Vegas and back again... This week is Spring break for me... yay! So we took a couple of days and flew out to Las Vegas. Which was awesome. We got a cheap airfare and hotel deal (staying at the Hilton!), which made it even better.
Day 1: The trip out there Brian, Chad and I flew from Houston to Vegas, with a layover at DFW... was suposed to be like, 2.5 hours, ended up being closer to 4. Luckily, DFW is huge and has lots of places to eat and sit and play cards. Ate Bennigan's, played Chrononauts. With the time difference, it was close to 2am when we got to Vegas, and closer to 3am by the time we got checked into our rooms. High point of the day: The hilton magically upgraded us from one room to two rooms, no extra charge.
Day 2: The Strip We ate the most expensive breakfast buffet eVar, and headed out to try and see some of the sights. We bought these Power Pass things that got us into most of the attractions, which I would highly recommend. After spending like, 30 minutes at the fashion show mall to pick up our passes, we went to Circus Circus to visit the indoor theme park (which was ok, but not all that great). 1st high point of the day: saw the girl who plays Claire in Heroes, doing the tourist thing and riding the coaster at Circus Circus. After that, we stopped at New York New York, which was probably the most well themed casino I've ever seen. The guys rode the coaster, but I can't ride coasters anymore... Then we went to Excalibur, and bought tickets for the Tournament of Kings dinner show (which was really cool). Before dinner, we managed to take the train to the Luxor... my new favorite hotel. @nd high point of the day: seeing hte Luxor. It's awesome. We did the museum thing there, and I took about a million pictures. Then back to the Excalibur for dinner. After dinner, I dragged the guys back to the Luxor, where I proceeded to spend most (all, really) of my vacation money on Eqypt stuff (three statues: Thoth, Osirus, and Isis with her wings spread). We got done there, and started walking back down the strip, stopping at the M&M store, and at the Bellagio to see the fountains. I discovered that hookers can be bought for $50, or two for $99 (no, I didn't ask, they were advertising). We finally gave up waiting for the trolley, and took a taxi back to the hotel.
Day 3: The dam Woke up, ate a slightly less expensive breakfast buffet, and got on a bus to go to the Hoover Dam. What was suppoed to be a 4 hour tour took more like 7, but we had a good time, anyway. We didn't eat lunch, and thus were starving when we got back to the Hilton. So we stopped at Quark's, in the Star Trek Experience. Ate Hamborgers while being insulted by both Ferengi and Klingons. Then we did the rest of the experience... the star trek museum and the two rides. Hihg pont of the day: Star Trek. In general. Also, the three of us got our picture on the bridge of the Enterprise. Very cool. Chad and I stayed up for a bit, so I could play slots... I left almost $25 up.
Day 4: The trip home Had to be at the airport at like, 4am to come home. ate breakfast at the airport, and had naother 2 hour layover at DFW. Played more Chrononauts. Got home at like, 3:30pm, picked up the dog from the kennel, cooked dinner, and played video games until 11 or 11:30.
All in all, it was a great trip. There's a few things I'd like to go back and see/do, but overall I think we got our money's worth. I'm staying in the Luxor next time, I think :)
Today we woke up, and Chad's sick... he's going to the doctor this afternoon, so we'll see what the deal is then. Hopefully I'll either avoid getting sick somehow, or get it over with before the break ends.
Belief is a beautiful armor / But makes for the heaviest sword I survived my midterm. And today started both March, and Spring Break, as I have no classes tomorrow. Sometime this weekend, I'm am headed out for destinations unknown... Vegas, I think, but for a while it was looking like Grand Canyon or possibly Boulder.
Hopefully we'll figure it out before we leave ;-) Brian is coming with, which will be cool.
And I should probably clean the house, instead of blogging. But Chad's gone to karate, and I'm not terribly motivated to clean by myself.
Thoughts... I probably think too much. Check that... I definately think too much. And generally not about whatever I should be paying attention to.
All of my female friendships seem to have a 6 month expiration date. Which probably says more about me than I'd really care to deal with.
I got called a tramp at kroger today. By someone I don't even know. No idea what the deal was.
I have a midterm on Wednesday, and I need to do well. I've started studying, but it's one of those tasks that seems like I'll never finish. No idea how the rest of the class is doing... I wasn't invited to any study sessions, so I'm assuming there aren't any.
I'm still working on getting the stupid voices for my first year project... no idea when that'll come through. I'm just short one male voice at the moment.
Spring break is coming up. And I need it really bad this year... I don't know... I'm like a fish out of water or something. I just don't seem to fit in my skin anymore, and its showing in my attitudes towards school, too.
Anyway. Enough randomness. Must get back to the studying.
