Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 8 years and 11 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

I’m heading to Las Vegas for the next three days with some old college friends. None of us have been there before so this should be a fun trip!

I was running a little late to the airport this morning but by 6:30am I was through security and made it to my flight. I connected in Phoenix (where I was just last month for Spring Training) and met up with one of my buddies for the flight to McCarran. Our third friend had a direct flight from Detroit and beat us by a few hours so he had time to pick up the rental car and get us checked into our hotel at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. He picked us up at the airport after we landed about noon local time and we dropped all of our luggage off in the room.

It was an unusual day in Vegas, cloudy, overcast, and slightly chilly, but we spent some time walking the Strip and getting our bearings. We had a late lunch at a Tilted Kilt near the High Roller and started walking back to our hotel looking for a place to watch Game 5 of the Lightning/Red Wings hockey game. We ended up at the Public House inside the Luxor Hotel & Casino and met up with a friend of one of my friends who also happened to be in town (and also from Detroit). I was outnumbered 2 fans to 1 and the Wings unfortunately shut out the Bolts 4-0 to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

We left the Luxor after the game to take the monorail back to the Mandalay Bay and found it ever colder (and rainier!) outside than before. Back in our hotel room we intended to take some brief naps and then go out again but ended up being so tired with the early start and time change that we called it a night. Tomorrow we’ll stay out later and do more stuff.