This post was written 2010-12-23 02:47
We covered a lot of ground on Day 3, which was Tuesday, December 21, 2010. I need to make sure I keep the dates right...since it's very confusing not writing the posts on time.
I got a lot of random footage of the Vegas Strip on this day. This would cover from around Bellagio to Mandalay Bay. Now when is all of that stuff going to be edited together into a nice cohesive video, time will tell. I still haven't been able to edit the video from Alaska. Or plenty of other things. You know, life throws you a curve ball and you need to be able to hit it. As for me, I'm still learning about what the "curve ball" is and the proper way to hit it.
Never mind all grievances, I got good exercise done that day. Walking so far is really tiring my legs. Not so much as skiing would, but almost there.
For dinner, we took a shuttle to Rio to eat at their buffet, and thus commence the 24-hour access pass deal a lot of people are trying out. Let's just say that Planet Hollywood's concierge was a bit bored. We learned that the shuttle to Rio would be at Paris. So we walk to Paris and finally made it to some other official, only to tell us that the shuttle doesn't stop here, but rather at Ballys. And then we get out Ballys exit. There was a bus waiting, labeled "Airport Shuttle." there was a sign that pointed toward the right saying "shuttle to Rio." So we stood next to he sign, expecting a bus to come. But then the Airport shuttle driver directed us down towards the right. Finally we see this glass covering thingy to protect us from the rain. It was cumbersome to say the least.
And a side thought, I like skiing. The bus had dirt on it's side and it was wet, windows all fogged up. That's a fairly uncommon thing to see on this bus.
THUD!
Just when we would be getting off the bus, this guy was backing up, and hit the bus. Good thing we didn't get kept in the bus for too long before we were dismissed. Interesting night.
Rio's food. I say not worth the money...and idk about the pass. More later, I can't stay up anymore.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Las Vegas Trip Day 2 - Shopping
This post was written 2010-12-21 10:39, and finished 2010-12-23 02:45
I'm non-materialistic. Enough said. I will append the blog post later once I have time. And hopefully if I remember.
Let's see what happened that day. I woke up, and I ate the rest of the buffalo chicken wrap as my breakfast. I found out that we would be going to go to some shopping area.
Since it's been so long, I have already forgotten most of the smaller details. I'm going to give a quick summary.
I walked around the shops at the outlet. While my mom, aunts, cousin and aunt's friends were shopping, I just kept walking around. The only stores that interested me were the Ritz camera shop, Bose, and this kitchen appliance shop. I don't care about clothing style. As long as I got clothes that keep me warm in the winter (and cool in the summer) and are clean and fitting, I'll be happy. (And of course if it wasn't a masculine color...such as pink...I probably wouldn't have it in my wardrobe to begin with.)
And let's see, I managed to record my walking from one end to the other of the Las Vegas factory outlet. That took a good 7 minutes.
My aunt's friend suggested that we go to this one place to eat dinner. It turned out to be at Terrible's casino. Although Terrible's is like everywhere in Nevada, this one is 60 miles from Vegas. Why here, I don't know. It was an okay dinner. Most had Steak and Lobster, one friend had New York Steak, and I had fish and chips.
After dinner, the friends and (unwillingly) my mom played with Lady Luck for a while. My aunts, cousin and I didn't want to just sit at the casino, so we decided to go to the Walgreens across the street to kill some time. There were some obscure DVDs on sale for $5 for 2 discs, so eh, I got this one production of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." We also got a half gallon of milk to put in the refrigerator in our suite.
60 miles, and we get back to Vegas. We drove by I-15 and got a view of the strip (as in the recap video at the top). What else happened...nothing. Let's look at the post for Day 3....soon...and the video probably won't be done...and never will...too busy here.
I'm non-materialistic. Enough said. I will append the blog post later once I have time. And hopefully if I remember.
Let's see what happened that day. I woke up, and I ate the rest of the buffalo chicken wrap as my breakfast. I found out that we would be going to go to some shopping area.
Since it's been so long, I have already forgotten most of the smaller details. I'm going to give a quick summary.
I walked around the shops at the outlet. While my mom, aunts, cousin and aunt's friends were shopping, I just kept walking around. The only stores that interested me were the Ritz camera shop, Bose, and this kitchen appliance shop. I don't care about clothing style. As long as I got clothes that keep me warm in the winter (and cool in the summer) and are clean and fitting, I'll be happy. (And of course if it wasn't a masculine color...such as pink...I probably wouldn't have it in my wardrobe to begin with.)
