Vegas Vacation Day 6 - All you need is love…and a good p-p-p-poker face

Day 6- 2/19/15
Today we woke up a bit earlier than normal so that we would have time to hit the Hoover Dam, part of the Grand Canyon, and head back to our resort in enough time to get ready for the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show.  Busy day!

We started by heading to Dunkin' Donuts (duh) and got our caffeine and pseudo nourishment for the day before we headed out to the Hoover Dam, which was only about 40 minutes away.

Once we arrived, we knew we were going to be doing a lot of walking based on the location we parked, but at this point we were used to it.  The first thing we got an up close view of was a bottomless hole, that I had a really hard time understanding at first.  We pretty much all agreed it was definitely the tunnel the Orcs used in Lord of the Rings.

We elected to not take the Hoover Dam tour, and I'm not much of a tour person so I was happy.  It turned out that Darrell was pretty much a wealth of knowledge on the subject, and most of the really cool views were from the top anyway.

Vegas Vacation Day 5 – Batman needs a better dental plan

Happy Birthday, Mom!  Her birthday is not today, but it was on the fifth day of our trip, so I figured I’d throw a shout out to her regardless.

Day 5- 2/18/15

Because of the flexibility of the time share where we were staying, we were able to move to another Vegas resort for a couple of days, which was kind of nice because we could change it up a bit.  The Grand Desert resort was much closer, had more shuttles, and was a lot larger, although the rooms were about the same.  This one may have been a bit bigger, but they both had the same amount of space and amenities.

For lunch, we headed to Naked City Pizza, which apparently was featured on the show Diners Drive-Ins and Dives.  It was really good, despite the waitress needing a little bit of help taking our order.  From my own experience, it’s tricky to take a party of six’s order from memory without errors, which is why I don’t attempt it.  I’m assuming that it’s usually easier with pizzerias, as even larger parties likely end up sharing a pizza, two at the most, but I guess we are not most larger parties.  She got the order right eventually, I think.

After that, we were able to drive back to the resort, since we had rented a vehicle for some ease in traveling.  We wanted to head to the Hoover Dam, and possibly the Grand Canyon at some point, and we were told by many a person that renting a vehicle would be easiest.  Since a trip like that would wipe out a lot of the day, we opted to do that tomorrow, and today’s trip would be to Old Vegas on Fremont Street, which was also highly recommended to us.

Luckily for us, I thought, I was super observant after the show last night, and when we went to Harrah’s to transfer to the Rio (where the World Carnival Buffet was located) I noticed a shuttle that advertised Fremont Street, so we were going to opt for that instead of trying to drive there in hectic traffic.

I worded this whole travel scheme so poorly that everyone assumed that the shuttle was AT the Rio, which we were able to rectify before we got on the Rio shuttle, thank goodness.  This is why I’m not a travel planner.  Well, that and a lot of the SNAFUs found in Day one’s post, but that is neither here nor there.  After discovering that the shuttle was actually at Harrah’s, we investigated further and found that this was a veeeerrrrryyy roundabout way of getting to Fremont Street, and were gauging the delicate ratio of time traveling to time actually spent at the location before having to leave.  It was at this time that a lovely man calling the cabs suggested we take a limo, since it would cost more to take two cabs.  We agreed, since we were running short on time, and while most of me was super embarrassed that I was a terrible travel planner, a small portion of me was psyched to be in a limo, since I’ve never done that before.

I LOVED everything about Fremont Street.  It felt fun, cozy, and a little bit more real than the “new” Vegas where we had been occupying most of our time. 

We even got to meet some Super Heroes who I could only describe in the following way:

Vegas Vacation Day 4 - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

I usually like to post my blogs over the weekend, but since it's already Monday it appears I am a day late and a dollar short.  By the end of this post you will soon realize that day four left me a bit more than a dollar short.  Karma, I guess…

Day 4- 2/17/15
Dyllon and Lisa arrived a little later than they had expected to, but it was still fairly early in the morning.  We got them situated in the condo, and then headed down to the Silver Sevens Casino and buffet.   The breakfast buffet was highly recommended to us, and if we registered for the Player's Club card, we could get it for $6.99, can't beat that!

Due to our cab debacle the night prior, we decided we would walk today, since the casino was not that far from the place we were staying.  It was also sunny out, and we figured a little walking would do us some good, since we were planning on gorging at the buffet.

