Tuesday, May 26, 2009

What I'm Not Going To Tell You About Vegas

Sorry everyone but I've got a few more things to share about Vegas. Actually I have not even touched on the whole reason why we went to Vegas so I'm going to do that now. Lee, since you live in Vegas you have my permission to totally skip this one.

You're welcome.


We stayed at the Venetian because that is where Wine Spectator hosted their 2009 Grand Tour and yes, we got to go!



Over 200 wineries were there to pour one of their best wines. When you enter the banquet room, you are given a Wine Spectator Wine Glass and Guide listing all the wineries and wines being served with areas for your tasting notes.

So you basically go around to the different booths and taste their wines. Every booth had a representative from its winery and usually one or two buckets for you to spit or dump wine from your glass. If you don't like the wine, you don't wanna dump the wine in front of the wine maker, that's just rude. I would go to the next wine maker and dump it in their bucket so they could then refill my glass.

At first we did a lot of dumping but later, we did find some yummy ones! All the French Bordeaux's were the highlight of the night for me. The most popular wines were so crowded because everyone wanted to taste them. Everyone was dressed up and there was a buffet to pair your wines with food. The food was lacking and so was the seating but we had eaten dinner before we went so it wasn't too bad for us. I just wish we would have stayed longer because there were so many wines we didn't taste.

And one suggestion for anyone that is going to go to a huge wine tasting like that is to learn about the wines that will be poured before you go. After the tasting, I was looking at the guide with all the different wines and I missed a ton of good ones that I would have liked to try. And I heard later that some of the wineries actually ran out of wine before the night was over so you definitely want to visit your favorites first!

Thanks Mom- and Dad-in-law for taking Alex and I, it was definitely a learning experience for me and we both loved it!



Now I mentioned that we got a Wine Spectator Wine glass from the tasting right? Well the minute we stepped out of the banquet area, Alex just about threw his in the trash! I about died, hello? We get to keep the glasses! I stopped him from throwing it away but at the time, I didn't know what pain they would be taking home!

Those stupid wine glasses did not want to make it back to Utah. I carefully packed them in our M&M bag and stuffed them with tissues so they wouldn't bang around. When they had to go through on the security belt to make sure they weren't laced with arsenic or something, they somehow fell out of the bag in the process.

I was standing on the other side of the belt waiting from them to come out and I hear this clanking sound while they both came rolling out falling into the crease between the belts. I about died for the second time. Luckily I yelled at the airport lady and she stopped the belt just in time and was able to save the glasses before they broke.

Then when the belt started up again, out came all the tissue I had used to stuff the bag. It looked like crumpled up toilet paper and I had stuffed so many freakin tissues in that damn bag and now they were falling all over everyone's stuff. I finally gave up trying to gather them all and just grabbed my glasses and left.

So they finally made it home and I put them in the dishwasher and this is how they looked after coming out:



Clean? Yes. Clear? Yes, but that's the problem. The whole reason I wanted to keep the glasses was because they had a frosted Wine Spectator logo on them so we could keep them as a souvenir, but no. All that trouble to get them home and they are now like any other wine glass, no logo remains at all.

Fricken A! Oh well, now we have 2 miss matched wine glasses that are now out of place but whatever, maybe I'll just write "Wine Spectator Grand Tour 2009" on them with magic marker.

Yep, that's what I'll do. It'll all be worth it now.



Okay, check this out, I actually got the guys to pose for the camera. This doesn't happen very often and maybe it was just because the guys couldn't give up the opportunity to stand next to the life size blue men group, but I'm glad it happened!








This was our last day when we left Bert and Ernie to gamble, I mean Alex and Terry, while we went to look at the lions and dolphins.







And below we have a statue, not a human being. A statue.



Okay, you caught me. It's a human being pretending to be a statue. The way it works is that people will give the statue lady money and then pose with her for a picture.



Well, we didn't realize that you could stand up by the statue to pose after giving her a tip. So Cris went to tip the statue and the statue kept moving her fingers telling us come up and take a picture. Well we thought she was really saying to give her a bigger tip.

Look at the statue's face in the next pic when she realized we thought she was just being greedy:



It was probably my fault because I kept laughing yelling, "Oh, she wants more money!" People probably thought we were pretty dumb, but whatever. They can suck it.


So that's it for Vegas, here we are headin to the airport in the limo. I thought they were blog worthy pictures. And I am not going to write about how Cris tripped while getting into the limo and totally fell flat on her face. I would never tell an embarrassing story like that about anybody else but me.

Never.




31 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Man, you do Vegas in style!

Vegas is definitely more for you, not for us, the Mormons who don't drink at all, and gamble very little.

Kasey said...

I'm glad that glasses were saved. To bad about the logo :(

Anonymous said...

SO very cool sorry about the logo that stinks!

Debbi said...

What a fun trip that I shall covet! Everything looked great, and your eyes in that last picture-
HOT!

Rebecca Jo said...

