Flew back from Vegas to Rochester on Monday night, and then got back into Syracuse around midnight. What an amazing trip.
Trip started off extremely early Thursday morning with a drive to Rochester to catch a direct flight to Las Vegas. Little did our group know that this was the first direct flight by Southwest from Rochester to Las Vegas which included a ribbon cutting and the local news stations covering the event. We arrived at Vegas ahead of schedule, met a few more friends, grabbed some breakfast (and our first drink of the weekend) and headed out to the Hoover Dam to take in the sights. After getting back to our Airbnb we all relaxed by the pool after a long day and prepped for Friday.
Friday was game day!!! We started off the day with some amazing bagels from New York Bagel and Bakery, watched a little ESPN, and then decided to head out to Fox Smokehouse BBQ for lunch. This was some of the best BBQ I have ever had, and I have been to NC, Texas, Tennessee. Burnt ends were top notch, but the sides stole the show. After lunch we hit up Mandalay Bay and met up with a group of fellow Cuse fans, registered for our Las Vegas BetMGM accounts, and placed a few bets on the game later that evening. Obviously, everyone took Cuse and a few of us were smart enough to take the over.
For tailgating, we decided to late that we were going to the game, and the SyraCruz tailgate was sold out, but we paid the $44 to attend the Cuse sponsored tailgate. They put on a great event. I would estimate that there were 300 or so Cuse fans there, and Jim Boeheim made an appearance and took some photographs with a few fans. By this time of the day the heat was starting to get to some of us, so we decided to head into the Stadium around 4:30 so we could check it out.
Heading into the stadium was a breeze and we found out seats in section 135 surrounded by other Cuse fans which was great. I will not cover to much of the game because others have already done a much better job than I would have, but as we all know the energy from our fans was electric and it was one of the best games I have been too. After the game ended, we headed back to the Airbnb to rest up for Saturday.
Saturday, for me, will go down in the record books. Our group reserved a day bed at Circa, Stadium Swim for the morning session 8AM – 4PM. This was a fantastic way to relax, watch all the early college football games, and even watch a Mets victory. If you have not been to Stadium Swim, I highly recommend it. The only thing I wish was different was the club music was a little too loud (maybe I’m showing my age here), but they are trying to hard to have a club vibe when really, they should just embrace being an amazing outdoor .
Saturday night was probably one of the best dinners I’ve had in my life. We went to Bazaar Meat by Jose Andreas. We went with the Chef’s tasting menu which included multiple items from starters all the way through dessert. I know there are multiple locations for this restaurant, so if you have ever have the chance to get to one, I highly recommend it.
Sunday Funday. On Sunday we all decided it would be nice to hit up downtown Las Vegas and check out Fremont Street. Again, as others have said this had a “State Fair” vibe to it, but I thought it was great to just grab a few drinks and people watch. I also preferred the gaming floors here as the dealers were all extremely pleasant and the table minimums fit within my bankroll. I ended up at a few craps tables and overall ended the night up a couple of hundred dollars which covered some of the food and drink enjoyed over the weekend.
On Monday we knew we were flying out so we decided to just walk around some of the shops at the Venetian and Caesar’s which were cool to window shop. I don’t know how anyone affords buying from these places, but it was interesting to see. The flight back was smooth and arrived right on time.
Overall, this trip was an 11/10 and is going to be hard to top in the future.
LGO!!!