So... Recap. Since there were no storms to chase in the midwest, Brian, Chad, and I decided to go to Tampa, FL, (where it was supposed to be warm), camp out for a couple of days, and check out Busch Gardens. We left Tuesday morning at like, 5am (ugh). We drove it straight through, 13 hours with a minimal number of stops. I so slept like, more than half the way.
Tuesday night, we checked into the camp ground, which was on this little island thingy right outside Tampa. Brian and Chad set up the tent, and I got in the way a lot. We sat around for a little while, but ended up going to bed kind of early.
Wednesday morning, we attemped to cook bacon and eggs over the camp stove, which was funny. it worked, but it took a while. So we finally ate breakfast at 11 something... then we went to Fort Desoto and toured the fort... which actually turned out to be one concrete dungeon looking building with a couple of guns outside, and then lots of little brick piles that marked the corners of where buildings stood (some of the brick piles had pictures of the buildings they represented, but not most of them). Oh yeah, and part of the sewer system was still standing. Then we went hiking, where we were chased by lizards and squirrels, and hermit crabs masquaradeing as spiders. After we ate lunch, we went and slpashed around in the ocean for awhile... which was awesome. Then we decided to go into St. Petersburg and see if we could find a putt-putt place. About the time we found it... the biggest rainstorm eVar hit. So we drove aound for a few minutes, and headed back to check on the tent.
The tent was assuming a life of it's own, and trying to run away. It had pulled up 3 or 4 stakes, and was attempting to esacpe by sea. So Chad and Brian stripped down to their shorts and ran out into the monsoon to capture the tent... which they did quite successfully. Once the tent was weighted down and tied to palm trees, it sort of stopped raining for a little while. So we put all our towels in the dryer... and Chad cooked hotdogs on the camp stove by flashlight (the monsoon killed our lantern). Once the towels and stuff dried, we took hot showers and went to bed... right after it started raining again. It rained all night... and all the next morning... but our tent was (mostly) waterproof, so we didn't get (very) wet.
Thursday morning, we were supposed to go to Busch Gardens, but it was still monsooning. So we opted to go to the Museum of Science and Industry (which was pretty cool)... and we watched an IMAX movie there, on a Dome screen... it was like home :-) so after that, it was still raining, but only a little. So... we upgraded our tickets to Busch Gardens to a year pass (for like $6 extra a person), and braved the theme park in the rain. Which actually turned out to be really cool, as they hadn't closed anything but the skyride, so all the coasters and water rides were open. We rode all the coasters (Montu, Kumba, Python, and Scorpion) except the wooden one (Gwazli, maybe?)... they were really awesome (except the Python, which sucked a lot). And we rode all the water rides, as we were already wet.
About the time we decided to head back to camp, it started pouring again... so we detoured by Family Dollar and Target and bought stuff for the lantern and garbage bags and extra towels. We went back to camp, and I took a hot shower (the temp had dropped to like, 50 degrees, which isn't so much fun when you're wearing a wet bathing suit, wet shorts and a wet tank top)... and cooked dinner, again by flashlight (the stuff for the lantern didn't work). It stopped raining, but was still wet and cold all night.
Friday we spent most of the day at the theme park... we walked through the replica of Tut's tomb, I bought a cool Egypt picture (becasue it was the only really cool Egypt thing I could affoard)... they had some awesome statues of like, Anubis and Isis and Bastet and Ra, except they were like, $50 each, and I already have one of Bastet... I really wanted the Anubis statue, though... *sigh*. So we took the walking safari, and rode the train, and laughed at all the animals. Did you know that hippos have really powerful and fast tails... so powerful and fast, in fact, that they can use them to fling poo in every direction as fast as it come out of their butts? I thought that was fascinating.
We rode the coasters again (the Montu and the Kumba, anyway)... lusted after the new coaster they're building (the first coaster with a 90 degree drop. Yeah)... rode the wooden coaster (which was way awesome)... and looked in all the shops we had missed the day before. We had a really good time.
Then we had to drive back (we = Chad). Straight from the theme park. We got to Memphis at like 5am. And had to kick Chelsea out of our bed so we could sleep. And we slept until 2pm.
Today, we set up the tent and hosed it off... and washed wet clothes. Tomorrow, we have to go home to Starkville and do all the homework I haven't done this week :-/
Update on life: In Memphis, at least for a few hours yet. Chad's truck is in Starkville, at the transmission shop, which has been the source of much drama. My car is here (hence the fact that we managed to get here). Embarking on a road trip tomorrow, with what's left of our spring break. Me, Brian and Chad... in Chad's mom's car. To Tampa, more specifically Busch Gardens. And we're camping, which is awesome. And we're not storm chasing in the midwest, which made my mommy happy. Maybe we'll make it to the beach.
Held Krys and Manda's baby, Toby, today. Decided that babies are way way way too much work. At least after they're born... :-)
Anyway... must run away now.... T minus 6 hours till we need to be on the road (and we're not done packing).
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
