Anniversary Vegas Trip

Because of its proximity to Christmas and Manina’s birthday, our anniversary usually either:

• gets rescheduled (we choose to celebrate it on a different date)

OR

• gets minimized (we go out to dinner at a nice restaurant and call it good)

This year a few things happened to help make our anniversary plans be a lot of fun:

1. BYU and Utah got matched up in the Las Vegas bowl
2. Manina got a fun bonus at work
3. Weather and work allowed for time off for a road trip

So, on Friday we headed down to Vegas for our anniversary. Part of Manina’s bonus was for a great room at the Palazzo resort.

We decided to splurge and eat dinner at the best seafood restaurant we could find. Conveniently, the conjoined Palazzona and Venetian resorts had a restaurant that fit the bill — Aquaknox.

Manina and I are both cheapskates and would normally have much difficulty spending that much money on food. But, we soothed ourselves by saying we were spending it on a memory, and that would make it worth it.

We had king crab, lobster, shrimp, and a pretty spectacular filet mignon.

The food was delicious.

After dinner we tootled around the shops, but couldn’t bring ourselves to spend any more money.

Saturday was game day. We woke up early and worked out at the fitness center. Then we drove to the game. The weather was beautiful and everyone was excited for a good football game.

Unfortunately, it was a horrible game.

Our beloved cougars started the game with 5 turnovers for touchdowns. In a row. Down 35-0 in the first quarter set the stage for a boring game. Utah would play conservatively and burn clock, and BYU would scrap and scrap and never dig themselves out of the early hole they dug for themselves. Frustrating.

I wanted to stay another night, but Manina wanted to get back for the Christmas program on Sunday. So, we knew we were going to leave the game early. After the first quarter performance, I was ready to leave. But Manina made me stay at least until after halftime.

In hindsight, I’m glad I did because the Cirque du Soleil performers were impressive.

We listened to the rest of the game driving through the Nevada desert back to Utah. When the Cougars pulled within 7, Manina punched me and said she’d never forgive me if they came back to win.

They didn’t, so that’s one less thing she has to forgive, meaning maybe we can make it through yet another year of wedded bliss.