I met Julie at her house on Saturday at two in the afternoon like we agreed.  We piled into her car and hit the road, making good time into San Francisco.

Thanks to my GPS machine we found the hotel with no problems and got checked in.  The hotel was okay.  For the price and the location it was actually really good. 

 We settled into our room and Jewels called Mel.  They were down the street at Union Square getting Melissa’s race pack and checking out the freebies they could get due the the race she was going to run the next day.  Jewels told them where our hotel was and they walked down.

From there we hung out a bit while the girls checked their facebook accounts on the laptop and then decided to go get dinner…in downtown San Francisco…on a Saturday night…at six o’clock.  Yeah, every single place we went into had an hour and a half wait before we could even be seated.  So we walked and walked and walked some more, sticking our head in every restaurant along the way to see what the wait time was.  Just as we were about to give up we spotted an Irish pub across the street.  We jogged over and found there was no wait time at all!!  Glorious!!

We got seated, got beer and ordered up some grub.  Dre and I got the fish and chips, Melissa got cottage pie and Jewels got a steak.  I was very excited that they had mushy peas just like the kind I loved so much in England.

By the time we were done we had just enough time to walk back to the theater, say goodbye to Dre and Mel and hit the restroom before they opened the doors and we took our seats.

I had seen the show earlier this year in LA and of course seen the movie a thousand times but I can never get enough of it.  Especially on this tour because it has the original Mark and Roger in it.   Our seats were so much closer this time.   I sat there telling Julie over and over again how great the seats were and and we were going to be so close to see everything…aaaaaand that is when the tallest man in the world with the largest head on the planet sat down directly in front of me.  Okay, this might be a SLIGHT exaggeration but it’s not that far from the truth. 

So much of the play had me dipping my head from one side to the other to see everything but it was still spectacular!!! 

At the end we all filed out and there was a sign with an arrow that said “This way for autographs”.  I knew that Julie had no desire to stand in line and get autographs from the cast but I really regretted not getting any in LA when I had the chance.   We stopped outside for Julie to call Dre and see if they wanted to meet for a drink and when we did I discreetly popped myself into the autograph cue.  Turns out since Dre and her friend Desiree did want to meet for drinks and they were coming up to meet us we had to wait anyway, why not wait in line right?  😀

I got “Maureen”, “Benny”, and the seasons solo singer(who was also part of the original cast but had been sick during the LA show so I didn’t get to see her on that one) and Anthony Rapp to sign my program.  I was so starstruck for that one.  I saw him moving down the line and kept thinking “Tell him you loved his book.” but as soon as he came up to us I just stared at him and thrust my program in his face to sign.  Sigh.  Oh well.  🙂

I thanked the girls profusely for waiting for me to get that one and we left after I got his autograph.  I would have loved to get Adam Pascals but I wasn’t sure he was going to make and appearance and if he did I didn’t know when.  The girls were nice enough to hang around for me to get Anthony’s so I didn’t want to make them wait any longer.

We made our way back over to the Irish pub where we had eaten dinner and ordered up a round of beers.  It was around eleven or so I believe so the crowd was pretty snockered…basically it was a people watchers paradise.  The girls ordered another round of beers and I got a Long Beach because I can only drink so much beer.  Now, I’m used to ordering this particular drink in casinos.  I have never had one outside of a casino so I expected the same watered down, mostly cranberry juice drink.  Nope.  What she brought me was pure alcohol with a splash of cranberry.  By the time I finished that, I was done.  My eyes were shutting and we had to walk back to the hotel.  Heh.

We tried to hail a cab but after one cabbie made kissing noises at us we decided it was better to walk.  🙂

Once at the hotel, Julie and I called it a night.  We had to get up fairly early to meet up with Mel at the finish line of the race and it had been a long day.

The next morning there was some miscommunication on where we were meeting Dre and her friends but it all worked out okay in the end.  We lucked into a parking space only a couple of blocks from the finish line and walked down.

It was fun to watch all the racers come through the home stretch, especially Melissa.  We caught up with her as she made her way through the throngs of people.  She was understandably exhausted and since we had a closer parking space we volunteered to drive her over to their car. 

After depositing her safely with Dre we made our trek home, stopping in Morgan Hill for In & Out Burger.

It was a really fun weekend and I had a blast hanging out with these girls and of course seeing RENT.

Monday morning I woke up and hit the gym again.  I’m sorry to say this would be the last structured exercise of this trip. 

NYNY

After I was done I came upstairs to the room and showered before heading off to meet mom in her room.  I got her safely to the car in the parking garage.  This would be the very first time I was going to drive in Vegas.  As many times as we have been here, Rob has always done the driving.  He has always done the driving for the majority of our relationship but even more so for the scary places…like Vegas.  Thankfully the trip was a hop, skip and a jump from our hotel at the Orleans to the Luxor.  No freeway what so ever and it wasn’t a weekend so it was all good.

We got to our destination with ease.  Normally, I would have valet parked since I was with mom and walking is not her strong suit but it turned out that this trip the parking garage was closer to where we needed to be than the valet entrance.

