July 23, 2009
Las Vegas Nail Convention 2009
The Las Vegas Nail Convention took place this past June 13 - 15 and we attended it along with 7 others from our group. This year's attendees included Linda, Lonnie, Rebs, Yvonne, Martin aka Luvlongnailz, Jennifer, Robin and EDitor.
The Annual Nail Community Nail Party coincides with this event held at The Las Vegas Convention Center alongside The Hilton Hotel Casino, and the duration of "The Party" extended from June 12 to 19th.
The 10 year history of this annual and sometimes multi-annual nail convention within our nail community has had it's ups and downs over the 10 years, hitting a high mark of 17 people in 2007 and a few lows with only 2 people attending way way back in the last century. This year's group of 8 people was a lot of fun and while we didn't approach record numbers or even achieve the average, we still had a grand time and it will go down as one of the more memorable ones as the attendees were a rather rambunctious group, full of energy and fun.
I arrived in Las Vegas late Thursday night and got into my room after 11pm as I have done so many times over the 10 years. I'll insert here though, that as Charlie has passed on, one of my favorite arrival rituals can be no more as he wasn't there to greet me with stories and pictures and gifts as he had done for so many years. Dammit. I ate, and headed to the floor of the 4 Queens Casino and ended up staying up all night, finally getting to bed at 5:45am.
I'll note here that while we had the 3 Vegas residents and myself already in Vegas ready to rock, we were excited about meeting Martin for the first time who was travelling from Holland for his second visit to Vegas - he had come here last October for his first visit. We were also expecting the exotic Yvonne and her 2 neices as well, so there were three people to meet for the first time.
Martin arrived late late late Friday night from Europe after a series of laughable delays - laughable now but at the time, it seemed like he'd never make it to town as a result of delays, missed connection flights and other sundry events. Lin, lon and Rebs went to meet him at the airport and I'm told that for all intents and purposes he arrived Saturday morning, not friday night!
Saturday mornings we usually meet at Fitzgeralds Casino ahd have breakfast and meet LNB waitress Lisa but this time itwas better to cancel that and let the late arrivals sleep, so Martin did just that and Linda ended up coming to pick me up at Fremont Street around 11am and took me back to The Compound around noon. Martin was still sleeping and things were slow to get started.
What a pleasure it was to meet Martin. He has always been a high profile over at MySpace and must hold some kind of record for having long nailed friends over there. He has also been instrumental in bringing many people from MySpace over to our area and making them aware of us. He has always had the community at heart and has some amazing diplomatic skills when it comes to showing us all off in the best light. I cannot say enough about Martin. He's a real nice guy and I'm proud to have met him, and look forward to seeing him again somewhere around this globe - probably Vegas but possibly Bucharest?
Saturday afternoon we all headed to The Hilton Convention Center and attended that event for a few hours. While there, I finally got to see Yvonne for the first time in 2 years and for the first time I met Robin and Jennifer, the 2 neices of Yvonne that I'd heard so much about. They all attended the 2008 convention and I missed it, so this was a first for me.
I found the convention to be scaled back quite a bit, there was quite a crowd attending, but the vendors at the show disappointed a few of us, OPI for example, did not attend. There were a few booths we visited as we do every year but found our contacts that we expected to greet there to be absent. The show just wasn't what it's been over the past few years. Disappointing.
One event that occurred that i found interesting was that a guy with a cemera lassoo'ed Linda for about 15 minutes and taped her hands close-up while feeling and touching. At the time this was happening, Yvonne came over to us along with Robin and Jennifer. Yvonne mentioned to me that she had already been through the same thing with this guy a few years before. Strange ..... but what can you say. I spoke with the gentleman for a few minutes. I asked him if he had a computer, if he had heard of Nails-A-Lon, Nailbytes ... whatever. He has a computer but said he's not familiar with us. Hard to beleive isn't it? Filed for future reference is a couple of good private pics of that strange event.
At the show, I only took one picture, go figure, it was at a hair booth. Just too many good looking models walking around, so the camera had to come out.
Linda and I left the nail convention after being there a few hours and were headed off to do some business I had wanted to do in Vegas for 10 years. Before we left The Hilton though, I just had to get some pictures of the convention center from the parking lot. It was a very hot day in Las Vegas, but I endured the temperatures for an extra five minutes just to get a feel of the area in digital form before we headed off to "The Sign".
"The Sign" I spoke about if you were paying attention is the "Welcome To Las Vegas" sign that has been photographed millions of times and has become "the" icon of this world famous travel destination. You cannot watch a TV show or read a page on the internet without seeing this sign. It is the single symbol that identifies Sin City and all it offers. Last January, I attended a wedding in Las vegas (see a previous Prime Time Gallery on this last January) at The Little Chapel In Vegas, and this place just happens to be less that 1km north of THE SIGN. In going to Vegas for 10 years now, I must admit, never before had I been that far south in the city, so I had never seen it first hand, never passed it in a car or cab. The Sign has always been on my "to do" list. Well, as of June, I scratched that one off my list.
