“You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been. A place that has to be believed to be seen.”
Where to begin. Let’s start right before christmas I guess. As in the morning of December 23rd. Sitting in Jackson, NH pulling the trigger on this trip. U2 at The Sphere in Vegas for a weekend in February. We booked it. We are going!! Holy (bleep). This will have been my 4th time seeing them, the missus’ 3rd time and well the first time for the Irish Cannonball. (Who now is the Irish Yeti, he’s almost 6’3” and just turned 14. We are in trouble.)
So the anticipation starts. Cue in all the menu research, you tube videos, logistic planning, and most of all daydreaming of all the things to do. The last time we were in Vegas for fun was almost 17 years ago with friends. While doing all the research and planning we happened to stumble upon the fact that we may have booked the trip during Super Bowl weekend, oops! I was sitting on the couch trying to book us some dinner reservations with no luck when I looked up at the television to see an ad for the Super Bowl in Vegas and made the correlation that it was the same weekend. So we have that going for us also, which is nice.
Travel day: Like usual we head down to the airport the night before and crash at the Hilton right at Logan. It’s so convenient if you have an early flight and honestly just works for us. We had a 6am non stop from Boston to Las Vegas on JetBlue. Perfect, no layover, let’s just get there and start enjoying our time. Well that wasn’t to be. Not sure if anyone heard the news about two planes who may have gotten into a bit of an accident on the ground at Logan the morning of February 8th. Buuuuuuuut, yeah that was us. We were about to get our wings de-iced when our plane clipped another plane. The other plane was headed to Orlando. Needless to say it was a bit of a mess that morning. JetBlue handled it as the best as they could given the situation. We got set back about 6 hours. The upside was while we were waiting for the next plane to get us there the Missus may have went up and upgraded us to Mint. So we had first class all the way on the 2nd attempt to get to Vegas. It was well worth it, the Irish Yeti got to stretch out and sleep for most of the flight. Food service was pretty solid and well the drinks didn’t hurt either give the status of the morning. It was an interesting start to our vacation to say the least. And everyone on the flight had a pretty good attitude about it all.
We landed in Vegas, got our bags and got to Treasure Island. Threw our bags in the room and went out to wander about in the Venetian across the street. Our concert package was through the Venetian but we came in a day before, that’s why we booked at TI. We needed to get the lay of the land at the Venetian so we knew how to get to The Sphere for early admission and honestly just how to get around the property. So we spent the first night meandering around that massive property. Holy……. It needs it’s own zip code being as big as it is. But it was a long day and we headed back to TI to get some shut eye, we needed to be up at 5:30 to get in line for early access wristbands for the floor.
First full day: Woke at 5:30, tossed on some shoes and started moving. Made our way through the Venetian to the Sphere with some Starbucks in hand. Got in line outside The Sphere around 6:15. Not a huge line in front of us, phew! Not sure if anyone is a U2 fan or has been to any of their shows but everyone usually has a good vibe and people tend to kind of connect over telling stories of when & where they’ve seen them.
So, there we were in line and got chatting with some people about the debacle on the runway the day before. Next thing you know we realize that one couple used to live about in Vermont and we are from New Hampshire. Pretty small area we live in. And then we got chatting with someone from Galway, Ireland. We all get our early access bracelets and exchange some numbers and plan on meeting up before the show for a drink and that way we can form a group in front of the stage of good people. We make it back to TI, grab our gear and drop it at The Venetian.
The plan was to leave our luggage at the hotel while waiting for our room and just kinda check some stuff out right around the area hoping our room would be ready early and we could decompress for a bit prior to the show. So I grab the Irish Yet and keep my promise of taking him to In & Out burger for the first time while the Missus spends some time feeding the one arm bandits. He and I make our way down the strip and kill a little time before In & Out opens. I can only imagine what is going through a 14 year olds mind at 10am in Vegas. We get to In & Out at 10:40, they open at 10:30. I do the ordering, we get a 4x4 animal style, fries animal style, a vanilla shake and a pink lemonade. That kid has no idea what I just ordered for us. It comes out just in time as the line is out the door already. We mow down on that order and make our way back to The Venetian to hopefully relax. But alas that wouldn’t be the case. Early access line starts at 5pm, we have plans to meet our new friends at 4pm for a drink and walk over to line up as a group. The room finally is finally ready at around 3.
We run up, throw a quick shower on and run down to meet up at the U2 pop up inside the hotel. Catch a cocktail with the new show friends and run over to get in line. Doors open at 5:30 and we are in!!! We make our way to the front and are 2 people deep from the stage. ARE YOU KIDDING???? So the show doesn’t start until 8:30. We start chatting with some others around us and next thing you know I’m calling a friend/coworker of 24 years back home to let him know I’m standing with someone he knows from his same town. Why wouldn’t we bump into someone who lives 2 towns over from where we live in New Hampshire. This world is really a lot smaller than I think sometimes. The DJ comes out and spins some 80s & 90s jams that get the crowd going, the place was all in unison with some Rick Astley. Don’t judge. The DJ rolls out and the band comes on and it erupts. Won’t bore you with the set list or the details. But it was maybe one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Start to finish, the sound, the production, the atmosphere, the crowd. All amazing. Forgot to mention that the Irish Yeti is only one year younger than I was the first time I saw U2, so I may have been slightly emotional at points during the show. Slightly. Show ends, everyone is still in awe as we are all making our way out.
We say our sad goodbyes to our new friends, promise to send each other all the pics and videos we got of the show and wish each other safe travels back. Made our way to the hotel, the missus and the yeti make it to the room and I’m on a search to bring back food. Mind you it’s 11pm vegas time, which makes it 2am our time in our heads. Find a place that does slices of pizza, grab those and get back upstairs to eat and decompress for the night. Really wanted to send pics and texts to my good friends but like I said it was 2am east coast time. So we doze off still unsure of what the hell we just saw at The Sphere. Gotta get some sleep, we still have one full day and a half in Vegas. Let’s see what the next days bring.
