If I had not mentioned it before, Justin recently bought a new BMW and has been going to various driving schools with Patrick. You might wonder why you need to know this and of course I will tell you. It just so happens that the Sin City chapter of the BMW drivers of America had a driving school and Patrick, John and Justin signed up to go and guess who went along for the ride!
The trip started on Wednesday April 22 at 4:00 with John, Patrick and I leaving from work to catch dinner at Harris Ranch which is down towards Bakersfield. I was lucky enough to be able to have one of the night guys come in early so I could leave at 4 instead of my normal 6 or 7. Thanks, Brian!. At 4:00 I wandered over to John's cube and there were 4 or 5 people standing around talking to him, the phone was ringing - he was swamped. Craig was standing outside John's cube talking to John's manager so I just stood with all my stuff, waiting. Eventually John's manager glanced over at me standing with all my gear, ready to go and said, "I don't know what is going on and I don't want to know." Craig and I laughed and Craig replied, "Oh, you did not know? John and Shawna are off to Vegas to get married." John's boss's eyes got really wide and he congratulated me while I was stuttering my denial. I finally got to explain to him that we were heading out for a driving school and we were NOT getting married.
John was finally able to pull himself away from the phone and his manager and we headed out to the car. We called Patrick to check his status and he told us that his apt had lost power and he needed some time to take care of things before he could leave. John and I did pretty well traffic wise but Patrick's luck held and once he did get on the road he got caught on the other side of an accident. Even with Patrick's driving we managed to arrived at Harris Ranch a little before him. To pass the time until Patrick showed up John and I wandered around Harris Ranch Hotel a bit to see if they had room available for the night.
We walked back to the restaurant and saw Patrick's car but no Patrick - he paged John saying he was there and asking where we were, but not telling us where he was. We eventually found each other and had dinner. I thought dinner was good but the potatoes were weird and kind of cold. Cold potatoes are never a good thing.
I was quite tired by this point since I had been up since 4am and we went to the hotel and checked into our hotel rooms. The rooms were nice and large with patios. John likes unfiltered air so we left the door to the patio door open and since it was very windy we could hear it softly all night. Having the door opened worked very well until the birds woke up and started their happy singing. I am not sure how most people feel about this but I like birds singing but not at 4:30am! We did not feel we were in any hurry so we took our time getting going in the morning. We packed our bags and headed out. Patrick was in a little more of a rush because he had to be in Las Vegas by 5:00 to pick Mindy up from the airport. She was flying in to see the Mystere show with us that night. We stopped for fuel and lunch around 1 and had jack in the box. It was only my second experience with this specific fast food and it was ok.
The drive was uneventful with lots of people going fast, John worrying about police and Harleys everywhere. One of the people going fast was Patrick who arrived in Las Vegas around 5. Since we had no plans until the show at 7:30 we did not drive quite as rapidly and we arrived a little behind him getting to the city around 5:15. Entering Las Vegas I checked the map and suggested we take exit 38 and swing up to the hotel but John thought it would be better to take right hand turns and suggested exit 39. So we drove by exit 38 and soon realized that although the map had an exit 39 due to construction there was no exit 39. John has a very good sense of direction and managed to get us back to the strip and to the hotel we thought we were staying.
We parked in the Mirage parking garage and went inside to register. The clerk at the desk told us they did not have reservations for us so we tried to get a hold of Patrick. He said he would call the 800 number and get back to us.. To make a long story short our reservations were at Treasure Island not the Mirage. Since the reservation system for both hotels goes through the same 800 number it was not a difficult mistake to make. We checked in and changed into our 'going to the show' clothes and headed down to see the Cirque du Soleil show Mystere.
The show was overwhelming and amazing. I was thinking I could go through and talk about the show but I am not sure I want to do that. I guess there are really no words to describe it and you should go see it.
When the show finished I had John get me one of the feathers that had fallen in to the seats and we headed off to find dinner. One of the restaurants in the Mirage was Kokomo's which had a great steak and seafood menu so we headed there. The service was good and the food tasty. John and I had the Lobster bisque and split the seafood platter. The platter had tasty crab legs, lobster bits, shrimp, muscles and scallops. I have recently developed a taste for seafood and this was just what I had wanted. After dinner we were all pretty bushed and we headed off to sleep.
