“Las Vegas looks the way you’d imagine heaven must look at night.” – Chuck Palahniuk, “Invisible Monsters”

I’ve been to Las Vegas before, and I didn’t think it was anything very special. But last week I got to experience it in a whole different way. A couple years ago I went to Wedding MBA – a wedding photography convention set up in sunny Nevada. That year, we had classes and meetings all day every day – the only time we had to explore the city was when we would wake up on our usual East Coast time (so anywhere between 4am and 6am Vegas time) and ride the monorail to the Strip to wait for the city to wake up with us. Then we’d be back to classes by 9am. This time, my friend Lindsay (from Luckybird Photography in Ohio) and I had SO MUCH FREE TIME! We signed up to go to WPPI, another wedding photography convention, but this time with a different layout. We even went a day early to have a day to relax, hang out in the city, and of course try In-N-Out Burger for her first time (it’s not that exciting for me as a non-meat eater, but their grilled cheese is STILL disgustingly delicious). We got to go to museums, restaurants (helloooo Gordon Ramsey’s fish and chips), and I even got to head out to the desert and experience the nightlife finally. We drank champagne in my friend’s hotel suite, we wandered the strip at night, we met some awesome new people as well as some totally crazy ones, and we danced so hard that we could hardly walk the next day. If that isn’t a successful Vegas adventure, then I don’t know what is.

Not only was it the perfect mini vacation, but it also jumpstarted the way I view my business. It taught me so many new tricks and tips, new ways to market myself, to run the best business possible. 4 days in the city of sin was more than enough, but I can’t wait to go back again.

“A little bit of this town goes a very long way.” – Hunter S. Thompson