If It’s Friday, This Must Be Las Vegas

So, Vegas.

My mom, older sister, nephew and I stayed at a Best Western in Las Vegas once while we were driving through to California to see my mom’s sister. I was underage and with my mom, so it was totally boring. They didn’t even have skee ball! I do remember mentally putting it on my list for places to visit when I got older.

At the beginning of December, Southwest Airlines was having a 50% off flights into and from Denver deal. Kyle (from work) kindly pointed it out to all of us at work and plots started hatching. Kristen and Tim, Kerri and Randy, Jessica, Jen and Bruce were all going to go. Kyle (from work) said he wanted to give that to his wife (Katie) for a Christmas present. (She had done that for him a few years ago.) Kyle and I talked it over and we decided to go too, because how could we not? I talked with my Grandpa the week after we bought the tickets and he graciously booked a timeshare with his timeshare program for us. Our flight was to leave the night of Friday, January 16th. We’d have to come back Monday, January 19th.

Friday after work I went straight to Kyle’s and then we headed over to Eric’s house as he was going to take us to the airport. He dropped us off and I instantly felt… I don’t know. I’d say better, but I was feeling pretty damn good the whole day. There’s something about the airport, and all airports in general I guess. I love them.

We checked our baggage, go through security and then waited for what seemed like FOREVER for some crappy airport McDonald’s food since we hadn’t eaten yet. We went to our gate and waited for everyone else to start showing up. It was pretty exciting.

Kyle (from work) and Katie at the airport.

The boarding process was different (It’s Southwest!), but I liked it. The flight crew were also pretty awesome, particularly the pilot who made chug-a-chug-a sounds as we backed away from the gate.

Poor Kyle had some stranger practically laying on his shoulder. I thought that stuff only happened in the movies!

My Southwest stirrer which is a great scrapbook memento, Ritz Chips and the little purse I was working on since I realized I didn’t want to carry around my big purse. I wound up just using my pockets. Fancy that.

No gremlins!

Blurry and I had no idea what I was taking a picture of as we landed, but now I can make out the Stratosphere and what I think is the Mirage.

The Las Vegas airport was less cool than I expected, but it was neat to see slot machines right as we got off the plane. We eventually found our way to the taxi line and got a taxi to the timeshare, Summer Bay Resorts. The check-in process went smoothly, which I found a little surprising. I guess I was really nervous that something would get messed up. It was a little depressing though when the clerk asked if Eldon and Gayle would be joining us. I’m surprised I didn’t burst out in tears, but it caught me so off-guard I didn’t have time to fully absorb what he said.

I didn’t know what to expect of the timeshare, but it was totally awesome. I loved all the artwork, especially this quad-tych. (Is there a word like triptych for other numbers of panels?)

Kyle and I are in the mirror in the picture. I like glass table tops but am not fond of the idea of taking care of one consistently, so they’re great for vacation!

It was great to have the full kitchen, even though we didn’t use it. We really should have gone grocery shopping one of the days, but it just wasn’t going to happen because the shuttle left way early in the morning.

I don’t know why, but I really like circular mirrors.

When we turned on the flatscreen 300 was on so we let it play while we were trying to figure out what to do for the evening.

The fireplace is below and just barely pictured here.

The bathtub in the Master Bathroom was GIGANTIC. I want a roman tub. On the downside, it took forever to fill up and drain. The toilet was in a separate closet thing, which was neat.

We didn’t just hang out at the timeshare very much, but I wish we would have so I could have sat and read in this chair for awhile.

Kyle checking out the bed and Kyle (from work) checking out the closet (there was a safe in there, which was neat). The closet also had a little settee. When I grow up, I want a walk in closet and settee, too.

Katie and Kyle had their own room, of course, but I didn’t take any pictures of it. We all wanted to go out and see the Strip for awhile before calling it a night, but a) we didn’t rent a car, b) there were no more shuttles from the timeshare complex to the Strip and c) we were very leery of walking around at night off-Strip. Eventually we did walk and did a pretty big circuit all things told that night, but it was fun and saved us money on cab fare that night.

I was in awe every time I saw the Eiffel Tower replica. How could I not be? I loved the way everything was lit up.

Everything looked close because it was so damn big. But everything was kind of far away. We adjusted to the distances by Sunday, I think.

Next time we go, I will forego all food if I can see The Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil. (Zumanity would be neat also, but I’ve heard a few detracting reviews about it.)

We spent most of our time on the Strip that night looking for food. It was kind of late, but considering it was Las Vegas we didn’t think it would be so darn difficult. We wound up getting some meh pizza slices from a pizza/Chipotle/Panda Express food court place. I should have gone with the Panda Express, though the pizza did hit the spot. It sustained us walking around and then back home at least.

It seemed like the area of the Venetian that we walked through was deserted. It was kind of nice.

I had to wait for the signs above the water to be really bright to take a decent picture.

I saw this in a documentary the other night and immediately got excited about how awesome it was that I had just seen that in person.

Kyle, Kyle and Katie looking out over the balcony.

Tower of some sort. The banner on the side is for the Chinese New Year of the Ox.

The architecture of pretty much everything was just astounding. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we put that much effort toward housing the homeless or teaching our kids, you know?

This was on our way back to the timeshare. We didn’t go inside these hotels, but saw them a lot while we were there.

We got back to our place and then went to bed, excited for the next day’s activities, which were still unplanned, but we were certain they’d be pretty awesome.