In My Head
We got home from the airport last night (this morning?) at 2 a.m.
Some highlights from the trip:
My parents went out to Vegas with us last Thursday and stayed until Monday, while we left Vegas and drove to the ranch in Arizona on Sunday morning. My father has an extreme fear of flying. As a matter of fact, this was our very first official family vacation. It only took thirty years!
Anyway, we boarded our plane in Philly on Thursday as scheduled. Then proceeded to sit in a long line of planes for an hour on the runway. Ridiculous, but flying out of Philadelphia usually entails complications like this. My poor dad. He just wanted to get it over with.
Once up in the air, things went smoothly for a few hours, until we were just about over Kansas City. Suddenly, things went haywire. A flight attendant got on the loudspeaker and asked if anyone with any medical training would please move to the back of the airplane. About a dozen people gathered back there. Turns out that a diabetic man had gone either into sugar shock or into a hypoglycemic blackout. After fifteen minutes, the pilot got on the loudspeaker and announced that we'd be making an emergency landing in KC. Lovely.
So we were grounded for about another hour. The paramedics rushed into the plane and carted the guy off, then returned him about forty-five minutes later!
We FINALLY got into Vegas around 10 p.m. Got our luggage and headed for the taxi stand...which was an HOUR-AND-A-HALF wait! I guess I picked a busy weekend to come to town: we later learned that there were multiple events taking place in town at that time: a bunch of concerts, the American Pro Volleyball tournament, several large conventions, and oh yeah...the MTV Video Music Awards were also going on at the same time we were there.
We wound up finding a private driver and paying $40 for a ride in a black Escalade to the Luxor...a ride that would cost about $12 by taxi. Sigh.
Other than those first-night snafus, everything in Vegas was great. It was hot as hell (averaging about 106 degrees) but we drank plenty of water and spent a lot of time in the air-conditioned casinos. On Friday, we had a fabulous and pricey anniversary dinner at Gallagher's Steakhouse in New York New York. On Saturday afternoon, my dad and I caught an IMAX 3-D movie at our hotel that was really cool. On Saturday night we went to Fremont Street and wandered around for a few hours.
Unfortunately, none of us hit the jackpot. We all came back poorer.
Following are some pictures of Vegas. I'll be back later to regale you with tales from the dude ranch portion of our trip. Suffice to say that I have bruises, blisters and scratches all over my body...and a newfound respect for jockeys, the Marlboro Man, and Lady Godiva. Horseback riding is HARD, yo.
The facade of New York New York.
Looking up at our hotel from the Strip.
Taken across the street from Paris, while waiting for the Bellagio fountain show to start.
Labels: family, funny stuff, memories, vacations
