We Made It….Finally!

We made it to Las Vegas! It’s only 3:44pm local time and it has already been a very long day. I woke up bright and early, just before my alarm went off at 6:00am. My morning routine was a little bit lonely because I dropped the pugs off at the kennel yesterday due to our early morning departure. We were ready and in the car on the road at 7:00am. The drive to the airport was very uneventful and traffic free, but we did notice some of the lights were out on Deerfoot Trail (the highway we take to the airport) as we got closer to the airport, but we didn’t really think anything of it. When we got to the parking lot, the security guard told us that they had lost power so we would have to park in the oversize lot, which was a bit of a bummer as it is much further away than the regular parking.

When finally got into the airport, we were overwhelmed by the amount of people and the lineups. The lights were on low and we were soon told that the whole airport had lost power and they were running on the backup generator so all the computers were down. They were handing out handwritten boarding passes! As you can imagine, things came to an almost standstill. We waited about 2 and 1/2 hours and by the time we got to the check-in desk the power was back on and the computers were up and running. We actually made it through Customs quite quickly too, but there was a huge backlog of luggage. You would not believe it!  Mountains of luggage, seriously and the Customs guard was like just put your luggage over there somewhere. Hubs and I packed one suitcase together so we said goodbye to it, with our only wish being that we might see it again soon. At this point, it probably would have been smart to take out an extra pair of underwear or something, but we didn’t. We made sure we had the essentials like Hubs’ medicines but that was it.

I took these pictures after security, through the glass so sorry for the glare. You can only see a couple of piles of luggage, but the whole Customs area was full. Around the corner was even more suitcases. I’ve never seen so much luggage all in one place  in my life.

Once through security, which was also surprisingly quick, we found our gate and our group, and just waited. While the power was out, no planes could take off, so there were tons of people hanging around and everything was delayed. We finally got on our plane at about noon (3 hours after it was supposed to leave), and flew to Las Vegas. The flight was pretty uneventful, but it was a clear day so we got some cool views.

When we landed, they told us that they could only guarantee that half of the luggage had made it onto the plane. We were not very hopeful as we stood around the baggage carousel, but sure enough our suitcase came round. Yay!! We are here with Hubs’ company, and I am not sure that everyone in our group was as lucky. We landed at terminal 1 which is the big terminal (we usually fly Air Canada and land at terminal 2 which is much smaller) so it took us a while to get a taxi, and then traffic was pretty sucky so it took us longer than usual to get to the Strip, and our hotel: The Palazzo. I think they may have raised the taxi rates too, because what is usually a $20 cab ride was $32 this time. YIKES!

Anyway, once we got to the hotel, things were much smoother. We checked in, and got a beautiful room (the Palazzo only has suites, just like the Venetian) and it has very nice Strip/Mountain view. It’s on the 48th floor, which is super high up, and probably the highest I’ve ever stayed, but the view is pretty awesome.

We LOVE the room. It’s huge and very comfy, plus it has free internet. FREE INTERNET!! Nothing in Vegas is free, and most hotels charge you $12-14/day per device for internet, so we are loving that feature, especially me because that means I can blog to my heart’s content. Anyway, here’s a look at the room:

Pretty sweet bathroom, huh? There’s even a TV in there, and there is also a little toilet room (with a telephone in it), but I didn’t take a picture of it.

This is the TV that faces the couch (below), and then there is another TV on the wall that faces the bed. Who needs all those TVs? Apparently, we do!

This is meant to show you how high up we are, but I’m not sure the picture really conveys that well.

So there it is. I don’t think I need to ever leave the room really. I would be happy to just lounge around in here, play with my computer and order room service. A girl can dream, can’t she. The only thing that would make this room better, would be in the pugs ran out from under the bed and barked “Surprise!”. Hubs’ company really went all out, so I suppose I should participate in the activities they have planned, even if it does mean leaving the room LOL.

Anyway, we are now just lounging around for a bit and then it’s off to dinner at one of our all-time favourite restaurants: Mon Ami Gabi. And I am sure after dinner we will just head back to our room, watch a little TV and then go to bed. It’s been a long day!

Hope you all are enjoying your long weekend!