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.

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