The plans for Saturday evening for all of us in Vegas was to meet at "M Resort" in the south part of the city, so this stop over at The Sign was a natural. Lin and I got there, only to be greeted by a lineup of about 20 people waiting for their turn to get photographed by the attendant there. When it was our turn, we opted to just take pics ourselves and did so.
From there we drove south as far as you can see, right to the very tip of the southern part of Las Vegas, just before the flat city turns into red mountain. Literally, The M resort, which is the newest hotel casino in town, is right at the southern tier of the city. You could not miss this place, even without a roadmap as it sits in the middle of previously desolate land, in a spot on the east side of Las Vegas Blvd. If you go through the interesction at the corner and continue south, up the mountain you go. M Resort is just as we expected. New, fresh, polished. We played in the casino for a few hours and waited for the others to arrive. After a few hours, Lonnie came along with Rebs and Martin right around 5pm. We played in the casino for a few more hours awaiting Yvonne, Jennifer and Robin. They were running very late as they atayed at the convention center until closing, then decided to do some shopping and didn;t arrive until around 9pm. We already had a table waiting for them in the buffet restaurant and they joined us but not a lot of time to gobble the food up as closing time was 10pm.
Saturday ended with the promise that we'd all get together Sunday for dinner once again, and we looked forward to that.
Sunday found us doing the buffet thing at lunch time at The Compound as the attentive staff there took care of our many needs. Food was good, I recommend it, but as always, when you eat at the compound you're expected to help with the dishes. I said you are. Not me. I'm the EDitor. I'm celebrity.
A few hours later we're off to The Strip as our ultimate destination for dinner on this day is The House Of Blues at Mandalay Bay. As a group, we've never even visited Madalay Bay and it's famous spots. This world famous hotel is huge and stands very close to the airport but had been out of the way for most of us over the years as we seem to have gravitated toward the older part of town, far away from this south strip locale. My laptop needed a part, So Linda and I visited an electronics store to pick up the part and from there we headed off to the south end of the strip as advertised for the afternoon.
We met with the rest of the Vegas people, Lon, Rebs and Martin and ended up parking at The Luxor, which is right beside Mandalay and is actually connected to it as it's owned by the same group. We spent some time at Luxor, a hotel we'd visited several times before, but went to play at Madalay for a few hours. I sat beside Martin for a long time as he gambled for the first time there beside me and didn't lose too much money. Fortunatley he did not take my advice and left with money in his pocket. This is a very big, nice casino and one day I'll give it a whirl and spend a few days here as there are lots of restaurants and sites to see throughout, and it's in close proximity to Luxor, Excalibur, Trpicana, Paris, etc.
Dinner was planned at the House Of Blues. This place is really something you gotta see. Quirky little details throughout the restaurant make it a real tourist must see. Furniture has been modified in different ways, the decor has some unique features ... hard to explain here, just go there if you're in the area.
The rest of our party arrived on time, which made a group of 8 for our wonderful dinner here. A couple of us ordered a "hot" meal unknowingly as it was spiced up pretty good, but I digested it just fine and I think everyone was pleased with what they got.
Before we entered the hotels, I took a few pics on our way in.
The dinner at The House Of Blues will always be remembered for one thing. That is, that's where we all learned a lot about Yvonne's neighbors. I laughed so hard, I almost busted a gut. The two neices Robin and Jennifer should be on stage. A couple of comedians for sure. But Yvonne stole the show with her descriptions of some of the events that have happened in her neighborhood. These are things that we need to document and submit for situation comedies on TV. Just great stuff, and while the meal was less than memorable, the stories we heard were too funny. Just an all around hoot while at the table with these girls. The restaurant itself is a fine place and we recommend it, service was outstanding and the company was even better.
OK you waited long enough for the nail pictures. First Linda, then Rebs, then Yvonne, then Robin's and Jennifer's feets!
Most of the pics were taken at The House Of Blues and Mandalay, but not all. It was a terrific event and highlighted the weekend for me. Soonafter that dinner, Lin got me back to my hotel safe and sound and a short time later I was snoring up a storm after having too much food and drink.
I also found some other pics in my camera, and we'll add them here to make this travelogue complete.
I returned home the next morning. Martin stayed on until that Friday and did some site seeing and visiting exciting Vegas places to round out this annual event. Many thanks to the Vegas hosts as usual and to the new people we met along the way this time. I had a blast and I will be back for more in late July, so leave the light on for me! Thank you Linda, Lonnie, Rebs, Martin, Yvonne, Jennifer, Robin!
