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Viva Las Vegas!
Nov. 23rd, 2004 08:13 amI meant to post regarding the trip yesterday but ended up spending the day either a) doing errands and cleaning or b) flopping down on the futon to read and relax. Gods I'm glad I took the day off, I'd have been a wreck at work. Yes the weekend was, in a word, exhausting. Next time I drive down I'm giving myself a little more than a day to recover before driving back. There is also just no way to really see the city when you've only got a single day to do it in.
Friday night we got in a little after 6 and the drive was just lovely. Sure we didn't have cruise control, but aside from that I have no complaints. Traffic moved along beautifully and we got to see some amazing sights. Aelf was beside herself about the scenery and took dozens of photos. I think she went the most ga-ga over the sunset near Mojave, it was stunning. We saw the lights of the city well before arriving and as soon as we did we put on the James Darren/Vic Fontaine c.d. so he could sing us into the city. Yes we are geeks, hear us roar.
Found the hotel easily and got checked in with a minimum of fuss and bother. Somehow Circus Circus wasn't quite as tacky as I'd expected. Still scary, mind you, I mean there were clowns everywhere, but somehow I'd expected more. Grabbed a bite to eat and explored the hotel for a while. I quickly came to the conclusion that LV would be the Ferengi concept of heaven on earth. Also discovered that the hotel t.v. system actually had two clown-intensive channels. I shit you not.
Got very little sleep Friday night as my brain kept repeating "We're on the 27th floor, do you realize how high that is?" Panic attacks and vertigo do not make for pleasant sleeping conditions. Finally passed out from sheer exhaustion, luckily. We grabbed some breakfast and decided to figure out what we were going to do with our hair. The salon at Treasure Island seemed a good option, and it gave us the excuse to see the place, which was kinda cool. Did some shopping (of course) and then got the most expensive hair cuts either of us had ever had. Interestingly I was assigned a hair dresser who was quintessentially Vegas. She was an older woman bedecked in rhinestones, scary hair, and scarier makeup. My first thought when I saw her was, "I'm staying in a scary clown room in a scary clown hotel and now I'm having my hair done by a scary clown."
Still, she did a nice job and took off several inches of broken, split ends. Ick. In the end my hair still looked like my hair, only healthier and better than it had been in years. Sweet! After that we hit the Fashion Mall where I discovered a Crabtree & Evelyn shop and introduced Aelf to my doom. Fortunately I had a gift certificate so mine was mostly guilt-free indulgence. Picked up a few other odds and ends before heading back to the hotel for a quick shower and to get ready for the dinner at Quark's. We gave ourselves a reasonable amount of time to do this but ended up running late regardless and misjudged the distance to the Hilton. We arrived about 10 minutes late, but hadn't missed anything but ordering the first round of drinks.
Quark's is amazing! Oh gods we had such a fun time just gazing around the place and checking out the folks in costume. If you're a Star Trek fan you must visit this hotel at least once, seriously. Dinner was fabulous, as was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
odogoddess's cake, and the company was delightful. We split up briefly afterwards so Aelf and I could hit the shops on the promenade (just looking, no buying yet) before meeting up again to do the experience. We started with the Klingon adventure which was wild. My favorite bit was standing in a room, then the lights went out, when they came back up we're suddenly on a transporter pad. I have no idea how they did it, but it was great! The ride itself, well they warn you beforehand that if you get motion sick you shouldn't do it, allow me to second that. I came off the thing wondering if my dinner was going to stay put. Fortunately it did.
We doubled back to do the Borg 4D one and this time through the museum I noticed on the timeline what appeared to be the Dominion symbol. I didn't even know they had one! I was entirely too amused by this. I liked the Borg adventure better, it was way more interactive and kind of like a haunted house attraction. Getting to see full Borg makeup and costuming up close was neat, and the 3D effects on the actual "ride" part were stunning. The only downside was Captain Janeway arriving to save the day. :P But the Doctor was fun.
Aelf and I then hit the shops hard. I hadn't meant to buy quite so much, but oh they had such cool stuff! I was very good and kept my own purchases for me to a minimum, but many gifts were bought. I think we actually bought something from every single shop there, it was amazing. I also got my pic taken under the Garak's shop sign and I think Aelf managed to get a shot with every single costumed employee in the place. Ok, except the Borg. The funniest bit, though, was when we were walking into Quark's to have another drink and Aelf got to audition to be a Dabo girl. The guy playing the Ferengi was just superb, he really understood the character and the ST universe.
We made the mistake of sitting on the smoking side of Quark's because it looked more like the real thing from the show. The drinks were lovely but strong, and with a rich dessert (Ooomox) the smoke did us both in very quickly. If there is one thing I love above all else in California it's the no smoking indoors rule. I spent most of the weekend in a mild state of nausea thanks to all the smoke in the air, ugh.
After drinks it was incredibly late and we were exhausted beyond words so we walked back to our hotel...in the cold...and light sprinkling. We were ice cubes by the time we'd finished the 1/2 mile walk. On the plus side the cold made my feet so numb that I didn't realize I'd worn away a dime sized piece of my little toe until later. Ow. Considered going back out before passing out on our beds and vowing we'd get an early start on the road Sunday.
Good thing we did, we were out of the city by a little after 9 with a decent breakfast and a full tank of gas. Everything was fine until we got up into the higher elevations at which point we hit a freak snowstorm that had traffic crawling for miles. It turns out that sometime after we drove through they shut down that part of I-15. Oh gods how that would've sucked if we'd been stuck in Vegas another day.
