The day after Halloween Jon and I headed out of town for a long weekend to attend the national pool show conference in Las Vegas. Jon was invited to attend with me, all expenses paid, along with his boss and his wife as he was once again the top sales person for his company. We had a great time and his boss Scott and his wife Monique are very generous people. We stayed at the Cosmopolitan a really nice hotel on the Vegas Strip, we had a corner balcony suite with direct views of the strip and the Bellagio fountaions. It was amazing. I only wish we had actually spent more time in the room, we had two full bathrooms and showers, we have stayed at some really nice places but hands down this was the nicest hotel suite we have ever had and when we checked in and I saw the price I was REALLY glad it was not something going to our credit card, What an amazing treat, I still cannot believe this trip occurred it was quick with us traveling 11 hours Thursday door to door to get there, and then we were there all day Friday, Saturday and up at 4 am Sunday and homeward bound to Florida on a 6:20 am direct flight back to Orlando...even with great travel on time and no issues and a direct flight we lost 3 hours coming home due to the time change and it was every bit of nearly 4pm when we dragged ourselves across the threshold of our front door!!! I read a book on the 4 hour plane ride out there, the Beekeeper's Wife...a book I have been wanting to read on my kindle for like a year and on the way home I rested most of the time! The best part about the trip was honestly just getting to spend time together and remember why we got married in the first place...amazingly outside of the day to day grind we really do still enjoy spending time together. It takes trips like this sometimes to break the mold of the day to day grind and remember that. We also enjoyed shopping, and eating out at some great restaurants and the weather was amazing, 70's with cool mornings, hot days, and cool nights, and NO humidity!! Did I love Vegas like some people do, No, am I glad we got to go and was the experience something to remember and definitely a bucket list trip...YES! We flew RIGHT over the Grand Canyon that was REALLY cool to see, so glad we did NOT spend the money for the helicopter tour we literally went directly over it at not a high altitude as it is not far from Vegas. I think the flight there and back was one of my favorite parts as we saw so much different terrain. Normally when we have flown out west it is winter so all you see is snow but on this trip we traveled over the Great Plains and really got to see what that looks like (amazing how unpopulated this part of the country really is) and then we headed into the Mountains and saw white caps already on those Colorado mountains we will be back to ski in just about 7 weeks, and finally we hit the red dessert lands of Arizona and then Nevada. I have never see the dessert terrain and so this really was fascinating to see! On the way back to Florida on Sunday there was a family from Nevada behind us flying to Disney World for the first time and as we were landing I heard one of the kids ask their mother "what is all of that green stuff" and she laughed and said you are from the dessert, those are PLANTS...OH MY! I guess that is how I felt though when I saw the true dessert terrain for the first time...I could not live there there is literally NO NATURAL green. In vegas they have fake grass in places and lots of landscaping that I am sure costs a fortune to maintain but when you get outside of those resort areas it is all just red clay!
Here are some pictures from our trip! There were even slot machines in the crazy Las Vegas airport along with a liquor store. The place is just crazy from start to finish and the saying is true, 48 hours in Vegas is enough!!! I did try my luck at the slot machines and had fun playing the Wheel of Fortune game, the second night like two spins in the machine went crazy, I won 55 bonus spins which means the machine just goes and goes and you don't have to keep putting in money ,I was like surely this is it I am going to win 10,000 but alas I walked away with 550...STILL NOT BAD LOL! The next day while Jon was in the bathroom at the Bellagio I put in a 20.00 and spun it twice and bam same crazy thing happened and I WON 295.00! I pocketed my money and got the heck out of the casino after that!!
