Vegas Birthday Weekend!

So I left work around 1:30 on Friday--my birthday--and Rob and I headed out to the Monterey Airport for the maiden voyage of an airlines new flight from there directly to Vegas. 

There had been all sorts of promotions on the radio and in the paper on this launch since they were offering the first flights at 49 bucks each way.  Rob and I looked into it and decided that it was about time we had a quick weekend trip to Vegas again.

When we lived in AZ it was only a five hour drive so we did it quite often.  Since we moved the only times we get out to gamble is one week in August for our anniversary.

So we booked this flight because it fell on my birthday.  I didn't realize at the time that this would be the first run on this flight until Rob brought it up to me.

When we got to the airport there was a healthy line for such a tiny airport but more importantly, there was Elvis.  Yes, Elvis and his little showgirl friend were there to launch the 1st flight every from Monterey to Vegas.  It was kinda funny all the people wanting to have their picture taken with him.

When we finally made it through security and got to go board the plane, we were handed "goodie bags" as we exited the building.  They consisted of a deck of cards, Elvis style sunglasses, a flashing vegas sign magnet, a Vegas collectible spoon and a couple of other cute little vegas things.

As we made our way to our seats I noticed that ever empty seat had a plastic champagne glass sitting in it.  Yup, we got some free bubbly while in flight served by Elvis and the showgirl.

I found this very amusing because before I left on Friday Misty and I were in my office and she was singing to me that I was going on a plane and they were going to give me free champagne because it was my birthday, just joking around.  Heh!

The other perk the airline gave us was at the end of the flight, everyone aboard got vouchers for Blue Man Group tickets Saturday night!  I love this airline!

The flight got quite bumpy as we made our decent and I had a bit of a panic attack but soon we were on the ground and meeting Renee by the shuttle bus.

We were of course the last ones to be dropped off at our hotel because we were staying way downtown at the El Cortez but that was fine.

Check in was a breeze and our room was surprisingly large.  We quickly headed downstairs to get our players cards and take pictures for a keychain that was offered in the fun book they gave us.  After that it was off to Walgreens to pick up some snacks and drinks and things we would need for the weekend that we didn't pack.

We relaxed in the room for awhile after we got back and then headed down to gamble. 

Renee was running on about two hours sleep from the night before and after a couple of cocktails was feeling the effects of both.  We found Rob and decided to go across the street to Mamacita's Mexican place where we ordered a ton of food and sobered up while waiting for it.

Back in the room we changed into our jammies and ate.  We all agreed that we might go back downstairs for a little black jack in a little bit.  We weren't really ready to go to bed yet. 

Renee laid down for a 15 minute power nap and told us to wake her up when we wanted to go downstairs.  A half an hour later my attempt to wake her was greeted with an unenthusiastic "mnnhmmphhh."  I asked her if she wanted to stay and sleep and she said yes so Rob and I left her in dreamland.

Downstairs Rob and I lost money at an alarmingly rapid rate at the first black jack table we came to so we decided that table games were done for the trip.

We sat at the bar and played some quarter video black jack for awhile and then decided we'd had it and came back upstairs and went to bed.