This past week had a LOT of stuff going on—I got back from my Vegas work trip last night, and I lost my voice on Tuesday somehow, so I am going to see the doctor today and probably only working a half day (and then Monday is Memorial Day, thankfully).
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| World of Beer festival, Frankenmuth, MI |
What I've been up to this week:
- World of Beer festival, in Frankenmuth. My mother-in-law came to town last Friday, because of my work trip on Monday, but we asked her to come in a little early so we could go to the beer festival in Frankenmuth—we had gone in 2022 and 2023, and it was a good time. Your admission fee ($30-ish) gets you this tiny souvenir mug, pictured above, plus six pours, and you can buy three more tickets for $5 on site. They had a lot more vendors, including artisans, this year, and I bought a funny plaque that says "Welcome to the bathroom - a cat will be with you shortly" (we have two cats), which is now hung in our bathroom, haha. The festival also has food trucks on site, such as the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus's one (tasty cheese curds, fried pickles, etc.), so we had some of that too, and then finished our day with AYCE chicken dinners at Zehnders (BOGO, too, because my husband's birthday is this month, and during your birthday month you get a free dinner). Overall, it was a fun day, with good weather to boot.
- Attending the Sweets & Snacks Expo, Vegas. This is my fourth year at this show, but it's been going on for a lot longer than that ... it was in Chicago for 10+ years (when I attended in 2023, it was at McCormick Place), and in 2024 it started a new rotation where it goes to Indianapolis for two years, and Vegas for one year ... 2024/2025 was Indy, so this year was Vegas. I will say the Las Vegas Convention Center is not my favorite—it's gigantic, and I didn't realize the Expo was in West Hall, so when I took the monorail over on Tuesday AM I then had to take a Tesla underground (this sounds made up but is true, LOL) to get to West Hall, otherwise it would've been even more of a walk. Overall the Expo is a lot of fun, though, and it's an event I look forward to every year ... almost every snack and candy you can think of attends, both big and small, and I always come home with a stash of samples, too.
- Staying at the Horseshoe Las Vegas. I refused to call it the Horseshoe—it will always be Bally's to me, as I first stayed there in 2001 or 2002 with my parents, I believe. It's definitely showing its age, but the rooms are huge, and had a fridge, which I needed for my pumped breastmilk, although I really needed a freezer so I tangled a bit with them over that. The location is also prime, as it's mid-Strip, right next to Paris. I would stay there again but might look for a nicer hotel next time ... I still can't believe they charge $50 (plus taxes!) for a resort fee now, basically the only thing included is WiFi and that's ONLY for two devices per room (so for me, that was my work laptop and iPad).
- Dropping by the Bellagio. Even though I don't usually have a ton of time during work trips, I always make a point to get to the Bellagio to see its Conservatory display and also one of its water shows. The Conservatory theme was spring this year and was gorgeous, and the water show I ended up seeing was one of themes from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and that's one of my favorite water shows there so I was happy with that.
- Seeing friends and eating well. On Monday night, my flight got in like two hours late so I did what I had initially planned on doing anyways: getting Giordano's takeout and eating it in my room. On Tuesday night, we had a team dinner with myself, our publisher (my boss's boss), and two of our sales ladies, at Alexxa's in Paris, which was a good time, even though by then I had lost my voice and it was hard to talk. On Wednesday night, I saw my local Vegas friend for dinner, and we went to Captain 6, which is a local all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place, and IMO is the best in town; it was really nice to see my friend (it had been two-ish years at this point, as I mostly see her when I'm in Vegas) and also have some good food. On Thursday, I had to grab a quick lunch at the airport, and I kinda feel like I chose poorly ... I had Auntie Anne's pretzel dogs, I should've just gotten the pretzels as I LOVE those (these were kinda meh) but it did fill me up for a few hours, at least.
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| Exterior of Giordano's and Horseshoe Las Vegas (Bally's) |
