My Stomach Is About To Stage A Revolution: What Happens In Vegas Spends A Lifetime On The Hips!

Well hellooooo there everyone!

Here I am in Las Vegas – Stage One of the 2012 Grand Escapade! So much to tell….

Well, the journey started pretty uneventfully; my mother dropped me off at Brisbane Airport. Saying goodbye was hard; she’s not very well at all and I’m going to be away for at least a year, so neither of us knew if it would be the last time we’d see each other. I certainly hope not.

Anyway, all my flights went as planned; I flew from Brisbane to Auckland, then Auckland to Los Angeles, and then Los Angeles to Las Vegas. My time in Auckland was great; I arrived in the transit lounge to find a group of about 20 huge Pacific Islander boys in black suits and blue shirts. Eye candy! While trying not to swoon, I had a little snack (I thought I was eating NZ chocolate, but it tasted funny and when I checked, I found out it was actually made in Australia – boo!), and then I settled into one of their comfy chairs, plugged in my laptop and watched an episode of Supernatural, Season 6. The time flew. I did pretty much the same thing at LAX, with the addition of a nice long walk. While on the flights, I watched a couple of movies; first, I watched ‘Speed’ and rekindled my love of Keanu Reeves… how could I have forgotten how lovely he is?!? 😉 Then I wanted to watch something a bit brainless that I could fall asleep to, so I turned on ‘New Year’s Eve’, which wasn’t half as vomituous as I had expected… although it was pretty vomituous! After having a nap, I watched The Inbetweeners movie, which was awesome. Disgusting, hilarious and somehow sweet at the same time; the perfect ending to that series.

I had an unusually pleasant experience with one of the customs officers in LA; he was really friendly and polite. Professional, firm and slightly intimidating, but polite, which is exactly what you want from a guy in his position. After many transits through LAX with hostile border control officers who treat you like shit, this was just totally refreshing. I’ve made a mental note to write to somebody and leave good feedback; maybe things are looking up with customer service there, and I’d like to encourage that!

Actually, in addition to Supernatural, I spent some of my time at LAX watching The Walking Dead. I had to stop halfway through an episode, though, because every time a kid walked behind me I had to slam the lid of my laptop shut; I didn’t want to cause any small children a bunch of zombie nightmares!

Flying into Las Vegas at night is always kind of magical. You fly over miles of utter blackness, and suddenly, like an oasis, a huge island of light interrupts the night. Near the centre of that island is a spot of even brighter light, commonly known as ‘The Strip’, which is the main tourist centre of Las Vegas. All the major hotels and casinos are located here; the suburbs spread outwards in all directions and then suddenly end in a series of regular lines, and the desert takes over. I managed to get a window seat in the plane, so our descent gave me a brilliant view of all the casinos lit up in all their excessive glory. My cousin Karl and his wife Bethany came to get me from the airport, and we made a beeline for the Steak Out, a bar and grill not far from the airport. Summer, my cousin Kurt’s wife, works there, so it was the perfect place to stop and eat. I was tired from my journey and probably looked a fright, but I wasn’t really ready to go to bed yet if I wanted to adjust to Las Vegas time sooner rather than later.

Anyway, Kurt came to the restaurant and joined us too, and we had a pretty damn good feed. I had garlic mushrooms and deep-fried zucchini sticks, which were amazing. All of their starters are good, simple, deep-fried delights. It was great to catch up with my cousins again. The place was jumping; it turns out that I’m here for ‘March Madness’, which is some sort of college basketball season, and Nevada was playing a game that night. Unfortunately, Nevada lost, so the atmosphere calmed down pretty quickly! I was slightly shocked to find people smoking in the restaurant; they used to have the no-smoking rule here (just like they do in a lot of western countries these days), but apparently the bar/club/casino owners got together and voted to have it repealed, and they were successful – can you believe it? They said it was affecting their revenue. Wow. Well, I suppose it is Vegas, and without a little vice, what would it be?

After eating, Karl and Bethany dropped me off at my Aunty Corinne’s place; she and I stayed up a while longer, chatting and catching up, before I finally gave in to exhaustion and went to bed.

Not overly exciting, but fun nonetheless. I’ve had a few adventures in Vegas since arriving, but I’ll fill you in on those later… right now, it’s time to catch up on some Zzzzzzzs…. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by,

Tara.

Tags: travel