The silver gold stackers are home from Vegas!

But, let’s start with the part where we all went to Las Vegas.

My journey began Thursday afternoon with my arrival at Everett, Washington’s Paine Field Airport. Paine Field is a newer regional airport in the greater Seattle area. This airport can be great or terrible.

It is great because there are only 2 gates, the place is classy looking, and it takes 5 minutes to get through security. It is also closer to my house than the BIG Sea-Tac international airport. It is terrible because there is only one food outlet. Also, if there are flight issues there are no alternate flights to catch. Big surprise (not at all), my flight had issues.

We were meant to depart Everett a bit after 6pm, with an arrival of 8:45pm to Las Vegas. @summertooth offered to pick me up upon my arrival. Sadly, my plane was delayed 4 hours due to shenanigans in Cabo San Lucas with the plane, and a hold from the Las Vegas Airport on ALL arrivals because they had too much air traffic. So my flight landed at midnight. By that hour everyone else who had arrived Thursday was already in bed. So, I took a taxi to my accommodation at the Planet Hollywood Casino.

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Friday was filled with miserable weather - rain cold, flooded streets. Luckily my place was right across the street from @summertooth and @silverd510’s hotel. So I walked over first thing in the morning to catch up with the fellows and silverd’s girlfriend. (I am sure I said this last year, but she is great. Plus, it was nice having one other female in the mix.) We had breakfast sandwiches in the Eataly food hall at Park MGM Casino. @fat-elvis met us there just as we finished our meals.

We had three main adventures lined up on Friday. First was a run to two local coin shops. I picked up three Christmas rounds, a voodoo round, a pilgrim bar and an Easter bar.

After a quick lunch stop at In-n-Out Burger, we headed to The Sphere. The sphere is a round movie theater/concert venue/light extravaganza. There is show on the outside and the inside. Plus a selection of bars, food offerings and opportunities to chat with AI powered robots! By this time @enginewitty and @brian.rrr met up with the crew.

^{Make sure to order the pitcher of mojitos. Right @fat-elvis? 😂}

^{Just missing @summertooth (gets motion sickness) and @thedamus (delayed flight).}

The film at the Sphere is called “Planet Earth”. The scenes are a playback of the amazing elements of our world as remembered by a couple of astronauts headed into deep space to terraform a new home planet. The theater’s screen is immersive and huge, the seats rumble, and scents to match the film are sprayed through the venue.

Post the Sphere, everyone went back to @summertooth and @silverd510’ suite for a homemade Irish dinner! Summer had made us corned beef and cabbage, salad and potatoes. We also had an array of desserts including holiday themed Krispy Kreme donuts and some homemade rum fudge I brought from home. It was all so festive and tasty. By this time the whole group was together. Pre-food we all exchanged gifts, and after we played a round of Yahtzee.

^Dinner

^{My annual glitter bomb gift bags, this year holiday themed!}

^{Guess who won Yahtzee… AGAIN!}

^{The gifts I received from our generous friends.}

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Saturday started with a corned beef hash and eggs breakfast thanks to @summertooth. Then we made our way down to the Luxor for some gambling. @fat-elvis and I instantly lost a handful of dollars each on the slots. It turns out… don’t always bet on black. Other folks played craps and black jack with more success.

For lunch we snacked on food court pizza. Just a small slice each so as not to spoiled dinner. While most folks went back to gambling, Summer, Fat E and I went to the Luxor’s Titanic Exhibition. And I bought ALL of the souvenir photos! 😄

There were actually 11 different photos! Here are just 3.

After the museum and gambling, folks freshened up to head to dinner. It was about a 30ish minute walk from Planet Hollywood up to the Venetian. Fortunately… the rain had finally stopped.

^{The crew minus Brian.}

Dinner was at Smith and Wollensky Steakhouse. Every year @summerooth has found a spot for us to share an AMAZING meal. This year’s choice knocked it out of the park. The service and atmosphere were fab and the food was spectacular.

