I’ve had this post written, but not edited till recently.  Sorry for the delay?

This year we went to Vegas for New Years 2009, I might sound like we go somewhere every year for New Years, but that’s not the case….anymore. We might start a tradition to go some place every New Years.

New Years Eve in Vegas was not what we expected and hoped.  Staying at Planet Hollywood(PH) formerly the Aladdin the road between PH and Paris was being setup for Robbie Maddison’s Jump on to and off the Arc de Triumph.  We never actually saw this happen, but instead went to a nice dinner at Bally’s (2 hotels down) at around 8pm.  Walking to Bally’s was difficult because the jump was set to go off at 9pm, but of course didn’t go off till just after 10:30pm.  The streets were pretty crowded at this point and walking to Bally’s was a bitch!  You can see the jump below.

After dinner  around 11:30pm we went back towards our hotel.  The crowd was even more insane and getting through it got pretty dangerous with my 70+ year old parents.  I was pretty concerned but remained calm and assertive.   We were all locked holding hands and my poor 5′ 2″ mother holding Mandy’s hand through the crowd was pretty nerve wrecking.  Once we got to a ‘safe’ less crowded area we waited for midnight to hit, to watch all the amazing fireworks from the strip.  Little did we know that the fireworks were not shot off the roofs of hotels because of fire hazards and now shot off parking garages, and because of Vegas’ beautiful tall building we didn’t see shit for fireworks!  We were all extremely disappointed and should have done better research or gone to the Palms and paid a lot of money to watch the fireworks from one of their clubs at the top of the hotel.  We decided after our disappointment to go back to our hotel room and drink it off.  That was a much better idea and much more fun.  Walking back to our room got even more dangerous because people were ready to leave the crowd and go wherever.  People started pushing and I never expected to get squished like I did to some stranger.  It was absolutely insane how nasty people got.  Maybe since I’m older I expected more respect, but people’s drunkenness made for some dangerous situations.  I remember going to Mardi Gras and we did the hold everyone’s hand and don’t let go, and I know why we did that here.  I also remember Critchet going to NYC for New Year’s Eve and telling me the same thing.  Going to one of those big cities for New Years Eve can get dangerous fast.  Especially with alcohol involved.    It was a night to remember and never forget.  Next year we’re gonna be on some private beach where no one’s around, obnoxiously drunk (except us) and being disrespectful.  I should have expected this, but we definitely had a different mind set.

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