I think most folks know how much I love Las Vegas. I don’t think anyone really knows why. Here’s the history.<\/p>\n
I first remember coming to Las Vegas when I was 12 years old. We stayed at the San Marino hotel which is right by the airport. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually for a conference for my mom, and my dad tagged along to gamble. That was 1996, and so no Paris, Venetian, Bellagio, City Center, Wynn…<\/p>\n
We upgraded a few years later to stay at Bally’s, and this time it was my dad’s conference.<\/p>\n
My brother and I entertained ourselves at the theme park that used to be behind MGM. We’d go play the midway games at Circus, Circus. Then there was the arcade in Caesar’s and in Treasure Island (now known as TI). The show at Treasure Island was one with real pirates fighting instead of scantily clad chicks fighting. Both the play area and the show are now gone \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
As Comdex became more and more a part of our lives, we became regulars in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
I celebrated my 16th birthday in the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris hotel. I’ve seen all of the Cirque de Soleil shows, Le Reve at Wynn, love the Improv Comedy that’s at Harrah’s, and even the Variety show at the Venetian.<\/p>\n
When I turned 18, a friend of mine scratched out the 4 in my birth year, and made it a 1. Overnight I was 21 instead of 18, and then the fun really began. I found the craps tables, and I never looked back (in fact, last May I told a dealer who carded me that he didn’t card me when I was 18 and playing, so why did he card me now? He didn’t find it amusing. It was definitely the same guy 10 years later).<\/p>\n
When my dad sold his company, we came out to Networld Interop, and then went to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Zion national park, and this awesome pizza shop in southern Utah.<\/p>\n
Bryan’s bachelor party at Hard Rock. First time out here with John. I brought Micky here, and she wore this smoking hot blue dress. My bachelor party at Aria. Microconf 2012. First CES I brought Amelia too. First time Luka came out here.<\/p>\n
With Comdex out for the count after the Internet bubble burst, we’ve used CES as the conference to rally around. We meet up every January for a few days of conference, gambling, steak dinner, and laughter.<\/p>\n
Most people have these types of memories at a beach, in the mountains, or at a relative’s house. For me, it’s always been Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I have such a love affair with this forever sinful city.<\/p>\n
I think most folks know how much I love Las Vegas. I don’t think anyone really knows why. Here’s the history. I first remember coming to Las Vegas when I was 12 years old. We stayed at the San Marino hotel which is right by the airport. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-c9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1975,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2021\/08\/08\/thoughts-as-i-leave-las-vegas\/","url_meta":{"origin":753,"position":0},"title":"Thoughts as I leave Las Vegas","date":"August 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"With this trip, I\u2019ve now visited Las Vegas at least once per year every year since 1997 (I think). In the 90s and 00s, I was going with my dad to all of his industry conferences. I snuck into Comdex, the Venetian Gold Room, and was the king of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/img_0765-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1687,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2016\/01\/08\/viva-las-vegas\/","url_meta":{"origin":753,"position":1},"title":"Viva Las Vegas\u00c2\u00a0","date":"January 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0It's one of my favorite weekends of the year... CES in Las Vegas! Since... 2003 or 2004... Or maybe earlier... We've come yearly. It's a boys only weekend, and the days of Luka and Theo coming are fast approaching. My only hope is that we get all three generations here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":758,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/01\/10\/las-vegas-scorecard\/","url_meta":{"origin":753,"position":2},"title":"Las Vegas scorecard","date":"January 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm posting this the next morning, but this is really Friday's post The final score is in. I lost a little bit of money, I saw a little bit of CES, and the rest of the time was better than it has been in years. We stayed at both the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":913,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/02\/11\/applied-learning\/","url_meta":{"origin":753,"position":3},"title":"Applied learning","date":"February 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As I'm in the car a bit more than I was in the past, I've been getting back into the swing of listening to podcasts. One of my favorites is Startups for the rest of us. I went to their conference in Las Vegas back in 2012, and I've worked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entrepreneurism"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":792,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/01\/18\/aydins-annual-pilgrimage\/","url_meta":{"origin":753,"position":4},"title":"Aydin's annual pilgrimage","date":"January 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year since about 2002 (for argument's sake. I can't actually remember), my father, Aydin Yardim, and I have met in Las Vegas during CES to ring in the new year; eat at a steakhouse; and get in a show. It's become the one family tradition which is constant and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Updates"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/11\/17\/3-days-til-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":753,"position":5},"title":"3 days til 30","date":"November 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I've run out of ideas, and steam. So today's post will be a photo gallery of the last 10 years. Thanks for keeping up with me :-) (Post-looking up all of the photos... holy shit what a great decade)","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}