Vegas
Here's the trip, to the extent of my fogged and jet-lagged memory:
Christey and I flew in Thursday night, which was a bit earlier than everyone else, but I figured it would give us some extra time to see Vegas before the rest of the LJ gang showed up. We booked into the Luxor, and they tried to put us in a tower room, even though I made a pyramid reservation a month or so before. A little negotiation, and they gave us a pyramid room on the 25th floor with a spectacular view of the valley facing the airport. It was truly beautiful, night and day.
We checked out a couple of the hotels and casinos that night, but most shops and things were closed, so a few quarters in some slot machines were dropped, to no effect.
Friday morning, we made a few threatening phone calls to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nbbmom and robont demanding that they hurry their planes, and we hit the Strip. We went up to the Venetian, and browsed the stores. We took a gondola ride down the canal in the center of the mall there, and our gondolieress sang opera. We watched a living statue, then browsed the Strip some more. We walked past Treasure Island, a casino named after the city I live in (heh), checked out the Mirage and browsed the orchid forest and saw one of Sigfried and Roy's white tiger play around in the water. We went to Caesar's Palace after that, browsed some stores and ate lunch at Bertolini's at the Forum Shops. We had an excellent meal of crab pasta with a white cream sauce, and one of my favorite Italian seafood dishes, cioppino, which is a ton of shellfish (New Zealand green mussels, littleneck clams, and Gulf shrimp) and fish (salmon) in a soupy tomato broth.
Rob andjenont had showed up by this point, so we met them in their suite back at the Luxor, and it was fantastic seeing them again. Soon afterward, someone found Kym by the pool, and she showed up with ohmyhead, along with chiabrit and flametodance. Much hugging and introducing ensued. Then, we had to go get drinks, because...well...it was Vegas. And we were thirsty.
We all split up to get ready for the LJ meet-and-greet that evening. There were 30 or so LJers showing up, and I met a few LJers who I hadn't seen since Toronto or the LA Bash before that (andysoft,catherine,hilts) and a bunch of others I hadn't met before, such as jloopy. ladyfire finally dragged her cute ass in from New Hampshire, and we finally got to meet after a couple near-misses in Massachusetts a few years back. She is just as sweet as her journal, and (I know this might be hard to believe) she is prettier in person than her already beautiful photos on her journal.
Saturday morning, Christey and I rented a car and drove to the Mohave Desert National Park just over the Cali border. It was really amazing, especially as it rained (and hailed) off and on. To an east-coaster (and Floridian) like myself, the desert mountains are just fascinating. Dodging road damage from flash floods, we found the park entrance and made a several-hour hike to a peak on Cima Dome with the entire desert spread out below. The elusive desert tortoise proved to be too elusive, but we saw more joshua trees than one could shake a stick at, a few jackrabbits, and a skittering carpet of lizards that looked quite a bit like the lizards here in Florida. But, man, the views.
We went to New York, New York to ride the coaster, but it was closed due to inclement weather (what weather? It was cloudy, but quite still...) so we grabbed dinner at Il Fornaio, "outdoors" next to the faux Central Park. We nibbled on prosciutto and melon, then dug into lobster ravioli and a braised fillet pasta. Another excellent meal...in fact, we didn't have a bad meal there (unlike LJers who had a bad experience with a breakfast buffet one morning).
Long entry, and I'm not even done yet...to be continued. In the meantime, check out some photos in other journals:
Christey's first round of pictures
RobOnt's pics
Photos d'RisqueWritings
Princess LadyFire's Pics
JLoopy's photos
Christey and I flew in Thursday night, which was a bit earlier than everyone else, but I figured it would give us some extra time to see Vegas before the rest of the LJ gang showed up. We booked into the Luxor, and they tried to put us in a tower room, even though I made a pyramid reservation a month or so before. A little negotiation, and they gave us a pyramid room on the 25th floor with a spectacular view of the valley facing the airport. It was truly beautiful, night and day.
We checked out a couple of the hotels and casinos that night, but most shops and things were closed, so a few quarters in some slot machines were dropped, to no effect.
Friday morning, we made a few threatening phone calls to
nbbmom and robont demanding that they hurry their planes, and we hit the Strip. We went up to the Venetian, and browsed the stores. We took a gondola ride down the canal in the center of the mall there, and our gondolieress sang opera. We watched a living statue, then browsed the Strip some more. We walked past Treasure Island, a casino named after the city I live in (heh), checked out the Mirage and browsed the orchid forest and saw one of Sigfried and Roy's white tiger play around in the water. We went to Caesar's Palace after that, browsed some stores and ate lunch at Bertolini's at the Forum Shops. We had an excellent meal of crab pasta with a white cream sauce, and one of my favorite Italian seafood dishes, cioppino, which is a ton of shellfish (New Zealand green mussels, littleneck clams, and Gulf shrimp) and fish (salmon) in a soupy tomato broth.Rob and
jenont had showed up by this point, so we met them in their suite back at the Luxor, and it was fantastic seeing them again. Soon afterward, someone found Kym by the pool, and she showed up with ohmyhead, along with chiabrit and flametodance. Much hugging and introducing ensued. Then, we had to go get drinks, because...well...it was Vegas. And we were thirsty.We all split up to get ready for the LJ meet-and-greet that evening. There were 30 or so LJers showing up, and I met a few LJers who I hadn't seen since Toronto or the LA Bash before that (
andysoft,catherine,hilts) and a bunch of others I hadn't met before, such as jloopy. ladyfire finally dragged her cute ass in from New Hampshire, and we finally got to meet after a couple near-misses in Massachusetts a few years back. She is just as sweet as her journal, and (I know this might be hard to believe) she is prettier in person than her already beautiful photos on her journal.Saturday morning, Christey and I rented a car and drove to the Mohave Desert National Park just over the Cali border. It was really amazing, especially as it rained (and hailed) off and on. To an east-coaster (and Floridian) like myself, the desert mountains are just fascinating. Dodging road damage from flash floods, we found the park entrance and made a several-hour hike to a peak on Cima Dome with the entire desert spread out below. The elusive desert tortoise proved to be too elusive, but we saw more joshua trees than one could shake a stick at, a few jackrabbits, and a skittering carpet of lizards that looked quite a bit like the lizards here in Florida. But, man, the views.
We went to New York, New York to ride the coaster, but it was closed due to inclement weather (what weather? It was cloudy, but quite still...) so we grabbed dinner at Il Fornaio, "outdoors" next to the faux Central Park. We nibbled on prosciutto and melon, then dug into lobster ravioli and a braised fillet pasta. Another excellent meal...in fact, we didn't have a bad meal there (unlike LJers who had a bad experience with a breakfast buffet one morning).
Long entry, and I'm not even done yet...to be continued. In the meantime, check out some photos in other journals:
Christey's first round of pictures
RobOnt's pics
Photos d'RisqueWritings
Princess LadyFire's Pics
JLoopy's photos