Many followers of this blog know that I have adopted a new hobby, magic. My friend Mike and I have been studying online with our instructor (also Mike) who is a plumber in New Jersey (not a joke). We have been having a lot of fun and become much more interesting to strangers (our friends are bored having seen our tricks too many times as we use them as an audience for our practice sessions). I found out about a convention dedicated to magic called “Magic Live”. It takes place every year in August in Las Vegas. Yes, Vegas in August doesn’t sound like a dream trip but that is where Patrice and I are. Lucky for us we have a travel guest, our oldest grandson, Owen. This is our third trip with Owen having taken him to Panama and Canada previously. He is a great travel partner, very easygoing and so fun to talk to.
We found out about the magic convention from 2 of my patients, John and Connie. We ran into them last year when we were out to dinner. Oddly, Connie recognized Patrice from the blog and didn’t even notice me. I don’t recall how we got on the topic of magic but Connie mentioned that her brother hosts the magic convention and here we are.
Upon arrival to the Harry Reid International airport in Las Vegas there was no doubt that the pilot took us to the correct city. These two sights made it clear that we were not in Salt Lake.
After exiting the airport we were in a cab in seconds (this definitely is not LAX) and on our way to the Orleans Hotel. My friend and magic buddy, Mike, decided not to attend because the hotel at which the convention is located is not one of the luxury gaming houses. “Robert I am not going to a hotel that charges $80 per night”. Hmmm, okay. At first it seemed just like any of the other Vegas hotels, smelling of smoke and with a huge casino greeting you as you enter. It is clear that this is not like the higher profile places. For example at check-in your option was to do self check-in or pay $35 to have a human take your information. We opted to save the $35 and use the self check-in machine which was very easy to use. We were only given 2 keys which is all we need since if we let Owen out of our sight for one nanosecond his mother and father will have us fried.
The Orleans might not be a luxury hotel but it still is very nice and adequate for our purposes. For example we had an excellent dinner at Alder and Birch which is located in the hotel. We got a great deal on the price of the meal because we were the guests of our friend Bill and his son Bill Jr. The meal was amazing but the best part was the entertainment. Bill teaches airline mechanics how to work on engines. Years ago he also worked as a party clown entertaining kids. Bill Jr. is a professor at Abilene Christian University. Both Bills are amazing magicians and entertained us during dinner with some incredible tricks.
After dinner we headed over to the Convention mixer where we met some more magicians and were treated to some more impressive magic. Next door was what they call “The Dealer’s Room” which is essentially a hoard of merchants selling a variety of magic tricks. It was very interesting but there were so many people there it was hard to get a salesperson to even talk to let alone see what was special about their booth. Hopefully later in the week it won’t be as crowded.
Tomorrow the convention starts for real. Hopefully I will be funnier tomorrow. Patrice can be brutally honest sometimes. I asked what she thought of the blog and she said, “It wasn’t very funny”.
I will try harder tomorrow.
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 