snack's Journal: Las Vegas... You know... that place, with gambling?

So... A couple weekends ago, one of my friends (Natalie) turned 21... I've known her for a while, and we're pretty good friends. I've gone out to visit her a few times, and she (and Loreanne) have come out to visit me. Well, since Natalie had recently turned 21, she wanted to have a little party out in Las Vegas. This past weekend, just that happened.

The first part of the adventure was just getting out to Vegas. I had to fly standby to get out there (thank you southwest flight benefits!). Which wasnt too much of an issue. I went through Houston at 7am (bleh), and then continued my flight to Las Vegas. I think I ended up landing at around 10 (local time) which means i had been traveling for about 4 or 5 hours already. Unfortunately some bad weather was rolling in, and they had started delaying flights. Even worse, my friends Kenny and Natalie were delayed... for 3 hours. So... i stuck around the airport for even longer. I tried my hand at a $1 slot machine. After putting $3 in, i won $30! I was quite shocked, and if the rest of the trip would turn out this way, i'd be on easy street. I didnt want to gamble away my money, so i pocketed my winnings, and sat in the terminal and people watched for the remaining time.

Finally Natalie and Kenny's flight arrived, and we were off to our hotel (The Stratosphere). I had seen it on final arrival in the airplane, it's one of the tallest things in vegas. We took a shuttle to the hotel, and checked in. Nothing really fancy about the rooms, just your standard every day rooms. Kenny and I got the 2 bed variety, and Natalie got the 1 bed. Also when we were checking in, we purchased our tickets to the Blueman Group show. After we dropped off our luggage, and decided to walk the strip, we walked the strip. I dont think we planned on walking the ENTIRE strip... but you know, tourists (Note to self: Dont do that again). While walking, and kind of before walking too, each of us expressed interest in locating some food. But, due to the inability of anyone to make a decision we just kept walking... and walking... and walking. Finally I asked kenny what kind of food he wanted, and decided to go into Ny,Ny... However this hotel has about 20 resturants inside.... Thank you Kenny :). Finally, we locate a resturant inside that we want to eat at... The prices are somewhat high, you'd think that with all the money that the hotel is making on the casino, they'd cut back on gouging prices of food. Oh well, $8 and a big bowl of Macaroni and Cheese later, i'm full.

After dinner/lunch/whatever we wandered around the casino for a little bit. I was watching people play roulette... that game is amazing. How it works, how the people bet. I dunno, i was just mesmorized by it. I ended up playing like $10 on it. I totally lost. I originally wanted 10 $1 chips to maximize my betting area, but the table person wouldnt give me those chips. We then went over and watched some people playing Blackjack. (another $10 minimum table) I played blackjack for a little while. $20 got me about 15 mins of play? I'm not too sure, but that game moves very fast. It was fun, i enjoyed blackjack. I however felt that It wasnt fun for my friends to watch me, so we left. We continued to walk down the strip, and made it to the Excalibur. We took the Excalibur shuttle to the Luxor, and wandered around there for a while. Kenny and Natalie really didn't want to gamble much, and I felt somewhat bad about doing something that they didnt want to do, so not much more gambling took place, although i gave kenny $1 and he put it into a penny-slot machine. Somehow he got some bonus multiplier game, and it was playing itself. Fun times.

Finally, it was time to see our show (the 10pm Show). Wow. That's all i have to say. The Blueman Group show was amazing. Not a dull moment at all, and it's a bonus that I really like their music, and have both CDs. By the time we get out of the show, it's about midnight. So we wander around the casino for a little bit, and take a Cab back to the stratosphere. $18 later, we're back in our hotel.

We hang out in Natalie's room for a little bit, and figure out that it's too late to get pizza (i'm not sure how we came to this conclusion, since Vegas seems to be open 24/7). Eventually, Kenny and I leave Natalie's room in search for food. The Buffet is closed, and so are all of the resturants in the Casino (2am ish i think). I see a little convience store next to the elevators, so I look in there, and they have some small snacks and sandwiches. While I was paying for my drink and pastry, some drunk girl starts hitting on kenny. It was pretty funny to me, Kenny just seemed annoyed. We got back up to the room, and i ate my snack... and promptly passed out. I had been up for a VERY long time, and hadn't had much sleep the night before. After getting a good night sleep, I woke up at 10, took a shower and we checked out. Well, we went down to the lobby to check out, but there was a HUGE line, so i went back upstairs and used the TV to check out. We went to the bell-hop desk and checked our bags for the day since we didnt want to lug them around.

