Well I am back from Las Vegas in one piece - barely. First of all the concert itself was amazing - I was the equivalent of about row 8 or so and ended up closer. Paul sang songs I hadn't heard him sing live before so that was exciting. And he was really HOT...whoa mama. The rest of us were just plain hot....poor Pat got so hot she had to sit down in the middle of the standing room only crowd. Just when Paul came on.....luckily she felt better after a couple of songs. Then this lady who before I'd thought was kind of a weirdo with black curly hair all over the place and just kind of strange looking was kind enough to offer her water (they would not let water bottles in - we had to buy stuff at the bar if we wanted liquid refreshment) so she felt better after that. It was tough as we had to start lining up at 5 p.m., the concert was scheduled to start at 8 but did not start until almost 8:40 which pissed me off big time. Of course the moment Paul bounded on stage I forgave him but up until then he was not in my good books. Would I do standing room only again? Oh probably knowing me....but not for a while. And only for Paul...I think my body is still recuperating from the weekend.
Terribles Hotel & Casino turned out to be not terrible at all and was very handy to get to the Hard Rock where the concert was.
Vegas itself? It was hotter than hell so was horrid walking on the Strip - I did not gamble at all. I tried gambling with the credits we got from joining the players club (we joined only so we could get the free t-shirt and free buffet breakfast) but my PIN locked up and the line to get it fixed was too long so that was that. Did not bother at any of the other casinos. The only thing that would get me back to Vegas would be Paul and even then it would depend what time of year it was.
We rented a car on Saturday and went to the Valley of Fire state park which was fantastic. We had gone there in 05 and really enjoyed so thought why not go back. We all loved it and did a few short walks. The colours are amazing.
Sunday we hung around the pool - luckily we hadn't gone in due to the pool being too cold. We were just ready to move over to the hot tub when Pat said isn't that your phone ringing and sure enough - it was Vic saying that they were handing out wrist bands at the Hard Rock - you never saw two women move so quickly. We ran upstairs and got ourselves decent and off we went - we were just grateful our bathing suits weren't wet as we just threw everything on over top. Vic was there and had gotten us our wrist bands - # 146, 147 and 148. Yay!!! So then back to the pool and relaxing for the afternoon before we headed over for the concert where we lined up according to our numbers.
Monday morning we had our free buffet breakfast and then Vic stayed at the pool to relax before getting her flight and Pat and I walked over to the strip - we walked around Bellagio and Caesars before we split up. They were both leaving that day whereas I had one more day. I walked over to the Venetian which is my favourite casino and enjoyed a gelato sitting in St. Marks Square. I then went to the Flamingo and saw the Flamingos in the back garden and then on to Paris, Paris or whatever it's called to look around a bit. I could not get into being on the Strip at all so decided to head back to the hotel about 3. I sat at the bus stop on Flamingo and a fella told me I could get a 24 hour bus pass for $4 so that I did. Back to Terrible's to get my luggage and then I took a bus one stop (too hot to walk), transferred and then another bus downtown. I then checked in to the Plaza which for $25.62 Cdn a night was not bad. I'd stayed there in 07 and didn't have a problem with it - it's one of the original casino hotels from the 50's. I walked around the downtown area and had a buffet which was okay....someone on the bus told me it was the best buffet downtown. Well if that's the best.....Anyway watched the Fremont St. experience - the 8 p.m. one was Born to be Wild by who knows who (not Steppenwolf) and 9 p.m. was American Pie by Don McLean. Then back to the room. After midnight I was woken up by someone knocking on my door. Complaining about my snoring? I will never know as when I crept quietly to look out the peephole they were gone. It scared the crap out of me though - I am not a scaredy cat at all but being in Vegas and being woken like that...it was scary to me and I did not sleep well for the rest of the night. (and I put a chair under the door knob) Silly really.
Next morning I had breakfast at the Golden Gate which is the oldest hotel and oldest casino in Vegas and was across from the Plaza. After walking around a bit I then took the bus out to the airport - the only public bus that went to the airport was the one I'd taken the day before and it stopped just down the road from the Plaza. Hey I got my $4 worth and I figure I should write a cheapskates guide to a weekend in Vegas. I did not buy much of anything - unless you count a couple of small bags of macadamia nuts at the ABC store and a $5 pair of ear buds for my MP3 player. (luckily Canada customs didn't give me a hassle when I only claimed $20 - decided I 'd claim the t-shirt I got for free just so it didn't look too crazy) Normally I'd never claim that stuff but thought it would look too suspicious if I put a big fat zero.
Flew to Vancouver then Calgary then home. Yikes. The flight to Calgary was interesting - we circled Calgary for about 25 minutes and I figured something was up. Sure enough - technical problems. We figure the flap didn't come up or down or whatever it does (we were never told what the problem was) and we were told we would be breaking hard. And oh my - yes we did. What a landing. The plane was very quiet when the announcement was made about the technical problems and everyone beamed at each other in relief once our arms were back to their normal place and not hanging on to the seat in front of us. (felt like I was going to fly out of my seat despite the seat belt) I haven't been that nervous in an aircraft before. But hey at least it was AFTER I saw Paul. When I said I'd die happy I didn't really mean it - not quite ready to pop my clogs yet. Emergency vehicles were waiting for us and had to examine the airplane before we could taxi to the gate. We then walked or I should say dashed from one plane to another so if someone was nervous about getting on a plane again and was going on to Regina well there wasn't time to panic as we were late. Didn't worry me - I love to fly and when I think of all the flights I've taken in my lifetime (hundreds) this was the first one to have problems like that.