And let's see, I managed to record my walking from one end to the other of the Las Vegas factory outlet. That took a good 7 minutes.
My aunt's friend suggested that we go to this one place to eat dinner. It turned out to be at Terrible's casino. Although Terrible's is like everywhere in Nevada, this one is 60 miles from Vegas. Why here, I don't know. It was an okay dinner. Most had Steak and Lobster, one friend had New York Steak, and I had fish and chips.
After dinner, the friends and (unwillingly) my mom played with Lady Luck for a while. My aunts, cousin and I didn't want to just sit at the casino, so we decided to go to the Walgreens across the street to kill some time. There were some obscure DVDs on sale for $5 for 2 discs, so eh, I got this one production of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." We also got a half gallon of milk to put in the refrigerator in our suite.
60 miles, and we get back to Vegas. We drove by I-15 and got a view of the strip (as in the recap video at the top). What else happened...nothing. Let's look at the post for Day 3....soon...and the video probably won't be done...and never will...too busy here.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Las Vegas Trip Day 1 - I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane
This post was written 2010-12-21 01:49
It's really exciting (now that I love airplanes) that I would be going to the airport. I was listening to "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and the lyrics really struck me. My dad was dropping my mom and me off at the Southwest terminal. I saw a couple hugging. "Hold me like you'll never let me go." Pretty much sums up the feeling.
While waiting at check-in, I saw the officer in charge of regulating the flow of traffic. She was walking up and down the Southwest Airlines terminal. A car had just parked, and the wife had gotten out of the car. She needed some help with the bags, so her husband shut off the engine and ran with her to get the bags into the airport building. Later, I saw that officer run up to the car, blowing the whistle. Of course the husband wouldn't be able to hear...he's too much in a hurry. And there she goes, busting out her notepad and writing him a citation. He comes out just after the lady finished writing his ticket. He said, "I'm here." The officer simply nonchalantly hands him the ticket. A person waiting behind me in line said, "Merry Christmas?" Basically I'm pretty sure the guy cursed, drove off, and with a ruined mood for the rest of the day. The law's the law, and you break it you got to pay.
But then I see this other couple. They get out of the car. No, the bags didn't come out. Only their persons. To put it nicely, the were taking the lyrics "hold me like you'll never let me go" way too far. They just hug and kiss for a good 3-4 minutes. The same officer had walked to the farther end of the Southwest terminal and didn't notice. Only around 5 minutes in, the guy helped get the bags out of the car. He got in, and by the time he started the engine, it would have been twice as long as the guy who got ticketed earlier. That just really made me mad. That's not fair...or well...it's only illegal if you get caught. There was also this other guy. Let's just say opening the door mean loud blasts of music accompanied with a heavy bass rhythm came out. It's catchy...but annoying. The people who came out basically were extremely clumsy and had large bags haphazardly packed, along with a few papers that fell out upon opening the door. And by the time a second officer came buy, she told the driver, "hurry up let's go." And traffic was blocked. Again. What a way to start the vacation.
Now where was this take place? This time it's Oakland International Airport. It means seeing all those different airlines, ads, and the rushing of passengers. Not to mention, the bureaucracy: the TSA. It was a fairly quick process, and if I had went through an X-ray machine, I wouldn't have known.
And then I find this moving walkway, and I see a view of the wind blowing hard on the San Francisco Bay. Eventually I make it to the Southwest terminal. I bought a Chicken Caesar sandwich at California Pizza Kitchen, since I hadn't had any breakfast. I make it to Gate 29, and await boarding.
"And Section C, welcome aboard." Uh...it was lame. All the aisle and window seats were taken in the entire 737-700. I was desperately looking for a window seat since I have always been looking forward to recording the takeoff again. I made it all the way to the last seat and saw a middle seat. I figured, whatever, all other seats are going to be taken anyway. I sit down and then I hear on the PA: "We have a few window seats over here by the wing." Hmm...I wanted that. I like hearing the engines. And I love hearing the flaps...especially the flaps. I've flown on a Boeing 737 so many times that I'm somewhat mad I didn't hear the flaps sounds too well from where I sat. Anyway I got a good view of the winglet at least. And the person sitting to the right of me was out of the way for the most part.
Here are the takeoff and landing videos:
Takeoff
Landing
No need to say anything about the turbulence on this flight.
