Stiletto Diaries

Viva Las Vegas - Day 1 & 2

Posted on April 2nd, 2009 in Bucket List, Does All Her Own Stunts, Photos

Journal Entry: Originally written on Thursday, March 26, 2009

I’m writing this from on board the plane.  I’ve been awake since 3:30am and have already consumed at least 4 cups of coffee.

I caught a flight out of Toronto, to Montreal.  I managed to make it through customs without a fuss.  I’m always so lucky when it comes to crossing the boarder.  I’ve never had a problem.  After customs I made it to my gate in Montreal with 10 minutes to spare.  At the moment I’m about 3 hours into the flight from Montreal to Sin City.

The only thing I don’t really like about flying is having to use the loo when I’m not sitting in an aisle seat.  Right now I kind of have to pee, but I don’t really want to disturb the two gentleman next to me, twice, just so I can go.

I did doze a bit for about 40 minutes at the beginning of the flight.  I think I started to fall asleep as we were taxying out onto the runway.  I bought one of those inflatable travel pillows for the trip.  I do NOT recommend them.  Go with the cushion ones, they are far more comfortable.

I’ll be arriving in Vegas about 5 hours before everyone else, so I have solo time to kill.  I’ve actually really enjoyed all the alone time so far.

End of journal entry

So, I did eventually get up to pee, much to the ecstasy of my bladder.

I landed in Vegas just after noon, and we were informed that our plane had been randomly selected to pass a second customs inspection.  Instead of getting all upset about that (as some passengers did) I just took it in stride.  I wasn’t in a rush after all.  I was the third person through the search line, and the customs official was friendly and I was out of there in no time at all.  I swear, a good attitude will get you through 90% of these things without any hassle at all.

I walked out of the terminal and into gorgeous warm air!  There were palm trees across the road.  It was heaven compared to the cool weather we’ve been having at home.

70. Go to Vegas

I caught a shuttle to my hotel, and then checked my bags, since I couldn’t get into the room.  I figured being alone for several hours would give me plenty of time to learn my way around the hotel.  I wandered through the casino and out onto The Strip.  Vegas is far more amazing and interesting than I’d anticipated.  We were staying at the Flamingo, which is an older hotel, right across the street from Caesar’s Palace.  There were people everywhere, most of them were drinking yard-long margaritas or beers out of aluminum bottles as they passed.

I ordered a margarita and sat out in front of the hotel, watching people and enjoying the fabulous sunshine.  It was a little windy, but not enough to make a person uncomfortably cool.  I also pumped a few bucks into a slot machine at the casino.  I didn’t win, but at least I was able to cross that off my list.

502. Play the slots in Las Vegas

Since I hadn’t eaten anything but airplane/port  food all day, I grabbed a bite at the hotel and then wandered down the street.  We were actually pretty central as far as The Strip goes.  I walked up to the Venetian and admired the canals there.  They had gondolas tethered there, and I thought absently of Jack.  I would really love to go back there with him sometime, soon hopefully.

By the time V and Roxy arrived at the hotel, I knew the place like the back of my hand.  We got checked into the room and settled in I’m pretty sure we had something to eat at that point, but I don’t really remember where.

We also went for 99 cent margaritas at the casino next door, and there was a good reason that they only cost a dollar.  They were pretty awful.  In fact, they were so acidic, neither V nor I could finish our second one.

As it was already quite late we didn’t do much that evening.  We went over to the Bellagio and walked through their casino.  It was certainly different, and much fancier, than the one at the Flamingo.  We met up with the rest of our little group there (there were 7 of us in total) and looked around some.  I was beginning to hit the wall, since I’d been awake for 20 hours straight by that time.  The three hour time difference was a little brutal that first day.  It was only 10:30pm local time, but to me it felt like 1:3oam.

We went back to our hotel after bidding everyone else a good night.  I had a hot shower before bed, since travelling all day always makes me feel gross, and by the time my head hit the pillow I’d been awake almost 24 hours.

Even though I’d been up ‘late’ I couldn’t sleep in much the next morning.  The beds were not that comfortable, and although V let me spoon her, I’m not accustomed to sleeping without my cuddle-bear, Jack.

