Two weeks ago, my newest best friend Michael Pilon from Romantic Fireplaces and BBQs invited me to tag along with him for a weekend in Las Vegas. But not just any weekend. It was Super Bowl weekend. And the Super Bowl just happened to be taking place in – you guessed it – Las Vegas. The above headline pretty much says it all.

Now, normally I would change the names in a column like this to protect the innocent, but unfortunately, no one was innocent on this trip to the depths of depravity, so I will continue without the use of any pseudonyms.

Mike has been to Vegas more than 35 times and enjoys VIP status with the MGM properties, including the Luxor where we stayed for the weekend. It was my first time.

Yes, that’s right, I’m a Vegas virgin, or at least I was until Miscreant Mike convinced me to join him. With a free room and a generous meal comp how could I say no? (Did I happen to mention that I’m terrible when it comes to peer pressure? But more on that later.)

We flew to Vegas on the Friday night and checked into the Luxor at around 10:30pm. We barely tossed the bags in our room before we were out the door for my first tour.

For those who have been to Vegas, there is nothing new here. For those of you who haven’t let me just say that in trying to describe this city in the desert in five words or less, it’s over the top. As in everything in Vegas is over the top. From the lights to the hotels, to the food and the drinks and, of course, the entertainment, everything is over the top. Like waaaaaaaaay over the top.

I expected it to be eye-popping and holy cow-ifying, but holy moly, there are enough words to describe a ⅓ scale statue of the Statue of Liberty outside New York, New York, or the ⅓ scale Eiffel Tower outside the Paris Resort and Casino, or the Venetian canal complete with gondolas and gondola singers inside the Venetian Resort and Casino, or the mind-blowing lobby at Caesars Palace.

It’s all just nuts. Throw in Super Bowl weekend and you can only imagine.

On the Saturday, Magic Mike took me on a tour through all the famous hotels along the strip, more commonly called the “new” Vegas all the way from the Luxor to the Venetian. It’s a distance of about three kilometres and took about 24,000 steps, and took us about four hours. Thankfully, we took a cab back. Not surprisingly, the place was crawling with San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chief fans.

Which brings us to game day. Most of the sports bars on the Strip were charging $100 to get in and then a $50 minimum per person per hour. The game itself was four hours long so that adds up to $300 for just the game. If you show up an hour early and stick around for an hour, it jumps to $400, but with no real experience. As I told Mike, we might as well have stayed home and watched the game at Moxies.

So after doing a little research, we found something called the Big Game Bash Super Party being put on next door to the Las Vegas Convention Centre in Old Las Vegas near Freemont Street with free admission. You just had to pay for your food and booze.

Seemed good enough to me until Mystic Mike found out that we could enjoy the game from a riser with about 24 other people for $290 each and you got $290 in drink credits with free nachos and hot dogs to go with it.

The game was amazing, but the experi-ence was one of the best seven hours of my life. (Ed. note – we got there four hours before game time.)

We got to party with Fabian from Los Angeles, Cameron from Denver and from Joe Montana. Needless to say we used up all of our $580 complimentary drink credit and then some. When you count the various drinks the other guys bought us, it added it to quite a lot.

When the game ended, we went to the after party on Freemont Street which was on another level altogether. I have no words to even try and give it justice.

And it didn’t stop there, because after the after party we went back to the Luxor where Mike tried to kill me with the biggest chicken wings you’ve ever seen and a rack of ribs. I can only describe it as a near-death experience. You know the saying, “Stuffed until you almost burst?” Well, I was one wing away from exploding all over the restaurant.
Thankfully, after a good night’s sleep I was somewhat back to normal, or at least enough to could make it to the airport without missing my flight.

With all seriousness, I haven’t had that much fun in a long, long time and I have Romantic Mike to thank for it. Check another box off the bucket list.

(If you wish to comment on this or any other View Point column please write to Fred Sherwin at fsherwin@orleansstar.ca)