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Jen came in this morning around 2 or 3 am, she ran into a hunk of traffic coming south. I picked her up from Lisa's place where we left her truck for the weekend. We came in and crashed.In the morning we got up, had some fruit and coffee, talked with darren for a bit and headed to the airport. We got to the counter at almost the exact right time (1 hour before the flight). Then we grabbed a bagel and headed for the gate. When we got to the gate we found out that South West has a cattle call system where they just hand you a boarding pass with a number on it. We were in the 3rd boarding group, 3 of 3.
As we were in line, we were hearing more and more people talk about Reno. This was a little disturbing as we were going to Vegas. At this point we didn't have our ticket either, just our boarding passes. I finally asked one of the flight attendants, "uh, we ARE going to Vegas, right?"
"Yes" he said, "we make one stop, it's a direct flight to Vegas, but not a non-stop one." So if nothing else, we learned that direct means that you will not have to change planes to get to your destination. As opposed to non-stop which means that when the plane stops, you are at your destination.
One of the problems with the cattle call system is that by the time we got on, we had to ask a person to move so that we could sit together. The guy was really cool about it though. He only had to move across the aisle.
I think that we had JUST sat down before they started pulling away from the gate. It was almost as if you could hear the captain saying, "Good morning, if you could please quickly store your luggage and take your seats while we taxi out to the run way, we would appreciate it. Oh, and please don't forget the seat belts". Normally they will not pull out of the gate until every last person is seated and belted.
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Reno was a bit rough coming in. And the landing was like a roller coaster. I always hate landings when the front of the plane is 3 - 5 feet to the left or right of the back of the plane. You can see it when you are seated on the aisle, the forward motion in NOT straight ahead.
But other than the turbulence reno was a whistle stop.
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Vegas was also a bit rough, but no big deal compared to Reno. We landed and got out of the plane. The Vegas airport is just like any other airport in the world, except for the banks of slot machines everywhere.
Another thing about the Vegas air port; our baggage claim tickets were actually checked. I don't know that I've ever had an air port employee anywhere actually check numbers on my claim ticket with the number on my baggage.
Next step was to get a shuttle to the hotel, I think it came to 7 bucks each for a round trip. We got into the hotel, got our room keys, found our room (about a full block away), took a quick shower, (more of a rinse really) then headed off for the buffet.
What can you say about a buffet? There was a ton of food, and eating healthy can be a bit of a challenge, but not impossible if you spend just the tiniest bit of effort on it. Think salad and fruit, and small portions of every thing else. Small portions was the key, I got a large bowl of clam chowder to start (I find it amazing that even in Vegas that little bit of Catholic influence is still there to be found, and I'm willing to bet that 85% of people have no clue as to what I mean by that.)
After the buffet we headed up towards the Strat. We made it as far as the Wet and Wild (just this side of the Sahara) and then decided that we would go to the Hilton with the StarTrek experience in it. This is not the Flamingo Hilton, it's the other one. We decided that it was early in the trip and we were not going to spend $15 each for something we knew very little about. So we went shopping. we looked at chess sets, there were suede officers jackets and plates - commemorative plates every where. The scary thing was they listed the date that "Encounter at Farpoint" aired and it was something like September 28th of 1987. That was a bit of a shock to me, I hadn't realized that it had been 12 years since the show started.
The real gem though was to be found in the "other" store. Klingon teddy bears. Jen had to get one, she's thinking that at OryCon, what she want's to do is a hall costume in full klingon make up, pajama's, and her Klingon bear, and go down for cereal and cartoons on Saturday morning.
We ended up spending most of our time in Quarks bar, talking with one of the Dabo girls. No they did not have Dabo there, just the Dabo girls. Apparently the space is leased by Paramount from the Hilton and the difficulties involved in getting a gambling license AND a liquor license are daunting. So we have the bar, and no Dabo. Another thing was that apparently the Dabo girls had just gotten new dresses. I have to say that these dresses were great. I am not one who normally has any real interest in cleavage, but I found myself having problems looking her in the eyes. I told her this and that was when she told us that they had just gotten the new dresses, and that it was all the talk back in the restaurant.
One of the attractions in the bar was a pair of Ferengi and a Klingon in full make up. There was some little hide and seek tag game going with one of the Ferengi and the Klingon. I talked with him for very little. And he did speak enough Klingon for me to recognize it, and know that I was out of my depths. I later asked another person in a different store how much he had to learn for the part and she whispered, "A few select phases". But apparently when someone from the Klingon Language Institute comes in, they just rely on the "fact" that there are two or more different dialects.
There were some way cool purring Tribble key chains in the store, had to get one. Yeah I know, geeky as all get out, but damn it was fun. We also both applied for a "Star Trek Master Card" and got a free borg cup (normally 6 or 7 bucks) and 10% off our purchases. The cool part was that the 10% was retroactive, so we went back and got our discount. As a side note, one of the women running the till was teaching herself to juggle, and I was able to throw her a couple of tips that made it go a little easier for her. I'd love to track her down in a couple of months and find out how her juggling has gone.
From the Hilton, we went back to Circus Circus, dropped off our loot, I put in contacts, and headed down the strip on a "mission from god" to get to New York, New York ("Nork Nork" as we started calling it) to ride the Manhattan Express. The stops included:
The Stardust, where we had made reservations to see the show "Enter the Night" on Saturday night.
The Frontier, with 99 cent margarita's (pretty good ones too).
Treasure Island, where the pirate show was canceled due to high winds.
The Mirage, where we wandered through, looked at the tiger, looked at the jungle display, and then headed out. One humorous note, we over heard someone saying something along the lines of "these winds are strong, feels like a tornado". Janine had just gotten back from an 18 month stint in Kansas and was torn between laugher and being insulted at this person's naive idea of tornado winds.
Ceasers Palace, which we walked past, it was also where we were horrified to learn that Hewey Lewis and the News was playing. You start feeling old when a band that you remember being big, and then you haven't heard from in 5 plus years shows up is Vegas across the street from Johnny Mathis. We just couldn't bring ourselves to go in.
Bellagio's, where we felt like gypsies in the palace. It was more of a shopping center for the painfully rich than a casino. Tiffany's, Saks 5th Ave and Nieman Marcus are some of the names I really remember.
We stopped at Bellagio's. There in front of the huge body of water that they had there. It was beautiful. But our feet hurt, and Jen pointed out to me that we were a little over 1/2 way there. It was time to stop. It was also the time that we noticed the buses. So we walked a little further, and looked at Paris being built, then we walked back to Flamingo AVE, crossed the street and caught the north bound bus to the Sahara.At about 02:00 we got into the Sahara, and both had the 2.49 breakfast. Jen with steak and eggs and me with ham and eggs. At this my eyes had been burning for about the last hour due to the wind drying them out, and of course the occasional bits of sand. I had put the contacts in at the beginning for the roller coaster ride at Nork Nork.
We wandered back to our hotel room and got into bed 03:00 Sunday morning.
One last little whining tidbit from paradise, part of my problem was that I had a bruise on the inside of my right arch from the support in my shoe. Not that you care, but I was just really glad to get off that foot.