Finally got through all that nonsense and made extremely good time through the rest of the drive. Considering we lost at least an hour thanks to the storm, getting home around 6:30-ish was damn good. We were both pretty impressed and patted ourselves on the back. I think next time I go, though, it'll either be early fall or late spring. But I am going again, for the Experience if nothing else. And if they add another attraction I'm all over it.
Friday night we got in a little after 6 and the drive was just lovely. Sure we didn't have cruise control, but aside from that I have no complaints. Traffic moved along beautifully and we got to see some amazing sights. Aelf was beside herself about the scenery and took dozens of photos. I think she went the most ga-ga over the sunset near Mojave, it was stunning. We saw the lights of the city well before arriving and as soon as we did we put on the James Darren/Vic Fontaine c.d. so he could sing us into the city. Yes we are geeks, hear us roar.
Found the hotel easily and got checked in with a minimum of fuss and bother. Somehow Circus Circus wasn't quite as tacky as I'd expected. Still scary, mind you, I mean there were clowns everywhere, but somehow I'd expected more. Grabbed a bite to eat and explored the hotel for a while. I quickly came to the conclusion that LV would be the Ferengi concept of heaven on earth. Also discovered that the hotel t.v. system actually had two clown-intensive channels. I shit you not.
Got very little sleep Friday night as my brain kept repeating "We're on the 27th floor, do you realize how high that is?" Panic attacks and vertigo do not make for pleasant sleeping conditions. Finally passed out from sheer exhaustion, luckily. We grabbed some breakfast and decided to figure out what we were going to do with our hair. The salon at Treasure Island seemed a good option, and it gave us the excuse to see the place, which was kinda cool. Did some shopping (of course) and then got the most expensive hair cuts either of us had ever had. Interestingly I was assigned a hair dresser who was quintessentially Vegas. She was an older woman bedecked in rhinestones, scary hair, and scarier makeup. My first thought when I saw her was, "I'm staying in a scary clown room in a scary clown hotel and now I'm having my hair done by a scary clown."
Still, she did a nice job and took off several inches of broken, split ends. Ick. In the end my hair still looked like my hair, only healthier and better than it had been in years. Sweet! After that we hit the Fashion Mall where I discovered a Crabtree & Evelyn shop and introduced Aelf to my doom. Fortunately I had a gift certificate so mine was mostly guilt-free indulgence. Picked up a few other odds and ends before heading back to the hotel for a quick shower and to get ready for the dinner at Quark's. We gave ourselves a reasonable amount of time to do this but ended up running late regardless and misjudged the distance to the Hilton. We arrived about 10 minutes late, but hadn't missed anything but ordering the first round of drinks.
Quark's is amazing! Oh gods we had such a fun time just gazing around the place and checking out the folks in costume. If you're a Star Trek fan you must visit this hotel at least once, seriously. Dinner was fabulous, as was
odogoddess's cake, and the company was delightful. We split up briefly afterwards so Aelf and I could hit the shops on the promenade (just looking, no buying yet) before meeting up again to do the experience. We started with the Klingon adventure which was wild. My favorite bit was standing in a room, then the lights went out, when they came back up we're suddenly on a transporter pad. I have no idea how they did it, but it was great! The ride itself, well they warn you beforehand that if you get motion sick you shouldn't do it, allow me to second that. I came off the thing wondering if my dinner was going to stay put. Fortunately it did.We doubled back to do the Borg 4D one and this time through the museum I noticed on the timeline what appeared to be the Dominion symbol. I didn't even know they had one! I was entirely too amused by this. I liked the Borg adventure better, it was way more interactive and kind of like a haunted house attraction. Getting to see full Borg makeup and costuming up close was neat, and the 3D effects on the actual "ride" part were stunning. The only downside was Captain Janeway arriving to save the day. :P But the Doctor was fun.
Aelf and I then hit the shops hard. I hadn't meant to buy quite so much, but oh they had such cool stuff! I was very good and kept my own purchases for me to a minimum, but many gifts were bought. I think we actually bought something from every single shop there, it was amazing. I also got my pic taken under the Garak's shop sign and I think Aelf managed to get a shot with every single costumed employee in the place. Ok, except the Borg. The funniest bit, though, was when we were walking into Quark's to have another drink and Aelf got to audition to be a Dabo girl. The guy playing the Ferengi was just superb, he really understood the character and the ST universe.
We made the mistake of sitting on the smoking side of Quark's because it looked more like the real thing from the show. The drinks were lovely but strong, and with a rich dessert (Ooomox) the smoke did us both in very quickly. If there is one thing I love above all else in California it's the no smoking indoors rule. I spent most of the weekend in a mild state of nausea thanks to all the smoke in the air, ugh.
After drinks it was incredibly late and we were exhausted beyond words so we walked back to our hotel...in the cold...and light sprinkling. We were ice cubes by the time we'd finished the 1/2 mile walk. On the plus side the cold made my feet so numb that I didn't realize I'd worn away a dime sized piece of my little toe until later. Ow. Considered going back out before passing out on our beds and vowing we'd get an early start on the road Sunday.
Good thing we did, we were out of the city by a little after 9 with a decent breakfast and a full tank of gas. Everything was fine until we got up into the higher elevations at which point we hit a freak snowstorm that had traffic crawling for miles. It turns out that sometime after we drove through they shut down that part of I-15. Oh gods how that would've sucked if we'd been stuck in Vegas another day.
Finally got through all that nonsense and made extremely good time through the rest of the drive. Considering we lost at least an hour thanks to the storm, getting home around 6:30-ish was damn good. We were both pretty impressed and patted ourselves on the back. I think next time I go, though, it'll either be early fall or late spring. But I am going again, for the Experience if nothing else. And if they add another attraction I'm all over it.
