These entries are divided up by day, so you probably want to scroll down until you find the first thing you don't recognize.
We decided to try to get up pretty early, because with a 3 hour time difference, if we slept in late it would just make it harder to adjust when we got home. So we got up like at 7:00 Vegas time, after staying up pretty late, and that is still 10:00 am Indiana time! We waited until Nathan and Kevin were ready, then went down to a breakfast buffet down in the Casino. $25 per person but it was all you could eat breakfast, lunch, free Mimosas which we all did, free bloody marys, which we didn't do, etc. Again, you cannot help but overeat at a buffet, and this had every food known to man. I even had a salmon eggs benedict on an english muffin. And cheese blintzes. I'm getting hungry thinking about it again, but man the quantity of food... I skipped lunch so that we'd be able to eat another big dinner. You know half of the fun of trips is food, right? At least for us. ;)
After we ate, we went for a walk, where we came upon the "High Roller". That's the 550' tall "Ferris wheel" type ride by our hotel. We got tickets at a kiosk there, and it was early enough that they just opened and nobody else was there. So we had the whole cage (which seats like 40 people!) to ourselves. It's a big ball of glass with seats, and goes up 550' tall, where you get a great view of the city! Steve, who doesn't like heights, at all, did okay because it was so large and enclosed and had seats, and didn't tip or move fast at all. He said it wasn't bad. I enjoyed the ride and the view. It took 30 minutes to go all the way around, so you had plenty of time to look around, walk around, see the sights, take photos, and enjoy yourself. It was worth the $25.
We walked around from there, and stopped at Margaritaville for some beverages and to rest the feet. The guys split a thing of nachos to hold them over until dinner. I abstained, based off of what I'd had for breakfast. I'd lost at least 5 pounds the 10 days I was sick, and I really hated to go backwards on that at this point. I have to get more back off. I'm uncomfortable. But I'm not missing out on ALL the good stuff, either. ;)
Kevin went off to play Blackjack, while Nathan, Steve and I got dressed and ready and went to an Air Force retirement party for a married couple that Nathan met at Oshkosh in 2008. They are serious over-achievers, battling each other and winning awards for best everything throughout test pilot school, training schools, etc. They both flew a little bit of everything, F-15, F-16, F-35, and I swear it looked like he flew the U2 too. I don't know what all they've done, but they were in charge and flew about everything. She beat him for best air to ground bomb dropping contests, he beat her at air to air, they worked together, and separately, and had parallel careers within the Air Force, so that they could retire within two months of each other after putting their 20 years in. They also had two little girls, he deployed for awhile to Baghdad, she was in charge of a squadron, I mean, they are serious go-getters. So we went to their retirement ceremony. They are super young, younger than I am, and already retired with a life behind them. They are headed now to both fly for Fed Ex, which is a peach flying job. Pay is fantastic, quality of life fantastic. I may be jealous, even! At the party, they served hors d'oeuvres, and since it was now later and I was definitely hungry, I tried a couple small ones. My favorite was raw seared ahi tuna with caviar on top, on a cracker. There wasn't a LOT of caviar on top, which I think made it tolerable. The flavor was really good and I could have eating about a half dozen of those, but that would have been uncouth. And would have ruined my dinner. ;)
We all met back up at Treasure Island, and went to dinner at a seafood place in downtown Vegas. Downtown is where Fremont Street is, the famous strip there, and we hit it just right so that the overhead dome, that covers the whole street, had its light show. We watched for a few minutes, and it's really something. They have the zip line there that would be fun, but no time for that this time, because we had to EAT. I had the BEST Mahi, with a warm peanut sauce and ginger rice, and fresh baked bread with real butter, soft. Again, just that amount was so much that there was no room for dessert. I wanted their Crème brûlée, but flat out couldn't stuff anything more down. Delicious. We hit the bed at 10 pm Vegas time (1 am our time), wiped out but satisfied.
This was out the back door of our casino/hotel, a strip of shops, culminating in the "High Roller" there.
This is where we load up. You can sort of see how big each pod is. They all fit like 43 people each.
Going up
Each one of those marks on the side is a huge pod. I mean, it's hard to get size perspective, but this thing is huge.
Nathan, Steve & Kevin
Just a view of the mountains on one side of Vegas.
This is the main Vegas airport, where mostly the airlines come in. Right in the middle of the city.
Selfie proof that I was there.
Close to the very top.
Going down. Trump tower off to the left, just skyscrapers and mountains.
Steve and Kevin
Nathan
Close to the bottom
Nathan, Steve and me
I'm faking it here, my duck lips are more like fish lips. I'm obviously not good at this.
At the Air Force retirement party. Sunset and palm trees with neon lights.
The sun was still going down as we got back to our room to change.
The Bellagio was out our window, so you could see their light/water show.
Fremont Street light show overhead.
These were flame lights/heaters at a lot of places around, and I really liked them. Propane, the flame is enclosed in a glass tube which is enclosed in a clear solid structure, so nobody is going to get burnt, but they are neat and I'd like one. Then I'd have to have somewhere to put it...
No comments:
Post a Comment