If there was a gold medal for running late and finding a way to still make that event on time— we would be awarded the gold medal. While this is incredibly stressful, it does make an ordinary trip a lot more interesting, but maybe not for the right reasons.
A quick Saturday to Sunday trip in Las Vegas to escape the California closures quickly got off to a rocky start when we woke up late, didn’t pack the night before and had to get the dogs situated before heading to the airport. At 8:10, Grant said, “We probably need to hurry.” I had not realized that the plane door closed at 8:45 am. Our house is about 15 minutes from the airport, and we still have to drive to park and go through security. That’s a lot to do in 35 minutes, but we made it happen.
I floored it and shaved off a minute or two. We ran from the parking lot at the Sheraton Hotel and got to security. San Diego never has a wait, but this time an old fuddy-dud was operating the security machine and a line had formed. Recognizing the problem, I politely asked a couple that was next to put on their stuff our situation and they graciously let us cut. At the same time, the overhead announcements were going letting us know that this was the final boarding call for Luke and Grant. Panicked, I got through the metal detector and ran over to the gate, while Grant retrieved the bags. I politely yelled, “we’re here.” To which was met with “Damnit I just took you out of the system.”
The boarding agent had removed us from the plane and didn’t know how to get us back on. This chaos bought us a few more precious seconds for Grant to grab the bags and meet me at the gate to board. We were escorted onto the plane and we took off without further incident.
After schmoozing with the car rental attendant about Las Vegas, we grabbed our rental car and headed to our $13 hotel room (Tropicana). Hotel rooms are extremely cheap, but they get you with resort fees. Although, I did check my credit card statement and they seemed to have inadvertently reimbursed everything so fingers crossed they don’t realize their mess up.
Our first stop on the trip was to go to eat a light meal of tapas at a place called Firefly. Our second stop was to go to Circa’s new Swim Stadium. This over-the-top pool top deck with 6 heated pools, cabanas, a DJ, bar, and 6 jumbo screens to chill and watch sports seemed like a great idea. The weather, however, did not agree. While a bit chilly, the wind being that high up was the main problem. The wind took on the role of an annoying child that was hellbent on throwing our towels and clothes off our chairs and splashing our faces. To me, this seemed like a major design flaw in the construction of an otherwise cool idea. It didn’t take us long to realize that this wasn’t going to work and we bailed.
After a quick turnaround, dinner was next on our to-do list. If you have not been I cannot recommend Lotus of Siam more. This James Beard award-winning restaurant has been featured on multiple food shows and the praise is well worth it. The prices for the menu are all over the place with some items like $10 with the award-winning dishes capping out at $30. For a place that opened at 5:30 pm and was full by 5:45 pm with a 45-minute wait for walk-ins they probably could charge more. We ordered normal stuff and I decided to go all in and get the garlic prawns even though Grant would not eat them. They have a unique way of cooking the shrimp where they leave the shells on and you eat it like it’s a chip. So yummy, but I couldn’t finish without Grant's help.
The problem with ordering as much as we did was that the wait staff coursed it out so all the food wouldn’t come out at once. This is great in theory, but with a 7 pm show, the speed was cutting it a bit close. Eventually, we flagged down our waiter and explained the need to expedite the remaining food. He quickly obliged and our food came out and was consumed. The clock hit 6:40 pm as I put down the pen after signing the check.
Pro- super full and happy. Con- we have a show that is about to start and are rushed again! We recognize that this is our fault for doing too much, but we rather pack it in than let something go to waste. We got back in the car and dashed it to Ballys for their Extravaganza show. We again parked, sprinted through the lobby, and made it with 2 minutes to spare. The show can seat approximately 50 people at the moment due to COVID restriction. When Grant bought the tickets he said they were expensive, but didn’t go into detail. As the usher brought us closer and closer to the stage I clearly understood why the tickets were so pricey. He got us as close to the stage we could get in a front-row booth. Goofball. The show was much better than expected and had better variety acts than I thought they would be. This is most likely because this was the largest variety production going on in the city. My favorite was this old Italian man who had a talent for spinning dishes.
After the show, I was ready to call it a night after eating and watching a show. I laid down in bed, started watching TV only to have Grant remind me that we had a 10:30 pm show. What?! So I got redressed and we were at the Alexis Park Hotel Resort. Ever heard of it? Neither had we, but they have a lot of shows going on right now. It’s an older hotel with a lot of conference rooms they repurposed to stages. This was a “comedy-magic” show, which was light on both. A year ago this would be a show a) we would have never bought, and b) we most likely would have walked out on after a few minutes. Fast forward to today and I thought the audience was going to give them a standing ovation. Part of it was because they did have some decent tricks, but the other part was to show our appreciation for returning live entertainment into our lives. We left and crashed at the hotel.
We woke up slow and piddled around the room, which caused us to have to rush to our main attraction, Meow Wolf. This is the sister of the art/entertainment exhibit in Sante Fe and is a must-do. Ever wondered what going to a grocery store on acid might be like if you thought the grocery store was taken over by aliens? Well now is your chance to see it for yourself. You walk into a demented grocery store and walk through the store to find so much more. This 5000+ square foot facility is decked out with art exhibit after exhibit leaving nothing unaltered. Worth checking out and experiencing for yourself! Also, good for all ages.
The exhibit is housed in a larger facility called Area 15. We wandered around after we finished going through and ate at The Beast by Todd English. The entrees were good, but the desert has us wanting to come back. A strawberry coated in clear sugar with a s’more cookie kabob was out of this world. I am craving that strawberry just writing this.
Next came the difficult decision of what to do after this highlight. We decided to finish the trip with a car ride to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s about 2 hours away and we felt like it was about time to see what all the fuss is about the canyon. Having been to Sedona with Ashley and Erica last week— we were advised not to go after our lackluster reception to rock formations. Not heeding that advice, we pressed on in hope of greener pastures. Unforuanltey, all we got was sand and rocks.
The ride would wasn’t awful, but as we got closer we realized that this area was owned by a local Indian tribe. As Siri was telling us to press on we were stopped by a roadblock and tent. To get to where the actual canyon was you had to take a bus down to the rim and cars were not allowed. Having driven all the way, we hoped to park, say there it is, and get back in the car. But that was not an option.
We relented and went in to buy tickets. We were hit with sticker shock— $45 per person to see rocks. I turned to Grant and we both said no. We had gotten there at 5 pm and we needed to turn around by 5:30 pm to make sure we got back for our return flight. We asked about the return bus route and the ticket booth operator was not very confident that we would have enough time to do what we wanted. So we made the tough choice of just calling it a bust. We saw some of the rock formations surrounding the area, but we will have to go some other time. We may push our luck with time more than most, but we do know when we have lost.
After a rather quick drive back, we made it to the airport early, dropped off the car, and ate. By early, we mean an hour before the flight, which felt like an eternity given our propensity for cutting it close. A quick, fun trip that was just short of a gold medal performance.