Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender: Part One

My 48 hours in Las Vegas for Viva were a truly amazingly fun time!  I have been looking forward to this event ever since it was announced that the dates fell on March 28-31st, which meant for me that there might be a small possibility I may be able to attend.  I've mentioned it several times before but I work in an accounting firm and our tax season can be quite busy.  It requires me working on the weekends (yes both Saturday and some Sundays) in order to finish the deadline.  I knew there was a chance I wouldn't be able to attend but once I found out that the band my fiance' performs in, Jonny B and the Avenues, was invited to play; I knew I had to be there to witness this for sure!

I got off work Friday night at 5:30pm and immediately hit the road headed to Vegas.  I took me roughly five and a half hours to get there only stopping once along the way for a quick rest stop.  I met up with Dave the second I got to the hotel, brought all my luggage upstairs (it was ridiculous what I had packed for 48 hours), quickly changed my outfit and ran downstairs to the casino to pick up my wrist band and have Dave show me around. 

 

This was the best I was willing to do for the first night.  I didn't do my hair other than put a rose it.  I didn't want to waste too much time Friday night getting ready.  Here we are in one of the four indoor performance rooms.  We sat and watched people dance as sadly, I still do not know how to east coast swing.  This will happen as soon as I have some more time after the end of the tax season for sure.

 

We caught the Gene Vincent cover band The Blue Caps with Graham Fenton.  They were great!  It started to push 2am quickly and I knew we needed to get to bed as Saturday was going to be a long long day!  So long in fact that I have split it up into two separate blogs along with Sunday's activities.

We woke up Saturday morning, got dressed and went straight to breakfast at the hotel cafe'.  I felt as though I was rushing through breakfast as there was so much to do!  I wore a dress I found thrifting (go figure) about a year ago and newer straw handbag with Bakelite accessories.  I opted to put my hair up in a bun as I had a feeling it was going to be a hot day.

Following breakfast I dove into my first drink of the day.  A lovely bloody mary.  I honestly didn't drink much on this trip as I didn't want to miss a thing by having an alcoholic haze to distract me.  That and I knew I didn't want to be hurting the next day having to drive home.

The first band we watched for the day was a band from San Diego, which our friend Natt is the drummer in; The Poppin' Fire Crackers.

We then checked out the vendor rooms.  I don't have any pictures of them as they were slightly overwhelming. So much good stuff to look at!  I didn't actually end up buying anything  until the last day.  I'll share those buys  as part of the part 2 blog.

After shopping around we headed to the car show.  We walked around for about an hour while Vicky Tafoya and the Big Beats took to the car show stage.  They were great!  I saw them at the Grand National Roadster show earlier this year and absolutely love them. What a voice!  Below is just a small fraction of the pictures I took at the car show.

Love this color!!

Nifty license plate.

Dave and company walked around doing lots of "car talk".  I feel like he's rubbing off on me as I felt like I truly understood the gist of most of the conversation and can point out car models.  I'm working on figuring out the year differentials which Dave is the king of doing.

Hehe!

Ain't this precious!

 

After a nice walk around the cars, we decided it was time to go for a swim.  Here's what I wore.  I wore my vintage tiki robe (thrifted) and vintage swimsuit (purchased last year at Frock You).  I wore my absolute favorite shoes, wooden sandals which my grandmother gave me back when I was in 8th grade (can you say hoarder).  I didn't take my camera to the pool as we didn't know where we would be seated, if we would even find a seat, or if any of our friends would be there.  We in fact ended up running into two of Dave's car buddies and had a fun dip in the pool while taking in the surf rock by the band Sabres. 

 

 

We then headed back up to the room to get ready for dinner with friends at the sushi restaurant that's located in the hotel.  It was delicious.  A slight bit expensive but worth it.  Dave has been looking forward to eating here for the past year he claims.

 

After dinner we headed back to the car show area to catch Little Richard's performance. We got there a little early before his performance and ended up watching the results of the "Miss Viva Las Vegas" competition and proceeded to check out some more cars we had missed from earlier.

 

I love this hood ornament.

 

I came across the Pin Up Girl Clothing booth and made a point, finally, to say hello to Micheline Pitt and take a photo with her.  We have crossed paths now on several occasions and I thought it was due time to meet her.  She was so friendly and even complimented my dress.  I made a point to tell her that I swear me wearing a Pin Up Girl Clothing dress had a lot to do with Dave talking to me the night we first met.  We then took in Little Richard's performance.  Sorry I don't have any pictures as it was sooo crowded and we honestly couldn't see much from where we were standing in the first place.

 

Thus completes part one of my trip to Las Vegas.  More to come soon!

 

Till' Next Time,

 

Suz