Before I left the Orleans I had Rob call my Auntie Tee to see if she could call FedEx.  The location of the phone was still up in the air but since it hadn’t been delivered overnight as it was promised, we figured she could not only get her money back, but get it delivered back to her since she was the sender of the package.

As mom and I rolled up to the Luxor I got a call from Auntie Tee on my cell phone. 

“Your mother gave me the wrong zip code!”  She said after I answered.

Apparently since the wrong zip code was given for the package, they couldn’t refund any money, and since it has already been delivered to the Golden Nugget(news to us) it could not be returned to her.  I thanked Lee for trying and then promptly called the Golden Nugget to speak with the person my mother had been dealing with about the whole cell phone fiasco.

She informed me that the phone was indeed there and she would hold it for us to come pick up until the 26th as that was the day we were leaving.  A quick call to Rob and we decided we would pick it up on the 26th before we dropped mom off at the airport.

Mom at Starbucks at the Luxor

With that taken care of we began our mother/daughter day.  After a couple of stops to rest we got up to the food court at the Luxor where I got a caramel frap at Starbucks and a Strawberries and Cream for mom.  (although she is diabetic, she claims she needs to “sugar up” for the nights here in Vegas because of how much she walks…)

Once we were done, I got tickets for the Titanic Exhibit and we were off.  I had been wanting to see this exhibit for years.  I had thought I would see it at the Tropicana last year when I went with Paula but it had already been moved.  I was quite happy to finally get to see it.

The whole experience is pretty cool.  They have all of the facts of the trip written out

The Titanic Exhibit

with giant photographs but they also have a bunch of artifacts that they recovered from the ocean floor under glass.  In addition to that, they recreate the rooms in the third class and first class as well as recreating the deck and the “famous” staircase.  It was all just a really great experience.  The best part was at the end they had a giant piece of the ship that they had recovered from the ocean suspended in the air for us to look at and in addition there was a video of how they recovered it.  Well worth the money in my opinion for the experience.

Mom at the Luxor Buffet

Once we were done with that we had some time to kill and were kinda hungry so we hit the buffet at the Luxor.  I don’t have a lot of experience at buffets in Vegas but this was one of the largest and best stocked I have ever seen.  They had foods of all kinds in one place and the deserts were yummy!  We didn’t leave hungry at all!  😉

After the buffet, we hit a couple of shops and then it was time for the show!

We were seeing Menopause the musical.  I had done a lot of research on what mom may

Sign outside Menopause the Musical

 or may not like and this won out hands down.  Bonus that it was cheaper that most and started at 5:30!  I bought the tickets in advance…VIP seating so we could get front row, but they turned out to be even better.  Smack dab in the center of the row.  Mom voiced a small concern about being picked on for being in the front row but I assured her this was not an improv show so there shouldn’t be a problem.

Once the show started, my mother and I were caught up.  The show is just hilarious and it is set to the songs of my mothers generation so she was just in her element.  She laughed a lot and there was one moment where one of the ladies was singing her song and she came down into the front row and chose mom to sing directly to.  It scared my mom a little but thrilled me to no end.

At the end they call for people to come up onto the stage.  My mom was one of the first people picked but she didn’t want to go.  I forced her and we both ended up doing an impromptu kick line with the stars and more audience members.  It was classic and gives mom a great story to tell when she gets home.  The whole experience was fabulous.

After the show we got back in the PT and headed back to the hotel.  I gave mom her souvenirs of the day in the elevator and bid her ado until the next day.  Up in the room I filled Rob in on the show and my day and then I got lazy while Rob watched football.

It had been a busy day for me so that night I didn’t have any desire to go gambling.  I stayed up the room and played my new computer game while Rob went downstairs to play.  He wasn’t down there for long but ended up winning enough to pay for our dinner at TGIFridays that he brought back up to the room.  🙂

To Be Continued again…

Henderson Airport

Picking Scott up at the airport turned out to be a breeze after one small wrong turn.    When he got there he informed us that the weather was about to take a turn so he was just going to get a room at the Orleans and spend the night. 

Now, remember in part one where I tried to call mom’s cell phone and it went straight to voice mail?  And how I assumed she just never turned it back on after getting off the plane?  Umm…no.  Mother, for some odd reason, had taken out her cell phone while my Aunt Lee(Auntie Tee) was driving her to the airport and left the phone in her car.

This would have been the first trip where mom had a cell phone, thus making communicating with her a bit easier while she was gambling the night away in the casinos.  Oh well, Rob and I decided it wasn’t the first time she wouldn’t have one so it wasn’t that much of a loss.  But wait!  There’s more!

Instead of leaving well enough alone, mom decided to take matters into her own hands and told Lee to overnight the phone to her at the Golden Nugget.  She had a cell phone, and damn it, she was determined to be able to use it!  🙂

Weeeeelllll….the phone didn’t arrive at the Golden Nugget.  And now mom was checked out of the Golden Nugget.  But mom didn’t tell us any of this until we were on the freeway driving away from the Golden Nugget.  Mom didn’t appear too concerned.  She told us that she had a tracking number and it would go to the GN eventually…but she wasn’t AT the Golden Nugget any longer.

