Better late than never!

5:00 AM Friday September 24th Calling Steven to scream "VEGAS OR BUST" keep in mind its 2 am his time..oh well, he got over it...and this is where it begins.

Janessa and I donned our respective bachelorette weekend t shirts which i made (Me in "Bride" and she in "Maidzilla") . As was required for the weekend I wore a veil on the plane as well. At all times I was to have on either my white veil, the hot pink veil with tiara or the "Miss Bachelorette" Sash. We had breakfast at the airport and brought along minute maid OJ bottles half filled with OJ, half filled with champagne...glorious!

En route to vegas the flight crew from southwest airlines gave us an entire bottle of champagne and announced my status as the bachelorette to the entire plane (loved it!)

An odd coincidence in the Baltimore airport...I had to go to one of the little stores to get earplugs since I had forgotten mine. Janessa held my spot in line and as she was waiting some guy (around 26ish) happened to notice her shirt and inquired. Turns out, he was going to Vegas (on the same flight) for a bachelor party and staying at the same hotel...TOO WEIRD!

We arrived in Vegas, got our luggage and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. Can I just say this would be the nicest hotel EVER! Janessa checked in and I roamed the lobby. While checking in Janessa "informed" the front desk I had a "medical problem" which required my "medication" to be refrigerated. Next thing you know they are bringing a little fridge up into our room. Little did they know the "medical problem" was that in Vegas if the alcohol in your room is warm, thats a problem, so we refrigerated my bottle of "medicine" otherwise known as Malibu Rum Next stop, the cabana check in "hut" to secure our personal cabana for Sundays day of rest. Following, we trekked down to Cesars Palace for some shopping. Not without stopping at Excalibur on the way for a pina colada in a shiny pink souvenir glass! I love Vegas, you can walk around sipping your pina colada down the street, does it get better? Read on and see....

Steven was set to arrive at around 6 that evening, so after some strenuous shopping we retired to the hotel for a snack and a little relaxation time, and of course, cocktail hour. Janessa was kind enough to bring some "dickie sippies" little straw toppers in the shape of...well think about it, a must for any bachelorette affair. The minutes ticked away and still no steven, I finally called and he said he could see teh hotel, so we waited some more. Can I say the greatest thing about the hotel room was the shark reef channel! They have a shark reef at Mandalay Bay and they have a camera set up in a certain part and they broadcast it on one of the channels 24 hours a day, we had it on all the time, its so serene, its like having a fishtank in your hotel room! A knock on the door....I try to look thru the peephole but of course he has his hand over it! So I open the door to find Steven...AND RALPH! YAY!!! A suprise guest! As you can imagine much screaming and hugging was to follow.

We proceeded to get ready for the evening. We went downstairs and had dinner at a restraunt in the hotel and continued on to "Rum Jungle" a club at the Mandalay Bay. Since Janessa had hooked up with a VIP rep we had Line passes and got to stand in the VIP line and only had to wait about 10 minutes. Once inside, this place was great. THere were go go dancers everywhere, all of them above the dance floor on various platforms etc. Every 15 minutes or so they would have some different circus type act going on above you, from a trapeze, to a swinging rope thingy, it was crazy! It was a like a risque circus! We had some drinks and danced, but Janessa and I began to wane around 12 (which is when the night BEGINS in vegas) But the jet lag was killing us, so we retired to the room and Ralph and Steven headed out on the town.

Saturday

Wake up saturday morning and see only one person in the bed opposite to mine and Janessas, apparently steven wasn't home yet. After we were all up we got ahold of him and he strolled in around 10am looking like total ass I might add and he dished on the details of his evening (scandalous is all i have to say) . We spent the rest of the day wandering around some casinos and shopping a little bit, enjoying the sights. We stopped by the VIP desk at mandalay bay to meet with our VIP Rep (yeah...we're good like that...ok janessa is, but we were with her, so we count too!) She asked us if we would like to visit the House of Blues Foundation Room that night. This is a club at the very top of the hotel, on the 26th floor and you ahve to be on "the list" to get in. So of course we said yes, and made plans to make a quick stop after the show that night. We returned to the hotel mid afternoon so we could shower and get fancied up for Tony and Tina. We left the hotel and caught a taxi over to the rio where Tony n Tina was showing. Tony and Tina is an interactive play where you are acutal "guests" at their big italian wedding, you partake in the food, dancing etc. The show was EXCELLENT, one of the top three highlights of Vegas, we all loved it, and we were probably the most interactive out of the entire audience. One of the groomsmen in the wedding kept "hitting on' janessa and I, asking us to dance and winking at us. It was great times. Might I add that during the course of the dinner between the 4 of us we consumed 3 bottles of wine (it might hve been 4??) We arrived back at our hotel (janessa and i were pleasantly tipsy), it was time for our visit to the Foundation Room. We walked up to the guy at the podium and told him we were on the list, first he said that steven had to go change his shoes, no tennis shoes were allowed! Is that chi chi or what??!?! So, eventually steven returned from changing his shoes and up we went, up in the elevator that only goes to the top floor.

