Lesa 60th Birthday - Las Vegas ACM Awards 2016

It's March 30, 2016 - Well in advance of Lesa's 60th birthday on August 25, 2016.   A little surprise never hurt anyone (except a few years ago when my brother-in-law Jim surprised my sister Sherry on her birthday - she hates surprises - I think his leg is pretty much healed by now).

Our overall plan was as follows:

• March 30 - Stay with Celeste (Jim was in CA opening a new restaurant - Celeste was traveling there the next day)
• March 31 - Move to the Hilton Elara Resort, Tobe arrived from Houston in the afternoon
• April 1 - Tim arrived...stay at Elara
• April 2 - Melisa arrived from CA after dropping the kids off with her Mom...Attend the ACM Party for a Cause....stay at Elara
• April 3 - ACM Award TV show at MGM Grand, stay at Elara
• April 4 - Kids left, we went back to Celeste's even though she was now also in CA
• April 5 - We flew home

Wednesday - Thursday

We flew into Las Vegas and Lesa's cousin was so generous to pick us up at the airport.    After Celeste picked us up, we made it about half way home and had to stop for a beer and some eats at the Yard House - great beer and food place.  Lesa and Celeste got all caught up - lots of Portuguese stories and chatter flying both directions at once.

The hand waving and chatter started well before we got to the Yard House...

This is not a mirror - There are hundreds of beers to try at the Yard House.   We only got through 5 of them.

Kissing Cousins - not sure how we got out without stopping at that pediped in the background.   They probably don't charge enough and Lesa was holding out for a Spa.

After the beers, we went to Celeste's beautiful home, I ran around the neighborhood to get my 4 miles in, we cleaned up and went to a superb little Italian grill called Honey Salt.  The NCAA march madness was going on so I watched some bball knowing I'd be laying down a few bets in the days to come.

One of the best Italian Grills

We got up the next day, saw Celeste off to CA and we left midday for the Elara where we'd meet Tobe in mid-afternoon.

The Elara is a Hilton Timeshare property and is parked right in the midst of the strip - beside MGM and Planet Hollywood and a pretty good sized mall.

Turns out that our 3 bedroom suite was in the upper left corner of the picture - great views of Vegas.

Planet Hollywood is attached to the Elara by a mall and a 2 minute indoors walk.

We could not check in until 4PM, so we spent the afternoon exploring and getting to know the pool area and the bartenders.  If you want to know what's going on - those are the guys to check with.

The Elara pool

On Sunday prior to the ACM Award show in the evening, we rented one of the cabanas - you can get out of the hot sun and have your own attendant.   Since we are owners at the Elara, we got the cabana for free as long as we drank $90 worth of drinks.   Think about it - Tobe, Tim - only $90??

Once we got checked in, our place was awesome.   We were on the 30th something floor all the way to the end of the building...a long walk to black double doors leading into our 3 bedroom suite.   when we walked in, all the shades were drawn.   The shades are electronic, so a single switch raises them all and we had an incredible view of Vegas.   We ran around for awhile like little kids just checking everything out.

Our living area.   The black window turns into a 105 inch TV screen if you want.  Everything was first class.

Our master bedroom.  Again electronic shades to keep the Vegas lights out at night.

I already look like crap and we are just getting started...picture from our room

Like I said, Tobe arrived Thursday afternoon so we went out to dinner at a place he remembered from one of his business trips - an Asian persuasion restaurant called KOI...very good.

We had spent considerable time by the pool awaiting check-in.   As you can imagine, Lesa had been drinking.

The three of us proceeded to the Planet Hollywood casino after a 2 hour dinner.   Planet Hollywood is attached to a mall that Elara is attached to.   Elara does not have gambling (kind of nice to get away from the noise), so PH became our source of gambling...2 minute walk.  Lesa played blackjack and eventually hit the sack while Tobe and I stayed down and played 3 card poker.   I had never played it before, but my new favorite game.  We played a little PaiGow...my second favorite.

I think we made it to bed by 2 AM...we knew the next night would be touch.   First night when we ALL get together is usually full of stories.   Some of them will stay in Las Vegas.  The next morning we had brunch at Caesars - best buffet I've ever had...you likely can not name a food or culture that is not present.


Friday - Saturday

Tim arrived the next morning and the partying began.   We spent most of the remainder of the day around the pool again.   We did a little exploring again.   Both Tobe and Tim, at different times, discovered this cutout and had to have a picture.

Tobe's beer on the podium

Tim was not going to let his drink go - someone could steal it

If you pay attention, you will rarely see either T or T without a drink....it was one of those weekends to remember (or try to remember).

Lesa explored, too

Most of the day was spent catching up with Tim and having poolside drinks.   At one point I did my 4 mile run down the main strip.   Ended up at the festival grounds (2 miles away) and upgraded our "Party for a Cause" tickets to VIP....gave us access to roof, closer, and chairs.   More about that Party later.

After being poolside and doing a bit of gambling, we reconvened in the room for cleanup and then headed out for the evening.

First stop was laying down a few baseball and basketball bets in the sports bar.   I think we all came out ahead, but Tim and I barely missed a big return when this happened at the Masters.   We had a 20-1 or so bet on Jordan to win....he had a tough time on Amen corner.   We also bet wins on Johnson, McIlroy and Scott - all in the top five or so.   Close but no cigar

We ventured out into the casino for some gambling and drinks.    With all of my gambling, I broke even for the weekend...not bad for 4 nights.   At some point we got hungry and stepped outside and found Cabo Wabo Vegas.   We'd been to the one in Cabo, so it seemed right.   A lot of rich Jews eat there.

