*Long post warning*
Just as the winter weather gets annoying - cold, frosty, no snow and just getting old - Neil and I hopped on a direct flight from Pasco, WA to Fabulous Las Vegas, NV. I tell you what - direct flight is the way to go - with the extra time you typically have to spend at the airport, it was so awesome to just fly and be there!
Sunday - January 15th
We left our three awesome boys with our very-capable and even more awesome niece, Cassidy. We drove smoothly to the airport. Arrived and went to check in. There was a little longer line than expected and my "carry-on" was a little taller than expected, which cost us $70 off the bat. Allegiant's carry-on sizing is 2 inches shorter than other airlines. Oops. I still think Neil was happy I had that large of bag at the end of the trip. We didn't have to buy an extra bag while we were there this time.
We arrived in Las Vegas paid for the hotel shuttle - little did we know we were the LAST stop on the shuttle route, so it did take almost an hour to get from the airport to the shuttle. However, we checked into our room at the Luxor - we got a pyramid spa suite on the 8th floor. I think they knew that I get motion sickness easily and didn't want to risk me getting sick having to ride any further up on the inclinator.
We checked out More Buffet at the Luxor for dinner. It really wasn't that good. I liked they had self-serve drinks and we sat w/in about 10 steps of the soda fountain. They also had very tasty brownie bites. Pretty much that's what I remember about that buffet.
Neil called up a buddy who lives there and he was able to buy us some bus tickets off the strip. If you get them off the strip they are less expensive - $20 for a 5-day pass versus $20 for a 3-day one. Great deal.
Monday, January 16th
We were planning on going out to eat with Neil's buddy, Luis and his family. We weren't sure what time. We didn't get a super early start to the day, we kind of bummed around and finally headed out on the town. We didn't eat breakfast, it got too late. We then were looking for somewhere to eat lunch. Then we decided that we didn't a big lunch if we were going to go out later, so we walked and walked and finally landed at a Subway and Cinnabon. I really am not sure what else we saw on Monday - seemingly nothing too outlandish. We met Luis and his family for dinner at the Rio - World Carnival Buffet. It was a pretty long line, but it went fairly quickly. Normal price for this dinner buffet is $26.99 per person. Because Luis is a local, the price was $13.50 per person. Spectacular! The Tix-4-Tonight places don't have as good of food prices anymore - last year Rio was 50% off, this year only 25%. The Rio dinner buffet is very good. Lots of tasty choices - my favorite of the night was some NY Steak. Neil usually just eats his money's worth in prime rib and crab legs. Mmm, mmm, good!
Tuesday, January 17th
First day of Shot Show - we tried to get up fairly early and get moving, but I am sure I slowed Neil down by having to take a shower and what not. :) I did just put a ball cap on my wet hair to make it faster. We headed down to the Paris for breakfast. It was pretty good. The price with the player's card discount was $15.99 per person. Seems like "Yikes!" right? Well, in reality, we would only eat two meals a day. If we ate a breakfast buffet, we could go all day until dinner w/out eating. So, if you think about it it really cost us $8 per person per meal for lunch and breakfast. Much better! The Paris makes made-to-order crepes. I didn't end up having one as the line was longer than I wanted to be in so I ate some other stuff. I discovered some prime rib hash that was divine. Neil said the crepes were pretty good. I thought the croissants were good, as well. They had a pretty large breakfast buffet. My new favorite juice is cranberry & orange juice mixed. It's a little like ruby red grapefruit. Good stuff.
On the first day of the shot show we conquered the bottom level. All attendees were wearing badges and their location was clearly prominent as well. So, to occupy my brain, I started keeping track. Within about 2.5 hours (give or take), I spotted someone from every state in the US, except Rhode Island. In addition, I spotted the following countries:
- Japan
- Denmark
- Switzerland
- Italy
- Belguim
- Finland
- Columbia
- Thailand
- Canada, including several different provinces:
- Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan & New Brunswick
- Ireland
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- Norway
- Brazil
- China
- Germany
- Russian Federation
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- Jordan
- Australia
- Kahzistan
- United Arab Emeritus
- South Africa
- Slovania
- Uraguay
- France
- Poland
- Greece
- Taiwan
- Chile
- Peru
- Mexico
- Ukraine
- New Caledonia
- Greenland
Pretty crazy! So, that was a great way for me to pass the time as Neil talked to vendors about gun stuff. People watching is pretty entertaining. It became a game for me to read everyone's tags and when I was racially profiling to get a new country and couldn't see the tag it was annoying! :-) I think I could have picked up some more countries if some folks weren't walking so fast.
Tuesday night, we decided to check out a restaurant that I read about on the internet called Grotto. It's downtown at Freemont Street inside the Golden Nugget. It was D-LISH. It's Italian and very, very tasty. We got a table with a view of the HUGE aquarium at the Golden Nugget. I was unaware of this aquarium. It's actually in their pool area with the swimming pool all around the aquarium. There is a water slide that goes THROUGH the aquarium. It's looks so awesome. Too bad it was not super warm, I might of had to go down it.
We took a stroll down Freemont street for the heck of it - to see what we could see. We of course stopped to watch the spray paint artists - Visual Art Images - they are spectular artists who create awesome paintings with spray paint in a matter of minutes. It's like Bob Ross on speed. It's insanely cool. I highly recommend checking these guys out.
We were walking back to the bus when all of a sudden all the lights went out and a boom of thunder sounded. EVERYONE stopped. Next we heard the stomping and clapping, then the words, "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!" It started playing on the 400 foot-long ceiling screen. That was pretty dang cool. Last year, I don't recall anything spectacular playing down there. This time, it was great. Loved it.
To be continued . . . I think I'll finish this up later. I have some other things to do . . . such as sleep!
I did upload our photos - nothing too spectacular - onto Shutterfly. Feel free to check them out. I didn't label them yet and really I don't think they are all that interesting of photos.
I did upload our photos - nothing too spectacular - onto Shutterfly. Feel free to check them out. I didn't label them yet and really I don't think they are all that interesting of photos.
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