Vacation 2009 (this is really long)

Dan and I make it a priority to take one childless vacation every year. For the past couple years we have been on a Vegas kick. The food, the gambling, the pools, the hot weather, we love it all. We love the carefree attitude of the city, or at least the part of the city we stay in. No one judges us there. We can let our extreme silliness out (because we are already moderately to seriously silly in the real world), smooching on bridges and fake fighting (kinda weird, but fun), and not feel inappropriate. And did I mention all the good food? And how much we love to eat?

I am always a wreck until we are sitting at our gate, waiting to board the plane. Leaving Elijah for more than a day is tough. I always have all kinds of worries, and this time was no different. But this time I came prepared! I wrote out about a dozen index cards with reminders and good thoughts. I had a few Bible verses that really helped and a few other thoughts. I ended up pulling these out and reading through them a handful of times throughout the trip, and they helped. Overall, I did much better with this Elijah-less time than any time in the past.



Elijah dozed on the way to Grandma's, where he spent his whole weekend (and slept really well).



The plane ride was good. We started this trip being totally sleep-deprived (I don't recommend this), so we took tiny, uncomfortable naps on the plane.



Dan and I love big puffy clouds. Falling through them is cooler, but in this situation we settled for gazing at them.



We arrived in Vegas and excitedly skipped through the airport. It's funny how many people do this. I heard at least two groups of people shout, "Vegas, baby, VEGAS!" as they skipped along side of us. The shuttle ride to our hotel was quick and smooth, and look! Palm trees (and a gorgeous man)!



We like to stay at a different hotel every time, and this time we chose Caesars Palace. It was affordable (we found out why later), so we gave it a shot.



One of the things I love most about vacation is seeing total, carefree relaxation on my husband's face. There is just something about not having anything to do, and seeing him thoroughly enjoy that.



Our room was amazing. It was the best room we have ever had. It was huge.



And the bathroom was awesome. We actually went to bed early the night we got in, in hopes of getting all caught up on sleep and starting the vacation off rested and feeling good. That didn't happen. Despite our early bedtime, I was up at 4:00 a.m. (6:00 our time)!! I couldn't get back to sleep. It was maddening! By 5:30 I gave up and decided to start my day. I took a bath in the awesome, giant, jetted tub while watching the weather channel (yes, there was a tv in the bathroom, too). AAAahhhhh.



We called a few times a day to check in on Elijah (probably too much), and it always gave me peace of mind to get a good report from Grandma.



On every trip we take, I always come away with vivid memories of our first excited elevator ride. We are always smiling, kissing, taking pictures, anticipating the adventures ahead.



On our first night, we headed over to one of our favorite casinos, Bills Gamblin' Hall, to do a little gambling. Dan likes blackjack and I like roulette. We only gamble when we are in Vegas, and we always come with a predetermined amount of money specifically for that purpose. If we lose it, we're done. We always expect to come home without it. It's good entertainment for us. For a while, anyway. By the time our third night rolled around, I was bored with it and ready to put another year between me and the roulette table.



I did horribly at the roulette table that first night, so I stepped away quickly. Dan, however, began his weekend of awesome luck. He was up by quite a bit, and smartly walked away. We went over to Ballys, another favorite spot of ours, and much of the same took place. I was down, Dan was up. Apparently it just wasn't my day for luck, so we stopped. We went to dinner at another favorite place, Hole in the Wall Battista's. I love this place! It is a tiny little dimly lit Italian restaurant that has its menu on the wall and bottomless carafes of vino. Sadly, we didn't take much advantage of the wine because we were having such a good discussion about how we want to live our lives. This is why vacation is good for us! We are definitely a couple who needs occasional recharging, and sometimes stepping away from reality makes things much more clear. Our discussion that night is one that I will never forget. It was good stuff. Dan ordered the chicken cacciatore and I ordered the cheese ravioli. Both were awesome. An accordian player made a stop at our table and we gave him a dollar for being so cute and old.



That was all we had in us that night. We were exhausted and ready for some good (ha!) sleep. The next morning, after my very early bath, we decided to venture out and grab some breakfast. Who knew that Margaritaville served breakfast!? It was tasty, too. I ordered a shrimp and crab omelette and Dan ordered a Mexican omelette that I wished I would have ordered.



After breakfast we got our swim suits on and headed to the pool. It was a good thing we got there right when it opened because there was a line, and the chairs surrounding the pool filled up quickly. Once we found some chairs, we discovered why we got such a good price on the hotel. They were doing construction all around the pool area. We got to listen to a lot of banging noises mixed with music and water splashing. We weren't impressed with the pool, but we are pretty picky pool people. There are three pools there currently (I think they are working on a fourth) and they are just too small for the amount of people who want to be sitting next to them. We made the most of it, though, and got in two hours of absorbing the hot sunshine and doing quick dunks in the frigid (but satisfying) water to cool off.