We did not have anything planned for Friday so we were winging it. Patrick got up early to take Mindy to the airport but she missed her plane due to traffic caused by an accident. She scheduled a later flight and Patrick stayed at the airport until she left. John and I woke up late and had lunch at the Caribe Cafe. I don't know how many of you have been to Las Vegas but you would think the service would be really quick in order to get you back to the slots, right? I found in most places that was not the case and service was almost universally slow. We were not in a hurry since we were waiting for Patrick so it was not a big deal. Of all the places I ate in Las Vegas I think I liked the Caribe Cafe the best. The food was simple but well prepared and tasty. I had a yummy tuna sandwich and John had an open face turkey sandwich. (you know I am sure you couldn't care less what I had for lunch but think of the people in 200 years when they read this. They will be looking for clues to our culture and what I had for lunch COULD be important.)
After lunch we wandered over to Business Services to pick up John's helmet. He had it shipped to the Mirage because 1. We thought we were staying there and 2. The place he ordered if from had not received it before we left. The BMW school requires you wear a helmet when zooming around the track. It is your brain after all.
Patrick returned from the airport and we decided to go see the dolphins and white tigers at the Mirage. The dolphins are theoretically at the Mirage for research and educational programs and when you head in you are given a short tour before you are allowed to wander around. I guess I have never been that close to dolphins but I was impressed with them because they seemed like such happy creatures. It could be because their mouths curve up so they look as if they are smiling or the way they frolic around - I am not sure. During the tour we were able to go below the pools and see the dolphins as they swam around and played with their toys. After watching them for a while I thought it might be nice to be a dolphin. They have such smooth skin and are so graceful and powerful.
After the dolphins we went to the Secret Garden to see the white lions and tigers. As a general rule, large felines are not terribly active but the first two we saw were young and were frolicking around. It was eerie because they were so like kitten but enormous. All of the tigers were pretty impressive with their white fur and tawny stripes. The lions were not really white but more the color of burnished silver. Most of them were napping, either sprawled on the ground or high up in the trees. The enclosures seemed large and John was under the impression that the animals were rotated out to the Siegfried & Roy ranch so they are not always in the small enclosed space.
Patrick was very tired and decided to nap so John and I wandered out onto the strip and walked a bit. We went through the Caesar's Palace Shopping Mall. To get to the mall you have to ride up the long 'people mover' which moves you by all these pillars and fountains. Considering that Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert it was nothing less than excessive. Once inside the first thing I noticed was that the ceiling was painted like a perfect summer day with just the right touches of wispy clouds. Just when you thought it was going to be subtle you are confronted with massive reproductions of Roman sculptures. The sculptures were and huge, towering over the shops and shoppers alike. Everything in Vegas is over the top and this was no exception.
We did not buy anything and really only went into one shop. When we got to the end of the mall there was the entrance to the IMAX film Race for Atlantis. We were just kind of looking around and they had these paintings all around the top of the room and all at once they rose up and underneath they had display screens. All the display screens started playing the ads for the Race for Atlantis film. They had them programmed to work together so the movie title was racing around the edge making you spin around to follow it. Once the ad was completed the pictures slid back into place. It was very cool.
We drifted out of the mall and down the street a bit to a nice bit of green grass where we sat for a while and watched the people walk past. Patrick had asked us to wake him up in an hour so after a while we drifted back to Treasure Island. We called and woke Patrick up, headed down to the Caribe cafe and shared a banana split. We were basically spinning time until Justin arrived. Since they were going to need their cars to drive in the school Justin was also driving out from California. John, Patrick and I had driven out as a group that left Justin to drive out alone. This seemed unsafe to me so I asked him to bring Kat, a friend of ours along. He had called with progress reports and basically we sat in the Caribe cafe until Justin arrived. We managed to work up some energy after the banana split so we headed out to the garage so Patrick could change the tires on his car. This seemed like a pretty straight forward operation at first. John was lending Patrick his car jack so Patrick could change his tires so we went to John's car to drive it to Patrick's. This is where it got messy. We drove to the floor and the location where Patrick thought his car was and well.. there was no car. We went up to the top and down to the bottom of the garage with no luck. We knew that Patrick had been very tired when he parked the car but his description of where the car was in the garage was pretty specific. After driving around some more I asked him if perhaps he had parked in the Mirage parking lot. He said he did not think so but we were getting desperate and we were heading over to the Mirage garage when we heard the distinctive rumbling of Justin's car. We honked him down and asked him to continue looking in the Treasure Island garage while we went over to the Mirage. Patrick remembered that the floor he parked on had a blue label and sure enough the fourth floor of the Mirage parking lot was blue and there was Patrick's car.
