Leaving Las Vegas

So after our trek to the Grand Canyon, we went back to our hotel and chilled. Literally. I was still a little cold from the day's outing which hadn't been nearly as hot in temperatures as I had expected it to be! We caught up on e-mail, t.v., news, etc and just enjoyed being still.

I had found a restaurant on Trip Advisor (which is where I find most of my reviews/information) that sounded good, so we had made reservations. Casa Di Amore. One of the neat things about Casa Di Amore is that if you call and make reservations, you can request a complimentary limo to pick you up. Since we hadn't gotten a rental car, that came in handy.

Not knowing exactly when we would get back from our excursion, we took a later reservation. Around 6:30 (which is really 8:30 our time at home), my stomach was growling. Finally around 8, we headed downstairs to wait for our limo. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a maroon limo showed up to take us to the restaurant. A hummer and a limo in the same day. Cool, huh?

The restaurant was not on the strip, thus the need for a limo. From the outside, it is just a regular looking building. However, from the inside...very cool. It is very "Old Vegas". In fact, you feel like you have stepped back in time. We were seated right away; that was the only thing that happened right away. The food was very good, the service was slow. And by this point (8:30 which is 10:30 home time), I was starving. Thankfully it all arrived at some point, and we chowed down, enjoying the atmosphere.

The next day, we got up fairly early, waved good bye to the clip, and headed down the road to the airport. We had been advised to get to the airport two hours early due to crowds. Apparently the crowds thing doesn't apply all of the time. The line to get in and go through security was not near the length of what we had dealt with in our home airport! So we ended up with quite a while to sit and wait. That was an experience in itself. Somehow a mom and a teenage girl caught up in some kind of drama ended up sitting next to me (even though there were a LOT of empty chairs at that point). It was quite interesting.

Finally, we boarded the plane and headed out. I was excited that we had about an hour and a half layover in Chicago to eat lunch/dinner because of the time we were flying. Thankfully this flight had a movie (Chipmunks- The Squeakal); I had seen some of with the kids but it was a nice distraction. Funny too. I also finally finished my book.

Unfortunately, our perfect flying record eluded us yet again. (We never have a good track record with our flights other than we have been fortunate they have all landed successfully...I guess that is the most important one anyway) Our flight was fine, but apparently there were storms over Chicago, so we were asked to fly in circles for a while. And we did. Around and around and around. Finally we landed with half an hour before our next flight. Thankfully, due to Chicago's flight history, the first thing we discovered was our next flight was delayed too, so we were able to enjoy some Chicago pizza for lunch/dinner. Yum, yum!

We then waited for a while for our next flight which was pushed back a little more. One fun thing was a family...a mother with three kids (flying to meet up with her husband). They were coming here from Hungary. They had a little boy who will be two in September. He was entertainment and definitely a stress reliever. He played ball and would throw it to just about anyone who came along. Soon, kids of all ages were scrambling to get him the ball. Meanwhile, several people from our area were able to chat with the mom; they are moving to our area due to the University. (The two older girls slept the whole time; they were on like hour 26 of flying by that point) It was just kind of neat to see one little boy bring together a whole terminal/gate area!

On the plane, we sat down in our seats near the front. Right away, Mark noticed that our seats were nicer than those we have had before. The plane was a little one so no official first class but apparently they were testing these seats for some other planes, so we had our first first class experience! We had our drink orders taken (my coke came in a GLASS rather than a plastic cup), had access to a blanket (which I needed because I was so cold), and had complimentary snacks. It was really cool. I don't think I would ever pay the extra for first class but I would never turn it down! The only negative is that the mom was sitting across from us and her two girls were in the back. Partway through the flight I realized the situation (I was so tired at that time) and felt so bad we hadn't offered to switch seats, first class or not. Sigh. Live and learn. I did enjoy chatting with the mom though.

Finally, we arrived at home, a couple hours late. When I walked in, the kids looked up and said, "You are back already?" They had it in their minds that we would be coming home later than we did. That was about it. No other reaction. Later though I received lots of hugs and kisses and sweet words. I know that I missed them for sure!

And that is that. Our experience in Vegas and leaving Vegas.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programs...

More later,
Reba