Back to the casino's after that.   We all got separated for a little while playing our own games - blackjack, paigow, three card, craps...

If they weren't dealing they were dancing

My favorite table

Lesa disappeared around 1AM - she had had plenty to drink.   I turned in around 3AM...went up to the room and someone had gotten fairly sick....in our bed, on some of my clothes, in the Jacuzzi.....it reminded me of when the kids were small.  They'd wander into the bedroom and say "Daddy I don't feel g...." and then shoot a projectile across the room - not on the bathroom tile, but on the bedroom carpet.    I was not there, but it brought back those memories.   I moved as much of it as I could and crawled in bed wondering how T&T were doing.   I had just laid down and Tim called wanting to know our room number again.   30 minutes later they still were not back - I tried to call and no answer.

Remember when I said our room was on a very long hallway way at the end behind 2 black doors.   Tobe and Tim went to our floor, found the hallway, made it to the end, and their key did not work.  Long story short, they had gone through the wrong door and were in Planet Hollywood instead of Elara.   Eventually made it home.   Tim could not wait for the next morning to take and show me the "wrong" hallway and how similar it looked....which it did.   If you were drinking very heavily, it could be an honest mistake.   Tim also relayed to me that Tobe had lost his cell phone somewhere that night.

Turns out that as Tim was trying to find our room, he'd prop Tobe up against a wall to just hang...or to sit down...whichever came first.   We (Tim and I) eventually got a hold of security and a maid who had come across the phone.   Very fine detective work.   Tobe got up late-morning...Mel was arriving around noon.

Tim with the maid that found the phone...$20 reward

Back to Lesa.   It is Saturday morning and our plan entailed meeting Mel at the hotel and then heading out to the ACM Party for a Cause on the Vegas festival grounds.   Lesa crawled out of bed around 8 and called hotel service about her accident.   I kid you not, they showed up in hazmat outfits to clean it up.

Hotel Maid that had to cleanup after Lesa.

Tim had the good idea that Lesa may need help with her hangover....she clearly was not going to make the afternoon Party.   He suggested an oxygen bar (coincidentally there was one by our hotel in the mall).   We drug her down there and then she had these 2 treatments:

Seemed to do the trick.

Melisa made it in on schedule and we took the strip train out to the festival grounds.   There had to be 30-50000 people.   The idea is that they have the party for 3 days - noon to midnight or so each day.  One star emcees the days events and many CW stars come in and perform several songs each.

We elected to go Saturday since we were not all there on Friday and Sunday we had the actual award show to attend.   We snapped a quick picture when we got there in case it was our last group picture ever.

Tobe, Lesa, me, Melisa, Tim

Lesa and Carry Underwood dressed similarly - see below and above.

You can attend all 3 days for $75/day - more for a VIP pass.   You will see everyone that's anyone in current CW music.   You will also see many other things - with that many people, someone is always acting crazy.  Here are a couple - pictures explain it all....we have no clue who Lesa's new freind is.:

In this VIP section we had access to tent and chairs and large women.

You can tell Lesa still had a little queasiness - holding a coke while drinking beer

Chris Janson sang his famous Gonna Buy Me A Boat song while being passed around the crowd in a boat

We all agreed that every CW fan should put this event on their bucket list.   We finished out there around midnight and had to hustle to catch the last train back to our area of the strip.   Girls headed to the sack.  I wasn't far behind.   Not sure what time Tobe and Tim came up, but we were all safely in the sack.

Sunday
Sunday was the big day of the actual ACM awards one sees on TV.   It was in the MGM Grand Ballroom.   We hung out all day by the pool...this was the day we used the cabana.   Felt good to just hang.

Lesa and I got pretty duded up for the event that night.

We are all still looking pretty good for 3 days of hard partying - Mel had to take it easy - Emmalee on her way

Very crowded getting into the ballroom.

Most folks dressed to kill...assigned seats...did terrorist check on the way in.

The sound system inside the MGM ballroom was unbelievable...best concert type event I've been to.

The awards program was hosted by Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan

Big high lite was seeing Katie Perry sing with Dolly

....and Miranda with ZZTop

When Tim McGraw sang Stay Humble and Kind, all the lights went out

...and everyone raised their bracelet...Lesa still has 2 of them 

We saw Chris Stapleton at this show and the day before at the festival....clearly deserved Male vocalist of year

Nicole Kidman was there with Hubby Keith Urban

My favorite was Carrie Underwood....these big drums just echoed through the place

 I had made reservations at the MGM Steakhouse - CraftSteak - for after the show.   a good thing we had reservations...a line had formed a mile long and we walked right in....I'm sure folks thought we were big dogs.   We did see a few stars as we hung out around MGM.

Tobe, me, Lesa, Melisa, Tim at Craftsteak

Lesa got a birthday desert

After dinner, we did a bit more gambling, but everyone was getting wore out...we were all in the sack by 1AM.  

Monday
On Monday morning, Tobe headed for Houston and Tim and Melisa returned to CA to get the girls before heading home.   Lesa and I checked out on Monday and returned to Celeste's house even though she was still in California.   It was our first experience with Uber and it worked perfect other than the fact I ordered a fancy car that cost more.   Uber has a feature that you can get a regular car or if you are trying to impress a client or something, you slide the bar to indicate your desire for a nice car.   Somehow I did that...cost was double.

When we got to Celeste's we chilled and then hit a small grill and bar to watch NCAA March Madness Finals.  Nice of Celeste to leave us her Mercedes Convertible for transportation.   Ended Lesa's birthday weekend on a high note.  

Celeste has one of these!

We flew back to Dallas and  then drove to Arkansas on Tuesday.

........soon to come on the blog - Jane and Jay in Cabo.