Work Meets Travel

The winter holidays are always so fun, but maybe more-so for myself than for Peter. He’s not one for festivities. Our November and December have been packed to the brim—much of it due to social gatherings. Each year, however, Peter attends a pharmacy conference covered by his workplace. This year, it took place in Las Vegas, America’s favorite morass of debauchery. With the flexibility of my own work position to work remotely, I was happy to join him.

It has been many years since I’ve last been to Las Vegas. My family would occasionally go on trips here for the holidays as a quick getaway from the SoCal routine. So for me, there’s actually quite a bit of nostalgia associated with Vegas. I remember distinctly the bright lights, fascinating characters, and overwhelming scent of casino lobbies. Peter has been a repeat visitor over the years for his conferences, so it doesn’t stir quite as much of emotion.

While he attended primarily for work, he wanted to enjoy himself. While I attended primarily for fun, I also decided to work still. We arrived in the city by plane Saturday evening where we met up with one of his friends from UCSD. They’d be attending many of the pharmacy related events together over the course of the next few days. Upon entering the city, we checked into our hotel room at Vdara which was very spacious. It was far more luxurious than anything I remembered from my youth. Vdara is a like mini-Aria and tucked away in a quiet corner with no casinos which meant no stench and no noise.

We initially had plans to grab a quick an easy dinner (most likely In-N-Out), but instead made our way over to Earl of Sandwich. It was surprisingly my first time trying this place and it was rather mediocre (foreshadowing for the remainder of our trip). We walked around the Las Vegas Strip after dinner in search of obligatory dessert. We settled on gelato. Peter’s friend and I also each got a late-night espresso as we intended to stay up a little later. I had some work to finish—the best way to close a Saturday evening in Vegas.

Despite the late Saturday evening, we were all up by 6:00 AM on Sunday to grab breakfast before Peter attended his full day of learning. Breakfast was at a restaurant in Aria which was exorbitantly priced for exorbitantly mediocre food. Upon finishing, we sauntered on over to MGM where I dropped off Peter and his friend for their 8 hour class. Peter was falling asleep the entirety of the session until rudely awakened by the stench of ongoing sewage repair (yes, in the middle of a professional conference). Poor Peter was texting me throughout the afternoon in a desperate attempt to stay awake.

On the other hand, I spent all of Sunday in our cozy hotel room. Peter and I have been working on several projects together, so I was doing some research a la YouTube and relaxing. I treated myself to an expensive bagel with lox for lunch while Peter received a meager boxed lunch (but free)! I meandered through a luxury mall admiring Christmas decorations to help pass the time. As 4:00 PM quickly arrived, I walked back from our hotel over to MGM to pick Peter and his friend up for dinner.

We attended dinner at a fancy Greek restaurant with a third pharmacist—I was 4th wheeling as a psychiatrist. Dinner was expectedly full of grievances about the healthcare system—what else would a group of healthcare professionals talk about? Following a scrumptious dinner, Peter’s friend picked up a few cute blind boxes (Lulu the Pig anyone?) from a reseller. I had to resist the strong temptation to buy a wide array of blind boxes, including one called Sleepless Grumpipi, wholly befitting of my persona. We retired early that evening with yet another double scoop of gelato.

Come Monday morning, it was my turn to work a full 8 hours (remotely) while Peter lounged around. The day passed quickly and we were soon on our way to getting dinner. We chose Mexican food that evening and splurged on nachos. Peter and I took a stroll around Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace, The Venetian, and The Palazzo that evening, with him showing me all the picturesque spots. With sore feet and 25k steps under our belts, we headed back to bed. Speaking of which, we averaged almost 20k steps per day during our time in Vegas—we were inclined to little more than traversing The Strip by foot.

Tuesday morning was perhaps our most exciting day. Peter and I both had a clear schedule so it was our first and only full day together with no work for either of us. It was a date day which started with sleeping in, followed by a healthy brunch at a restaurant focusing on whole foods, and then a gym work out. It felt so good to have a day with no agenda and for us to enjoy our time together. We spent some time back at the hotel casually working on side projects before dinner arrived. We loved our lunch so much that we ended up back there for dinner. We were determined to have something different for dessert than gelato that evening.

Peter’s friend coincidentally was free on Tuesday evening so we met up with him after dinner. He was searching for a few souvenirs to bring home in addition to his blind box piggies. We meandered around various stores for him to collect knick knacks and snacks. We walked by a PopMart hidden away in Planet Hollywood where I found a few gifts. As fate would have it, I was rewarded for my ability to resist the prior temptations as I was greeted with a few dolls I had been eyeing (for both myself and my mom). We walked all throughout The Strip again, almost as though retracing our steps from Monday evening. Peter and I settled on a slice of strawberry cheesecake that evening while people-watching, which was the perfect way to end our “date” day. We headed back to Vdara where I packed up our suitcase in preparation for our departure on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning actually flew by so quickly. Peter and I both had work, albeit half-days for the both of us. With that out of the way, we scurried down to the lobby to check out. We were both starving and deprived of caffeine (we refused to pay another $10 for an americano from the hotel Starbucks). It was lunch time, and we decided to make our way to the airport for our 3:00 PM flight. At the airport, we found our way to the Capital One lounge which had a great spread of food and services. I jokingly like to think we had our first and only buffet in Vegas at the airport. For someone who has never been in one of these premium airport lounges, I thought it was a great experience—definitely a highlight of the trip.

The time at the airport flew by, and before we knew it, we had landed back in Orange County, just a little after 4:00 PM that Wednesday. My parents picked us up from the airport and had a dinner ready for us. We enjoyed some grilled porkchops with bittermelon soup that evening. As an aside, I’m so lucky to have found someone who loves bittermelon as much as I do. We wrapped up dinner and headed back to our apartment from my parents’ place.

Pooped, we quickly unpacked, showered, and jumped into bed. I needed to be ready for a 10 hour in-person workday the next day. Peter similarly had quite a busy schedule ahead of him. Despite this, we were both thoroughly content with our experience—a quick, restorative get-away from our mundane lives.