Vegas!

November 15, 2018

Michael, Howard and Derek 

 

Vegas!

The Dive Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (DEMA) show in Las Vegas once again drew participation from RPM Nautical Foundation, this time in the form of myself, and my colleagues Howard and Derek as we took the opportunity to once again meet with our current sponsors in the Dive industry, make new connections as well as take in the latest updates and improvements on scuba gear as well as attend courses and presentations about the latest in dive technology.

Howard and Michael 

It is a massive undertaking and we had to squeeze it in to basically two full days at the convention itself as our trip to the conference was limited in scope this year. As always the Las Vegas location also makes the visit in to a mini-vacation boy’s getaway and once again this year, we found plenty to see and do in Sin City. And even though what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay there, our activities were overall fairly unexciting and can be reported here.

 

The main event of our second evening out was attending what was my first ever NHL hockey game between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks at the new T-Mobile Arena that is located right on the strip in Vegas. Since the team is only in their second season, it is a new opportunity that was not available when we were in town for the conference last two years ago.

Vegas has been enthralled in hockey mania since the arrival of the team last year and their amazing run last season to the Stanley Cup finals as an expansion team only magnified the excitement that everyone in town seems to share. The game was crazy, packed with loud, excited, daresay I hysterical Vegas fans who were on their feet and going crazy through the entire three periods of play, which were dominated by the hometown Knights who destroyed Anaheim 5-0.

 

The hockey game was amazing, we had great seats about 7 rows up from the ice and the amount of energy that the players expend is so obvious when you are actually there, it is so much more exciting than watching on television, which I rarely do anyway. It was also military appreciation night and they had one of the oldest living survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 on hand to help drop the puck at the start of the game, which was also really cool. All in all it was a pretty spectacular evening.

 

After the game, we all headed over to Nine Fine Irishmen, the cool Irish bar inside the NY NY casino and listened to the house band playing traditional Irish songs over a few beers. It was a ton of fun as the band, fellow patrons and company were damn fine in their own right.

We were only in Vegas for a couple of days, but I still managed to get around and check out a few of my favorite spots, including the Beatles shop at the Mirage next to the theatre where their fantastic “Love” show is playing. I also walked around a bit on the strip, taking in the crazy scene that is always happening there. There were not huge crowds in town and it seemed most of the resorts and casinos were gearing up for the holiday onslaught.

 

It was a quick, but successful and fun trip to Las Vegas and Howard and I caught a 6 AM flight back to Miami on Friday morning, Howard going home and myself heading to meet Kathy at the Miami Book Fair for the weekend, another of my most favorite annual events.