Viva Las Vegas

Earlier this year we paid a visit to Antique Archaeology (American Pickers) in Iowa. While we've been to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (Pawn Stars) on a previous trip through Vegas, we completed our History Channel trifecta on Friday morning with a side trip to Rick's Restorations, the location for the show, American Restoration.

They give a free tour of their workshop, so we joined a large group of lookie-loos on the walkthrough. Many of the restored items from the show were on display, as well as some projects that haven't aired yet. M and J were a bit excited to see Kowboy at work, although he was his usual cranky self. Can't really blame him - I'd be grouchy, too, if I were on display like some kind of zoo animal!

Recognize the board?!

Our real purpose for being here in Vegas was a family reunion, but I won't write much about that here. Let's just say that our family really knows how to have fun together...

Bowling at The Orleans

Slot tournament

Four generations!

As we were driving in to town on Thursday, we saw a billboard advertising the LA Clippers preseason game against the Denver Nuggets on October 19. On a whim, we decided to head down to Mandalay Bay on Saturday night to see if we could get tickets.

Good thing they packed their Clippers shirts!

Yep, we did! It's a nice venue - 200 level seats for a reasonable price! The only thing is that they wouldn't let me take my D-SLR inside, so I had to check it. Bummer.

Before you think that we've abandoned the Bulls, rest assured that they are still first in our hearts! We have just adopted the Clippers as our Western Conference team (as opposed to that *other* LA team!) The boys were really hoping to see "Lob City" in action, but when the team doesn't play good defense, how can you expect to see any fast break dunks?! The game was pretty sloppy, until Chris Paul took over in the 4th quarter to send it to overtime. Clippers 118, Nuggets 111.

Fun weekend! Now if the Bears will just come through on my Super Bowl bet...