My life has seen two milestones last week: my sister turned 21, and my best friend has left (again) to study medicine in a foreign country. So, naturally, each deserved to be celebrated in its own proper way, by going to Las Vegas and Disneyland, respectively.

Vegas

It started out with a really good dinner to the Zagat-rated Steakhouse in Circus Circus. I was surprised at the quality of the place in such a… shitty hotel, to put it bluntly. The food was excellent, albeit a little on the expensive side. The wine was just amazing.

It’s a little freaky that they “age” the beef in glass rooms for everyone to see. It kind of reminded me of some vampire movies where they would display the humans that are about to be eaten.

So then we gambled, lost money, gambled more, lost more money, and then we gave up. With the last $10 in our pockets, we were headed home. Then we saw something out the hotel window.
The pinnacle of Vegas was the Test Drive, of course. My sis and I got to drive a Corvette around a track for a few laps (only $10, btw). It just so happens that the ‘Vette is my sis’ favorite car — and now, one of mine too.

It’s a testament to the car’s power (and handling?) when you can put the car sideways while the traction control is on. Let me repeat that: I drifted the car with the traction control set to ON.

I have driven many different types of vehicles. But, I have to say, the Corvette is in the top three. In the order of fun (and speed):

• Indy car (600+ hp, <2000 lbs), tied for first place with:
• Rally Subaru STi (350 hp, rally modified, right-hand drive in Australia)
• Chevy Corvette (400 hp, ~3100lbs, stock)
• BMW M3 (333 hp, 3415 lbs, stock)
• Jet Ski (Australia)
• Lexus IS 350 (305 hp, stock, automatic)
• BMW 750i
• GoKarts at Dromo1
• Tractor
• Pontiac Solstice

There are many more things I’ve driven over the last few years, but these are the top ten. All of these were driven on a track (as opposed to the street) except for the M3.

In any case, this also happens to be the order in which I would like to obtain these cars. Except for the Solstice. I’m hanging out for the MazdaSpeed MX-5 at the Mazda track event in a few weeks 😉

Disneyland

I will let the pictures do the talking on this one. Let me just mention that there is a picture that in there that should be titled “The Desecration of Walt Disney.