Viva Las Vegas! Wait...Las Vegas....Now??

Yes, we’re currently in Las Vegas, during a pandemic. Here’s the long-ish version. In March, we were supposed to go to Florida, but as we all know, COVID put a stop to all our plans. Frontier gave us a credit for our flight, BUT we had to re-book it by June and travel by November. We waited until the last day possible to rebook our flights. With no idea how things would be in October, we decided to pick Las Vegas because Ross had never been, and I had only gone once for a work trip about 10 or so years ago. Plus, while the same flight to Florida was now three times its original cost... the flight to Vegas was fully covered by our airline credit. With fingers crossed, we waited to see if we’d get to go on this trip. Fast forward a few months, and here we are!

Our trip started out smooth. Everything was packed and ready to go, Colleen showed up a few minutes early, and we gave our kitties some last minute squeezes. I’m always an anxious traveler, so I like to get to the airport extra early. We were so early that the Frontier ticket counter wasn’t even open yet. We were not the first ones in line. We chatted with a few other flight-mates about Vegas, but once the counter opened up, things moved fairly quickly. We noticed the USO had moved to the main terminal area instead of being located in Concourse D, which was nice. We popped in there to grab a few snacks, chatted with the volunteers, but didn’t stay very long. We wanted to see if the Starbucks past security had the new Impossible breakfast sandwich (it didn’t). We found other snack options and gobbled them up before our flight. I noticed Ross no longer had his sunglasses. This seems to be a recurring trend. On our road trip last year, he managed to sit on them getting into the car at Grebe’s one block from our house. This time he left them in his mom’s car. Oops. 

Moving on...Ross and I had guesses on which animal would be on the tail of our plane and how full the jet would be. He said deer or elk and 1/3 full, I said owl and 2/3 full. We had a Harp Seal and the plan was nearly full. Probably because our original flight was cancelled and bumped a day earlier. I imagine they combined flights. I have already chosen Aardvark for the flight home. 

After a 3 1/2 hour uneventful flight, we landed in Vegas. The airport seemed pretty empty. We found our luggage and hopped on the shuttle to the rental car area. Ross got all the paperwork and we were headed to spot A1 for our car. As we got closer, it looked like a family was already getting into the white Kia Optima in spot A1. Ross asked if the guy was getting into the right car. Sure enough, they were also assigned the white Kia Optima in spot A1. So, we went to one of the counters in the garage. The gave us a new car. We loaded up and were about to head out when Ross noticed the tank was only 1/4 full, despite the paperwork saying full. The security guy let us right back into the lot, like the car in front of us too. He flagged someone down and a nice lady hopped in the car and drove us to the back where all the cars get fouled up and cleaned. She told me they’ve been super busy lately. The Budget rental counter was by far the busiest rental company of all the ones we saw. There were a few other customers having some problems with their cars too, so hopefully Budget got everyone straightened out. We finally had our new black Toyota, phone connected, music playing, and GPS queued up! 

We made it to the Venetian without issue. Traffic was a little congested on the freeway, but nothing terrible. I was happy and surprised to learn parking is free. Makes up for the fact that the “resort fee” is an additional $45 per day on top of the regular rate. Yikes. We took our time settling in, unpacking a bit, then went in search of dinner inside the Venetian complex. We settled on one of the numerous Italian places (go figure) in the Grand Canal, of which I’ve already forgotten the name. I got an amazing mushroom risotto (Jess would be proud) and Ross had a set 3 course dinner of caprese salad, a shrimp scampi (replacing the shrimp with mushrooms), and finished with tiramisu in a small martini glass. We also had fresh bread and oil as a starter. We wanted to save some of our meal, but the rooms have no microwave or fridge, so we powered through all the food. We were so full, but it was so good! The risotto was better!

We decided that after dinner it would be a good idea to walk off some our meal. We walked across the strip to the Mirage and realized the volcano was going to erupt in under 15 minutes, so we hung around to see the show. We noticed the sidewalks were not overly crowded. I wonder if it has to do with COVID or because it was a Monday, or a little of both. The volcano did its impressive show and then we were off down to the Bellagio to see the fountain. We watched Ocean’s 11 the night before to get in the mood for Vegas! There are only one or two hotels between the Mirage and the Bellagio, but Caesar’s Palace takes up about 3 blocks worth! It went on forever! We made it over to the fountain as one show was finishing, but another would start in 15 minutes. We got a good spot after everyone dispersed from the last show. We enjoyed some good people watching, especially the pairs of gals wearing show girl outfits trying to get photos for tips from people. We wondered if they’re al part of the same organization or do they have turf wars. Do the blue feathered girls chase the green feathers off the Bellagio block? There were a few gals just wearing paint as tops too. Work it ladies. After the fountain show, it was definitely time for bed. I was up at 6am to feed the cats, which is 4am Vegas time. It was after 10 when we got back to our room, so we were stuffed and tired from the day. 

A good first day! We don’t have any set plans for tomorrow, so I’m excited to see what the day brings!

Steps: 15,100

Percentage of people wearing masks: 80-90%

Murphy was not amused that we were leaving him alone with Simon