Here for a Good Time

Today we got up and drove to Vegas.  We planned this trip back in September. I was on my way to work one morning, listening to the radio when I heard George Strait had announced he was going to perform a few shows in Vegas. Alison regretted not attending his last tour two years ago. She told me that if he ever came back we had to go. I got into work and  I looked up the dates. The date he was performing in April was the weekend before Alison's birthday. It was perfect. I called Alison and of course, she wanted to go. Later that day she was talking to her Dad about it. She no sooner said, "George Strait is going to be in Vegas" before Blake yelled to Debbie that they were going to Vegas. When she talked to her sister, Kristin, she didn't even have to think about it before deciding she and Dan were in. The day we bought the tickets was pretty difficult. There was a huge demand and the website crashed almost immediately. Alison and I spent a couple of hours trying to get through to the website before I was finally able to get in. I was very worried that by then we wouldn't be able to find enough good seats together, but I managed to get 6 seats in the lower bowl. We were all set.

We haven't been to Vegas for a couple of years and it is easy to forget how long of a drive it is. It seemed especially long today. We kind of wished we would have flown down. We listened to George Strait and an audiobook of Hunger Games Catching Fire on the way down. We were very glad when we could see the strip.

We arrived around 1pm and decided to grab some lunch. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. It is one of our favorite places to go in Vegas. We had an awesome experience eating there on our honeymoon and ever since we have kept coming back. The experience wasn't as awesome today, but the food was good and very filling.

After lunch, we checked into our hotel. We are staying at the Elara. Blake and Debbie arranged all of the rooms for us. It is a really nice hotel. After we checked in we changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool. We spent a couple of hours lounging. It felt so good to relax. We never really understood the appeal of relaxing by the pool until we had demanding jobs and a lot of grown-up responsibilities. Now it is the best.

View from our room 

View from our hotel at night

Next, we changed into some fresh clothes and walked around the Miracle Mile shops. Shopping in the Miracle Mile is nice because it is a place we would actually buy stuff as opposed to the super-luxury stores in some of the other parts of the strip. While we were walking around Kristin and Dan picked up Blake and Debbie at the airport and we met them over at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. They got dinner, but we were still so full from lunch that Alison and I just got an appetizer and dessert. It was quite good.

After dinner, we ran over to the T-mobile arena for the concert. We were a little late, but it didn't end up mattering. We really just missed the long lines to get in and a few minutes of Kasey Musgrave. We still got nearly an hour of her songs, and although she was pretty good, it was more than enough. After Kasey wrapped up we had a few minutes to chat while we waited. We were in the last row of the lower bowl right on the edge. They ended up being really fun seats. We had a great view, room to stand up and relax, and no one sitting behind us. The acoustics at the T-mobile arena is excellent so everything was crystal clear.

When George Strait walked out on stage it was electric. It was thrilling to see him perform live. He is such a legendary performer. He did not disappoint tonight. He got on stage and sang for around 2.5 hours. He mixed old favorites with some of his new songs. We especially loved the old stuff. Alison's favorites were Amarillo By Morning (this performance was unreal. If this would have been the only song he sang we would have left happy), Marina Del Rey, Check Yes or No, a special tribute he performed to Merle Haggard, and Folsom Prison Blues, which was played as part of his encore. His performances of Here for a Good Time, Ocean Front Property, Give it All We Got Tonight, You Look So Good in Love, The Chair, Blue Clear Sky, I Can Still Make Cheyenne, and I'll Remember You were particularly memorable.

My personal favorites were Troubadour, which has always been my favorite George Strait song, and I Saw God Today. When he sang that song as the first song of his encore it gave me chills. He has such an amazing talent and sang so many incredible songs. When he got up and sang he made it look easy. He has a simple delivery. It really was focused on his ability and his songs. It was crazy that afterward when we talked about our favorite songs he sang and some that he didn't sing. He has so many great songs that there was just no way he could sing them all. Tonight we saw George "freaking" Strait and it was amazing.

The last song he sang was Cowboy Rides Away. It was a fitting song to end such a great concert:

And my heart is sinking like a setting sun,

Setting on the things I wish I'd done.

Oh, the last goodbye's the hardest one to say,

And this is where the cowboy rides away.