yesthattom: (Default)
yesthattom ([personal profile] yesthattom) wrote2004-08-01 04:09 pm

Return flight not so bad

On the way home from Portland Oregon AWA messed up my connection in Vegas. When I last posted, I was stuck there for 6 hours with nothing to do.

Well, it turns out that one of the people also in that situation was someone I used to work with 10 years ago (Steve McNeary). After talking for a few minutes I said, “Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I was going to take a taxi to see The Star Trek Experience. Would you like to split the taxi cost?”

He had sort of a “that’s stupid and crazy!”-look on his face. But then his eyes widened and he said, “Why the hell not!”

So we caught up with each other (we had 10 years to talk about) while we found the taxi area and got to the LV Hilton, which is where The Star Trek Experience is.

It turned out that there was a Trek convention in town and The Experience was booked for a private party until 11am. Dang.

So we took a taxi to the new part of the strip. The pirate show at Treasure Island was closed due to high winds, then we walked through the fake Venice canal walk at the Venetian. At the Bellagio we stood through 3 water fountain displays (they have this awesome water fountain system that “dances” to music. Every 15 minutes there is a “show” to a different sound that lasts about 4 minutes. It’s like watching ballet.)

We got back to the airport around 9pm, on the plane soon after, and I slept until 6am when we landed. Sadly, due to timezone changes I really only got about 4 hours of sleep.

[identity profile] docstrange.livejournal.com 2004-08-01 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
That sounds great! The airport is so close to the strip... there's good cause to wander over. Personally, I figured you'd go over to the Alexis where DefCon 12 was taking place. Compared to 99% of the attendees, an actually-published author with real clue about running systems would be quite the item. Plus, it's more or less a party, not a convention, especially after 5PM.

[identity profile] broken-gizmo.livejournal.com 2004-08-01 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh. I'm also surprised you didn't go to DefCon. And I thought that the Treasure Island was closing the pirate show permanently about a year ago?

Glad you found a way to weather the otherwise icky spot, though. Good on you!

[identity profile] rmd.livejournal.com 2004-08-02 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
america west had all kinds of trouble yesterday -- i was out in vegas for the weekend and volunteered to be bumped because the plane had been replaced by a smaller plane and there weren't enough seats to go around.

i was surprised i didn't run into anyone i knew out there (what with defcon being that weekend and all), but it would've been a hoot to run into you in the airport.

my folks once had a room at the bellagio that looked down onto the fountains, which is a great way to see it.

i think treasure island has changed their pirate show (around the same time they changed their logo to "TI".