It's been 10 years since we've had a reunion in Vegas...

...and since we've been friends for almost 30 years, it seemed like a fitting place to hang for a week.

Since I grew up in small private schools, it's not surprising that I still have friends from childhood. The older I get, the more awesome I think it is...we should all be so blessed to have lifelong friends. However, in this case, they're more like family.

Sheila & my friend's dad, Mr. Malama landed in Vegas first. I got in about 2 hours later. Mr. Malama didn't want to walk outside for lunch, so Sheila and I left him at the Texas Hold'em table. There's another story about that later.

Our first stop, Sugar Factory at the Paris Hotel. A friend of mine was there a few months ago and I saw her photo of the chicken & waffles. And once I saw there was bacon in the waffles, my lunch decision turned into a no-brainer. We also got milkshakes since we wanted to pace ourselves with the adult beverages.

Sheila got the strawberry milkshake, I got the red velvet one. Did I mention there were chunks of red velvet cake in the shake? Holy cow, it was fabulous!!

Chicken & "bacon" waffles

Shake me!

After lunch, Sheila and I headed over to the Bellagio for a quick peek around the conservatory. There was a bird theme and since I'm not a fan of birds, we didn't stay long.

Cheese!!

Penguins outside of Minus 5