Las Vegas trip report

"Um, Mom... that's the porn convention." -- me

I got back from Las Vegas this morning. Dad had to go to the Consumer Electronics Show and decided to take us along so we could also enjoy the trip. I'm definitely not complaining!

Day 1

The trip began with an afternoon flight to Las Vegas on US Airways. I felt a bit nauseous on the plane due to the turbulence. Considering that I don't get airsick often, this was probably the result of not getting enough sleep the night before. That's what happens when you party too much. ^_^

The Las Vegas Monorail brought us to the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, our hotel for the next three nights. The evening was uneventful aside from dinner at the Sbarro downstairs. The baked ziti was delicious, though.

Day 2

The CES was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Mom and I had planned to explore the Las Vegas Strip on our own as the show is generally closed to the public. However, there was a change of plans after Dad managed to get us in. He wanted us to see what the CES was like, so that's what we did instead. Getting our badges took quite some time due to the sheer number of people. This was followed by lunch as it was already past noon.

It was just the two of us as Dad was in a meeting. The LVCC was huge; there were at least hundreds of vendors. The OEM companies were concentrated in the first hall. I enjoyed playing Quake 4 at one of the booths. One funny moment was when Mom almost walked into the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo by accident. Oops!

We met up with Dad after taking the shuttle back to Monte Carlo. All of us then went to Chin Chin at New York-New York Hotel & Casino for dinner. Though inexpensive, the food wasn't exactly stellar: the entrées were too salty for our taste, and the raspberry mousse cake was so greasy that I didn't have much of an appetite until the following afternoon. Blah.

Day 3

The three of us returned to the CES after breakfast. Mom and I were on our own again as Dad had to go to more meetings. Continuing where we left off, the second hall featured consumer products. One of the vendors had Unreal Tournament 3 on a high-end gaming PC - that was pretty fun too. I saw Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at another booth but didn't feel like waiting my turn. Intel and Microsoft also had cool exhibits. It was 1:50 p.m. when we were done looking around.

The last hall awaited us after lunch. You're going to laugh at this, but here goes: there was an attractive booth babe that I wanted a picture with. I was about to go up to her when a guy from the booth came to talk me, presumably to deliver a sales pitch.

You see, I'm awkward around girls when other people are around. That wouldn't have been so bad, except the girl simply walked away without a word. She was standing there and must have known I wanted a picture with her. What a bitch. It's not like I was asking her out, but being rejected in front of my mother was downright embarrassing.

Dad met up with us at the hotel as the show winded down. We had dinner before hitting the slots. This was my first trip to Vegas since reaching the legal gambling age. I put in $3 and got back $4.10 after about 10 minutes. A whopping $1.10 profit - not bad for my first time at a casino.

Day 4

Today was relatively uneventful as we had an early flight back to San Jose. The flight was fairly smooth, although the shuttle ride home was longer than expected due to an accident on I-880.

Conclusions

I had no idea the CES could be so fascinating. The highlight of the trip was playing the slots. I certainly owe that security guy for telling us that playing multiple lines improves the odds. While $1.10 isn't much, the anticipation of winning is what makes gambling so exciting. One thing I learned from this trip is that business travel can be fun. :-)

At any rate, I should probably be preparing for my classes as the spring semester starts in less than two weeks. In the meantime, you can see a few pictures from the CES here.

Currently listening to: "Hooked on a Feeling" by David Hasselhoff