Roxy and I are coffee drinkers, so you can imagine our horror when we discovered that there was no coffee maker in the room.  What is up with that really?  We got off to a slow start, and by the time we’d all got up, cleaned up, and dressed up, it was nearly noon.

We caught The Deuce (a double-decker bus that runs up and down The Strip 24/7) up to the transit station and bought weekend passes for $15/each.  That was probably the best money I spent the whole trip.  We rode the bus a lot, as it was the easiest way to get from one of the city to the other.

171. Ride a double-decker tour bus

The second order of business was breakfast.  We stopped at the Sahara, but their brunch buffet is not served during the week, so we crossed the road to an IHOP (our first one) and waited about 15 minutes for a table.  We were so hungry at that point I’m pretty sure that boot-leather would have tasted delicious.  The coffee was hot and the food was great.  Bellies full, we walked down the street to check out a big souvenir store we’d seen from the bus.  The three of us pitched in for a birthday gift for our friend (a set of beer glasses with sexy pinup girls painted on them) and I bought a handcuff key chain since my current one was falling apart, and it seemed rather appropriate.

 

We also stopped at a liquor store and bought a “60″ of gin (and it was crazy cheap, compared to what we normally pay here.  A “60″, by the way, is 1.75 liters.  We also picked up mix, and while I was browsing I found the perfect gift for Jack!  It’s a sign we’ve seen at a local restaurant and we both totally loved it.  It’s old-looking, and it says “Beware!  Poker Players and Loose Women are known to frequent this establishment”.  I thought it would be perfect for our basement, so I bought it for him.

Once we got back to the hotel we started in on the gin.  We decided that the three of us would do our very best to drink the entire bottle before we had to leave (more on that later).

Before we’d gotten toocarried away, we decided that we’d better get ready for dinner.  We  were all meeting up at Margaritaville to eat and drink, and then we were taking the birthday boy out for a night on the town.  We all wore our ‘Sunday Best’ and made a fashionably late appearance.  Once we were seated and ordered a round of beverages and appetizers we proceeded to drink and eat and laugh a lot.  It was tons of fun.  The birthday boy was feeling no pain, and the food was tasty.

After we’d had our fill we agreed to meet back in the hotel lobby after we’d changed our shoes (I was not inclined to spend the evening in my stilettos, sexy as they are). We were planning to go to a biker bar, since that’s where the man of the hour wanted to spend the rest of the night, so I figured casual shoes would be more practical.

We went down to the lobby to find only the female half of the equation waiting for us. She said that there had been a change of plans because she didn’t feel like going to the biker bar and had sent her already-drunk husband on alone with his male friends. Apparently when he’s drinking they tend to argue, so she wanted to avoid the drama.

I could tell that V was most displeased. We had all been counting on this to the our big night out, and the main reason we all went to Vegas in the first place! I was pretty disappointed too, since I thought it would be fun to see a part of Vegas that’s not so packed with tourists.

Instead we strolled around a little, and ended up at The Bellagio in time to see one of the water shows. I taped it on my little digital camera, although that hardly does it justice. It was so beautiful, and so moving. I was wishing desperately that Jack was there, since it’s all rather romantic and there were couples holding hands and cuddling each other all around us. I missed him very much just then.

505. See the water show at the Bellagio

Afterwards we walked over to Paris Hotel and had a drink in the casino. We chatted some and laughed, but none of us were particularly thrilled over missing out on the big party, so we called it a night fairly early, at about 12:30am and went back to our room.

We watched some TV and Roxy ordered pizza for her and V (I wasn’t at all hungry) and I think we passed out sometime around 2am.

By the way, have I mentioned that before we left for our trip, V and I ‘borrowed’ a lawn gnome from a neighbour (not someone we know) and took it with us? Well we did, and I have created a travel website for it over here, which satisfies yet another item on my list:

79. Steal someone’s lawn gnome or animal trinket and take it on vacation with me. Complete with it’s own website and lots of photos of it doing tourist stuff