Home again home again

Home safe and sound, catching up on everyone's exciting lives. If anything exciting happened to you, please let me know in case I missed it in the 120-post period I had to (ahem) read quickly but thoroughly.

We spent four nights in Seattle, had a grand time, then flew to Las Vegas. Alaska Airlines managed to keep all the air inside the plane for us which was nice, and we were not in fast late at all. The MGM Grand had our room, charged us the cheap rate, and the cab got us there for only $11. Things were looking up! Of course, this being Vegas, the house had to win sometime.

We were in room 5-234, which can be interpreted as the 5th floor, room 234. Our *hallway* had 42 rooms in it. There are four hallways per floor, three having 42 rooms and one having double that. The MGM Grand is the world's largest hotel. It's crazy big. I mean, everything in Las Vegas is big, but Jebus. I went back to the room to get a sweater one evening while leapfish and rebelprince26 waited, and I can't think of a funny joke involving what they could have done in the intervening time, but it was a long time. 15 minutes at least, just to go to the room and come back.

How big is Las Vegas? An 18-wheeler did a U-turn on the strip. Without any difficulty. Or slowing down.

Quiz Time: While the plane is taxiing just after landing, traveling at ~80 km/h, should you:

1. unbuckle your seatbelt
2. lower your tray table
3. remove your carry-ons from their safely stowed locations
4. stand up, walk down the aisle, and try to switch into the empty non-aisle seat next to leapfish
5. all of the above?

If you chose "e", you must have been on Alaska Airlines flight 630 on Wednesday! Nice to see you.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• First slot machine gave me an 85% return! I won 85 cents on a buck. I quickly cashed out, which was the smart thing to do. This was not to last (not the money nor the smarts).
  
  
• Last time we missed out on the buffets entirely, so this time we had three. One dinner/lunch thing at Paris shorly after arriving, gorging on the theory that we would save money later. Ha! Good, but not great food. We certainly got our money's worth though, which is rare. We also had breakfast in the MGM buffet, and it was pretty darned good. 2-for-1 with our room, which was very nice. That buffet was pretty swanky: it had a VIP line.
  
  
• Speaking of swank, the MGM also has a bar called Studio 54, with all the young'uns trying to look extra pretty in line. We did not even consider thinking about the possibility of bothering to try to get in.
  
  
• " " " " " Tabu " " " " " ". " " " " " " " " " ".
  
  
• We rode the monorail! Wooo! Most of you know of my transit fetish. It was so fun. Full of advertising of course, including a Borg talking up the Star Trek stuff at the Hilton. Very weird though, because the actor was British. Insert your own Borg joke here.
  
  
• Wedding Chapels: 5
  Drive-through Chapels: 2
  Very Pregnant Brides: 1
  
  
• On sale in downtown: "Margaritas by the Yard," "Western Stuff," "Deep-fried Oreos."
  
  
• Everything in Vegas is money, but it's not always about spending big. Among the ubiquitous porn that wallpaperd the sidewalks, we saw ads for "Affordable College Girls". Considerate.
  
  
• More (extremely small-scale) transportation geekery: The Shops at the Forum (the Caesar's Palace mall) has curving escalators. OMG.
  
  
• Fantastic music selection throughout the MGM properties. We heard Push It and Funky Cold Medina multiple times. From all manner of locations. I suspect new tenants are issued the official MGM Grand CD, and must play it and only it.
  
  
• It's a tradition among some to leave money in the hotel room bible for good luck at the casino. Vinny checked (quite diligently) ours and found no money. He did find however a story. Someone couldn't sleep five hours before their flight home, and started writing a trip report about their adventures. Bad spelling, addiction to weird goth/heavy-metal styled handwriting, and fell asleep / quit immediately after writing "Day 2:". I felt the urge to add some new adventures for the next traveller to find, but didn't. Next time.

Final tally: about $50 gambled by me, with no profit. But since I wasn't expecting any, I'm not perturbed. Like I told my parents, "The casino isn't part of our retirement planning. We're banking on the lottery instead."