So I left work around 1:30 on Friday–my birthday–and Rob and I headed out to the Monterey Airport for the maiden voyage of Allegiant Airlines new flight from there directly to Vegas.
There had been all sorts of promotions on the radio and in the paper on this launch since they were offering the first flights at 49 bucks each way. Rob and I looked into it and decided that it was about time we had a quick weekend trip to Vegas again.
When we lived in AZ it was only a five hour drive so we did it quite often. Since we moved the only times we get out to gamble is one week in August for our anniversary. We booked this flight because it fell on my birthday, I didn’t realize at the time that this would be the first run on this particular flight path until Rob brought it up to me.
When we got to the airport there was a healthy line for such a tiny airport but more importantly, there was Elvis. Yes, Elvis and his little showgirl friend were there to launch the 1st flight every from Monterey to Vegas. It was kinda funny all the people wanting to have their picture taken with him knowing they were about to fly into a town with a million other Elvy around.
When we finally made it through security and got to go board the plane, we were handed “goody bags” as we exited the building. They consisted of a deck of cards, Elvis style sunglasses, a flashing vegas sign magnet, a Vegas collectible spoon and a couple of other cute little vegas things.
As we made our way to our seats I noticed that ever empty seat had a plastic champagne glass sitting in it. Yup, we got some free bubbly while in flight served by Elvis and the showgirl. I found this very amusing because before I left on Friday my office-mate Misty was singing to me that I was going on a plane and they were going to give me free champagne because it was my birthday, just joking around. Heh!
The other perk the airline gave us was at the end of the flight, everyone aboard got vouchers for Blue Man Group tickets Saturday night! I love this airline!
The flight got quite bumpy as we made our decent and I had a bit of a panic attack but soon we were on the ground and meeting Renee by the shuttle bus.
Due to the location of our hotel we were the last ones to be dropped off but that was fine.
Check in at the El Cortez was a breeze and our room was surprisingly large. We quickly headed downstairs to get our players cards and take pictures for a keychain that was offered in the fun book they gave us. After that it was off to Walgreens to pick up some snacks and drinks and things we would need for the weekend that we didn’t pack.
We relaxed in the room for awhile after we got back and then headed down to gamble. Renee was running on about two hours sleep from the night before and after a couple of cocktails was feeling the effects of both. We found Rob and decided to go across the street to Mamacita’s Mexican place where we ordered a ton of food and sobered up while waiting for it.
Back in the room we changed into our jammies and ate. We all agreed that we might go back downstairs for a little black jack in a little bit. We weren’t really ready to go to bed yet.
Renee laid down for a 15 minute power nap and told us to wake her up when we wanted to go downstairs. A half an hour later my attempt to wake her was greeted with an unenthusiastic “mnnhmmphhh.” I asked her if she wanted to stay and sleep and she said yes so Rob and I left her in dreamland.
Downstairs Rob and I lost money at an alarmingly rapid rate at the first black jack table we came to so we decided that table games were done for the trip. Feeling kind of defeated, we sat at the bar and played some quarter video black jack for awhile and then decided we’d had it and came back upstairs and went to bed.
Saturday morning we woke up ungodly early, showered and got ready. We trotted on down to Neonopolis to the theater and got our tickets to see our girls in the Sex and The City movie.
As we were buying our tickets, the token gay SATC male fan came up to us. He was wearing tight white jeans, a white tank top and a white newsboy cap. He took one look at us and said: “You girls going to see Carrie?” He was adorable and if I lived here I would have totally exchanged numbers and become friends. We said of course and we discussed the benefits of seeing it at ten in the morning as opposed to the chaos that must have been the Friday premiere.
He was right because it turned out there were only five of us in the whole theater once the movie started.
It was, of course, wonderful. It started out a little slow for me. I think it was because they have to give a sort of preamble to those who have never seen the shows. Kind of like the beginning of the Stephanie Plum novel. It has to be explained for those that aren’t familiar with the past plot lines. But I already know this part, skip to the good stuff would ya??
It got better and I think I teared up at least five times. Had I been watching in the the privacy of my own home I probably would have been flat out bawling but alas I had to hold it in.
