up some work so that afternoon we just kind of hung out in what turned out to be a massive suite on the top floor of the Flamingo.

We slept 8 very comfortably, and it could have probably been about 20-25 pretty comfortably. We went bowling at the Gold Coast Casino which features 60 bowling lanes. I was pretty on from the start, bowling 151 and then 195. While I'm pleased that my bowling is consistent, I'd like to break 200 again really soon. I keep getting on the precipice, but I refuse to go over for some reason.

Dinner that night=pizza=pretty satisfied, for both dinner and breakfast the next day, and maybe a pre-sushi snack the next day. Some people might think that's gross, but I think it's kind of awesome.

Some of the guys hit the dollar blackjack tables, and some of us just kind of wandered back and forth watching the other guys play. Gambling is so funny to me. I can definitely see the appeal, but I get too easily addicted to things, plus I don't think I'm risk averse enough to not do my bank account some pretty serious damage. Looks fun though.

I went for a run on the strip Saturday morning. Know what? Turns out, running the strip at 8am is probably one of my favorite runs. I was going to go out and run 20 minutes out, and then 20 minutes back, but it was so interesting to me that I just kept on going. Ran for an hour which is about 7-8 miles for me. Running the strip in the morning is awesome for the following reasons, A) it's basically empty at 8am, B) there are walkways over all of the roads so you never really have to stop, C) Vegas, for all of the traffic and general dirtiness (especially at night) is actually a pretty darn clean place during the day, and D) there are so many visual sights that it's easy to just look at everything without even realizing you're running. Plus, there are lots of stairs and TONS of other people are out running in the morning. It was just nice, and a good way to tour the interesting parts of the city.

We caught the BYU/SDSU game at the Bellagio sports book. I didn't have the unerring faith that Mike Reid had, but the Cougars pulled it out with a really impressive victory. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come during the Madness to come.

Afterward, I bought Risk (not entirely sure what inspired that) and we played a couple of games back at the hotel. None of us could really remember how the setup, or how exactly to play, so our first game was unusually short and our second game was unusually long, but it was a lot of fun. Dave was the winner* of Game 1 and I was the Game 2 winner*. We took a break in Game 2 to get sushi at one of our favorite places. It was wonderful, but as is always the case with these all-you-can-eat places, I had WAY too much sushi. It was all good stuff this time, fortunately, but just too much.

More than anything, I just love my friends. My guy friends from home are just awesome and funny, and more loyal than you could ever imagine. They're smart, fun, and just good-hearted people. I think I am the luckiest person to have the people that are in my life.

*Games 1 & 2 can only loosely be called Risk since the variations involved created a lot of distortion from the true version.