Vegas Recap

Alright, here's a quick recap of our trip to Las Vegas for the Marathon (Nov. 31 - Dec. 4) - pictures to follow later:

Friday 11/31
I rushed home from work so I could go out and run a mile and shower before heading off to the airport for our flight out to Vegas. I found out when I got home that our flight had been delayed. By the time I was back from my quick run, it had been canceled. Not due to weather, surprisingly, but a mechanical failure, which I found out later. In a way that was a good thing, packing-wise, as I didn't have to rush to finish packing before we could eat and fly. Luckily we found a flight out Saturday morning.

Saturday 12/1
We got up super early (4:45) to get to the airport. Vicki called to say she got to Vegas (drove), so we sang "Happy Birthday" to her over the phone in the middle of the airport. We got on the plane and made it to Vegas a little before lunchtime. I had a window seat this time, so it was more exciting. We actually got the handicapped seats since that was all that was left on the flight. So that was good too - more leg room! We checked in (Excalibur) and dropped our stuff off. On the way down to eat we ran into some cute Irish (?) girls who told us where some good food is, and so we ate. Vicki and Alberto came down to meet us for food. After a quick shower we headed off to the expo at Mandalay Bay. On the way we took a few pictures with a bunch of Elvi that had gathered outside the expo (Rick was one of them). I got some info about cool places in California/Tahoe area. I asked if they made special toe spacers for six toes (they don't).
We stopped at the LVM21 Club pre-race dinner to talk to everyone for about an hour and a half. Dinner was at some Italian restaurant at Sahara (?). It was pretty good, actually. Mom, Vicki & Alberto went "out" to celebrate Vicki's birthday, but I was zonked, and Dad & I hit the sack.

Sunday 12/2
We got up early to go cheer Dad and others on at the start of the Marathon. Well, technically the 1/2 mile or so. We drove around to different points of the race to cheer. Somewhere around 6.5 miles near Fremont Street. They had some cool shoes there. Then we cheered Alberto to a PR finish in the 1/2. After that we stopped at Denny's for breakfast. It was kind of weird. I'm not used to watching, I'm used to running! It seemed like it went so slow. So after realizing the race was still going on, we headed to the 21-mile. We couldn't find the LVM21 cowbell, so we had to yell loudly and obnoxiously as if we were the cowbell. Good times. Lastly we went to the finish. We had lunch at Dick's. Let's just say that was...interesting. After a nap we headed back to the Mandalay Bay for the LVM21 Club post-race party. No one was there, and we learned it had been moved, so we made our way to Eye Candy. Lots of people, lots of talking. Dad tried to hook me up with a hot girl, but she was married. Tegla was there. I showed my toes. Vicki and Alberto left early so they could drive back to catch Alberto's flight back to Detroit. After the party we went to dinner and walked around a bit. Then beddy-bye.

Monday 12/3
We did a little shopping and walking around. We stood in line to get tickets to a show. I lost some money. We did some more walking around. Dad and I went to dinner at Diablo's while Mom napped. They had some good ribs. We capped the night with a show called "Ice" - which is basically like a Cirque show...on ice. It was pretty neat. Then we collapsed back at the hotel.

Tuesday 12/4
We hopped on the afternoon flight and headed home. I had a window seat again. It was cold when we got back to Detroit. It was also kind of eerie because the airport was empty. Like, nobody was there. But we made it safely back home. And our (checked) luggage* made it safely to Phoenix. And that's that!

*The luggage then took a red eye to Detroit and was delivered to our house Wednesday, so that was good.

I'll post some pictures in the next post, although most of my pictures were taken out the plane window :-p