Vegas Vacation

I have been so disgustingly tired recently as evidenced by my lack of activity in the land of blogger.

Tonight is no different other than I came home and fell asleep on the couch. A few hours later I staggered into the bedroom and fell asleep on the bed... on the wrong side, still dressed in work clothes.

I woke up several hours later when Mandy came to bed. Now I am awake and can't sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be fun!

Have I mentioned I am a night owl? I think my condition is chronic when I am plowing through my third day in a row on 5 or less hours of sleep and I can't go to sleep until 11:00 PM, as was my situation several times in the past month.

Mornings hit me like a mafia thug trying to wax me with an aluminum baseball bat. They literally hurt.

I did get some recharging last weekend in the form of a vacation. Vegas.

My brother rented a house in Vegas for a getaway vacation for the siblings in the family.

We flew down on Thursday after work. I didn't think it would happen, but we pulled it off. We were flying standby and the flight was full. Thursday I checked the status of the flight and found out the plane we were taking to Vegas was delayed three hours coming out of Newark, NJ.

We showed up at the airport and I fully expected to wait in the airport three or four hours and then be told we couldn't be put on the flight. But, the ticket agent told me they were pulling a spare plane and scrambling a crew for the flight. (thank goodness for the economic slowdown and as a result, Delta sitting on a few spare aircraft)

After a short wait in the terminal we were cleared and assigned seats. We were even given exit row seats with the extra leg room. We were in an older Boeing 737, but the interior had recently been revamped. I had not yet flown in a plane that had a screen in front of every passenger. I found my screen extremely entertaining. They had music stations to listen to. Entire CD's to listen to. Cable TV to watch and games that had you compete with other passengers on the plane. One was a movie trivia game and it showed you the seat location of the other passengers playing. I also liked the map you could display that showed where the flight was originating, where it was going to and a yellow line showing the flight path and a giant icon of the plane showing where the plane was at on it's course. It would also tell current location, elevation, speed, and tail wind speeds. When I go on long trips I am hoping I get a plane with these monitors. It made the already short flight even faster.

Once we arrived and got there and figured out how to get out of the airport Via the shuttle tram, my brother picked us up and took us to the house he had rented. It was awesome in a funky sort of way. It looked like it had been plucked out of the 60's, packed in moth balls and preserved until a year ago and then updated with wifi and flat screen tv's in every room. Even the couch was a red velvet couch with white piping around the edges. I expected to see Austin Powers perched in one corner, smile at us and say "Grrr! baby GRRR!"

The bedroom we stayed in had two king size beds, a two person jacuzzi tub, a shower, a toilet and a sink. There were three little walls that divided all of that up. but the tub was completely open to where the beds were and you could see through to the sink and the toilet from the beds. From the toilet, the shower was directly in front of you and the shower was open to the tub. So that from either three of those stations you were completely visible and within reach of the other two. Very convenient, but not so much private.

There were a few shear curtains that could be drawn to block the view of the bathroom facilities to the beds, but the house was definitely built in the era of free love. We just learned that if you needed to use the bathroom or shower, you had to lock the door to the bedroom. I liked the house and felt it helped me connect with the old style Vegas. Like Elvis might stroll in at any moment with gold rimmed sunglasses and a white, rhinestone adorned jumpsuit and announce "I'm da kang bay-ba! Now how's bout you fix meh a peanut butter naner sam-wich... ah'm starved!"

Speaking of food and tha kang... we did eat like kings. Friday morning we went to Binion's casino. They offer a $1.99 pancake breakfast or a $3.99 steak and egg breakfast. You can't find them on the menu, but the wait staff all know what you are talking about when you order the pancake or steak and egg breakfast. I ordered the steak and egg and Mandy ordered the pancake and we split them. Filled us both up. For $3.99 I was expecting a boiled shoe tongue. The steak actually ranked somewhere up on the top 50 best steaks I have had. I was pleasantly surprised.

Friday we skipped lunch and when my brother Shawn, his wife Nicole, My sister Heidi, her husband Terrell, My niece Larisa and my Sister-in-law Cheryl showed up we headed straight to The Mirage. We followed Shawn's logic that if we ate here first we wouldn't need any more food the rest of the weekend. The Mirage has a place to eat that is... wow! I don't know where to start to describe it. It is epic, it is delicious, it is monumental, it is historic and it is life changing. But, That will have to be more for tomorrow's post as I really, REALLY need to go to bed. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to the Vegas Vacation!