what happens on 8/17/12 in Vegas

You may have heard about a little bit of craziness going down in Vegas last weekend. Oh yeah.

Friday. August 17th, 2012.

A complete surprise of a trip. British song & dance included!

The occasion:

Mr. M’s birthday!

For his birthday, I planned a surprise trip to Las Vegas. I didn’t tell him he was going on a trip at all. In fact, he didn’t know ANYTHING until 90 minutes before take-off. And I pulled it off and we escaped from one hot place to another for 2 fun nights!!!

I requested that he take his birthday off of work (Friday) and keep plans open. I booked the tickets/hotel/show 3 months out… and then crossed my fingers and kept asking if he had taken the day off to ensure the trips success.  My parents had planned to be at our house for a stopover on a summer vacation further north. Mr. M thought it was for 1-night… but it was really for the weekend. I let one mutual friend (CM) in on the plans (who also happens to share his birthday)… and we arranged dinner for four of us (her boyfriend W included) in early celebration of their birthdays at 6pm. I had his parents plant a fake birthday dinner for Friday night. And I even scheduled our new high-speed cable installation for Friday afternoon. Oh yeah. I hid it as well as I could.

And then… it was Thursday night.

So… before we met up at 6pm for dinner, I had my parents drive me into town to drop me off with enough time to strategically dump our packed bags at CM & W’s house without him seeing it happen. Mr. M had parked his car nearby… which would be the airport vehicle shortly. And with only seconds to spare, I got the bags in the house before they returned and we headed off to eat. And while he only thought it was for the evening, Mr. M had the chance to say goodnight to Miss L before the secret rendezvous.

We ate an indulgent dinner at Magpie. Consumed two bottles of wine. The birthday kids blew out their candles on dessert.

7:45pm:

I handed Mr. M his birthday card. It may have looked normal on the outside, but inside it read,

“Better finish eating because we’ve to got to be at the airport by 8:20!”

He didn’t know a thing. In fact, he really thought he was getting a puppy for his birthday. And that’s why he was taking the day off. But he was shocked I actually surprised him for the first time EVER. And he still didn’t know where he was going.

So we closed out the check, walked back to throw our bags in the car, and drove off to the airport!

Thirty minutes later, the bags were checked, Mr. M had parked the car, and when we made it through security the guard tipped him off on his future destination. We walked onto the boarding plane (the 9:10 Thursday departure to Vegas is a serious party plane), and I handed him his little folder with an itinerary and choices galore of things to do.

And we arrived…

That’s just what we did. Two days and two nights of fun stuff.

We stayed at Vdara with a view of the Bellagio fountain show.

We drank exotic cocktails (like the “Campfire Delight” above) & blew smoke like dragons using frozen raspberries at The Chandelier.

We indulged at the palace of the “Lord of the Grill” (aka. Mesa Grill).

We saw our first Cirque show ever…

We had no idea we were doing it…. but ended up eating “the best thing Giada has ever eaten with chopsticks.”

We gambled enough for me to win an indiscriminate amount of money under $100.

And then I lost it all on yet another pitiful Wheel of Fortune machine while enjoying the best bargain of a cocktail I’ve ever had in Vegas.

The rest? Well, that stays in Vegas! (silly people – you broke the code tattling on Harry!) Sadly I can’t say I made Mr. M’s birthday more special by running into Harry and Ryan Lochte that infamous night, but we we did walk by the queue to XS to people watch that night at the Wynn as we left after a late dinner?  And Mr. M thought it was hilarious that I was looking for Olympic medals all weekend (seriously – where else would you go to celebrate?!?).

The end of the story? Birthday surprises are awesome. Everyone should plan more surprise trips in their lives – it’s fun to whisk someone away or be whisked as well.

But I think someone still wants a puppy. There’s always Christmas?