Vegas Day 1 - Friday
Unfortunately I forgot to take my journal so I’m writing all that I can remember here instead. I was racing around like a mad woman trying to get everything done and alas I did not. The laundry was done but not put away, I didn’t get around to making the cinnamon buns and I didn’t finish planning my trip. I didn’t pack until 30 min before the trip. I was so stressed about the trip. I didn’t calm down until I was in the airport and checked in. It is so much work to prep the kids, the house, the sitters, packing, the trip details, tying up details at work and activities committee.
The que to go through the airport was crazy long. US Customs was painfully slow and it was funny to watch people. People watching is one of my favorite activities. It amuses me greatly. I watched the customs guys as they checked people through, they were all so serious and I was placing bets as to who we would get. I was determined to make the guy smile. I bounced through customs, chatting it up with the customs guy. I made him smile and laugh. Goal achieved.
I didn’t eat anything all day and was starving. The area we were in only had this tiny sandwich stand and a little newspaper stand with junk food. I spied a Bernard Callebaut chocolate store and ran around like crazy trying to find a way out of where I was and an in to the other side. Alas I couldn’t, so I pawed and banged at the window creating a spectacle, but I didn’t care. Finally, I gave up and sauntered over to the sandwich stand and grabbed some sort of turkey thing. I ate the sandwich remorsefully, while cursing the design of the ridiculous airport. If you’re going to put the world’s best chocolatier in a freakn’ airport they need to make it accessible to all… even those who have cleared US customs.
I love WestJet. If you fly on a plane. Go with them. They are friendly, funny, warm and a great ride. I wish I had my journal so I could quickly jot more of their funny comments down. Some of the comments I remember that they said,
“In the back is some eye candy his name is Lance.”
Male stewardess to the female stewardess: “Would you stop just standing there and looking pretty. Do something already.” The stewardess then goes and chokes the guy with the mic cord.
When they came around to check if we’ve put on seatbelts etc. Just for the sake of being goofy I smiled at the male stewardess and said, “Thanks baby!” with a wink. The rest of the flight I said, “hey baby, I need a pillow or a can of juice please baby!” he ate it up and gave me whatever I asked for and more. If I didn’t say baby he’d demand I say it first before he gave me anything. It was hilarious. When I left I gave him a huge grin and said, “see ya later baby!” The guy was so funny. It was great.
When the plane took off I cheered, “whoo hoo!” as we rocked it towards the sky and Vegas. After a cranberry juice and pretzel snacks and curled up in my seat, lay my head on Ryan’s lap and slept all the way to Vegas.
Once we arrived, I began to get excited. The airport is so tiny. We grabbed our bags and tried to figure out how we would get to the hotel. I tried the shuttle. No luck. No one going to our crap hotel. So we went outside to catch a cab…
Hustle #1: A limo driver comes up and tell us that he can give us a ride to the airport for $80. He tells us that a cab driver would be $72 to get to the hotel. I totally knew it was a lie and told him that he was feeding me a line. He keeps up his sales pitch and I look at Ryan. He shrugs. So what the hell, why not? We load up our bags and take a ridiculous $80 limo ride to the hotel. It was ok. Nothing oohh, la la. I couldn’t figure out how to open the window and hang out the top. I played with all the buttons and made the divider window go up and down over and over again….
We arrived, check into the Stratosphere hotel. They upgraded us to: 31723. If this room was an upgrade I hate to see what the other rooms are like. Ick. We had 2 Queen beds. Normally I would have complained, but I love sleeping in my own bed. So I said nothing. Our room was small, the tub didn’t drain and the sink smelled like the sewer and the TV didn’t work. I was happy about the TV not working, but Ryan wasn’t.
I tried to call Dave but couldn’t get a hold of him so I thought that maybe he wasn’t coming down after all. I had no idea if he wanted to hang out just for the Saturday or the Sunday as well or what time he was going home or anything. It was all very vague to me. I figured it was smart of him, this way if either of us couldn’t stand each other we had a polite out. I mentally planned out a plan B in case he didn’t show.
Ryan and I lightly planned out the next couple of days. We tossed off our bags then went and explored the hotel. I immediately got annoyed. Everything is in a maze. The casino is lumped in the middle then there are hallways like tentacles connected to the hotel. It was frustrating and I felt like we were walking around in circles. We ran into Leslie and her friend Kim. We chatted, laughed and goofed around. Around midnight we retired to our hotel and crashed cuz we had a big day tomorrow.
