The Big Smoke Day #1, Part 1

The night before the Big Smoke, my sleep was filled with dreams of cigar smoking. Not use to the change in time, I arose at 5:30 AM Las Vegas time ready to go. You would think getting up that early for a 9:00 AM start would be sufficient, but we figured out some way to still run late. To make matters worse, we get to the Venetian, overwhelmed by its size, and don't know where to go and can't find anyone to direct us. Finally, Stacey found an information booth and we were on our way. Now 20 minutes late, I am sure we have missed out on the first anniversary cigar: Padron Anniversario 1926 in its new torpedo size, released at the Big Smoke before any where else. This cigar will not be available to the public until early 2007.

Creeping up the escalator to the fifth floor of this huge casino-hotel, we got the strong, but pleasant wiff of cigar smoke. Walking through the vast hallway to the banquet rooms, we began to see a hint of smoke in the air. Finally, we arrived at the appropriate banquet room! To my pleasant surprise they were passing out all of the anniversary cigars (and a few extras) in a zip-lock humidor bags called Humidipacks. I had not missed out on any of the cigars!

Running late, and not wanting to interrupt the speakers, we sat in the back of the heavilly smoke filled room. We didn't stay there very long. I heard an older Spanish accented man say, "you are the guests; there are seats for you in the front." I turned to discover it was el Senor himself: Don Carlos Fuente. Wow! I was too stunned to say anything and Stacey and I found a pair of seats with more freebies: Cigar Aficienado cigar cutters, writing pens and notepad.

I will write more about the seminar itself in another blog. I had incredible time at the Big Smoke; Stacey really out did herself in arranging this for my birthday. I have several reviews to put together, not to mention talking about the over 100 cigars I came home with. I am thinking we should have our own Big Holy Smoke.