To Vegas and back

I had to go to Las Vegas for work this week. I left on Monday, and got back last night, after daycare. It was my first trip to Vegas, and it was interesting.

I was there to attend Sybase's annual user conference, TechWave, which was quite an impressive event. It featured about 1,500 customer attendees and 300 Sybase employee drones. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel, which is gorgeous; the conference center was also part of the complex. Quite swanky, in all. My room was vast - I was upgraded at check in, and the room was wider than our townhouse and perfectly square. Vast hotel room space, and me all alone! It would have been great to have Craig and the kids there, except that it was Vegas. ;->

Vegas is a curious place. I was surprised by several things: slot machines everywhere, including at the airport the moment you step off the plane; how many children were there with their parents, at all hours of the night; the wide variety of people; how many weddings were going on (on bizarre days of the week). All in all, it was interesting. I didn't gamble once, and only left the hotel once, in fact. There wasn't much time to play around, so I didn't truly get a "real" Vegas experience.

That said, I am not terribly interested in what Vegas has to offer, so I wouldn't expect to go back except for work. And when/if I go back for work, I will make time to see a Cirque du Soleil! I couldn't manage it this time around.