So now I am home for three weeks until the next adventure takes me east on the hound.
Terribles Hotel & Casino turned out to be not terrible at all and was very handy to get to the Hard Rock where the concert was.
Vegas itself? It was hotter than hell so was horrid walking on the Strip - I did not gamble at all. I tried gambling with the credits we got from joining the players club (we joined only so we could get the free t-shirt and free buffet breakfast) but my PIN locked up and the line to get it fixed was too long so that was that. Did not bother at any of the other casinos. The only thing that would get me back to Vegas would be Paul and even then it would depend what time of year it was.
We rented a car on Saturday and went to the Valley of Fire state park which was fantastic. We had gone there in 05 and really enjoyed so thought why not go back. We all loved it and did a few short walks. The colours are amazing.
Sunday we hung around the pool - luckily we hadn't gone in due to the pool being too cold. We were just ready to move over to the hot tub when Pat said isn't that your phone ringing and sure enough - it was Vic saying that they were handing out wrist bands at the Hard Rock - you never saw two women move so quickly. We ran upstairs and got ourselves decent and off we went - we were just grateful our bathing suits weren't wet as we just threw everything on over top. Vic was there and had gotten us our wrist bands - # 146, 147 and 148. Yay!!! So then back to the pool and relaxing for the afternoon before we headed over for the concert where we lined up according to our numbers.
Monday morning we had our free buffet breakfast and then Vic stayed at the pool to relax before getting her flight and Pat and I walked over to the strip - we walked around Bellagio and Caesars before we split up. They were both leaving that day whereas I had one more day. I walked over to the Venetian which is my favourite casino and enjoyed a gelato sitting in St. Marks Square. I then went to the Flamingo and saw the Flamingos in the back garden and then on to Paris, Paris or whatever it's called to look around a bit. I could not get into being on the Strip at all so decided to head back to the hotel about 3. I sat at the bus stop on Flamingo and a fella told me I could get a 24 hour bus pass for $4 so that I did. Back to Terrible's to get my luggage and then I took a bus one stop (too hot to walk), transferred and then another bus downtown. I then checked in to the Plaza which for $25.62 Cdn a night was not bad. I'd stayed there in 07 and didn't have a problem with it - it's one of the original casino hotels from the 50's. I walked around the downtown area and had a buffet which was okay....someone on the bus told me it was the best buffet downtown. Well if that's the best.....Anyway watched the Fremont St. experience - the 8 p.m. one was Born to be Wild by who knows who (not Steppenwolf) and 9 p.m. was American Pie by Don McLean. Then back to the room. After midnight I was woken up by someone knocking on my door. Complaining about my snoring? I will never know as when I crept quietly to look out the peephole they were gone. It scared the crap out of me though - I am not a scaredy cat at all but being in Vegas and being woken like that...it was scary to me and I did not sleep well for the rest of the night. (and I put a chair under the door knob) Silly really.
Next morning I had breakfast at the Golden Gate which is the oldest hotel and oldest casino in Vegas and was across from the Plaza. After walking around a bit I then took the bus out to the airport - the only public bus that went to the airport was the one I'd taken the day before and it stopped just down the road from the Plaza. Hey I got my $4 worth and I figure I should write a cheapskates guide to a weekend in Vegas. I did not buy much of anything - unless you count a couple of small bags of macadamia nuts at the ABC store and a $5 pair of ear buds for my MP3 player. (luckily Canada customs didn't give me a hassle when I only claimed $20 - decided I 'd claim the t-shirt I got for free just so it didn't look too crazy) Normally I'd never claim that stuff but thought it would look too suspicious if I put a big fat zero.
Flew to Vancouver then Calgary then home. Yikes. The flight to Calgary was interesting - we circled Calgary for about 25 minutes and I figured something was up. Sure enough - technical problems. We figure the flap didn't come up or down or whatever it does (we were never told what the problem was) and we were told we would be breaking hard. And oh my - yes we did. What a landing. The plane was very quiet when the announcement was made about the technical problems and everyone beamed at each other in relief once our arms were back to their normal place and not hanging on to the seat in front of us. (felt like I was going to fly out of my seat despite the seat belt) I haven't been that nervous in an aircraft before. But hey at least it was AFTER I saw Paul. When I said I'd die happy I didn't really mean it - not quite ready to pop my clogs yet. Emergency vehicles were waiting for us and had to examine the airplane before we could taxi to the gate. We then walked or I should say dashed from one plane to another so if someone was nervous about getting on a plane again and was going on to Regina well there wasn't time to panic as we were late. Didn't worry me - I love to fly and when I think of all the flights I've taken in my lifetime (hundreds) this was the first one to have problems like that.
So now I am home for three weeks until the next adventure takes me east on the hound.
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