Tourney Time: Vegas 2017

I'm going to preface this by saying that I literally have a single picture from this trip. It's not even a good picture. I'm not really sure how or why it happened, but that's the unfortunate reality of life. It was only a quick little weekend trip, so I'm not sure if that helps with the justification.

Every year, BYU Basketball heads to Las Vegas for the WCC Tournament. The tournament usually covers a Thursday through a Tuesday. I always leave after BYU loses because the tournament falls in the middle of the semester. BYU doesn't have a spring break and missing a few days of school can be hard sometimes. Also, I was kind of dating this BYU basketball player at the time so I wanted to make sure I was showing my support to him. We were keeping our dating life a little bit more under wraps, but something was definitely there. Though we didn't do anything together because of the tight wraps athletes are kept under, I still wanted to show I cared about him.

I went down to Vegas with the same crew as the San Diego trip, the ROC Board. We still had a complimentary stay through the athletic marketing department, but this time we were in charge of making sure the other students who attended the tournament were having a good time.

Day 1

I drove down with my friends Deb and John, both of whom slept or were on their phones the entire time. It was a pretty boring drive. Once there, we checked into South Point, the hotel we were staying at. I love South Point because it has so many different options: bowling alley, movie theaters, pool, hot tub, restaurants, etc. We ended up walking the Strip that night. Apparently things were pretty tame because the most exciting place we went was the massive Nike outlet inside Caesar's Palace. I love that store, but don't buy anything there because it is all ridiculously overpriced. We finished the night at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse with giant pazookies.

Funny note: in my journal, I've written that my roommates were Deb and a girl named Anna Killpack, one of the athletic marketing interns. In the nearly three years since this trip, Anna has now become Anna Metcalf and is my current boss.

Day 2

We watched BYU beat Loyola Marymount in the first round of the tournament. The ROC Board then facilitated a massive group of over 100 students to go to the nearest Raising Canes. It was my first time trying it and I loved it. Raising Canes only serves chicken fingers, fries, coleslaw, and toast. I go every time I am in Vegas just because it's something you can't get in Utah.

After the game, I went onto the Strip with the girls from the ROC Board and my roommate Sam Buker, who had just driven down. Buker is the one who inspired me to start traveling more. She has an extremely spontaneous personality and always wants to be out doing something. She never shies away from new experiences. She came down for the trip to Vegas just because she thought it would be run. She stayed in Boca Raton Condominiums, which my dad used to own. The condos are right down the street from South Point on the Strip.

That night, we walked the Strip some more and ended up riding the New York New York roller coaster. For some reason, that coaster is tons of fun, if extremely overpriced. Buker and I ended up at Shake Shack. It was my first time there and I greatly enjoyed it. I'm not a big burgers person, but the custards are delicious there. I love the one with the pie in it. We headed back to the hotel and Buker went to Boca.

At the hotel, I went to the hot tub with some of the ROC Board girls. We ended up meeting another group of boys from BYU there. Some of them have become good friends and were future ROC Board members. We attempted to play some games, but the group was too large so we ended up just chatting. We ended the night around 2am.

Plot twist: I got a call around 2:30am from Buker. The security guards at Boca would not let her in. She eventually figured it out and was let in, but it was an adventure to say the least. Dad had just employed new security guards and they did not know that on occasion, visitors were allowed to go into the show condos to sleep. It was very exciting stuff.

Day 3

Buker and I had the best intentions of going to church, but her car broke down in the parking lot of South Point when she came to pick me up. While we were waiting for her fuel pump to get fixed, we went out tanning. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy so we didn't get to stay outside for very long. Buker ended up going back home and I headed to my friend Shae's house for Sunday dinner. We met with all the other ROC Board members and got to meet all of Shae's family.

After dinner, I went home and called mom. I watched some TV (a show named Ransom that was only one for one season) and then met up with the ROC Board at 12:15am. One amazing thing about South Point is that they have $5 steak and eggs between 12 and 6am. I had $3 sausage, eggs, and toast. After that, we bowled. Bowling at South Point only costs $1 per round. We bowled until 4:30am.

Day 4

Buker and I ate at my very favorite place in the whole wide world: Hash House A Go Go. The food there is massive and delicious. I always get Andy's Sage Fried Chicken Benedict. It has a biscuit, mashed potatoes, bacon, cheese, tomato, spinach, eggs, and hollandaise sauce. It's a concoction and my favorite thing to eat in the whole wide world. It's large enough that you can eat it for two meals if you want to.

After the best meal in the world, Buker and I went to the BYU v. Saint Mary's basketball game. We lost by 31 points, which is never fun. The boys of the ROC Board were getting extremely rowdy during the game and being encouraged by other students around them. Both Gonzaga and Saint Mary's fans were yelling at us. Eventually, Tom Holmoe, the athletic director at BYU, had to come sit in front of us to stop things. That game was absolutely no fun. We went home sad and immediately went to bed.

Day 5

I drove home with Deb and John and it was much the same as before. Nothing exciting happened. The trip was honestly kind of anticlimactic.

Life Lessons

Sometimes even if you go in a group, it's okay to split up and do different things. Not everyone likes the same things and wants to do the same things.