DC VEGAS XIII: A Birthday Escape in the Desert

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

What does the word "escape" mean? Its dictionary definitions are many, like breaking free from control or confinement as in escaping from prison, or that key on the very top left corner of any computer keyboard. A better meaning of it as far as nouns are concerned reads, "a form of temporary distraction from reality or routine," and there is one place that can lay claim to being the most ideal place of escape that there is in the entire world. And as this latest DCBLOG deep-dive takes place, the events depicted in this post had its date set for the week after what happened in our nation, but also the one week that I look forward every year... but this was one that was a bit unusual than normal for one very special reason.

All Photos Taken by the Blogger

In the midst of this past summer's heat and me enjoying what is my most binge-worthy TV miniseries -slash- sports event, while I was watching the Paris Olympics my mom booked plane tickets and a hotel room for the one event that I look forward to doing most every year for almost the last two decades -- a fall classic that stretches its lineage further back to 1994. Almost a hundred days after my #1 supporter and our family bedrock made those reservations, I was on the ground for this year's edition of DC VEGAS... and for only the second time in my 41-year-old life I was celebrating a birthday not in my Silicon Valley neck of the woods, but instead in that happy place in the desert that has grown from humble beginnings into the one place on earth that I love traveling to every year.

Every Vegas trip I've made in the last thirty years have had their own special character or meaning to it: the first one saw a then young 10-year-old get separated from family in a crowded casino, which is why I had to wait over a decade for the second. That return in 2007 marked the start of both my grown adult phase of sorts as a 23-year-old then, and of these regular trips when my newlywed sister & brother-in-law decided to tag me along for the ride. So many of these glorious trips and its assorted memories have followed as these journeys have since become a near-annual tradition, just as I would grow a big love affair with Sin City that's joined music, sports and reality TV as my biggest passions... all while using this place to help burgeon my skills as a content creator beyond this blog and into YouTube.

Although my actual one was three years ago with my 2001 grad class, every Vegas trip feels like an annual high school reunion with this metropolis of 2 million being that long-lost friend. And whenever the last digit in any annual tradition reaches 5 or 0, it's more than worthy of a celebration or special commemoration of a milestone. So it was only appropriate for the thirtieth anniversary of that very first trip I made to this desert oasis that this escape to this happy place for DC Vegas XIII just might be the best one of the thirteen times I've been to this city, which might just double as my second home. For this instance, the number thirteen isn't just the date of my birthday, but also this number is lucky indeed.