Viva Las Vegas!

This past week I have been on Spring Break, so what better time to head to Las Vegas?! It worked out really well, for a few reasons. There was "talk" that Grant might be there for work, but we didn't know for sure. I had also found a feeding conference that sounded really interesting to get some continuing education hours for my SLP certification. When I was looking into the possibilities, the timing just seemed perfect as long as it all worked out. Well at the beginning of March, we found out Grant would be there for work, so I booked my trip!

I left Thursday evening after work, flying out of Twin Falls. Allegiant Air flies nonstop to Las Vegas from there, but only has flights on Thursdays & Sundays. It was a little farther than driving to Boise, but it was CHEAP! I rented a car in Las Vegas and drove to Nellis AFB, where Grant was staying for work. (I was able to stay with him for the week...free room, yes!). We went to In-N-Out Burger and then down to Old Vegas and The Strip. Grant was working nights (which was the crappy part of the trip), so he wanted to stay up late. I was a trooper, and I think we stayed out until almost 3:30am and went to bed around 4am. And that's PST...so really it was 5am my time, meaning I'd been up for about 22 hours! Whew. It was fun though. :)

 Fremont Street - Old Vegas

A video played on the ceiling! See the white screen/ceiling in the first picture?

 That's right...this guy stuffed himself into that box...

Stratosphere

 

 New York, New York

 Luxor

Nice, right?

Friday was a less eventful day. When Grant got up, we went to the gym and then to dinner at Blueberry Hill, a diner-ish place right outside of base (and Grant's favorite restaurant there). After he went to work, I watched basketball and a movie and went to bed early!

Saturday I got up and went for a run while Grant slept. He had this day off, so we decided we would spend it "Vegas style." We went to the Bellagio Buffet for dinner, and since we got there before 4pm, we only paid the brunch price vs. the dinner price, even though they changed over to dinner meals shortly after. Score!

 He was trying snow crab...and he doesn't like seafood!

 Some of the MANY desserts we tried. :)

 The ceiling in the lobby of Bellagio...they look like tissue paper, but are made of glass!

 Pretty spring flowers in the Bellagio gardens.

 Outside of Bellagio (Paris is across the street)

We then walked outside to watch the fountain show at the Bellagio. The water "dances" to different music, and it's really awesome. I couldn't believe how high the water shot at times. It sounded like fireworks. :)

Then we walked around and found some slot machines to play for a bit. We eventually made our way to The Venetian to pick up our show tickets to the Blue Man Group. The show started at 10pm, so we checked out a couple more casinos before heading back to The Venetian for the show. The show was pretty neat. We sat in the first few rows and had to wear a poncho because we were in the "splash zone." That's what happens when you let the husband get the tickets! ;) The drum parts of the show were cool, but they also did some skits which I didn't like as much. They were a little too long and just kind of cheesy.

 

 Inside Caesar's Palace..the "sky" ceiling was so cool!

 The Venetian

 Grant winning! :)

Part of the Blue Man Group show...they spun in a circle so fast that they looked like they were dancing! 

At some point before the show, I lost my cardigan, either while walking outside or sitting in the casino. I was pretty bummed and sort of looked for it, but no luck. I tried not to let it ruin my night, but it sort of did. :(

We did a little more gambling, but then headed back to base to end our night. An interesting thing about Vegas is that there is no "open container" law, meaning you can walk pretty much anywhere with your drink! I got a drink at one casino and took it with me while we walked down to another one. It was weird at first, but nice that you didn't have to stay in one place to finish your drink. AND I learned that if you are gambling and a waitress asks you if you want a drink, you say "Yes" because it's free!! I turned one down because I thought I'd have to pay for it....THEN Grant told me it was free. Bummer. ;)
 
Sunday I slept in for a long time. I think the late nights finally caught up with me. I went for another run after Grant went to work, and then left for the airport to pick up my friend and co-worker, Amy. She was coming down for the conference, also, and since her husband is also military, she was able to stay on base.

 

Monday & Tuesday, we went to our conference all day. It was a pretty good conference about feeding disorders in children. I don't see any kids for this right now, but I thought it would be a good course to gain some knowledge in case I ever did. The conference wasn't as specific as I'd have liked it to be, but it was still good information.