When we got off the elevator we were in awe. It was pretty dark (mood lighting, if you will) and it was completely Swanky, you felt important just getting off the elevator! We made our way to the bar first thing and lo and behold....Stephanie (my cousin rick the thirds wife sister) was workin behind the bar! I knew she worked at the mandalay bay but i had no idea where. I was so excited! We said hello and janessa and i had another glass of wine and we all headed out to the terrace. WOW, the view was absollutely amazing. You could see the ENTIRE strip, and from the 26th floor you can only imagine how beautiful it was. We continued to mix and mingle a while, meeting some locals and chatting it up with the other VIP guests. (My brothers happened to be in town that weekend so i was waiting on a call from them to hang out, they called me after we had been at the foundation room for about an hour and a half and said they were on there way to the hotel). I told janessa we would have to leave soon (ralph and steven had gone back to the room a bit earlier to drink in the room and get ready to ht the town again) My brothers called again about 30 minutes later and said they were downstairs in the casino in a lounge, so i went to track down janessa so we could leave. I found her amongst a group of guys we had talked to earlier, but she wasnt looking too well. I had consumed about 3 glasses of wine at the foundation room, for a total of 6 (i think) for the evening. I soon realized Janessa was not in a good way....I helped her to the bar so we could pay the tab, while waiting for the bill we were both leaning on the bar, she puts her hand up to ther mouth. And then i begin to get scared. Her cheeks start puffing out and she is making a gagging sound....the bathroom is nowhere near....so, we pull up an ashtray and she pukes into it, covers it with a bar towel, and pushes it away. We pay the bill and escape. Considering she had just puked on the bar at the ritziest place we had ever been to i was impressed with how little attention was drawn to the situation. I dropped her off in the room with ralph and steven and told them the situation, (that she was wasted) and headed downstairs to meet the brothers. ON my way down i realize that i am pretty freakin wasted, apparently it all hit me at once, cuz i felt fine before that.

Met the brothers in a lounge in the casino, it was great to see them. Steven and ralph met us down there later after they had tucked janessa into bed. Michael left with his gf, and ralph and steven left to go clubbing, but i stayed and hung out with danny until 3am. It was great times, although i was still wasted when i went to bed.

We got up the next morning, janessa was not feeling well (as you can imagine) and i wasnt feeling too hot myself. Janessa threw up a bit more and felt a little better, good enough at least to make an attempt to go to the pool. I found out later she had had about 3 more glasses of wine than I had...it was suddenly all so clear! We enjoyed a leisurely day at the poolside in our own private cabana, complete with "cabana boy" who brought food and drinks at our request. It was a nice relaxing break after the begining of the weekend. Steven and Ralph joined us later and we all enjoyed sitting around. After the pool was starting to close we went to the aquarium at the Mandalay. It was neat to see all the fish, but the sharks were the best part.

After returning from our day of leisure at the pool we hung around the hotel and took a little nap. We got dressed and went out around 10 for our final night. We took the tram over to the Lluxor and had a sammich for dinner then decided to take a cab over to the hard rock to check it out, i really wanted to visit "The Pink Taco" and get a souvenir. We got to the Hard Rock but The Pink Taco was closed, the gift shop however, was open, so we bought a few items. Then we returned to the casino and played the slots for a bit. Janessa and i tired quickly so we decided to call it a night. Steven and Ralph decided to hit the town one last time, we warned them to be sure they got back to the hotel in time to catch their flight. Janessa and I caught a cab back to the mandalay and stopped off at a restraunt inside for some tiramisu and went to the room and packed. Next thing we know its the wee hours of the morning and ralph and steven stumble in to gather their things before nearly missing their flights home.

Janessa and I had an uneventful morning as we headed to the airport and said our goodbyes.

We'll always have Vegas.....