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Viva Las Vegas

Back after a refreshing trip to Sin City for the Labor Day Weekend, we immediately got back to the preparations for Ganesh Chaturthi.

Traveling to the desert and back to Chi-town literally had us in a tizzy for the rest of the week. I haven't felt jet-lagged in my 5-6 trips to and from India but this 3 hour Red-eye from McCarran to O'hare was just tiring. Reaching Chicago at 5:30 in the morning and then picking up the Boss from the hotel at 8:30 and then staying at work till 5:30 was exhausting, so exhausting that we both dozed off at 8:30 every night for the rest of the week.

Back in Vegas, a lot had changed (obviously) since 2002. We stayed at one of the older hotels (Riviera) and it showed. Nicer hotels like the Aria, Cosmopolitan, Wynn & Encore had altered the Vegas landscape. Still the kings of the Vegas Strip are The Bellagio, Caesar's Palace and The Venetian and throw in a mixture of the Mandalay Bay, New York New York, Luxor and MGM Grand.

Lots of free shows and a ton of walking up and down 100 degree weather made it a worthwhile trip. Kirti and I checked out the O show from Cirque Du Soleil and it was just terrific.

Rode the superb roller coaster at New York New York and the heart-stopping triple monster (X-Scream, Insanity and Big Shot) at The Stratosphere. Brilliant. Any reservations I might have had with heights, just evaporated.

By far the best free show we experienced was....of course, the Bellagio fountains. Beautiful orchestration and perfect timing. A visit to downtown Las Vegas (Fremont Street Experience) was pretty good with some photos with the Showgirls and a little bit of gambling had us nicely set up for the O show.

Las Vegas means gambling. So we did gamble and came up short by about $150. Overall, a very superb experience and for once Kirti can say I took her to Las Vegas.

Back in Chicago, Ganpati came and went and this this time unlike 2007, it was a pretty low-key affair.

Between Las Vegas and Ganpati, NFL season started and for the past 2 weeks, I have had my share of games that I had missed last season. Business trip, you see.

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