From there the guys went to register for the school and Kat and I headed over to watch the sinking of the Pirate ship. Every hotel has a gimmick and Treasure Island's is the Pirate Battle in the little harbor they have in front of the hotel. We wandered outside and it was very crowded but we found a spot to stand. We were 15 minutes early so we stood around and waited for the pirates to hop on their ship. They eventually arrived, dressed in their pirate clothes. The theory is that they have been stealing from the British and they are ready to retire. Just then they a British warship rounds the corner and they have a little battle with lots of nice pyrotechnics. The British ship sinks while the crew jumped over board to safety.
The boys returned and we decided to have dinner. My memory of this meal is somewhat vague. I remember the service being bad and having shrimp cocktail but other than that not much stands out in my memory. After dinner John Kat and I went to Patrick and John's room and napped (Kat and I in one bed and John in the other) while Justin and Patrick went to change brake and tires respectively. They woke us up when they were done and Justin, Kat and I went to the Luxor where we had our reservations. The Luxor is a massive pyramid at the end of the strip with a huge spotlight shooting out of the top. The interior is decorated with massive Egyptian sculptures and glyphs. It was impressive. The room we were in was on the first floor right next to a set of slot machines. Luckily we could not really hear them. Oh, I should mention that you can smoke inside public buildings in Las Vegas. So everywhere we went smelled like smoke. People were constantly smoking in the casinos and it was icky. The room was a smoking room so everything had the slight reek of smoke. In the morning Justin got up early and went to the track and Kat and I went shopping. I know what you are thinking.. typical women, but it was not like that at all. I was on a quest for a bathing suit. On the next leg of our trip to Utah John booked us at a hotel that had a hottub so he insisted I get a bathing suit. I had woken up in the morning to dialin to work since one of the projects I was leading was going live on Monday. While I was on line I decided I would check out the Las Vegas shopping situation. I found lots of great pages and was able to get directions and hours and store lists for all the major malls. We showered and hunted down some food - which was more difficult then it sounded. We thought we would head to the Pyramid cafe but the line was insane so we got lost for a while then ended up at the food court. We munched some fast food and headed out up the strip.
The mall we were heading to was on the other side of Treasure Island so we decided to walk. On our way we walked through the New York New York casino which was really cute. The inside is done up all like a little NY with shops and store fronts, etc. I totally got a kick out of it. We wandered by all the other casinos finally reaching the fashion mall. We wandered around in the mall looking for bathing suits and shoes. Kat had brought a dress to wear to the dinner but wanted white sandal to wear with it. We managed to find some nice white sandals but no bathing suits. It was getting late by this point and we decided to try to contact the boys. I called Justin's cell phone and he said they had just finished and would meet us at Treasure Island to go to the BMW club banquet. (does this sound like a good idea to you?)
On the way through the casino Kat and I spent our change on slot machines and broke even. We then sat in the hallway where the elevators were to wait for the guys. The elevators were in two sets - the front set going to floors 11-26 and the back ones to 26-40 or something along those lines. We watched people getting on one set then back off and on to another, switching from front to back - sometimes taking the elevator up then back only to switch to another set. It was rather frightening. I guess you do not usually imagine elevators being broken up into floors. Eventually the boys showed up and Justin, Kat and I went to the Luxor to change clothes and then we picked up Patrick and John. The banquet was BMW stuff and I think I will opt out of the next one. After dinner we drove to Freemont Street to see the light show. The entire block of the street is canopied with lights that they use in a light show every 40 minutes. The show this time was in tribute to the entertainers of Las Vegas. After the show we headed back to the hotels and slept since the boys had to get up at 6am to drive again. I guess I should say we tried to sleep - the hotel fire alarm started to go off at 12:20 and lasted for what seemed like hours but which was probably only 45min. We did not need to evacuate the building but the announcement and the alarm was going off all during the alert. We never did find out what caused the alarm.
