What a wonderful week we had in Las Vegas. Had fun on the Blackjack and not so much fun on the Texas Hold-Em tables.
But we had more fun with anything NASCAR related.
We started by going to the FanFest on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Chase drivers (top 12) showed up and signed autographs. We stopped by the Sahara to eat at the NASCAR Cafe and also pick up a goodie bag that included tickets to Thursday's After the Lap (live interview with the Chase drivers).
Thursday, the Chase drivers drove their cars down Las Vegas Blvd and back and some showed their skill by doing burnouts. Jimmie Johnson showed another skill by doing lots of burnouts and then burned out the engine at the turn around area.
Later, we attended the After the Lap at the MGM Casino and hotel. Got to listen to all 12 drivers answer a question posted by a fan and then poke fun at the other drivers.
Thursday evening, we went to the Rio Casino and listened to parts of the Stewie Awards presented live on Sirius XM. Tony Stewart created a tongue-in-cheek awards program for NASCAR. This would have been a lot of fun, but we couldn't hear that well, so we left to play blackjack at the Sahara Casino. Can't beat those $1 tables. Played until midnight.
Friday, we attended the Awards Ceremony Fan Reception and then the Ceremony itself. This kept us busy from 4:30 until about 10:30. Hanging around for photos and autographs was the challenging part. Azucena regretted not bringing her camera so she needed to rely on some new friends from the Dallas area. And since I did not repeat anyone's name 3 times, I don't remember their names. A pair of sisters (Amber is shown with the Tony Stewart picture) and husband/wife team. I also had a nice chat iwth the Hellmans RealPlayer of the Year (she's the bottom right). Azucena was able to get a picture with her fav - Brian Vickers and also with Tony Stewart. Unfortunately, Kasey Kahne and Juan Pablo Montoya escaped right away so we weren't able to get pictures with either of them. Amber is a big fan of Kasey and as hard as we tried, he wasn't to be found.
Here's a picture of the championship trophy. Yes, we were THAT close to sitting with it. Wanna know how cool dinner was? Take a look at the desert "cookie".
And finally, NASCAR had a Pit Stop Tour. This was a type of treasure hunt where you had to go to get a stamp from 9 different locations and if you got all 9, you got two poker chips that said Champions Week - Vegas. We kind of ignored the hunt until this morning, then rushed to get them all done before we had to get ready for the awards ceremony. Several locations gave us an Aflac duckie and/or a Jimmie Johnson championship poster. The duckies will go a long ways towards Azucena's own rewards program for her Taylor Ducks students.
Would we do this again? Heck yeah. As long as we have enough Bank of America NASCAR rewards points to redeem. The really cool thing about this is that it is the first time the public was invited to attend the ceremony. So we were part of history there. We also watched the crowning of NASCARS first 4-peat winner - another history in the making.
Ok, time to go. It's been a great week. Stayed up late and got up earlier that we wanted. Tomorrow we have to get up by 9 to leave by 10:30 to catch a 1pm flight to get home by 9pm and then watch the taping of the UT ball game against Nebraska.