During our down time, whenever we were changing or showering or waking up from a nap, I would sit on the chair by the window and write in our travel journal. We had a nice view of the pools and mountains.



After our morning pool time that first day, we took a nap. I was able to sleep!

We knew where we wanted to eat that night, but the only reservation they had available was at 5:00 so we skipped lunch. We decided to walk along the Strip and see where the road took us. We walked by the new hotel, which is the hugest most ridiculously excessive thing I have ever seen in my life, but I guess it is Vegas, the City of Excess. This monstrosity is still in the process of being built, so the sidewalk to walk past it has been constructed into this awful tunnel. It was packed full of people, and so super hot and oppressive and long. Dan and I called it the Tunnel of Doom (TOD). I felt like we were being marched to a concentration camp. It seemed to last forever, and we were very happy to come out of it.



We rode the Manhattan Express rollercoaster at NYNY, placed a bet on a boxing match and headed back through the TOD to make it to dinner on time. We stopped at the Bellagio fountains to catch a show on our way. As we were waiting for the show to start, I said to Dan, "If 'our' song plays, it's a sign. A sign of what, I don't know, but a sign." There is a song that we (Dan especially) loves that is one of the songs played in synch with the fountain show. I knew our odds weren't good that it would actually come on next, but it DID! And we found out later what it was a sign of. Luck!

We ate at Olives, which is Bellagio fountain-side (we love the fountains). Eating there was an amazing experience. The drinks, the food, the view, and of course the company, it was all perfect. The drunk people next to us weren't perfect, but I suppose they were entertaining. I noticed that a lady in the group was taking a picture of the rest of the group. I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of all of them. She said, "Oh sure! I can take a picture of you!" Obviously she didn't understand what I was offering, but I figured a photo of Dan and me would be nice. I started to hand her our camera when she proceeded to take a picture of us with her own camera. Someone in the group told her to grab our camera, so she snapped a picture of us as she wobbled back and forth.

This was the photo taken by Drunk Lady.



This was the view from our table.



This was man I ate dinner with.



I had scallops with risotto. Yum.



Dan had pork that was also yum.



The mojito was yum, too.



After dinner we headed back over to Ballys to do some more gambling. I had the luckiest, most fun gambling experience of my life that night. I sat at the roulette table (while Dan sat at the blackjack table) for four hours and kept hitting numbers left and right. There was a super fun bunch of people and a good vibe at the table and we were giving high fives and cheering and having a ton of fun. There was one guy, Luke, who kept putting a towering pile of chips on number 14 because October 14th is his son's birthday. And because he was so confident in the number, I started putting chips on 14, too. Guess what. 14 hit three times within five rolls! We were going nuts! Jumping up and down, yelling, it was fun!

I walked away with a lot more money than I walked in with, and so did Dan. He had a lot of fun at his table, too, with good vibes and good dealers and good luck. After this, we were tired, so we went to bed. The next morning we ordered room service and enjoyed a greasy breakfast in our room.



I wanted to repeat my morning bath, but time ran out. We had to get to the pool before the line was out of control. We headed downstairs even earlier than the previous day only to find an even longer line. I think that is when Dan and I simultaneously said, "We are never staying here again." Yes, we adore our pool time. After the pool, we took a long nap (still not enough, especially since I was up at 4:00 again that morning) and then walked around the Strip a bit. We got on the shuttle at Ballys that took us to the Rio, where we enjoyed the delicious seafood buffet. We always make it a point to go to this buffet right when it opens because it is very popular and it gets packed. The food was delicious, as it always is. We loved the little lobster tails the best this time.

After dinner we met up with Kathy, Isaac and Eli for a quick visit in the Caesars Palace lobby. That little Isaac, he just melts my heart. And yes, Kathy is just as sweet and cute in person. I love the Rollers!



Kathy wouldn't agree to let me take Isaac home with us.



We headed over to Ballys for some more gambling, and it was at this point that I decided to consume a huge can of Amp! (evil energy drink) in an attempt to wake up. Big big mistake. It did what it was made to do. It kept me awake all night long, as I laid in bed in the most disturbed, fitful non-sleep I have ever had. I got maybe two hours of sleep before getting up to get on an airplane. Never again! Next time I will let sleep come.



Kathy and Joe met us at Ballys for a bit that night, after the Amp! and before the fitful non-sleeping. Dan and I came out even for the night and we were just kind of done with gambling and we were tired, so we said goodbye to the Rollers and went to bed so I could non-sleep.

The trip home was sleepless (effects from Amp! still) and uneventful. Our reunion with Elijah was sweet. I missed him so much! And then he showed me just how much he missed me by vomiting all over me, twice. That is when The Sickness of the Year kicked in and we began a very long week, which is turning into a very long couple of weeks. Welcome home!

We came back with much more money than we thought we would, so that was nice. Then we remembered that we never checked to see if our boxer had won his fight. We looked online and he HAD! NYNY will be sending us $40 in the mail!

That was quite a detailed account of our trip, whew! Did anyone make it all the way through it?