I heard Justin wake up and leave in the morning but I slept in the bit. I woke up around 8, dialed in to work, finished up the email I had to send as part of the project and then got ready for day two of shopping. The mall we were heading to was well off the strip and we needed to take a taxi. Neither Kat nor I have had much experience with taxi rides but we braved it anyway. The taxi driver was cool and we went the quicker back way to the mall that happened to take us by the Hard Rock Hotel - which has a massive guitar facade. The mall we were going to was called The Bouvalard and is the largest mall in Nevada. Since we had such poor luck finding food at the Luxor the day before we decided we would eat in the food court at the mall. It was pretty typical food court fare but it served the purpose. There was something a bit odd about the mall in that it had camera set up all over. There were signs from mall management saying how much they like to see us and what nice smiles customers have, etc. I do not know if it was a security measure or just some bizarre voyeurism. There was a camera free zone in the food court so it seemed as if some people did not like the fact that they were always on film.
We decided to scope out the mall before beginning to search in earnest for the bathing suit. The stores were pretty typical mall stores but tons of them. We stopped in a Sanrio shop where Kat bought a Hello Kitty key chain that was also a bell. We looked at all the other cool Sanrio stuff then wandered onward. We peeked our heads into a Tee-shirt shop with Kat pointing out some Southpark Tees that she owned. The coolest Tee in the place was poking fun at Titanic the shirt read "The ship sank. Get over it." We were very amused. We then headed in to Pennys to see if they had bathing suits. As it turned out they did and I tried on dozens, or so it seemed. I think 6 would be a closer estimate. I liked most of them but picked out two and set them on the floor and hung the others up. While I was hanging the clothes the sales woman griped at me to not put the clothes on the floor. I was quite wounded. I bought the two suits, both were black, and we headed out to look for beach wraps.
While wandering we went into Macys, which is only noteworthy due to the glittering ceiling above the escalators. I guess it was as if they had put little lights in the ceiling that twinkled like stars. We could not tell how they did it or even why they would do it but it was very neat. We did not, however, have any success finding wraps and during our wander I decided that I really did not need two black suits and I would take back one and get a purple one. So we ended up back in Penny's. I traded in the black suit for a purple one, bought some pool side shoes and a pair of shorts. Kat picked up a pair of pool shoes as well.
We then headed out to catch a cab back to the hotel. We went outside, took a look at the cab drivers and they all looked kind of frightening so we went back inside. Kat went and bought some nail polish and we got Mrs. Field's Cookies and milk. After the cookies and milk we went back out and there were no cabs so we sat and waited. The first one to pull up looked ok so we headed back to the Luxor. The driver was one of those who cannot keep a constant speed so we were jostled a bit but it was not too traumatic.
Back at the hotel I tried to call Justin's cell phone but was not able to get through. We were kind of tired so we decided we would take a nap until the guys came back from the track. I woke up every half hour to call Justin's cell phone but there were signal issues and I was not able to get through until around 5:00. We found Justin at Treasure Island with Patrick and John. After a brief discussion he decided to go to Excalibur to pick up tickets to see King Arthur's Tournament on his way back to the Luxor.
We were trying to coordinate a meeting place and we figured that since our hotel was attached to Excalibur we could meet at the Neferititi lounge. The parking at the Luxor is kind of strange so I suggested to John and Patrick that they walk down from Treasure Island. Kat and I had made the walk the day before and it had not seemed like a big deal. After we finished napping, Kat and I were ready to go so while waiting for everyone else to arrive we went down to the casino. While we were waiting for the guys we played quarter slots and I won 5 whole dollars in quarters. After that thrill we went to the lounge and had ordered some drinks. Eventually Justin drifted down and Kat went and found some snacks for him since he was starved. We munched on our chips, drank our drinks and waited for Patrick and John. They showed up a bit later and were quite disgruntled because they said it was a LONG walk from Treasure Island. I realized that Kat and I had taken our time the day before and did not need to be anywhere at a specific time so our perspective might have been off. Everyone but Patrick had drinks and we were pretty happy as we headed over to Excalibur.
