Las Vegas Getaway!
Last double complete. Car cleaned out. Bag packed. Time to start the mini-vacation! Barry took me to Spindleshanks for a bite to eat before leaving town. Ahi tostada was on the menu as the “Daily Special”. Oh my goodness… so delicious!!! March Madness on the television and a Mora Margarita… perfect! Now it’s time to pick up Lori and make two stops…
An untimely back issue necessitated a trip to Walmart for some Salonpas… the miracle heat pad! Two days ago, my lower back slipped and the pain was unbearable. My boss at CBC gave me one of his Salonpas pads… I could not believe how much it helped! So, I figured they better be in my suitcase to Las Vegas! We also stopped at Total Wine to grab a couple of bottles… it’s nice to hang out in the room sometimes and relax with a little wine :-)
Before leaving Tahoe, I checked to see how early we could drop our bag off. The website said four hours prior to departure. Apparently, the website was incorrect. We checked in at a kiosk and received a bag tag. There was no one at the counter. Noticing a sign on one corner, I walked over to read it… two hours before departure… so we figured the best way to pass a couple hours was on a bar stool with a margarita. Before enjoying our cocktail, we decided to rearrange our luggage because it felt a little heavy. Putting several items in my backpack, we figured we would be at 50 pounds. Wrong… 53.5… we tried to determine the heaviest things to take out. After three tries, we finally weighed in at 49.5! The final few ounces? One of Lori’s bathing suits. She put it on in the bathroom… whatever works!
Inside the secured area, we sat and played a few quarters waiting for boarding time. Originally, we planned to depart on Sunday but a week after booking, Spirit Airlines contacted us to say our flight was changed to Saturday night. Putting in for an extra day off work from both jobs and booking an extra day at the hotel… it was actually a good thing. We didn’t have to go to the airport straight from work. Our booked flight was at 6am. Now we depart at 8pm.
Because I have an aversion to middle seats, I booked us in the aisle and window of the same row. We got lucky… no one took the middle seat! It was the only empty seat on our flight… even the couple seated in front of us noticed and cheered our good fortune. Hopefully, this is a sign of our luck to come for the next few days! In the right-hand photo, Lori showed the disposable toothpick she brought… in her fanny pack, she had a gazillion more… just in case!
One of the smoothest take-offs from Reno, that I can remember. The flight was pretty quick. Our seats were comfortable. The Spirit experience was much nicer than we expected. It was $113 round trip… and we packed in one suitcase to lessen the baggage cost. Finally, it’s time for “final approach”, twenty-five minutes ahead of schedule!
Thinking we were on the wrong side of the plane to see the Vegas lights, we soon realized that taxiing in we had the perfect view! The Excaliber and Luxor stood out just off the airport runway.
White waiting for the bag to be delivered, I saw this! Meant to create a photo-op, I just couldn’t get Lori to pose underneath it. Kind of cute though, don’t you think?
Unique to Nevada, passengers have the choice of checking the flight board or gambling. We also saw a glass enclosed area with slot machines that was a smoking area. Usually, smoking is only allowed in designated areas outside the airport… but not in Las Vegas!
It was determined that Uber would be the most economical option for us to get to our hotel. Walking to the “ride share” area, we noticed “The Sphere” off in the distance. Always changing colors, whimsical eyes peeked over the buildings at us. We will be visiting The Sphere on Monday… can’t wait!
Our Uber driver was the best! Trenton joked with us from the minute he arrived… he told us about the crazy growth in Las Vegas. We also learned, he is a Vegas transplant from … Reno!
As we passed by Babystacks Cafe, Trenton told us it is the BEST!!! We will definitely be visiting this eatery!
Settling in and unpacking, we heard music outside our hotel. Looking out the window, we saw a concert going on. I believe this is the Main Street stage. Both of pretty hungry, we went looking for food. Expecting it to be like Tahoe, with nothing available after nine o’clock… we soon learned that food can be found all hours! Lori had a scampi linguini and I had a steak dinner. Pretty darn good!
Walking through the casino, we soon understood that this is the “people watching” mecca! Our biggest challenge was keeping our jaws from dropping with some of the things we witnessed.
While working on this post… I saw that Lori had fallen asleep. We had a very long day! The fact that she fell asleep with her glasses on made me laugh… tomorrow will be a busy, busy day!