Sooo…it maybe was a bit further of a walk than it appeared in a taxi cab.  It was definitely at least a mile, which wasn't awful by any means, but it took us about a half hour to walk there, considering traffic and crossing the streets.  Despite the fact that it indeed was sunny, it was not particularly warm in the shade, which was primarily where we were walking.  I'm absolutely not complaining, since at this time it was about 95 degrees warmer in Vegas than it was back home, but whether you're in 68 degree weather or -30 degree weather, dressing inappropriately for the temperature at hand is still not the most pleasant experience.  I tend to (wrongfully, for sure) plan my outfit based on the amount of sunlight outside.  It could be 80 and dark, or 20 and sunny, and I would without fail dress stupidly for both days.  It's a psychological thing, I guess.

We may have been in Nevada, but it's just about the same effect

Vegas Vacation Day 3 - Dance Walking

Day 3 - 2/16/15
Happy six-month wedding anniversary!  The only reason this even dawned on me was because my mother had mentioned a few days prior that we would be vacationing over that half-year milestone, thus proving her selflessness in not even mentioning her birthday was just two days after.  Love that woman.

Anyway, Monday was kind of a dull start, as we were wrapped up in a presentation for a majority of the afternoon, but it resulted in free golf vouchers and meal vouchers, so we were not about to complain.

Once we got back to the resort, we immediately booked tickets to a show called "Raiding the Rock Vault" that had been highly recommended to us, and we were pretty excited to go see it.  Despite the fact that we had already occupied most of the day, it was nice that most Vegas shows started at 9:30, so we had a little bit of time to explore before hand.

We hadn't really had lunch, and figured we would grab a bite to eat after the show, since we were cutting it close.  So close, in fact, that we didn't think we could necessarily rely on the hourly shuttle, so we decided to call a cab to expedite the process.

The following things happened between when the cab was called, and when the cab arrived:

• The resort shuttle arrived
• The resort shuttle left
• I called my mother, and spoke to her on the phone for 20 minutes
• The resort shuttle came back again

FORTY MINUTES AFTER WE CALLED, the cab driver finally decided to show up, and boy was that ride pleasant and cheerful.  Not awkward in the slightest.  Luckily, we were able to pick up the tickets later than we'd thought, so we were still able to grab them once we got to the Tropicana.

Vegas Vacation Days 1 & 2 - People Don't Run in the Airport

As I begin to dive into the seventh circle of hell AKA production week of my musical, I am finding myself ill, exhausted, stressed, and going in eight different directions at once.  Blogging, for me, is therapeutic, and nothing would make me happier than teleporting back to Las Vegas with the amazing people I was lucky enough to travel with, so without further adieu, I invite you to come with me on my Vegas chronicles.

Day 1- 2/14/15
Happy Valentine's Day!  After having an 8:00 am salon appointment, I headed to Dunkin' to grab Andrew and I some breakfast as we finished our last minute packing.  Deltra Lynne and Darrell had planned on us leaving at 11:30, but they arrived a little after 11, and we were ready, so on our way we went!

The drive to Syracuse was short and sweet, and we arrived super early, which was nice because it allowed us time to grab some lunch at the Saranac Pub.  When we got to the gate, the prior flight hadn't even boarded yet, so we had a bit of down time until our plane boarded.  While we checked our e-mail and listened to music, Deltra Lynne and I mused about cinematic depictions of airports, and how absolutely unlikely and unrealistic it is when they show people running to catch a flight, and they make it within minutes.  Umm, airport security anyone?  No one can just waltz into an airport and run to catch their flight, so we laughed about how sensationalized they made the process look in movies.

We noticed that on our tickets, we all had asterisks by our seat numbers, unbeknownst to us as to why.  It all started to make sense after about an hour, when we realized the plane was overbooked because of all the cancellations, as there was a winter storm coming in all over the East coast.  Great.  They asked for four volunteers to not board the plane, and receive a $300 reimbursement for inconvenience and new travel arrangements.  Darrell and Andrew proceeded to get the 411 on our options, and they said if we volunteered, they could reimburse us for taxi fare to Buffalo or Rochester, but because of the storm there was no guarantee they would fly us that night.  They also suggested Philadelphia International Airport, who was guaranteed to send us out the next morning at 7:50 am.  Because of the hassle and drive, they would reimburse us $850.  Apiece.  We readily agreed, and were very glad that we had the wherewithal to not check our bags, and pack light so that all we had were our carry ons.  To Philly we ventured!

This drive was not short, nor sweet.  We were starting to see the beginnings of the storm that was screwing over all of the Northeast flights, and couldn't have been any happier that in less than 24 hours we would be in warmer conditions.  The drive was about four hours, and started really poorly.  We even saw a car ahead of us fishtailing, and they ended up driving off the road and flipping over into the left hand ditch.  Luckily, we were able to avoid collisions on the highway, and luckily for the car the snow was high and powdery, and they were going pretty slowly.  We were all a little shaken up, and called 911 to get the police to come.  We definitely all said a quick prayer for the passengers, too.