Oh no... someone went SPLAT... nothing makes me laugh harder then a falling down face first story! (How wrong is that!)

I was just telling my friend yesterday, I wish I enjoyed wine! I need to go to something like that where I can get a taste of all the good stuff out there!

I'd be all over the magic marker idea.... that would make the story even more memorable if you have some soup'ed up glasses in your cabinet!

Kathy B! said...

I've done Vegas, but never like that! You really rocked it.

I would looove to go to a Wine Spectator event... Lucky Duck :)

Suzi said...

Looks like a blast. How did the blue guy taste?

The Wife O Riley said...

My parents go to the Master's of Food and Wine in Carmel each year. They are HUGE winos and foodies. You can even learn how to cook a dish from a famous chef. My mom learned from Wolfgang Puck and Julia Childs.

They sell paint that you can put on a glass to make it looked etched. You can totally pu Wine Spectator on their and no one (but us) would know.

theUngourmet said...

I am going to come over there and steal your eyelashes!They are so thick and beautiful!

Looks like a fun trip! I have done that same thing! -Washing the glass. How disappointing!

Glad you had a fun time!

Anonymous said...

Fun!!! Josh and I love wine tasting. We did a wine tasting class on a cruise. Plus we live in the Finger Lakes region and there are wineries everywhere.

Lee said...

I could've skipped it, but I didn't!

Paging Doctor Mommy said...

I would have been in HEAVEN at that wine tasting! And that sucks about the logo on the glasses.

AiringMyLaundry said...

That sounds like so much fun. I'm sorry about your glasses though. That stinks.

I really need to get to Vegas one of these days.

LadyStyx said...

Looks like a great trip. I so wanna go there one of these days.

joanofalltrades said...

I am so "not" jealous of you because I have never been to Vegas. I would have been all over that wine tasting like the media on Obama. Sorry about your wine glasses :(

Anonymous said...

Wine.. ohh my how heavenly! That would have been my dream vaca!

Julia said...

I would so be jealous of your wine tasting bonanza expedition fiesta party extraordinary BUT I have been banned from alcohol,

and chocolate,

and coffee.

You can or have to drink extra for me next time!

MsTypo said...

Hubby and i have been to wine tasting before and always underestimate how much we're going to drink. LOL Staying at the hotel where it was hosted is a brilliant idea! :p

How did you get the hook-up to an awesome event like this? wow!

Synergy Girl said...

Okay...so I am ALL ABOUT the magic Marker...do it...DO IT!! And as far as UT woman...I was CRAZY BUSY!! I do think it would be fun to have a girls weekend and get with all the blogland friends for lunch or something...!! Seems like most of them are in UT anyhow!!

Anonymous said...

So glad you all enjoyed the Wine Spectator tasting. I hope you and your friends will all come next time, and introduce yourselves!

Thomas Matthews
Executive editor
Wine Spectator

Cris said...

Kel you can have my glass I won't ever use it. I have lots of glasses than you can have your pair. Falling in the limo still makes me laugh. Love the pic.

Sara said...

Looks like a blast! The dolphins would have been my highlight. :)

3 Bay B Chicks said...

You and your family do the coolest stuff together, Poob. You are like the Partridge family, only way more cool and fun and without the in-breeding.

Will you adopt me? I could make special wine glasses for us to drink red wine out of...

-Francesca

PS: I'll put details re the blog game together most likely this weekend. Stay tuned...

Banteringblonde said...

seriously... you do some awesome stuff! What a cool trip!

Stacy Uncorked said...

Oh how fun!! Looks like you did Vegas right! ;) Love all the pics - everyone looks like they're having such a great time! It's been a couple of years since I've been to a good wine tasting - maybe I'll have to rope hubby into going to the Wine Spectator one in NY in October... ;) Thanks for sharing!

nikkicrumpet said...

I'm laughing at the picture of you and the blueman statue...I thought it was only my daughter Lindsey who molested statues...I'm glad she's not the only one!

Justine said...

It sounds like you had TOO much fun. I never would have known that chick was real if you didn't say so. Looked like a statue to me.

And ROFL about the glasses. Sorry, but that's pretty damn funny.

Justine :o )

Alexis AKA MOM said...

Girl you crack me up and darn it keep bringing on all the Vegas talk! I need to live thru you ... LOL.

I'm so sorry about the logos, that sucks!

And what are you doing to that poor Blue man, clean out wax ... LOL just playing

Super fun pictures!

Ms. Wanda said...

I love your pictures!!! I have never been to Vegas, everyone says it's wonderful maybe the hubby will take me there if I show him your pictures!!!

Megan said...

Man! Sounds like you had an awesome trip! Totally laughing my butt off about the glasses, though. Totally something I would've done. Haha!

That statue...err...person...err statue person story was funny. heehee

Awesome pics!

AdriansCrazyLife said...

Did you just LOVE the Venetian? That's where we're staying for the SITScation!