Probably Won't Go Back

In December 2014, DH and I went to Las Vegas for roughly a week.  While we stayed at a hotel/vacation club just off the famous Strip, we didn't do anything related to the casinos, shows, gambling, etc. We used our very nice room/condo/suite as a home base and made daily excursions way out of town.  Like the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and Death Valley.  It was a surprisingly enjoyable trip (I'd resisted Vegas for years and years) that I blogged about here and we decided that we would probably be interested in doing a similar Vegas-based trip in the future.

Well, earlier this month, we went back.  The trip planning started this way: last Spring, DH got two vacation promo phone calls pretty much back to back.  The first one sounded like a great deal, it came with 3 nights and all sorts of free goodies, tickets, etc, plus a voucher for another vacation (3 days/2 nights) in either the Caribbean or Hawaii in exchange for sitting through a 90-minute presentation. He thought it sounded so good that he signed up for it.  And then the second one, for only $99 total (and an hour presentation), we got 3 nights at the same vacation club type of place we'd stayed in 2014, so he bought that one also, planning to dovetail the two trips into a week in Vegas.

We figured that with wedding planning, DD1's living with us during her student teaching (and possibly until her wedding in May 2018), her college graduation plus the holidays, DH and I would probably be ready to run away screaming go on a short vacation right about the time January arrived.  A nice little breather before resuming winter in Michigan, more wedding details, the bridal shower, last minute wedding madness, and the Big Day in May.  So we booked our two hotel stays(second promo for the first half, then first promo to end with), bought round trip plane tickets, scheduled the time off from work, and waited for our escape from reality vacation to arrive.

It arrived right after a very frigid spell in early January.  In fact, the morning we headed for the airport, the weather was a balmy 57 degrees Fahrenheit with rain. That warm weather was only supposed to last another day or two, and then cold and snow were going to return.  We, on the other hand, would be experiencing sunshine and mid 60s in Nevada.  Not to mention the fact that we would be temporarily removed from all the drama  related to DS1s marriage that has become our daily life. We couldn't wait to get to Vegas!

But we had to wait.  In fact, we waited out a two hour delay at the airport in Lansing while our plane got refilled with hydraulic fluid and checked for any other important repairs.  Good thing our itinerary included a three hour layover in Minneapolis, or we would have been scrambling (unsuccessfully) for another flight out of Lansing, like most of the other people who had seats on our plane.  We finally got to board the plane, and flew away to Minneapolis, deplaning about twenty minutes before our flight to Las Vegas was supposed to board.  Quick bathroom stops, and then we hoofed it across the airport to our departure gate.  Where we learned that the inbound flight (that would become our outbound to Vegas) had only just landed, so there would be roughly a half hour delay while passengers deplaned, and the plane was cleaned and restocked supplies and fuel.

The weather in Minneapolis was vastly different than the weather in Lansing.  Instead of fifties and rain, there was low twenties, and driving snow.  Every plane had to be deiced before proceeding to the runway.  They were deicing about five planes at a time, and we still had to wait in line behind three other planes before ours got to the deicing area.

While most people settled in to sleep, or watch a movie, or read, I totally geeked out about being deiced.  What can I say, it was my first time going through that process, and I loved every minute of watching the equipment and the equipment operators put the plane through the deicing procedure.  I took tons of pictures through the window, using the excuse of wanting to show them to the grandkids once we got home.  In reality, I'm 46 going on 6 sometimes. . . It was just cool.  And, honestly, I think it would be pretty neat to have a shot at sitting in the little cab on the end of the boom arm working the sprayer controls way way up in the air.

waiting our turn

first, the pink spray

get the wingtips good

then, go over everything with the green spray

The flight itself was pretty uneventful.  All those delays, but a nice smooth trip through the air.  Sometimes I had a clear view to the ground below, and other times we were flying above the clouds with sunshine above us. One super science nerd part of the flight was where we had clouds below us, and sun above us, and the sun shone at just the right angle to make a rainbow on top of the clouds.  Not just the arc-type rainbows seen from the ground, but more of a full-circle bulls-eye rainbow!

topography

cool circle rainbow on clouds below (and snowflakes on the window)

Our time in Nevada alternated between enjoyable and can-I-go-home-now? On the good side, I actually felt like braving the crowds and craziness of the Strip in order to go see the fountain at the Bellagio.  So the second evening there, we parked, walked to the fountain, waited for the next scheduled 'show' of water, lights and music, watched that, and walked back to where we'd left our rental truck.  Less than an hour, total, of nighttime escapades on the Vegas Strip.  I felt quite accomplished, LOL.  (I hate, hate, hate, crowds, and I am vehemently opposed to gambling, so the Strip doesn't quite appeal to me).  I'd set my mission: see the fountain, and I'd successfully achieved that with no extra bullshit from weirdos on the Strip  unplanned events.

Feeling buoyed by that excursion, I decided that I would like to go back in the day time, preferably early in the morning to avoid crowds, to see some of the statuary at Caesar's Palace up close.  So DH and I did that on another day (one of the ones we had to attend a presentation, so didn't have time to be gone from the city all day).

I texted this picture to DD2, who replied that Caesar was missing some stab marks.

I responded that they were probably behind him, an angle you can't get to from the sidewalk.

Hippocampus, but of course I prefer the anatomy of the horsey end rather than the fishy one

I also loved the many trumpet playing angels on top of the walls.

Other aspects of our in-Vegas time weren't nearly so enjoyable. The Can-I-Go-Home-Now parts. There were those presentations to attend, at which they try to talk you into buying what they are selling (which we didn't, with the dead honest excuse that we are totally tied up financially with DD1s upcoming wedding).Those enticing free gifts they'd promised turned out to be not that usable (like a handful of free show tickets, with not a single matching pair of shows, and rather than a $100 dinner voucher for a Vegas steakhouse they substituted a $100 gift card to restaurants.com which is rather limited in where and how you can use it--and only good for about half off your bill where ever you do manage to dine with it). 

Another big negative was the second place we stayed, which was off Strip and therefore you'd think quieter.  It ended up being kind of a dump (especially compared to the very nice condo/apartment--with full kitchen--that we first stayed at) and was also impossible to sleep at due to the live bands playing on the street till all hours of the morning. Our room was six floors up and the music was still so loud that not only did the windows rattle, the beds shook!  Seriously. I lay awake long after one a.m. being able to recognize 80's rock songs easily because the music was that loud.  Concrete walls, six stories height (so, 60 feet?), and windows shut, and you could still clearly hear the music from the street below. Not that the 80's music was bad, it's my favorite genre.  But it changed along about quarter to two to some other music that I really can't stand.  So not a good night at all.

Word to the wise: If you don't love being kept awake all night, stay away from accommodations on Fremont Street.

We stayed there exactly one night before going somewhere else--unfortunately on our own dime because the company the trip was booked through refused to move us to one of their other properties on the original list of choices they'd emailed DH.  Really, that experience soured the trip for DH & I, and we both agree that most likely we won't choose to vacation in Vegas ever again. Not even as a home base for outdoorsy excursions.


(Stay tuned for a post about the non-city portion of our trip.)