Southwest, Days 1-2

[reldnahkram]

I've opened a flickr account where all these photos live.


Day 1 - Travel (2007-03-17)
For those of you not in the Northeast, we had a lovely Friday. It was raining in the morning, but by afternoon, it was sleet, and by the time the storm was done late Friday night, we had probably 4-6" here in Philly. I was at work until about 8.30, then came home and packed. There was a brief moment of panic when my parents called, saying that our flight had been canceled, but that was the Friday flight, not the Saturday flight.

We got to the airport around 9.30 (for a 12.05 flight), and it was a zoo. Most of the flights on Friday were canceled. Our flight had been changed to A (we were aware of this going in), so my mom and I got in line at terminal A (where most of the waiting area was full of people waiting in line), and my dad went to see what things were like at B. He talked to a guy on the upper level who pointed him towards some self check-in kiosks which were unnoticed and unused, so he printed out boarding passed. We then got out of the line at A and into the curbside check-in at B, where there was a shorter line (no curbside at A, for international). However, people who were running out of time to catch flights were paying off the baggage handlers (word on the line was that the going rate was $100) to get in front. So it took some time to get through the line, but in the end we got through by about 11.00. We went upstairs to B, waltzed through security (everyone was in line to check in, not going through security). We walked to A, grabbed some food for the flight, and waited. They started boarding the flight somewhere between 12 and 12.30, and then we sat there. We didn't push back until probably 2.30 or 2.45, and then these strange alien creatures attacked the plane.



They turned all of the ice accumulated on the wings orange.



Then all the ice fell off, the aliens retreated, and we made our way to the runway, and then took off, probably in the 3.30 range. From there, the flight was uneventful. We landed at LAS around 5ish PDT, where reldnahcire was waiting for us. There were slot machines in the terminal. It was weird.

We stayed in a rental house about a fifteen-minute walk from the north end of the strip. We had an unremarkable dinner, and crashed for the night (well, I may have watched a little basketball on the ginormous TV in the living room, but you get the idea).






Day 2 - The Strip (2007-03-18)
My brother and I slept in a bit, but my parents were up early and went exploring. They went to the Venetian, looking at the canals and the gondoliers. We all reconnected, and went to Treasure Island for lunch at an LA deli. We poked through TI, took the tram to Mirage, and checked out the rainforest-like atrium and the fish tank behind the registration desk.



We kept walking down the strip, boggling at the size of Caesar's Palace, before coming to the Bellagio. We wandered through part of the casino floor, observing that it seemed a little quieter and more restrained than the others we had been through, as well as having more table games. The lobby has a huge glass flower sculpture in the ceiling, leading into a conservatory.









Further in, there's some high end shopping, and this, the largest chocolate fountain in the world.







We poked around the Bellagio for a while more, then ended up at a build-your-own burger place in Mandalay Bay, which was very good. Luxor won the prize for the coolest interior - the whole interior of the pyramid, above the second floor, is open, with hotel rooms around the edge. Very, very nifty.

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[trinfinity2001.livejournal.com]

fishie!