Back to Vegas - 14 years later!
Tuesday February 24 was our 14th wedding anniversary! To celebrate we took a trip to Las Vegas - 14 years ago we went there for our Honeymoon.. We left Friday afternoon and came back Tuesday morning. It was another great adventure together!
When I got to work I realized that we had not checked in for our flight yet! So I did my check in and asked Paul to do his; since we were flying Southwest my boarding pass was group B.
I left work around noon and headed to REI to get a water reservoir for the day pack Paul gave me for Christmas. I knew we were going to be outside climbing during the trip and wanted to have an easy water source.
Once I got home, we finished packing and I asked Paul if had his boarding pass. He said no, so I downloaded the Southwest app on to his phone and really checked him in and his boarding pass was group A!! Not sure how he got the earlier boarding group when he checked in after me!!
We then headed to the airport and stopped for curb side check-in. We were once again able to check our crashpad and not get charged extra!! Paul took the car over to long term parking while I waited at the airport with our carry-ons. Once Paul got back to the airport we headed to our gate.
We had a non-eventful flight, arrived on time, took the shuttle to the rental car area, upgraded and got a 2015 Hyundai Elantra with 1074 miles on it instead of an older Ford Focus and only paid an extra $20! We found our way to the www.airbnb.com room we rented. We decided we were too tired to really do anything except eat and we didn't want to spend a fortune so we went to The Outback. We are regulars at the one by our house and knew that we would get exactly what we wanted. It was great!
After dinner I wanted to stop at a Goodwill we had passed on our way - was hoping I could find some cool climbing pants. I did see a "Prada" purse hanging on the rack but am pretty sure it wasn't authentic! It was a huge Goodwill with all kinds of stuff you don't see in ours like vacuums, nice furniture, and electronic equipment.
We headed back to the house after that and crashed.
We got up Saturday and hung out a bit before heading to La Belle Terre for breakfast. Paul got the chocolate croissant and I got the Quiche Lorraine. I just expected the quiche but got potatoes and salad too!
Then we headed to the Kraft Boulders near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. We spent the day chasing the shade! It was pretty warm. We spent most of the day climbing. Met some cool people and hung out with them - luckily they climbed at Paul’s level so he had some friends to play on the problems!
Once we were done climbing we headed to Smash Burgers for a late lunch. We picked it because one of my FB friends had posted how much she liked it when she was in Denver a few weeks ago, so when I saw it right near our AirBnB house I decided we needed to try it. OMG - that is the best burger ever!! We need one in Albuquerque!!
Then back to the house for the day...we were pooped!
Up at the crack of dawn to head to the Clark County Wetlands Park on the far east side of the city. We got there just about at dawn and walked a couple of miles on the paths in the cold, dreary morning. We saw about 20 different species of birds! Hummingbirds, quail, Harrier Hawks, Great Blue Heron, Egrets and lots of LBBs (Little Brown Birds).
Then we headed back to Red Rocks - rain was expected and you can’t climb on the sandstone after a rain, it will break! We got to the Park, paid our entrance fee and stopped at the Visitor Center. We got a few souvenirs and I went to change into my climbing clothes. Got irritated because I brought the wrong jeans. Then we headed to one of the climbing areas in the Park. When we got there I asked Paul if we were there just for me to climb on the rope on some easy routes and he indicated yes. I told him I was not going to have a good time because it was cold, windy and starting to drizzle. I don’t need to say I climbed there, I just climb because I like doing things with Paul. So we ended up NOT climbing. We just drove the “scenic” route to leave the Park. It took a LONG time but it was very scenic!
After we left the Park we headed to the Spring Preserve. It is a 180 acre park dedicated to the spring that Las Vegas was founded upon. There is a really cool sustainable building exhibit, a butterfly pavillion that wasn’t open yet, a canyon flood experience and lots of other things. We could have spent more time there but we had already done a LOT that day and we needed to get to our hotel and check in so we could get ready for the evening entertainment.
We got to Excalibur and checked in with no problems. We had a great room on the 18th floor that had a great view! We decided to just have dinner at the Excalibur buffet so we could be sure to finish before our show - PENN & TELLER!! So after dinner we drove over to the Rio, got drinks (extremely expensive drinks but we did get to keep the cups!) and headed to our seats...great seats at the front of the mezzanine!
They started the show by taking an audience member’s cell phone and throwing it in a bucket suspended above them on stage. Then the phone ended up under another audience member’s chair, in a taped styrofoam container inside a frozen fish!! Penn had turned on the phone’s video recorder so the guy could see how they did the trick after the end of the show! Teller did his balloon on a string trick. They did this really cool trick with bullets and catching them in their teeth! It was well worth it to check them out - way cool show! We didn’t stay after for the meet and greet - there were WAY too many people waiting. Back to our hotel to crash - Sunday was a busy day! I later checked my FitBit and found that we walked almost 10 miles that day!
(so now it is over a year later and I noticed I never finished this! I will post it now and regret that I forgot what we did the rest of our trip!!)