My mom and I rendezvoused with my two aunts and cousin that flew in from San Francisco. They had an earlier flight, but the departure delayed it due to weather. (California's been having some pretty nasty weather lately.) Thus, my later flight arrived at Las Vegas before theirs. I posted to Facebook I had landed, and attempted to upload a video. (I really am an addict to uploading stuff whenever there's Internet access during a trip.)
The taxi driver was pretty bored:
-Hello.
-[no response]
-You can help us with our bags.
-[no response]
-We're going to Planet Hollywood.
-[no response]
-(In Chinese) Wow this guy sure is weird.
-[pushes the button to start the fare counting]
-[arrive at PH, pushes button to stop the fare counting]
-Thirteen fifty.
-(In Chinese) Wow. He doesn't even open the door for us.
-(In Chinese) Nor does he help us unload
-(In Chinese) We're not going to tip him that much, he doesn't deserve it.
-[takes the $16, counts a few times, incredulously looking at the bills]
Then we go to the registration counter. I sit there, waiting, attending the baggage we have. There really was some pretty annoying and suggestive music. And the hotel area was what I considered to be elegant. Basically that place is just nothing like those resorts at Lake Tahoe. But then again, the places at South Lake Tahoe are for people who are going skiing/snowboarding, so it's a different attitude.
Then my mom receives information that we're in the hotel registration, and that we actually need to go to the timeshare check-in for Planet Hollywood Towers. So we drag out things through up an escalator, and and find ourselves in the casino area. The person working at the information desk pointed us in the right direction, saying this happens all the time, and doesn't know why the taxi drivers (and the Planet Hollywood staff) can't get it right.
I sit down, have a quick chat with one of my friends on the phone. And then we get our keys. We will be staying at room 3707. We take the elevator up, and see that the shades opened up automatically for us upon our arrival. (Now, I'm pretty sure that's because someone accidentally pushed the "shade up" button as well as the lights.) Speak about good view...we saw a parking lot as well as a bunch of other towering buildings across.
We then had lunch at the Ocean One Bar & Cuisine. We noticed that it had a $5.99 lunch special. And with the 5 of us, we ordered 4 dishes. (Refer to flikr.) My Buffalo Chicken wrap was a really good one. At the end of the meal, there were still left overs, after sharing between all 5 of us. Kinda makes us feel a little bit better, that we honestly couldn't' have bought more food if we wanted to.
After that I retire to the room for more of less the rest of the night. I take a nap. And then I set to work on the Stanford supplements. Go figure, working on a vacation. Not that I exactly was too excited to go here in the first place. And it's nice looking at the view outside while doing the essays. My mom did request a room with a good view. This suite is a pretty good one. At night, the parking lots naturally aren't emphasized, and you can see plenty of other casinos nearby. We even get a glimpse of the Bellagio fountains.
I'll have the post for Monday Dec. 20 written on Tuesday. It's very time consuming writing in this much detail.
It's really exciting (now that I love airplanes) that I would be going to the airport. I was listening to "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and the lyrics really struck me. My dad was dropping my mom and me off at the Southwest terminal. I saw a couple hugging. "Hold me like you'll never let me go." Pretty much sums up the feeling.
While waiting at check-in, I saw the officer in charge of regulating the flow of traffic. She was walking up and down the Southwest Airlines terminal. A car had just parked, and the wife had gotten out of the car. She needed some help with the bags, so her husband shut off the engine and ran with her to get the bags into the airport building. Later, I saw that officer run up to the car, blowing the whistle. Of course the husband wouldn't be able to hear...he's too much in a hurry. And there she goes, busting out her notepad and writing him a citation. He comes out just after the lady finished writing his ticket. He said, "I'm here." The officer simply nonchalantly hands him the ticket. A person waiting behind me in line said, "Merry Christmas?" Basically I'm pretty sure the guy cursed, drove off, and with a ruined mood for the rest of the day. The law's the law, and you break it you got to pay.
But then I see this other couple. They get out of the car. No, the bags didn't come out. Only their persons. To put it nicely, the were taking the lyrics "hold me like you'll never let me go" way too far. They just hug and kiss for a good 3-4 minutes. The same officer had walked to the farther end of the Southwest terminal and didn't notice. Only around 5 minutes in, the guy helped get the bags out of the car. He got in, and by the time he started the engine, it would have been twice as long as the guy who got ticketed earlier. That just really made me mad. That's not fair...or well...it's only illegal if you get caught. There was also this other guy. Let's just say opening the door mean loud blasts of music accompanied with a heavy bass rhythm came out. It's catchy...but annoying. The people who came out basically were extremely clumsy and had large bags haphazardly packed, along with a few papers that fell out upon opening the door. And by the time a second officer came buy, she told the driver, "hurry up let's go." And traffic was blocked. Again. What a way to start the vacation.
