Niraj Fever: Vegas Edition

One of my burdens to carry is that everyone wants to go with me to Vegas.
(Also, staying humble.)

This year I combined Niraj and my Mom into one trip and told Aunt Paula I'd try to catch her next year.

FRIDAY

We arrive and check into the Aria. I got handed a glass of wine while Burnsy was checking in, so if you had bet Dave for first drink at +150 that's a winner.

We headed to the Venetian. First up: Flight Club, a social dart venue.

I quite enjoyed the Bee Sting cocktail. Also, there's no way to bury this lede any further. I was on a HEATER at the dartboard. We tried every game and I was pulling out the Michael Jordan shrug because I couldn't understand how well I was throwing. I was hanging in St. Paul's CaTHREEdral all freaking day. 

One time Burnsy closed it a game out first and then I came back and hit a double to send it to overtime. Sometimes you're on one, and that was me at darts.

After darts we both hit the roulette. I got up $30 right away using my martingale system on red/black. I cashed out so I was only playing with profit and then I tried Niraj's system of betting on green. I put $3 on the green covering 0 & 00. And within 5 rolls, it hit for a $54 winner.

After that we got burgers at Black Tap, a place that had been on my list for years. It lived up to the hype.

After that we found a prohibition bar and got a nightcap.

We walked back to Aria from the Venetian, burning off 100% of the food and drink calories.

SATURDAY

We had breakfast outside on the patio of Salt & Ivy. I got the biscuit and gravy but subbed the egg for hash browns. They should make this a permanent option.

From there we headed to AREA15.

We did Omega Mart first.

Then we checked into The Continental.

We survived (perhaps excelled) at the John Wick Experience. Below is the cocktail, With A Pencil.

After Wick, we played the golf simulator at AREA15, called Five Iron Golf. This was awesome because we were both bad. I'm not kidding, it made for a fun time as we both struggled to avoid the bunkers of Pebble Beach.

Then, we played shuffleboard on truly the wonkiest table we'd ever seen. This thing had it all: dead spots, curves from left edge to off the right edge, stationary wiggles. 

By the time we were leaving AREA15 it was dark and I got this shot:

We walked from there to Taru for the best sushi I've ever had.

We ordered the 20-piece Sashimi and it was nuts.

From there, it was a short walk to Golden Tiki, a rad tiki bar.

I had four drinks and then Mrs. Hoagie Central called. What did we talk about? I do not know.

We went to Cosmopolitan to gamble.

SUNDAY

Had to wake up early and arrive at Circa by 9:30am for NFL Sunday on Pacific Time.

The screens were incredible and I got some decent wings as well.

Now because the three games I felt great about were the Chiefs, Patriots and Seahawks, and they all won big, then surely I had a great day at the sportsbook. You would freaking think so. But no, I had to do a bunch of stupid stuff and only broke even. Still, I've had worse days at the sportsbook.

After six hours of football, including nice wins by the Chiefs and Bears and a truly insane ending to Giants-Broncos, we tried the tiki bar near the Circa: Glitter Gulch. It was fine but not as rad as The Golden Tiki.

(photo credit: Niraj. Great shot!)

Then we got a ride to the Rio to eat a Korean BBQ place: Kang's Kitchen. They cooked it all for us and it was super fun and tasty. The meals on this trip were super good.

We were at the Rio to go to the Comedy Cellar. Five comedians, all really funny. Jimmy McMurrin, Dean Delray, Brandi Denise, Ryan Goodcase, and Jeff Leach. Ryan and Jimmy were my favorites.

(photo credit: Niraj)

We went to the Bellagio next. Always a classic.

Gambled more in Aria before bed.

MONDAY

I woke up earlyish on Monday and met up with my Mom in Paris. That's right, two trips in one.

I started playing on their machine and hit 4 nines on a 11x multiplier. That's 1375 nickels on a $1.50 pull.

We then went to Cabo Wabo Cantina where we met up with Niraj and we all had fajitas together. 

We walked to Ole Red per my Mom's request.

Then Burnsdog and I walked to Brewdog.

The sun was hitting the top of Burnsy's head and doing crazy stuff.

We went back to gamble a little bit more with my Mom. At this point, Niraj hit two roulette greens in a short span and was crushing it. We decided to spend our last night where we spent our first night: The Venetian.

We split the hot chicken (medium level) at Howlin Ray's. We split it because we wanted to save room...

Because we each ordered this freaking enormous milkshake from Black Tap. This is not an optical illusion. It was giant.

We gambled for a bit and I made a truly horrific Monday Night Football bet that we then watched play out in real time. 

We walked back down the Strip and ended up at Bottled Blonde where we saw a really good band: Full Circle. They did everything from Nirvana to Cranberries and did it well.

TUESDAY

It was my last day. We headed to Paris to meet up with my Mom again.