^{The restaurant.}

^{The whole gang.}

^{A sampling of some of the food! I started with delicious pea soup. Followed up with the filet mignon with brandy peppercorn sauce, a side of mushrooms and whipped potatoes. The portions were BIG. So I also managed to get a bit of @thedamus’s asparagus as well as his crème brûlée, and a few bites of Summer’s coconut cream cake. @thedamus had octopus and lobster too. Some bites of beef carpaccio were also shared around the table.}

^{The total bill, tax and tip inclusive. Not terrible for 8 people who had all the drinks, meats, starters and desserts.}

Post dinner we headed to the LINQ Promenade and Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club. @fat-elvis and I MIGHT have chugged a tasty beverage along the way. The main performer of the evening was a comedian named Orny Adams.

^{So… Fricking… Delicious.}

When the show ended we walked back down the strip towards our hotels. On the way we stopped at a cool bar at the Paris Casino called Beer Park. It was outside (right on the strip) and had amazing views of both the Eiffel Tower and the Bellagio Fountain show.

After the bar we headed our separate ways for the night. For me, this meant bedtime. For others… you will have to wait to hear about their shenanigans.

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Sunday morning started with another breakfast at Summer and Silverd’s place before heading to T-Mobile Arena for hockey! Silverd managed to buy himself, his girl, Summer, Fat-E and I tickets to the game. It was so fun! Not only was it St. Patrick’s Day, but the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team really knows how to put on a show! The atmosphere was fantastic and the home team managed to beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1. The team even had cheerleaders and their own showgirl squad!

^{You all missed it, but @summertooth actually live streamed part of the game and our shenanigans from the sgs discord voice chat channel. This is him streaming and all of you missing the fun!}

After the game we made our way back to the Luxor so folks could cash in their spots bet winnings. Then it was off to Nacho Daddy for our annual Mexican feast. I had fajitas this time. 😄 They were even flambéd tableside!

The last twist of the night… it turned out one of my closest friends was also in Vegas on Sunday night. She had arrived to town for work conference and ended up spending part of the evening with us. That was… interesting. 😂 But I was super happy to see her. We have been friends since she was 11 years old and I was 14. I dated her brother Ned for awhile in high school. I have posted about Ned before and the passing of their dad back in 2019. She is family to me, so getting to see her in Vegas was a good time.

^{Liddy and me.}

Late night roof top shenanigans.

To wrap up the evening we spent some time on the roof at Summer and Silverd’s hotel. It’s nice spot with an amazing view. The roof has a bar (that is only open in the summer, a little pool and a decent amount of seating. But it is still a relatively quiet and intimate space. We had the roof to ourselves most of the evening.

^{Post rooftop @enginewitty decided to have a cuddle between silverd and his girl.}

^{We also encountered a little pack of Elvises!}

Around midnight silverd and his girl went to bed, my friend went home, I headed back to my hotel and the others Uber-d to the Luxor for more gambling. This was my goodbye to most of the silver gold stacking crew.

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^{The morning view from my room.}

Monday folks started heading home. Summertooth was kind enough to shuttle everyone to the airport throughout the day. For the first time during the whole trip I slept until 7:30am (most days I was awake by 5:30am). The bummer about this is, I missed saying goodbye to silverd, his girl and Fat E by just a few minutes.

Instead, I met Summer at his room post airport drop off number one. We had some coffee. After we walked to Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile Mall for some final souvenir shopping.

@enginewitty and I were the next two schedule to depart. So after loading my suitcase in Summer’s car, we drove over to the Luxor to pick up Witty. They dropped me off at 11:45 for my 1:15pm flight. Like every year it was a bummer for the trip to have come to an end.

It was also a bummer when my flight ended up being delayed for FIVE HOURS!

I didn’t end up taking off until 6:20pm. Little did I know at the time, Witty and Silverd were in the midst of similar misery but in different terminals. I did make it home by about 9:30pm. Which was a better outcome than was had by the others.

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I say this every year, but this trip would have never happened once let alone THREE times were it not for @summertooth. He is our instigator, event planner and the cog that brings the whole Vegas adventure together. Great guy, so easy going, mischievous, fun, and a friend to all… if you have not gotten to know him you really should.

Thanks Summer for organizing all the things. You are the best. 🩷

To the rest of the crew - Fat E, Silverd, JENN, Brian, Witty and thedamus… it was great to see you all. Hope we will have a four peat next year with maybe a detour to NOLA in 2026!

Viva Las Vegas and VIVA SGS!

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