We took the connected bridge over to the Excalibur and wandered around until we found the arena. It took a while to find since the only sober person was the one with no sense of direction. The arena is surrounded on all sides by bleachers and each section was under one of the knight's banners. For the meat eaters, dinner consisted of game hens, potatoes, veggie and no silverware. Justin, being a vegetarian, had pasta and a fork. They were also serving wine which all of us but Justin skipped. He is still taking about how bad it was! I could describe the show.. but again I think people should go see it or I am really lazy. It is difficult to tell. I enjoyed the show and after we headed to the gift store and did a little shopping.
It was still early, Kat and I were determined to go and see some more of the sites so we dragged the boys out. We decided to walk back to Treasure Island and be tourists on the way there. Kat was dancing about, Justin watching her, but those were not really the sights I was interested in seeing. I had really wanted to see the volcano outside the Mirage, which was just on this side of Treasure Island. On the way there we walked through the New York, New York Casino so Patrick could see it. It is very impressive. No more than the Luxor but still was neat to see. The interior was done up like a small version of New York. Unless you see it you cannot really understand how much they put into these places. We walked some more, Kat flit about and we walked some more. Eventually we made it to the Mirage and waited to see the volcano. There are several large mock volcanoes outside the Mirage and to simulate a volcano they turn on very bright red lights under the water and have jets spewing the water all over. To finish the illusion off they add booming sound effects - over all it was pretty neat.
After the volcano the boys mentioned that they had not seen the sinking of the Pirate ship at treasure island. Kat and I had already seen it but figured it was good enough to see again. We made our way down to Treasure Island and found some place to stand and watched the show from a different angle. When the show was finished, we made our way up to John and Patrick's room and sat around for a while. We were heading our separate ways in the morning so we were trying to coordinate. Eventually we decided that John and Patrick would head over to the Luxor when they were ready to go. Kat, Justin and I caught a cab back to the Luxor and crashed.
We had all crawled into bed and were just about asleep when the fire alarm went off again. The overall time was about 1/2 of the night before but it was still extremely irritating.
In the morning I had to dial in to send my message I thought first thing in the morning. I woke up at 6 and dialed in and found out they were not ready to send it. I took 1/2 hour naps until they were ready at 10:30 which was when Patrick and John wanted to leave. There were some communications issues and mis-heard directions but I did send the email, they did find the hotel room and we did get breakfast. Breakfast was really lunch since Macdonald's stops serving breakfast at 10:30 but it was tasty. Once we finished eating, we sort of headed out and went our separate ways. Justin and Kat were heading back to SJ while Patrick, John and I were going to Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Canyon of Fire.
We piled into Patrick's BMW and headed east. I was strictly a passenger on this part of the trip (John had made me navigate) so I relaxed in the back seat. We stopped outside of town to pick up some snacks and drinks and then drove in earnest to Bryce Canyon.
The drive was uneventful although we drove through some beautiful country. I tried not to sleep through the entire trip and managed to see quite a bit of the scenery. We arrived at Zion and drove to the last section, weeping rock. It was chilly and there were broken clouds, which let the sun shine through some of the time. We walked this short trail along the river's edge. Zion is different from the Grand Canyon and Bryce because you are at the bottom of the canyon looking up(without having to climb down and up miles and miles). The cliff walls were dark red making me think of cliffs of blood.. and everyone thought that was icky imagery. I was feeling very tactile that day and I enjoyed the feel of the sand, mosses and mist. The walk was not very long and sometimes we took little detours that took us closer to the river. Being so early in the season there was great deal of water which gives the canyon a different look and feel. We were planning to get to Bryce that night so once we finished our trip up and back we piled back in the car and headed to Bryce.
The drive out of the canyon took us through a series of somewhat narrow tunnels deep in the mountains. The reverb of the car in the tunnel was just the right harmonic to make me feel slightly ill. The tunnels had big windows cut into the sides and were not lit - which was slightly un-nerving. When trucks go though they have to close tunnel so the truck can drive in the middle of the tunnel - since it is so low.