Wednesday, Grant & I went to breakfast (he had to switch back over to days) again at Blueberry Hill, and then I went to Verizon to check out some phones (I got a new phone, so look for a post on that later!). The weather was BEAUTIFUL, so when Grant got back from work, I wanted to go outside and enjoy it instead of sitting in the hotel room. I got him to go back down to The Strip just to walk around some more. And I won't lie, I wanted to play the Wheel of Fortune slots again. :)

 Inside Paris...cute little "street" with shops & restaurants.

 If you see a slot machine this big, you have to play. I only did $1 and lost, of course. :)

 Beautiful sky that evening!

 

Thursday was a lazy day, as Amy &I had to head back to the airport early that afternoon. It was sad to leave the gorgeous weather (sunny, 70s-80s all week!) and come back to cool, wet, windy Idaho weather. It makes me so anxious for spring/summer to get here!! Overall, I had a fun trip. It was my first time in Las Vegas, so it was quite an experience, but now I've got the itch to go back! :)

Washington, D.C. - Day 3

The weather was pretty awful today. Very overcast and rainy at times, but we made it work. Last night we checked out the opening times for a few museums and planned out our day. Our first stop was back at the Washington Monument to see if we could get tickets to go up to the top. We got there shortly before 9:30 and luckily they still had tickets for that time (which are free!), so we hurried over to get in line. We rode the elevator to the top, during which the guide gave us some history. We then had some time in the viewing deck to look out the windows and see the view of the city. Unfortunately, since the weather was so crappy, the clouds were very low and visibility was not as good as usual. It was still pretty neat to go up inside though. The guide said on a clear day, you can see as far as 7 miles!

 

     

There was an accident that morning too, which is why traffic is so congested in the pictures. The police were re-routing down some smaller side streets.

On the elevator ride back down, they clear the windows on each side of the doors so you can see the stones that different cities and/or states have put in during the building phase.

Later in the day, the clouds were so low, we couldn't even see the top of the monument anymore!

We then headed about a block over to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is also free! (That is one of the great things about DC...a majority of the museums and buildings are free to go in.) We had read on their website that military members can get a ticket for the permanent exhibition "The Holocaust" anytime, as opposed to tickets that have a scheduled time (so they can control the number of people in the exhibit). When we finally got to the front of the line, after waiting behind a HUGE line of middle-schoolers on a trip (one bad thing about DC during the school year is the massive amount of kids on school trips...), we asked the people at the front desk and they gave us our ticket right away and told us we could go into the exhibit whenever we were ready. Nice! Unfortunately, it ended up being super crowded anyway, because new groups enter every so often. There is a lot to read and it was very congested in the beginning where people were looking at the artifacts. Obviously no pictures in here, sorry!

 

I definitely recommend going to the Holocaust Museum if you are ever in Washington, D.C. I think it is part of the Smithsonian Institution, and it was really neat to see. I find it so hard to believe what happened to many of the Jews back then and how crazy Hitler was. There were 3 floors and it probably took us 2-3 hours to get through it all! It just depends how much you want to look at and read. I'm a reader, so it took me longer. I mean, if I'm going to go to a museum, I'm going to learn my history. :)

 

When we left there, we were getting hungry so we stopped in at the Smithsonian Institution's information center for some lunch. It was crowded so we had to share a table with 2 ladies who were old friends catching up. It was interesting, to say the least. We had to make boring small talk.

 

We decided to head to the National Air and Space Museum next. Like the Holocaust Museum, a million and five kids were waiting to get in, and since it was raining (and we were umbrella-less!), we decided to walk across the National Mall (big grassy area separating all the major museums) to the National Gallery of Art. We didn't spend much time in there, basically because it was boring and we didn't know what we were looking at. Haha! When we left, we saw that the line was gone at the Air & Space Museum, so we headed over there. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon in there. Grant probably enjoyed this more than I did, but I still found a few of the exhibits to be interesting.

 Replica of Amelia Earhart's plane...they were working on this exhibit at the time.

