My spring break in Las Vegas on my 21st birthday.Everyone has their spring break stories. Mine does not include laying on a warm beach. 

Here we are at the end of spring break, a depressing time for most college students as we get back to the daily grind of cramming for tests and cranking out papers left and right. Our week after the break usually consists of swapping stories, seeing who had the better time at the Whale’s Tail in Destin or soaking up all of the Caribbean sun in Punta Cana, or hitting the slopes in Breckenridge. This week usually spices up social media a little more than the norm. Facebook is littered with bikini-clad girls taking over your newsfeed and, “Ugh, take me back” Instagrams the only ones you’ll be liking. The competition gets pretty fierce when trying to see who had the best time, but I have to say, mine was hands down the best spring break I heard of from anyone.

First of all, I turned the big 21 on the first Monday. Boom, one point for me. Second, I was in Las Vegas at the stroke of midnight on my actual birthday. Two points. But the one thing that was a little stranger than normal was the fact that I was with half my family when it all went down. The occasion for the trip was a rare one: it was my 21st and my mom’s 50th, which had been the week prior. So naturally, we had to go all out. 

The trip was wild, as I expected, but it didn’t exactly follow the old “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” philosophy since we are in the golden age of social media. There were Instagram posts and Facebook posts, but not enough to be annoying. Just in case you didn’t have the pleasure of seeing these first hand, I’ll go over a few of the highlights of the trip.

First of all, my sister actually did make me a sign with 21 things to do on it, in true Tuscaloosa style. As a 29-year-old Auburn grad, I must say I’m quite impressed that she could keep up. I didn’t wear this until the actual day of my birthday, which was the day after we arrived. The day we arrived was an awkward 10 hours, as I was turned down by three different bouncers/bartenders in the three hours leading up to midnight. They don’t play around with underage drinking in Vegas, so if you plan on going before you’re legal, I would highly advise against it.

Once the clock struck midnight, I marched up those stairs in my light-up birthday girl crown and flashed that bouncer my ID so fast it actually flew out of my hand. My stepdad then proceeds to buy me my first legal drink: a huge concoction known as a “Witch Doctor” that cost $32. It was basically a Hurricane, but it bubbled up like it had dry ice in it. Then, we all headed out to the rooftop dance floor, where I spent the rest of my night soaking up my moment among quite a strange crowd. It was a Sunday night after all.

My actual birthday was a marathon. It began with a bottle of champagne delivered to my hotel room at 9 a.m., sent by my best friend who was back in Alabama. I proceeded to birthday brunch, champagne glass in hand and tiara on my head. Next, we hit the pool for some Bloody Mary's, which were also outrageously expensive. The next part was where it got weird.

My mom and I ended up at this outdoor bar surrounded by whoever else is drinking at 2 p.m. We come across this dude who, I swear, isn’t a day older than 30, but he tells us he’s 45. He’s joined by his sidekick, whose name I never got, but he looks exactly like Chumlee from the show Pawn Stars, and he says people actually call him that. They help me cross off almost half the tasks on my sign, all while my sister is upstairs in our room feeling a bit under the weather. They bought me shots, made the band give me a shout-out, got a guy to give me $21, autographed my body, showed me their abs and made me get up on the bar and scream “It’s my birthday!!” as loud as I could. Then I proposed to fake Chumlee and kissed the 45 year-old’s head for good luck. This all happened right in front of my mom as she documented the whole series of events on her iPhone. I’m sure she was a proud mom that day.

The rest of the time was spent eating food that was unbelievably rich, going to many top-floor-of-the-hotel happy hours and dinners, playing craps and video poker and going to shows. On our last night, my sister and I went to see famous magician, David Copperfield. Apparently, he’s a pretty big deal, but I had never heard of him until that night. The show was not bad and my sister was part of the final act where he made several audience members disappear. The super-fan in her was totally geeking out, especially after she got to meet him after the show. 

The next show we saw with the whole family and it was definitely my favorite of the two. It’s called Divas and is basically a drag queen variety show of different men dressed as famous female singers. There was Dolly Parton, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Tina Turner, Shania Twain, Cher, Mariah Carey and Madonna, just to name a few. They were unbelievable and so hilarious. I’d highly recommend catching that show, no matter if you’re a guy or girl, next time you find yourself in Sin City. We also made friends with a Canadian woman who was in Vegas by herself after a recent divorce. She hung out with us all night and now we’re Facebook friends.

To sum it up, our trip was pretty unbelievable. I turned 21 in a city that’s made for nights like that and got to be around the most fun family there is. I have to share one text I sent to my friends that summed up the final night and pretty much the trip: “I just need you to know my sister and I have adopted a 40-something Canadian divorcee at a drag queen show and now I’m meeting my parents at the club as we yell at people telling them I’m a mermaid.”

Not too sure about the mermaid part, the night gets a little fuzzy toward the end. But, hey, it’s Vegas, so anything can happen, right?