Vegasmorgasboard

It's working out fairly well to meet up with Tony once a month. Sometimes he comes to Arizona. Sometimes I got to Utah. Last month we met up in Oregon. This month we went to Vegas! I found a great deal online for a $99 round trip ticket. I flew US Airways (Sorry Southwest!) and the flight was so short I barely had time to drink my cran-apple juice.

Explored the strip for a bit after getting some dinner at IN N Out. Met up with Emily and her friends at the Bellagio before heading to her place in North Las Vegas around midnight.

Didnt stay up too much later when we got to Emily's because we were headed to the REI members-only sale on Saturday morning! We woke up around 6am and got in line at the store around 7am. They eventually handed out numbers on slips of paper and we were # 33 and #34 in line and at 10am we were let "in" to the roped off area outside. We were able to walk around beforehand to see what kind of things were being sold. This is all stuff that had something wrong with it or was returned because the person didnt like it, etc. While we waited we practiced some knots and watched a movie on my laptop. I forgot my phone at Emily's house so I didnt have it ALL DAY! Stressful....

Finally! At 10 am we were let in and we took off seperate directions to grab stuff because the first 75 people were let in and we had 20 minutes to shop. The time went quick but I felt like together we found some great deals. Even better, when we went in to pay at the register, we found out how good of a deal we got!



My mouth has been watering all year and last year for a sandwich from Big Town Hero. They are just that good. Well, when we tried to go in Portland, they were closed early on Saturday and also because of the holiday on Monday. Darn. So I was excited to see on their website that they had a location in Vegas. So we went to eat there for lunch and walked in (they shared the space with a mexican restaurant) only to find out they had closed for the day and are no longer open on Saturdays or Sundays!! It was only 11am! Oh I was pretty ticked and very very disappointed.



Found a place to park at the MGM and went in to see the Lion exhibit and watched a tv show to rate it and get free food. Well, the tv show was called "The Vineyard" and it was all drama, a tv show like The Hills. We had dials we had to keep turning to show how interested we were in what was going on. Tony & I didnt rate it very high. It took about 45 min to watch and 15 min to fill out the online survey on a screen in front of us. The "free food" was actually buy one-get one. Darn! So we did the pretzel one and were going to do the ice-cream coupon but it was $7 or $8 for most of the stuff! No way! So all in all it was disappointing.



Next we went to the Hawaiian Marketplace...took awhile of walking to get there even though it wasnt super far down the strip but it was very hot! We saw a temperature board and it said it was in the 90's but it felt a lot hotter. We got to the Marketplace for the bird show at 3pm and it never happened! Anotherh disappointment :( They did have some nice cooling fans blowing out air and misting water so we took advantage of those...and kept walking



...to the M&M Factory! It was fun to go in there and see all the neat things they have and this time we watched the 3D M&M movie which neither of us had seen before. It was pretty cool and the room had effects like air blowing and our seats shaking. Kind of reminded me of Disneyland!



The Coke place was right next door. They had a lot of good stuff on sale so I took advantage of that and we got our pix taken with the Coke bear! Upstairs their cafe/diner had opened and for $7 you could try 8? or 16? different drinks from all over the world. So colorful in small cups, but when we saw the faces of people trying the different flavors, we opted for coke floats. I wish we had gotten the floats in different flavors of soda, 8 for $8. Next time!



We walked some more and checked out the Luxor (big pyramid hotel) because Tony had never been in there before. It was cool to see the inside but very dirty in the hallways!



Met up with my friend Emily around 7pm for a mid-singles Luau at a park by the church. It was windy so my rice and pork and chicken got cold fast but the fruit salad was good. It was fun to hang out with Emily and meet some of her friends. The fire dancers were really good too.

Headed to Emily's after a couple hours and I helped Tony fix an LCD monitor (he just brought the chip board and the tools to fix it) and we watched a movie until Emily and her roomie got home. We also laid out our goods from REI:



I got a REI pullover jacket and climbing shoes and gloves. Tony got a tent , backpack, head lamp, knife, camping pot-pan and snow shoes. Everything at face value equaled about $700. The discounts we got put us at $107. Tony had $84 of REI credit and so we paid about $23 for everything. The tent had a broken pole and a life time warranty so he gets a new pole for free. The headlamp was claimed not to turn on but after some inspection it turns out you have to hold the button down a second or two and it works perfect! So hooray for our great deals!



Sunday we went to sacrament mtg in Emily's singles ward. Then Tony & I wanted to go check out the Las Vegas temple so on our way out (after changing clothes) I needed to take a pic with this street sign!!! I wish I could live on cockatiel street! It'd be perfect!









After eating a delicious dinner Emily made in her crockpot of chicken and pineapple , we also had rice and asparagus. YUM

Then we packed up our stuff and got ready to head out but before we left so I could get dropped off at the airport, Emily took us for a drive in her fairly new Toyota Rav 4 and we went exploring and saw the sights of North LV. Went to a cool dinosaur park and took some pics...







It was very pretty with the lake, ducks and turtles. All the kids seemed to be having fun playing in the water and on the playground and digging up dinosaur bones

All in all it was a very fun weekend despite some disappointment (no Big Town Hero or bird show) and it was awesome to see Tony and spend time with him and of course see my friend Emily & hang out with her some on Sunday! Thank you too Emily for letting us stay at your house and eat your food!