Vegas and Napa

Vegas and Napa, both cities serve alcohol, but that is their only similarity. Two weeks ago I went with my brothers and buddies to Vegas and the following week I took my wife to Napa with our close friends Jordan and Jenny. Surprisingly I only got sick in Napa, but that was not drink induced as I got the flu, though I'm sure the drinking didn't help.

For the Napa trip we purchased one of those "groupons" through www.livingsocial.com . It turned out to be a great deal. We stayed in downtown Napa at the Napa Valley Inn, got a free breakfast and $100 to eat at Food Network Iron Chef star Morimoto's restaurant. I'm not a wine guy, but we did a little tasting and it was fun. After dinner we were able to walk to a pool hall and play pool and darts and they had 50 beers on tap. Playing darts turned out to be really fun and we are planning on getting a dart board at the house now that we know how to play.

Vegas was a great time, though I do not recommend staying at the Rio. We only stayed there because of a deal we had, which didn't turn out to be a deal at all. Always pick a hotel on the strip and you can't go wrong with Bellagio or Mandalay Bay. I prefer the daytime activities at the pool over the night life and Mandalay has an awesome wave pool and lazy river.

Our excuse to go to Vegas was to watch March Madness NCAA basketball, but I'm not sure how many games we watched between all the pool time and craps we played. Even though the motto is "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", I took a few pictures.

Pool-time at the Rio, we made the best of it....

Enjoying the night...

Putting the sink to good use...