What Happens in Vague-Guess (Las Vegas, NV)

One of the things I'm quickly learning about my long overnights in a given city/country is it's nigh impossible to fit everything I want to do in one day (or even a day and a half). I don't know why I had illusions of grandeur—as if I could just get a sampling and be satisfied with my "mini vacation." Don't get me wrong, its marvelous, but often times I've only started to scratch the surface before it gets late and I have to call it a day on my exploring. A part of me envies the passengers on the flight there, because they probably took a week off from work to have a legit vacation with scheduled leisure and venues in mind. On my trip to Ohio with Darcy last week, I had plenty of time to think about what we were going to do and when. As a result (and true to form for me) we had all the details covered, did everything we wanted to do and more. With the trips that I work, I usually find out I'm going somewhere the day before, which leaves me little to no time to plan exactly what I want to do when I'm there. This is both exciting and frustrating, but hey, it's the life of a reserve flight attendant. Do I look forward to having a line of my own and knowing where I'm going to be every day of every month so I can actually make plans?  Of course. In the mean time, I'm enjoying being a die in the hands of my airline and seeing where I get tossed.

On the flight, our passengers were tossing back all kinds of alcohol. We almost couldn't keep it in stock on the carts. A plane full of tipsy passengers can mean one of two things: hilarity (like the guy who said he admired my uniformed derriere and put a $20 bill in my apron pocket) or scary (the lady who went into the lav for 15 minutes and moaned loudly while she threw up). 5.5 hours later, we touched down and deplaned.

The casinos almost seemed to rise out of the sand when we touched down at LAS airport. It was quite a sight to behold!



The saving grace of a brand new reserve flight attendant with a lethal combination of enthusiasm and ignorance is our flight crew. There will be at least one person you'll bond with, and chances are they'll have years more experience traveling and invaluable insight into where you should go and what you should check out. I hit it off with the first officer, who was a sweet middle aged father of two, going through a very nasty divorce.

I took a whole lot of pictures while on this trip. Okay, that's not exactly true. The First Officer, who asked to be called Rocky, took most of them. He's a bit of a shutter bug and encouraged my vanity to no end. So, consider this a bit of a Vegas slideshow.

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="640"] Pilot Rocky![/caption]

Firstly, things that amuse me to no end. When people see the resulting humidity from the airconditioned plane meeting the heat from the Nevada desert, they freak out. It does look kinda like smoke, but good Lord! Chillax people! If we were on fire I'd be evacuating that darn plane! Cracks me up every. darn. time.



Nothing like a little sidewalk affirmation! :)



A can-dom. One of many awesome things I found in the Vegas giftshop. Size matters, y'all.



I was pretty excited, as you can see.



Treasure Island. A show about pirates shenanigans with an island of scantily clad swashbuckling lady rogues! Yeah, it was as cheesy as it sounds. But fun to watch!



Arrrgh, matey.



The palazzo! And me farding on camera. (definition: fard: to paint (the face) with cosmetics). Challenge: try telling a woman that you like watching her fard and see what she says.



Me keeping a statue at the Venetian decent. Such a beautiful building!



Somewhere, someone once said to themselves, "I want to watch all the games at once."

Inside the Venetian casino/hotel. Look at that architecture! It looks like I'm in Italy forreal!





had to get a cold drink (it was 90 degrees outside!) so I got a Mango Margarita. It was cheap and man, oh,man was it tasty.



Siegfried? Roy? Are you in there?



The most badass/blinged out Denny's you ever did see.



The Parisian casino. Vegas is so pretty at night!



My first trip to an In-N-Out Burger. It lived up to all the hype.



om nom nom nom!



Rocky made sure I had some schwag to bring home. Good stuff!



What follows is a pictoral storyline of me playing slots for the first time (the dollar is Rocky's). I thought it looked stupid; like a cage where the monkey has to press a certain combinations of buttons and levers to get a biscuit sent down a chute. I was right. Rocky captured these precious moments (I think the look of utter disgust and skepticism on my face is priceless. It pretty much describes my thoughts on gambling.)



My favorite part of the trip was the water shows outside the Bellagio. They were timed to music and went from little rolling waves to huge cascading fountains of water.



The scariest part of the trip was when Rocky took me on the Stratosphere Sky Jump ride. Rocky pretty much insisted (even though I was scared out of my wits) to plummet 855 feet, held only by a high speed descent wire. I'm really not an adrenaline junky, and I don't seek out opportunities that trick my body into thinking I'm going to die. I love Tom Petty, but free falling was not on my agenda that trip. Still, Rocky dared me to do what scared me most, but was ultimately necessary, and he used the jump as an analogy. It was tested every day for decades, was proven to be safe, and yet I still would not do it. He said his ex wife was also a big source of excuses for him, but he still felt obligated to talk to her because she was the mother of his children and they had a history together. Eventually, he had to face the music, take the jump and stop answering her calls. He asked me if I had anyone in my life who I exerted more energy for, only to be disappointed in return. According to Rocky, Vegas is a place to go to get away from reality for a little while, so that when you're ready to go back, you can let go of all of your excuses and do what you need to. So, I resolved to keep only active, loving, reciprocating friendships and move away from others.

So, I took the jump, and left my baggage behind. It was amazing. Sure, I thought the wire was going to break and I'd be the one exception to the rule who had to be mailed home to my parents in jelly form. But I wasn't.  I made it back to earth and wanted to go again. And again.

[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignnone" width="640"] The view from the Stratosphere Sky Jump ride. Yikes![/caption]

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do half the things I wanted to do in Vegas. It's basically a town created entirely to constantly stimulate, entertain and lure. While there are some things I wouldn't do (gamble), there are others I would love to (sight see). And so, I sincerely hope I get to go back soon!

Until next time, catch me if you can!

—Carmen