Now where was this take place? This time it's Oakland International Airport. It means seeing all those different airlines, ads, and the rushing of passengers. Not to mention, the bureaucracy: the TSA. It was a fairly quick process, and if I had went through an X-ray machine, I wouldn't have known.
And then I find this moving walkway, and I see a view of the wind blowing hard on the San Francisco Bay. Eventually I make it to the Southwest terminal. I bought a Chicken Caesar sandwich at California Pizza Kitchen, since I hadn't had any breakfast. I make it to Gate 29, and await boarding.
"And Section C, welcome aboard." Uh...it was lame. All the aisle and window seats were taken in the entire 737-700. I was desperately looking for a window seat since I have always been looking forward to recording the takeoff again. I made it all the way to the last seat and saw a middle seat. I figured, whatever, all other seats are going to be taken anyway. I sit down and then I hear on the PA: "We have a few window seats over here by the wing." Hmm...I wanted that. I like hearing the engines. And I love hearing the flaps...especially the flaps. I've flown on a Boeing 737 so many times that I'm somewhat mad I didn't hear the flaps sounds too well from where I sat. Anyway I got a good view of the winglet at least. And the person sitting to the right of me was out of the way for the most part.
Here are the takeoff and landing videos:
Takeoff
Landing
No need to say anything about the turbulence on this flight.
My mom and I rendezvoused with my two aunts and cousin that flew in from San Francisco. They had an earlier flight, but the departure delayed it due to weather. (California's been having some pretty nasty weather lately.) Thus, my later flight arrived at Las Vegas before theirs. I posted to Facebook I had landed, and attempted to upload a video. (I really am an addict to uploading stuff whenever there's Internet access during a trip.)
The taxi driver was pretty bored:
-Hello.
-[no response]
-You can help us with our bags.
-[no response]
-We're going to Planet Hollywood.
-[no response]
-(In Chinese) Wow this guy sure is weird.
-[pushes the button to start the fare counting]
-[arrive at PH, pushes button to stop the fare counting]
-Thirteen fifty.
-(In Chinese) Wow. He doesn't even open the door for us.
-(In Chinese) Nor does he help us unload
-(In Chinese) We're not going to tip him that much, he doesn't deserve it.
-[takes the $16, counts a few times, incredulously looking at the bills]
Then we go to the registration counter. I sit there, waiting, attending the baggage we have. There really was some pretty annoying and suggestive music. And the hotel area was what I considered to be elegant. Basically that place is just nothing like those resorts at Lake Tahoe. But then again, the places at South Lake Tahoe are for people who are going skiing/snowboarding, so it's a different attitude.
Then my mom receives information that we're in the hotel registration, and that we actually need to go to the timeshare check-in for Planet Hollywood Towers. So we drag out things through up an escalator, and and find ourselves in the casino area. The person working at the information desk pointed us in the right direction, saying this happens all the time, and doesn't know why the taxi drivers (and the Planet Hollywood staff) can't get it right.
I sit down, have a quick chat with one of my friends on the phone. And then we get our keys. We will be staying at room 3707. We take the elevator up, and see that the shades opened up automatically for us upon our arrival. (Now, I'm pretty sure that's because someone accidentally pushed the "shade up" button as well as the lights.) Speak about good view...we saw a parking lot as well as a bunch of other towering buildings across.
We then had lunch at the Ocean One Bar & Cuisine. We noticed that it had a $5.99 lunch special. And with the 5 of us, we ordered 4 dishes. (Refer to flikr.) My Buffalo Chicken wrap was a really good one. At the end of the meal, there were still left overs, after sharing between all 5 of us. Kinda makes us feel a little bit better, that we honestly couldn't' have bought more food if we wanted to.
After that I retire to the room for more of less the rest of the night. I take a nap. And then I set to work on the Stanford supplements. Go figure, working on a vacation. Not that I exactly was too excited to go here in the first place. And it's nice looking at the view outside while doing the essays. My mom did request a room with a good view. This suite is a pretty good one. At night, the parking lots naturally aren't emphasized, and you can see plenty of other casinos nearby. We even get a glimpse of the Bellagio fountains.
I'll have the post for Monday Dec. 20 written on Tuesday. It's very time consuming writing in this much detail.
Friday, December 17, 2010
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