March 13th...
Mar. 22nd, 2013 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
disneydream06I think I woke up around midnight. I had a shuttle to the airport to catch at 3 am.
My flight out of Minneapolis is scheduled to leave at 7:10am. The plane backed away from the gate at 7:05(do airlines get credit for "being early"?), but didn't leave the ground until closer to 7:15. lol...
We must have had a good tailwind because we were due into Las Vegas at 8:33, but it was closer to 8 when we landed. :p We landed at Terminal 3 which is apparently new. I tried to find my way out of it. I was on the phone for a good 15 minutes with my friend Melanie, who was there to pick me up. She was like, I'm right here, and I was like, But I am right here. Turns out she was at a totally different Terminal. lol......... Nice of the airport to make things convienant.
It was my understanding that Joe wasn't planning to get to Vegas until about noon, so Melanie was going to be nice enough to entertian me for awhile. We stopped at a CVS to get some toiletries, easier then packing and dealing with security. Then we stopped at McD's. I got a couple of eggless Sausage McMuffins. Apparently, you have to say you want the egg when you order then. Also got a strawberry banana smoothie. Can you say BRAIN FREEZE????? From there we went over to the Springs Preserve, which is kind of a history/nature/science like museum. We had just started to go through when I got a phone call from Joe, Oh that's my phone ringing lol... Joe was at the hotel looking for us. He had gotten an earlier start. Reception was lousy, so I tried to tell him we would be done looking through the place and head for the hotel.
We got to the hotel, the Stratosphere, and toured the parking ramp looking for Joe's truck. We found it relatively quickly. I called Joe to let him know we were there. He didn't answer the first time, so I waited a couple of minutes and tried again. Soon Tired Joe met us out in the ramp. I grabbed my stuff out of Melanie's van and put it in Joe's truck. Then we all wondered into the hotel to check if by chance our room was ready. The room that was assigned to us was still dirty but she offered us a different room. No biggie. We got up to the room, um, yeah, that room was dirty too. So back down to the desk. She moved us over a few doors. Back up to the 17th floor we went. YAY the room was ready, but one of the card keys didn't work lol... So we all hung out and chatted for a bit until Melanie had to get going to start chaufeuring the kids around. :p Shortly after Melanie had left I realized my jacket and toiletries were still on the front seat floor of her can. So after chilling for a bit we stopped back down at the desk to get another card key that worked and then we headed down to another CVS to rebuy some toiletries. Also picked up some bottled water. Vegas tap water isn't the best. :p
We stopped back out to Joe's truck and got our things and went back to the room and chilled for a bit more. A very tired Joe napped for a bit. Then we went down to Roxie's, a restaurant in the Startosphere, and yummy burgers. After supper we hopped a bus up to Fremont Street to check out the sites. Don't know if we were too early or what, but didn't see any light shows on the canopy. A friend at work had told me that the Plaza Hotel had been sold, but the big Plaza sign on top of the hotel was still lit up. We wondered around a big, did some window shopping, and strolled past some of the refurbished neon signs.
We hopped back on a bus and headed back towards the Strip. Tired Joe decided to call it a night and got off at the hotel. I road on down the Strip, shocked at how empty the bus stayed. Wednesday nights must be a quieter time. lol... I road down to the M&M store to do some window shopping. Lots of fun things can always be found there. I also strolled through the Coca Cola store next door. They had some interesting scented tshirts. They have the scent of some of their pop brands in the fabric.
From there I just kind of wondered back up the Strip towards the Stratosphere. Opted to walk all the way, but I probably should have taken the bus. By the time I got back to the hotel my left foot that I had so much trouble with a couple of years ago, was bothering me all over again. Got back to the room and popped some Ibuprofin, watched a little tv and went to bed.
Snow Capped Mountains Some Where in The Rockies...
The Dismantling of the Former Sahara Hotel...
Some Old Neon Signs...
A Mural at the M&M Store...
Some Vegas Skyline Views...
My flight out of Minneapolis is scheduled to leave at 7:10am. The plane backed away from the gate at 7:05(do airlines get credit for "being early"?), but didn't leave the ground until closer to 7:15. lol...
We must have had a good tailwind because we were due into Las Vegas at 8:33, but it was closer to 8 when we landed. :p We landed at Terminal 3 which is apparently new. I tried to find my way out of it. I was on the phone for a good 15 minutes with my friend Melanie, who was there to pick me up. She was like, I'm right here, and I was like, But I am right here. Turns out she was at a totally different Terminal. lol......... Nice of the airport to make things convienant.