Sighing and agreeing to deal with it later, we picked up Scott and headed back to the Orleans.

When we got to the hotel Rob dropped mom and I off since walking long distances is not my mothers strong suit, and went to park the car.  After trying to check in early we were told there were only three rooms clean and they were all as far away from the elevators as possible.  Not an option for my mother.  She did however tell us that she had a room vacant but not clean near the elevators, and she would put a rush cleaning on it.  She told us to check back in an hour and she would have us all set.  Sounded good to me.

I took mom up to our room in the meantime to park her luggage.  I could tell mom hadn’t had a whole lot of sleep in the last couple of days.  Her MO is to go full force the first couple of days in Vegas and tire herself out to the point of exhaustion.  I got her situated on the couch just as Rob and Scott came in.  Apparently the hotel was completely sold out so getting a room for Scott was not an option.  We offered him our very uncomfortable couch but he said he would just check later since people were bound to be cancelling at some point.

It was almost 11:00 at that point so we decided to head down to the cafe for some brunch.  Scott wanted to try the prime rib here at the hotel because he heard it was pretty good but the Prime Rib Loft didn’t open until so the cafe it was!

Scott and Rob at the Cafe

There was a bit of a line but it moved pretty fast.  It was an okay meal.  Nothing spectacular…typical cafe food.  It did, however, kill enough time to be able to get mom checked into her room after.

We decided though that Since Scott couldn’t fly out that night, that we would be able to take him to the Prime Rib Loft after all so after depositing mom in her room we called and made a reservation for five when they opened.

After that, Scott and Rob decided to take off to Guitar Center for a bit.  With the room to myself, I contemplated a nap but decided since I was going to be eating a large meal fairly soon after the large meal I had just eaten that I should get my lazy butt to the fitness center downstairs.

Dinner at the Prime Rib Loft was nothing short of amazing!  The prime rib was just to die for.  I enjoyed the whole experience very much.  It had the feel of an upscale restaurant but you didn’t have to dress up or drain your wallet.  Definitely a place we will recommend in the future.

With The Orleans still completely booked, Scott managed to find a hotel nearby to spend the night.  I don’t blame him for not wanting to stay on our couch…it wasn’t that comfy.  🙂

After dinner we had to get ready for the show we were seeing that night. 

My husband has been a fan of Richard Cheese for a very long time.  We saw him live once, very briefly when he was the house band at a taping of the Carson Dailey show that was being filmed at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.  This was many years ago and since they were the house band, they only played about 30 seconds at a time, leading in and out of the commercials.  Not exactly what we had in mind.  So seeing a full live show has been an eight year dream of Rob’s.  Richard Cheese plays Vegas often but it never seemed to fit in with our vacation schedules so we’ve always just missed him.

For those unfamiliar with Richard Cheese, or just to lazy to follow the link, I will explain.  What he does is take

Me at the Green Valley Ranch waiting for the show to start

popular songs, the dirtier the better, and “loungifies” them.  He sets them to a lounge song tempo and sings them with a pleasant voice.  It is better experienced than read about so go ahead and click the link above okay?

Richard Cheese!

Anyway, that night he was playing at the Green Valley Ranch.  I had heard some of the songs he does from Rob’s CD and knew it was funny.  What I didn’t know was that the guy himself is excellent at improv and plays off the crowd so well during and in between the songs.  Rob and I were crying we were laughing so hard.  The kind of laughter where after two hours you are physically exhausted from all the mirth.  Such a good show!

After the show we headed back to the hotel.  We hung out in the room for a little while and decided around one in the morning to go see about getting some food.  As we got off the elevator, we spotted my mother sitting on a bench with a Subway sandwich  bag next to her, furiously searching through her purse.  As we got closer we discovered she was visibly shaking.  She had been out all night gambling and hadn’t eaten of course.  Being diabetic, that is not a good thing.  Her sugar was low and she was running on about 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hours.  She looked a wreck and she apparently couldn’t find her room key.

We fished the card out of her purse and escorted her up to her room because honestly, in the shape she was in I wasn’t sure she could make it the short distance.  In her room we got her settled, made sure she started eating her sandwich and made her promise to stay and go to bed.

The next morning was Sunday and we had no plans.  Mom had strict rules to stay in her room and rest because Monday was our mother daughter day at the Luxor, so we weren’t worried about entertaining her.  I got up and hit the gym and then we decided to go to Fry’s Electronics.  I had gotten the new Sims 3 game but my laptop didn’t have enough RAM to play it.

After that we got back to the hotel and decided we wanted to go see a movie.  Rob had really been wanting to see District 9 and I didn’t know much what it was about so off we went.  The movie was excellent.  Very fast paced from the get go.  Another show where we were exhausted afterwards.  🙂  I recommend the movie highly.

I wasn’t feeling the gambling that night so I stayed up in the room and played my new game while Rob went down and gambled.  He ended up being up enough money to pay for our dinner from TGIFridays so that was a plus.  🙂

To be continued…