The Next Big Weekend

On Wednesday afternoon, I decided at the spur of the moment that I would drive to Costa Mesa, California to visit Ben and his Brother for my long weekend. Since I knew I was working the following Saturday, I was able to even get Thursday off. Once that happened, my mind started thinking of ways to make the weekend even more fun.

VEGAS!

I ended up meeting Ben and his bro in Las Vegas to have one amazing night. We stayed in the Bellagio (cuz, hey, when you only have one night in vegas, you gotta do it right!). We explored the strip, watched the fountains, gambled a little bit, then made our way to my favorite place in Vegas….Ghostbar. To the people I’ve been there with already, I definitely missed you. Come visit so we can go again!!!

Thanks to my awesome cousin, we were treated like regulars at the Palm’s infamous roof-top bar, Ghostbar. Always a great time when you’re partying on the roof! The rest of the night is, well, history.

We woke up the next morning, and I took a look at my wallet to see just how much I had spent. Low and behold, my credit card and ID were gone. “Great,” I thought. I woke up the guys, “I gotta go back to the Palms. I think I left my tab open.” So that was our first stop. The next occurrence just blew my mind.

Before we left the hotel and checked out and everything, I called the Palms to make sure they had my cards. They did. They were being held at a little retail store named “Stuff.” So we went over there, I jumped out of the car to run inside and grab it. “Hey man, I think you have my credit card and ID,” I said to the guy at the register. A girl’s voice came from behind me, “You’re the guy from Florida?” With my Florida hat and t-shirt on, I smirked and said, “How could you tell?” She laughed.

As the guy at the register was fumbling around trying to find my cards, the girl casually said “Yeah, I love the Gators. My boyfriend used to play for them.” My eyes lit up, “Really!? Who’s your boyfriend?” “Corey Brewer,” she said.

I could barely hold back my excitement, “WHAT!? NO WAY! Are you serious?” “Ofcourse, she said.” We went on to talk for a few more minutes, then after she realized how much of a fan I was, she asked if I wanted to talk to him. “HELL YES I WANT TO TALK TO HIM!!!!” Long story short, everything happens for a reason, and I’m one of the luckiest people I know. I spoke to Corey about his knee and how rehab is going, and he even mentioned how he’s going to Chicago to train with the guy that trained Michael Jordan (Sorry, but I can’t remember the trainer’s name). We spoke about how UF basketball is falling apart and how no matter how bad we are, the Gators will always be the Gators…THE BEST! After all that, I was so excited to go tell Ben, that I didn’t even catch his girlfriend’s name. hahahah, but whatever.

That’s going down as one of the best random moments of my entire life.

We continued on our already-awesome journey through Vegas. I needed to take these guys to a place called “BurgerBar.” I could’ve sworn it was in Caeasar’s Palace, but after searching that place end-to-end and asking 2 different people, we found that it was in Mandalay Bay. We continued on to Burger Bar and all had Kobe beef burgers topped with, whatever it was that we wanted it topped with; everything from grilled asparagus, zucchini, and onions, to portabella mushrooms and black truffles. You want it, they got it. The best burger place in history! Oh and I topped it off with a Nutella milkshake to go ☺. Deeeeeelicious!

*Note! Go to BURGER BAR in MANDALAY BAY next time you are in VEGAS!

After that, we hit the road and headed for the coast. We stayed in an awesome little house in Costa Mesa, CA near Newport Beach. The weather wasn’t exactly great. In California, the locals call the time of year “June Gloom.” I guess because it’s gloomy more often than not. Anyway, we had a basketball game to catch. We got ready and went to a local pub to watch a heart-wrenching game 4 between the Lakers and Magic. We all know how this series ended up. I guess it was just Kobe’s time.

On Friday, our first stop was Huntington Beach. Amazing beach! They have atleast 20 sand volleyball nets set up and there are people everywhere! Biking, skateboarding, playing live music, playing volleyball, Frisbee, surfing, everyone was active! It was great! We ended up picking up one random guy and played a few games of 2v2; always a great time.

Then, we went to Volcom’s International Headquarter’s “employee only warehouse store.” Ben’s brother, somehow, by the planet’s aligning, he got an internship with Volcom. He brought us in and after we did some awesome shopping, he showed us around the whole building; design, marketing, administration. The whole building was decked out with awesome gear and art. If there was a contest for best desk-job in the world, the winner would be in this building. They get to surf during lunchtime and wear sandals to work! How cool is that!?

Then we hit the town again and another stroke of luck came our way. We decided to hunt for some solid seafood. We went into one place and it ended up being pretty stuffy and extremely expensive. We dipped out and hit the place next door, The Rusty Pelican (they’re the ones that started the Bubba Gump chain!). We automatically knew we made the right decision when we saw the hostesses. We chatted’em up for a lil while, then got a table. Our waitress ended up knowing everyone at Volcom and gave us free appetizers and dessert! Then we went out and had a great time! We even met up with our waitress and some friends at a local pub and had a great time.

Saturday was surf day. That is all. We were beat and just rested the rest of the evening. Sunday morning, Ben headed back east. We would go our separate ways….for now.