Vegas 2013: Day One, Arrival!

Cool view of Tahiti Village. This was modified by a filter Somara bought.

This year’s Las Vegas Pilgrimage, dubbed LV 2013, is my ninth trip here, our seventh together, and fifth stay at Tahiti Village. So far it’s off to a great start, especially with the flight. Southwest moved the departure time up to 6:05 AM recently which is awesome. Neither of us can sleep the night before a major trip: I hate flying (acrophobia isn’t helped when cooped up in a cramp space, plus “control” issues) and Somara goes into a cleaning frenzy. Not this time. I was drained from work, I ate an entire pizza to induce the itis (pronounced EYE-tis), put on my latest Regular Show DVD…managed to take a nap from about 8 PM to midnight. What a relief it was! The nap gave me the boost I sorely needed to retrieve my iPad I left at work (trying to read at least most of a book by our return), finish some laundry, minor chores, discover the neighbors’ puppy barking in our yard (poor guy is starved for attention), pack and have the wherewithal to stay awake until settling into our room. Gotta’ find a way to repeat it every time.

Thanks to the whole car debacle, we had to turn in the rental car and get a ride to the airport from my in-laws. It’s nice of them, but I hate owing favors to relatives I have a uneasy relationship with. However, they got us there in record time. The lack of a line at Bergstrom’s TSA gates really helped.

The flight was smooth…up to our approach. I knew it was in for bumps after the pilot said there was gusts coming from the South in Las Vegas. I didn’t panic too much because Southwest has a solid reputation, the plane has less fuel and we’re almost at the destination. Takeoffs suck! I loved the departure time. When you factor in the two-hour gain with Pacific Time, we arrived at 7 AM! Most people are leaving, few are landing so getting the bags and checking out the rental car was lightning quick plus Enterprise finally gave us the compact car we keep asking for; we just need wheels, nothing fancy. We also had incredible luck at the timeshare, they let us take our room early.

Everything was good to go by 8:02 AM!

Yes!

Las Vegas 2013, aka LV2K13 is off to an awesome start and in the running for best vacation ever.

There was a little bad news. Our favorite concierge guy Mike left for another venue down the street. Maybe we’ll go visit him, say hello. Mike was great at his job and it was a big loss for Tahiti Village in our opinion. It’s always cool to see a familiar face.

I’m not going to elaborate much more. Then the post will be a verbal version of some obnoxious Instagram post showing what I had for dinner.

We stocked up at Albertsons, looked in horror what the residents here pay for groceries yet left with envy over their ability to buy hard liquor (Texas forces you to go to a liquor store Monday-Saturday, close at 9 PM). Recharged with Denny’s and a nap. Celebrated Somara’s birthday at Munchbar in Casear’s Palace due to the long line at Gordon Ramsay’s Burgr place in Planet Hollywood. Squeezed in some gambling (see below). We are trying to figure out how to get an iPod to work correctly in the car. MS Sync is crap. The Ford Focus is fair. Enterprise certainly fine tuned the brakes a bit too much. I thought I was going to give Somara whiplash.

Before I forget, Tahiti Village is a hundred times better now. They added a second hot tub and installed site-wide WiFi! I can update from the room with less hassle. The Clear dongles were cool yet 4G isn’t as fast as they claim.

Wish you all were here!

I close with the traditional gambling report and a new poll.

Gambling Report:

• Video Poker: Steve 2, Somara 0 ($26.25, $0)
• Somara: No idea, I guess -$40
• Steve: -$13.75, all VidPoker.