So, instead of walking the entire strip again (no thanks), we took the Trolly system. It cost $1.75, and you can go the entire strip. We went back to the Mandelay bay area because Natalie wanted to see the Sharks. Unfortunately when we got there, there was a HUGE line to get in. So we passed on that. We went to the M&M's store instead. Natalie bought some stuff there, and i kept looking at my watch. My flight was the first to leave, and even though i knew that there were delays (rain pushed everything out atleast 4 hours), we had to get back. So, we took another trolly back to the stratosphere, and got on a shuttle to the airport. The airport was a MADHOUSE. The Weather was delaying everything, so people were stuck in the terminal hoping that their flights would get them home. I went and tried to put my name on the standby list, but since there were so many paying customers i pretty much gave up. Also, when I attempted to put my name on the List, we found out that Kenny's entire flight had been cancelled. *not good*

And this begins the What to do when trapped in an airport segment of our story. Kenny eventually put his name on a standby list to get back out to Oakland. His chances of getting onto a flight seemed pretty good. His flight number gave him priority status to get onto another flight. Natalie on the other hand needed to fly standby, so she had no priority what so ever. We figured that she would just catch the first flight out in the morning. While waiting, we got some food, and pretty much hung out... watched some tv. Natalie wandered off somewhere to talk with her boyfriend (as kenny put it ;). So Kenny and I watched the simpsons. Great show. Finally, Kenny's name was called, and he was very happy that he'd be able to go home. That was his 'Big Win' in Vegas... a trip home, that he already paid for! So, Natalie and I were left in the terminal. We found some seats and I found a newspaper. Not much interesting, although there were a couple good articles on how cabdrivers were taking longer routes than necessary and overcharging tourists. 'Longhauling' is what they called it... It seemed that many cabbies were doing it, and the City was just starting to crack down on it. It was about 12 or so, and one of the last flights to oakland was about to leave. I suggested to natalie to use my perfect attendance pass (which my dad gave me) to use to get home. She didnt think it would work, but i really didnt want her to have to stay longer than necessary. So she went up to the ticket counter, and asked them. I guess that there were seats avalible, so she rushed back, packed threw everything back in her bag and ran to the gate. Just in time i suppose. Unfortunately she didnt have time to even say goodbye... It's ok though, she was in a rush. While she was on the plane, she called and thanked me for the ticket.

And so begins my waiting in the airport. Sure the Airport has some slot machines, but by this point i was all out of cash, and didnt want to pay some stupidly crazy ammount to pull my money out of my bank account through an atm machine. There were various TVs around the terminal, so I watched that for a while, but when infomercials were the only thing left... I was forced to find something else to do. I can only take so much of setting something and forgetting it. So, I ended up leaving the 'Secure' area of the terminal and going back out to the common area. Where all the ticket counters and baggage claims are. There were a LOT more people out there. I found some place to sit, and just sort of watched people for hours. I think i fell asaleep for about 20 minutes or so... But i didnt feel comfortable sleeping in the airport. Who knows what could happen, people stealing my bag, i didnt want to chance it. So I got up and walked around some more. There was a little 'History of Aviation' exhibit in the airport. Finally 4am rolled around, and the Southwest ticket counters opened up. I got in line, and had my security doccument printed out so i could get back through securtiy.

After passing back through security, I had another long wait ahead of me. The flight was not supposed to leave untill 8, it was 4 now. So, i watch some TV and attempt not to fall asaleep due to those pesky bag theifs or something. By about 6:45 a LOT more people had showed up, and i was very concerned that i wouldn't be able to catch my flight. The Ticket agent knew that I had stayed the night before, and told me that she would do her best to get me on the flight so I could get home (they had oversold the flight by 1 seat). Eventually she gave me a boarding pass, Some people who had signed up for the flight didnt make it in time. *YAY* out of LAS. I arrive in ABQ just in time to miss my other flight. It hadn't pushed from the gate yet, but they were not going to allow any more passengers. So, I look and see that the next Non-stop flight from ABQ to DAL isn't for a few hours. There is another flight through AMA, and it'll get me home sooner than the non-stop... but i have to transfer, and deal with the standby list shenanigans again. So, I get on the flight to AMA, it was wide open, so I didnt have to deal with the standby stuff. Quick flight to Amarillo (55 mins). When I arrive, in Amarillo, I see that another non-stop flight to Dallas had been delayed. So I get on that flight, and hurridly get home (another hour). By this point it's 4 and i'm VERY exhausted. I get home, and take a shower.

Overall I had a blast in LasVegas with my friends. I'd do it again, but if i had the choice, i'd do it on a weekend where record setting rains, and fly in/out on non-popular travel days (friday and sunday are BAD ideas). I think Kenny and Natalie had a lot of fun too. We should do it again ;)

-Tim
*Offer Good through 5 Minutes ago. Sorry.*