In Bryce we were staying at Ruby's Inn. We arrived around 7ish, checked in, took our bags to the rooms and went to find dinner. I remember dinner being average but beyond that I cannot remember what I had. I do recall that John and Patrick had some very good soup and I had a bloody mary.. but those are all the details I recall. After dinner I logged in for a while and sent some mail and talked with Justin and Joe before heading to bed.
Remember way back when I was talking about buying the bathing suit? The soul reason for that was to go to the hot tub at Ruby's. In fact, the entire reason we stayed at this hotel was because they had a hot tub. We got up early and looked outside and it was snowing! I was somewhat reluctant to go frolicking around in a bathing suit in the snow but John prevailed and off I scampered. The tub was designed for like 14 people but we were the only ones there. The air was cold but crisp and the hot tub felt great. It was a few degrees colder than others I have been in which suited me fine. The snow was falling in large flakes and was covering our hair and eyelashes. I felt like those Japanese Snow Monkeys who live high in the mountains and keep warm by sitting in the hot springs. We soaked for 45 minutes or so then scurried back to the room to shower and dress for breakfast. By the time we had showered and dressed the snow had stopped and we wandered over to the restaurant and had a typical buffet breakfast with sausage, pancakes, orange juice, and coco crispies.
We headed off to Bryce after breakfast. The drive was very short and soon we were in the park. Our theory while visiting the parks was to drive to the end and make our way back stopping at the vista points. The sky was somewhat overcast which made viewing a little less amazing but it was still fantastic. The pictures are really the best way to experience the trip but I will babble some more. John took most of the photos and we even managed to get one of Patrick, with my help. Since most of the trails were closed due to the snow we kept mainly to the paved walkways but that still gave us some spectacular views. After touring the canyon, we stopped by the gift shop, John bought a hat and we were on our way. For this part of the trip I think I got to sit in the front seat. John had been in the front for most of the way to navigate but I figured he could navigate from the back seat for a little while.
Our last destination was the Valley of Fire in Nevada. We were on a pretty tight schedule since I was scheduled to be on a plane at 9:40 to fly back to San Jose to work on Wednesday. Patrick might have driven quickly. We entered the park and paid our fee - which was done by filling out an envelope, putting some money in and dropping it in a box, then drove through. John had timed it so we arrived near sunset and the sun was lighting up the cliffs with brilliant colors. It was not ideal time wise because it was making me nervous not to be in Las Vegas so close to when I was scheduled to fly back. The views were still quite beautiful and John was able to take some pictures.
After the quick drive through we headed back to Las Vegas for dinner. Since we had been stuffing ourselves on steak I was having a wild craving for Italian food. John called ahead and made reservations and we had a nice, expensive dinner in plenty of time to make my plane. After dinner it was back to the car and our vain attempts to find the right highway, well maybe not vain since we did eventually find the airport. We arrived at the airport and parked far far away from the terminal I was going to be flying out of and followed Patrick. Patrick had taken Mindy to the airport so he was the declared expert so we followed him through the metal detectors where they made me boot my computer. What is the theory on that anyway? You could easily fit the bits of a bomb in a computer and still have it work. It is very odd. Anyway, Patrick advised us that we should take the tram to the next terminal so we hopped on and whizzed off. We found my gate, got my boarding pass and sat to wait. The plane was, of course, delayed and I had to call Justin and my boss to let them know. Eventually, an hour late, the plane took off.
Typically on flights where you can choose where you sit, I try to avoid screaming babies. I have had a few too many flights and bus rides, back in the days of Grey Hound sitting next to a screaming child for hours on end to want to experience that again. So I sat near the front, where there were no obvious children. Little did I know that I was surrounded by college students who had not quite grown up. All throughout the flight they were yelling, throwing things and in generally being total idiots. I was having happy fantasies of killing them. I really wanted to be able to sleep on the plane since I had to get up at 5 the next morning to go to work. Eventually we landed and I left the plane as quickly as possible to avoid the temptation of saying anything to the hyper morons. Justin was there to pick me up and I pleaded with him to take me to work the next day. He agreed, so we did not have to take the time to pick up my car which was still at work. I was very surprised when he said yes and happily went home to get my 4 hours of sleep.
I guess that pretty much sums up the Vegas Trip report. Until next time.