It was my understanding that Joe wasn't planning to get to Vegas until about noon, so Melanie was going to be nice enough to entertian me for awhile. We stopped at a CVS to get some toiletries, easier then packing and dealing with security. Then we stopped at McD's. I got a couple of eggless Sausage McMuffins. Apparently, you have to say you want the egg when you order then. Also got a strawberry banana smoothie. Can you say BRAIN FREEZE????? From there we went over to the Springs Preserve, which is kind of a history/nature/science like museum. We had just started to go through when I got a phone call from Joe, Oh that's my phone ringing lol... Joe was at the hotel looking for us. He had gotten an earlier start. Reception was lousy, so I tried to tell him we would be done looking through the place and head for the hotel.
We got to the hotel, the Stratosphere, and toured the parking ramp looking for Joe's truck. We found it relatively quickly. I called Joe to let him know we were there. He didn't answer the first time, so I waited a couple of minutes and tried again. Soon Tired Joe met us out in the ramp. I grabbed my stuff out of Melanie's van and put it in Joe's truck. Then we all wondered into the hotel to check if by chance our room was ready. The room that was assigned to us was still dirty but she offered us a different room. No biggie. We got up to the room, um, yeah, that room was dirty too. So back down to the desk. She moved us over a few doors. Back up to the 17th floor we went. YAY the room was ready, but one of the card keys didn't work lol... So we all hung out and chatted for a bit until Melanie had to get going to start chaufeuring the kids around. :p Shortly after Melanie had left I realized my jacket and toiletries were still on the front seat floor of her can. So after chilling for a bit we stopped back down at the desk to get another card key that worked and then we headed down to another CVS to rebuy some toiletries. Also picked up some bottled water. Vegas tap water isn't the best. :p
We stopped back out to Joe's truck and got our things and went back to the room and chilled for a bit more. A very tired Joe napped for a bit. Then we went down to Roxie's, a restaurant in the Startosphere, and yummy burgers. After supper we hopped a bus up to Fremont Street to check out the sites. Don't know if we were too early or what, but didn't see any light shows on the canopy. A friend at work had told me that the Plaza Hotel had been sold, but the big Plaza sign on top of the hotel was still lit up. We wondered around a big, did some window shopping, and strolled past some of the refurbished neon signs.
We hopped back on a bus and headed back towards the Strip. Tired Joe decided to call it a night and got off at the hotel. I road on down the Strip, shocked at how empty the bus stayed. Wednesday nights must be a quieter time. lol... I road down to the M&M store to do some window shopping. Lots of fun things can always be found there. I also strolled through the Coca Cola store next door. They had some interesting scented tshirts. They have the scent of some of their pop brands in the fabric.
From there I just kind of wondered back up the Strip towards the Stratosphere. Opted to walk all the way, but I probably should have taken the bus. By the time I got back to the hotel my left foot that I had so much trouble with a couple of years ago, was bothering me all over again. Got back to the room and popped some Ibuprofin, watched a little tv and went to bed.
Snow Capped Mountains Some Where in The Rockies...
The Dismantling of the Former Sahara Hotel...
Some Old Neon Signs...
A Mural at the M&M Store...
Some Vegas Skyline Views...
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no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 01:12 am (UTC)My previous career had me involved on a team planning and executing large corporate meetings for a national restaurant chain. Every six months, it was either Las Vegas or Orlando - for about 8 days at a time. Until those meetings were over and the attendees gone, it was 6am - 11:30pm NEVER getting out of the hotel convention center. I take that back, we'd usually have an excursion or two. And I often took a day or two of vacation time at the end to see and do something. Most often, we were at the MGM Grand.
Anyways, the Stratosphere always tried to lure us. The team would visit, but we were never very impressed. Same with the Trop - we actually had a conference there, and though the staff there certainly tried hard, the place was the absolute pits.
One time, a friend had a two-fer weekend-including-airfare to CircusCircus. That TRULY was a dump. I know it's probably been re-done since then (the magnitude and the speed with which things in Las Vegas would change always astounded me...), but it was horrible. I spent a lot of time there by myself lol... On night #1, my friend ended up hooking up with some hottie from the air force base and spent about 48 hours straight bonking his brains out with an aviator hottie.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 01:25 am (UTC)But it's the third time I have stayed there.
I have heard tons of bad things about Circus Circus. I would have to say, it's the one to go to if you are REALLY on a budget and want to stay on the Strip.
The Imperial Palace is undergoing a rehab. It's also now called The Quad.
And Bill's Gamblin Hall is completely shut down for a rehab.
The Sahara that closed last year, I believe, is now getting rehabed. Sad to see some of their exterior being torn down though.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 02:14 am (UTC)Love the neon signs!!
no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 02:22 am (UTC)I need to win the lottery and donate some money to them so they can fix up some more of the old signs. :)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-24 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-24 11:11 pm (UTC)That's why I try to get window seats. :)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-26 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-26 02:31 pm (UTC)