The bad thing about the movie is now there is nothing to look forward to. They have covered everything they need to cover and there won’t be another movie. Nor would I really think I would want one because it would just have to rehash everything this one did in order to be half as interesting, but…it’s so final. The girls are retired. Don’t get me wrong, I was looking forward to this movie and am so happy it was made. It’s just kinda like, I didn’t want it to end.
At any rate we left the movies and hit Walgreens for more soda for Rob and came back to the hotel.
We went downstairs and gambled a bit but I just wasn’t feeling it. I had some luck on a wheel of fortune machine but I was just too tired. I left Rob and Renee to play and came up to the room to lie down. I didn’t sleep but it was nice to lay down for a while.
Soon it was time to get ready and go to our complimentary tickets to Blue Man Group. I have seen the show twice before when it was at the Luxor, but it’s a phenomenal show. Renee had never seen it and the price was right. We had the front desk call a cab and then headed down.
I knew it would be a bad cab ride when the driver picked us up and promptly backed into a metal post, messing up the back end of his cab and just kept driving. He took the freeway, drove at a crazy speed and changed lanes often without using his turn signals.
Thankfully we made it to the Venetian safely and got our tickets to the show.
We had an hour to kill so we stopped at an Asian place to eat dinner. We had tons of leftovers but no place to store them during the show so we had to waste the food.
After dinner we stopped at a slot machine so we could smoke. I put five dollars in a nickel machine and promptly won 78 dollars. When I say promptly, I mean the first turn of the reels! I couldn’t believe it but I cashed out right away!
The show was awesome of course. If you’ve never seen it, it can’t be described so I’ll spare you the trying. It’s just a kick ass show. I was glad to see there were some new bits that had been added since the first two shows that I had seen. Oh, and our seats were fabulous. We were so freaking close it wasn’t funny. Did I mention I love Allegiant Air?
The cab ride home was less scary and cheaper so I tipped the guy more.
We played a 20 but cashed out at ten when Renee lost her money.
For a little while no one really seemed to know where they wanted to go or what they wanted to do so we just milled around under the FMS canopy until the last show of the night started. We watched it as I taped it with my camera, but it wasn’t very good.
After we spotted another wheel of fortune machine in the Fremont so we plunked down and put a 20 in. I got a couple of crap bonuses until I finally got the 5000 credit bonus putting my 20 up to 70 something. We of course cashed out and then Renee said we should go to Four Queens and get a drink. So we put some money in some video poker machines at the bar and got comped a bunch of drinks.
At that point we were tired and somewhat drunk so we headed to the Chicago Brewpub and got some grub to bring back to the room. We got White Garlic Pizza, Cheese Knots, and hot wings and headed up to the room where we ate and fell asleep while watching that movie about the puppets from the south park guys.
All too soon we had to wake up and get ready to leave. We all showered, dressed and packed up. Rob went downstairs to play some roulette for a co-worker and Renee and I finished up our packing. We all met up downstairs and eventually caught the shuttle back to the airport after Renee put five in a machine and cashed out with 35.00!
When we got to the airport we bid Renee goodbye and headed off to our separate gates. After we got through the security checkpoint we stopped at a bank of chairs to put our shoes back on. It was then when Rob discovered his boarding pass and ID were missing. We searched and searched all our carry on luggage but it was no use. They were gone. The only thing that Rob could think of was that he set them down in one of those buckets while taking the laptop out and putting it back in it’s case but when he asked lost and found they hadn’t seen anything.
So we ended up going to the gate and the very nice people there told us that if we couldn’t find it they would probably be able to have TSA approve another boarding pass with my ID and last name and his credit cards as identification.
With that knowledge he headed back to the lost and found while I got a mini pizza from the pizza hut express. About ten minutes later he texted me that they had found it and he was coming back to the gate. Phew!!! What a relief!
The contrast from the flight to Vegas and from Vegas was stereotypically funny. On the Friday flight to Vegas everyone was whooping it up, getting drunk on free champagne and being loud. On the way home on Sunday everyone was very subdued and hungover. Everyone had sunglasses on and was sleeping on the flight. Heh.
Great trip, great memories.
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I am a 40 something married woman living in California.
I enjoy knitting and crocheting, watching crap movies, snuggling with my two adorable dogs and trying to be a good person.
