The west coast may really be the best coast (certainly the warmer coast) and I spent the last 9 days doing the golden triangle, if you will, of the left coast of the United States. Between Los Angeles/Newport Beach, Scottsdale and Las Vegas it was busy, promising, exhausting and as always a great time. Here is a quick rundown of a very busy trip where I got to do a ton of cool things, see fun events and see some good friends and get out of the New York City freeze.

I started in Hollywood for some meetings with the awesome people at my production company to do some filming and casting stuff for what I hope will become a television show sometime soon. I then met one of my good friends out in Hollywood for some drinks at the W Hollywood before shooting down to Newport Beach for the rest of the California portion where I met some other buddies who live down there in Orange County.

No stop in Newport would be complete without eating at Sabatino’s for the best sausage ever produced. It’s so good I dream about it. You wouldn’t even know the place existed if you didn’t know about it because it’s hidden down in the marina but a 2 minute walk from my buddy Pete’s place. Also, the Gulfstream restaurant which is a favorite of the Yankees when they play at the Angels. That and great food make it work for me! A few friends and I also hung out at the Cannery and Malarkey’s in downtown Newport Beach which is always fun.

I then flew to Phoenix to do an early morning NBC Arizona interview which I have previously posted on the site. I also stopped in Glendale to visit some friends from business school and then started the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale which was madness as always. This is an event that I do every year and it never fails to please. It is far and away the best golf tournament in the country, if not the world. The legendary 16th hole, where they erect a stadium around the hole is the most exciting and vilified hole in golf. It is a huge party and I must say my illustrious group of friends did their part to make everybody entertained in the stands.

After the day of golf there is a big concert venue on the course called the Bird’s Nest where it is always packed and everyone has a blast. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves. I cannot possibly suggest a sporting event that is more fun than the Phoenix Open, although it is now called the Waste Management Open I believe. If you’ve never been to a golf tournament, make this the one you go to next year. That, plus just being in Scottsdale, Arizona which is awesome in and of itself. After an exhausting few days I know my buddy Reed was happy to see us leave town!

I flew with my buddy Brian up to Las Vegas to meet literally 20 something other buddies, who I have known a long time. We do Vegas for Superbowl every year and this year was as awesome as any year. It’s always good to see everyone in one place because we all live all over the place.

We watched the big game at the massive Bellagio Superbowl party which is always fun and where we stayed. Aside from normal Vegas insanity, we went to a show for some DJ called Tiesto at the Joint in the Hard Rock. I had never heard of the guy beforehand but the place was packed. We had a box and it was pretty cool I must say. I googled the Tiesto guy and apparently he’s the most popular DJ in the world. It was one of those, I’m glad I went to experience it but I will probably never go again. Trance or whatever you call that kind of music isn’t my thing but it was cool to see the top guy do his thing. A suite didn’t hurt either I suppose!

After all that and just sheer exhaustion I got kind of sick Sunday night with a head cold and didn’t even go out in Vegas the last 2 nights which is a definite first for me, although I did manage to play a bunch of poker and won. Back home in the freezing cold I miss the warm weather but honestly, I am so pumped to be home in my own apartment and my own bed. It won’t be long until I am back in Vegas as always. I have at least 2 bachelor parties there in the next few months and things there just seem to come up…

Currently, I am planning a trip for early to mid march for 7-10 days to North Africa with my Uncle, which I am very excited about. We hope to hit Algeria, Libya and Sudan (Khartoum) assuming all visa issues are sorted out. If you follow me regularly, you know those countries can be a pain to deal with all the red tape with visas etc. So far so good, so we shall see.

Speaking of Sudan, I am glad to see that the Southern Sudan independence vote seemed to go off without a hitch for now. I hope this stays so. I cannot believe Juba will be a world capital but I wish nothing but the best for the very nice and poor people of the south. I hope the process doesn’t leave them worse off than they were before because of outside influences taking advantage of the oil, financial, political and security situation. I don’t want to see Southern Sudan become like Equatorial Guinea where all the expats and foreign oil companies control everything and the only nationals that have any money are the corrupt politicians who let it all happen in the first place.

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