Road Trip: Day 4

After around 2,070 miles, we finally made it!  We got up bright and early this morning in Richfield, UT, and hit the road.  We made it to Las Vegas by lunchtime and had the buffet at Treasure Island.  We spent a little bit of time just walking around The Strip and enjoying the sun and the warmth.  We walked over to The Venetian so Calvin could see the gondolas paddling around in the river inside the hotel!  He thought that was pretty cool!

The drive from Las Vegas to Disneyland didn’t go quite as smoothly as we had planned.  After days of open roads, we hit some nasty traffic on I-15 headed to Los Angeles.  So with stops and everything, the drive that should’ve been four hours or so was more like seven!

But we’re safe and sound at the Annabella Hotel right across the street from Disneyland ready to hit it tomorrow.  When asked what his favorite thing from today was, Calvin told us it was his own room at the hotel!

Las Vegas: Day 3

Go home day. Boo. We finished up some last minute things we had to take care of on the strip: Denise had a $15 voucher she forgot to cash out at MGM, we tried to get a slice of pizza at NY NY (the upstairs part where Nathan's is was closed for renovations), and Denise finally got to see the fountain at Bellagio. She was quite impressed!

Las Vegas: Day 2

Today was spent with more blackjack and bumming around Vegas. In the evening, we all went and saw Monty Python's Spamalot, which I've been dying to see since it opened on Broadway and now also has a permanent show at the Wynn. We all thought it was awesome!

Afterwards, we headed back downtown where our evening consisted of more blackjack and drinking booze from accurately-sized plastic footballs.

Las Vegas: Day 1

Driving from Bishop, CA, we arrived in Vegas right in the hot part of the afternoon. The thermometer on the car read 111 degrees! After heading downtown and getting checked in at the Four Queens, we got in a little bit of blackjack before heading to the airport to pick up my other brother, Ryan, and his wife.

Later on, Denise and I entered a small, 3-table poker tournament at the Golden Nugget. I was doing pretty well despite mediocre cards but I finally got taken out with pocket 8s.

San Francisco: Day 4

Today we spent most of the day in the car for part 1 of our Las Vegas road trip. A lot of that time was spent going through the Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemite, which provided some spectacular scenery.

We stopped for the night in Bishop, CA.

Las Vegas: Day 2

Check out day. Time to go home... again. We checked out of Paris and left our bags with the bellman while we went out and grabbed some food, went shopping and played a few more slots. I was somewhat disappointed to find out today that you can actually go up to the top of the "Eiffel Tower" at the Paris hotel. That would've been really fun for Denise and I to do last night. Oh well... next time.

Our flight was around an hour late taking off due to some sort of accident involving the refueling truck. Supposedly they even called in an ambulance for the guy. Not really sure how something like that happens when those things probably go like 5 mph.

Because I had to dig the Explorer out of several inches of snow at the Park N' Fly and help Denise dig her car out too, I didn't get home until around 1am. Bed time!

Arizona: Day 6 / Las Vegas: Day 1

Woke up early this morning and hit I-93 north to Vegas. A hour or two later, we grabbed some breakfast at a McDonald's on Route 66 in Kingman, AZ. An hour or two after that, we were driving across the Hoover Dam. Then it was on to good ol' Vegas. That's when the real fun began.

I headed towards the airport and drove out to where all of the rental car places are. But after driving through once, I never saw a Fox rental office. Confused, I looped around and drove through again. Still nothing. So I called Fox's number only to be told that Fox rental no longer has a location in Las Vegas, despite what the agent told me. I had even paid the $150 drop off fee to drive to Vegas. Heck, he even gave me directions there.

So I spent several minutes with the Fox rental district manager while he kept repeating fairly obvious and unhelpful things like "How can you be in Vegas? We don't have a counter in Vegas." I kept telling him that wasn't my problem since his own agent told me I could drop off in Vegas. Finally, he agreed to see if he could work out a deal with a rental agency here. After getting the runaround and being sent to a couple different agencies multiple times, we finally managed to ditch the car.


From there, we went straight to the Paris hotel where we were staying. Our room was quite impressive. We spent the rest of the night walking the strip, playing slots and even visiting downtown. I tried to show Denise the fountains at the Bellagio, but much to my disappointment, they were turned off due to "high winds." We finally went back to the room and crashed at around 4am.

Tucson: Day 5

Woke up to some rather unpleasant news this morning. Denise and I were supposed to be flying out of Phoenix this evening at around 8pm. But due to what sounds like some pretty heavy snowfall back in the Twin Cities, our flight was cancelled. After spending a good 20 minutes or so on hold with Northwest Airlines, I was told that we wouldn't be able to get another flight until Tuesday. So it looks like we'll be staying two more days.

But there's a bright side. Since it was the same cost, we decided to get a flight out of Las Vegas (since Denise has never been) on Tuesday evening. So after some last minute preparations, we said goodbye to the family and headed north. We just pulled into a Best Western in a little town called Wickenburg, AZ, which is about halfway between my parent's house and Las Vegas.

So tomorrow we'll be getting up bright and early and heading to sin city where we should have most of the day tomorrow and a good share of Tuesday to bum around! Sweet!