UAV! What every pilot aspires to fly. ;)

Jet Engine...who knew it was so complex?!?

Apollo 11 Command Module

A part of the Hubble Space Telescope. This piece had been in outer space just about a week ago!

We also wanted to go to the National Museum of Natural History but ran out of time. The museums are still on their "Winter" hours, so everything closed at 5 or 5:30.

 

We had plans to meet up with some friends, Joe & Barb, who live in DC for dinner. We met them when Grant started pilot training in Mississippi. Joe decided flying wasn't for him, so now he is stationed at the base in DC. Unfortunately, Barb ended up having to work late, so we didn't get to have dinner with them, but we still went. We ate at King Street Blues in Old Town Alexandria (which, by the way, I love! Reminds me of Oxford, if I haven't said that already...). It was a fun atmosphere and delicious hush puppies. :)

 

Initially, we thought we might do something tomorrow morning, but now we're thinking that we've seen everything we really wanted to see, except the Pentagon, which closed by the time we got around to seeing it...plus, I guess you have to have a ticket or special permission to get in, so we decided to skip it. We'll probably just head back to NC mid-morning.

 

Overall, we thought DC was fun to visit. We saw/did A LOT of stuff in just 3 days. I think it's a place everyone should go at least once in their life. It is, after all, our nation's capital! Not sure if I'd be begging to go back, but if the opportunity arose, I would probably go. If you ever go, be prepared to walk and learn! :)

Washington, D.C. - Day 2

We started out Day 2 with the free breakfast at our hotel....and let's just say that the only thing that was worth eating was the yogurt. The waffles were okay, but they were running low on batter by the time we got there. We couldn't complain too much though, since it was free!

We took the Metro down to D.C. and started our "tour" of all the famous things you think of when you think Washington, D.C. We saw the White House, but no Obama sightings. Can you spot the secret guard in the photo? :)

Then we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial, which is SO much bigger than I ever imagined.

Unfortunately, they were cleaning the Reflection Pool while we were in town, so we didn't get any pretty views of the water.

We also walked through the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean Memorial. It's hard to imagine how many people gave their lives in those wars.

At the end of the Reflection Pool was the World War II Memorial, where they were getting ready to have a ceremony for veterans. We saw a group of them waiting off to the side, some in wheelchairs. I'm sure they were all telling some war stories and maybe even catching up. Cute. :) This memorial was really neat...each state/territory of the U.S. has it's own stone/monument type thing. So naturally, we took a picture with each one we've lived in.

We then walked over to the Washington Monument. We wanted to take the inside tour, but all the tickets had been handed out for the day, so we just took outside pictures and thought we could put it on the list of things to do tomorrow.

By this time, we were getting hungry, so we walked a few blocks trying to find a place to eat. Once we filled up our bellies, we were ready to head over to the Capital Building. Plus, the sun finally came out!! We took some pictures of the outside and then headed inside (actually, we had to go to the back and in a separate building/entrance to walk underground and then into the Capital), where we were just in time for a tour. This was pretty interesting, and of course the Rotunda was very cool. I wish we could have seen even more. I think the House of Representatives were even in session today.

(Grant with his namesake, Ulysses S. Grant) ;)

The Supreme Court and Library of Congress were just across the street, so we visited those next.

(a view inside the courtroom)

Inside the Library of Congress...beautiful architecture!

Most of the buildings and museums close around 5 or 5:30 this time of year, so since it was getting close to that time, we decided to start heading back to our hotel. On our walk back to the Metro station, we passed the National Archives Building, so we stopped in there until they kicked us out. :) This place was pretty cool...they have archives of EVERYTHING! Any type of paper record, video, sound recording, etc. of anything and everything that has happened to or in or with the United States. I wish we had had more time to explore in there. Maybe we can head back tomorrow if we have time.

Once we got back to our hotel, we decided that we didn't really feel like going out for dinner, so we just ordered some pizza and stayed in. The weather is supposed to be yucky tomorrow, AND I forgot my umbrella (of all things!!), so we're planning to go to the museums and indoor stuff to stay dry.