We walked to In and Out Burger for our last meal.

Damn, we really did it all. Great trip!

San Diego with Niraj Recap

San Diego has been on my list to visit forever. We even booked a summer family trip there back in January of 2020 but didn't get to go. So when Niraj mentioned that he was interested in going, it didn't take me long to make it happen. 

FRIDAY

First thing we did was get lunch at The Crack Shack. A work friend told me about this place in 2017 and I finally got to try it.

The spicy chicken thigh was way better than the regular chicken breast. Worth the wait!

Next we headed over to Stone Brewing at Liberty Public Market.

They had a large outdoor space, but we grabbed an open spot at the bar. Niraj was able to pull up the Illinois game on his phone while we sampled beers.

From there we were pretty close to Sunset Cliffs beach so we headed over to walk off some of the beer. 

I call this next one, Ocean Wisdom.

We stayed around for the sunset. Only appropriate given the name.

We were staying at the Hotel Republic. Here's the lobby.

And here's us having a pre-dinner cocktail at their terrace bar.

For dinner, we walked to the Gaslamp District and opted for a spot recommended by our first driver, Tacos El Gordo. Here's the action shot of the guy cutting the meat for our adobada tacos.

We each had two adobada and one carne asada. Really great. 

Afterwards, Burnsy found a place called the Whiskey House.

Upon entering we found out it has the world record for number of whiskey bottles. 

They had a lot of classic and wild stuff on the menu. I couldn't help myself once I saw they had a peanut butter old-fashioned. As I was ordering, I thought there's no way this is going to good, right?

But it was. It was incredible. It tasted like whiskey and peanut butter but in the best way. I still can't believe it worked.

I even got the bourbon brownie, because I'm built different.

SATURDAY

We started Saturday by going to Morley Field for disc golf. We found out when we got there that it's known as the best course in California, it has tee times and admission fees.

The funniest part is that with about 20 people watching, I shanked my first shot a full 90 degrees to the right, into the parking lot, narrowly missing a bunch of cars. I then had to play in a group with 3 strangers for 3 hours after hitting such a terrible shot.

This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

After disc golf, without having eaten anything, we had our first meal of the day at 2:45pm. We got a car up to La Jolla Cove and ate at George's. Lunch with a view!

After lunch, we walked down to get a closer look at the La Jolla sea lions. 

All that walking meant it was time for beer. To Ballast Point Brewing!

This is Little Italy at the golden hour.

We had dinner outside at Bencotto, and it was awesome. 

We started with the 30-month aged parmesan reggiano that came with carmelized figs that were as good as the cheese.

Then I had the best lasagna of my life.

Burnsy got the squid ink pasta with shrimp.

After dinner, we wanted to check out this tiki bar I had researched online, False Idol. We walk in, we see a display case with a False Idol logo on a napkin. I ask for a table and they seat us. 

So here we are and they give us a menu that doesn't have any tiki drinks on it. 

I was very confused. I start googling for the tiki menu. I find one online.

So I'm thinking they gave us the wrong menu. But Burnsy is way ahead of me. He says were not in the tiki bar yet. I'm like what do you mean. We saw the logo. He says there's a secret entrance with skulls. It's a hidden bar within a bar.

So I start wandering around this bar, and sure enough, there is a secret entrance with skulls. 

We had to wait a bit since we didn't have a tiki reservation, but soon we got in to the hidden bar within a bar.

The glasses were so cool that we each got one.

SUNDAY

As luck would have it, Illinois advanced to the Big Ten Championship AND it was St. Patrick's Day. So we went to the best sports bar in San Diego AND it happened to be an Irish pub.

I got the whiskey-buffalo wings and they were so good. Top all-time wings?

Good place to watch Illinois be crowned champs!

After that, we got a ride to Coronado Island. The Hotel del Coronado is pretty fancy and was built in 1888, the largest resort in the world at the time. We knew we didn't want to stay here, but that didn't stop us from checking it out.

Or visiting their beach.

I even found time to make my first Calcutta pick. 

Before we left Coronado Island, we stopped to get some gelato.

When we got back to the hotel, I took this shot from our 6th floor window.

For our last dinner, we went back to The Whiskey House because it was so good two nights prior.

Burnsy got some insane nachos and I got the en fuego burger.

MONDAY

On our last day we checked out of the hotel and walked to Little Italy again.

This time we went to Not Not Tacos, a restaurant by Sam the Cooking Guy, a youtube chef I watch a lot of. Delicious.

After that we walked around before getting our last beers in at Hidden Craft, a self-service bar. I love the self-service so I can basically make my own flights one at a time.

One last time to marvel at the low planes arriving over downtown San Diego.

This was a super fun trip and a nice change of pace from the usual San Francisco/Kansas City visits.

Unexpectedly awesome food town for sure.