Easter and Flying Down to Las Vegas, Nevada

I got up around 9:30 and saw that Doug didn’t come home the night before.  Oh well.  I heard mom making noise with the packaging tape that meant she was getting Erika’s books ready to ship to her.  I helped with the remaining ones and then went and found something light to eat for breakfast.  Later this afternoon we were going to cram ourselves with ham and potatoes, I wanted to make sure I had enough room.

I went over to Grandma’s house to see if she had a duffle bag.  No luck.  I really hate that my bag didn’t come in the mail last week.  I really did not want to use two suit cases.  Lame.

I went home and started the packing process.  I made sure I had all of the clothes I needed for about 5ish days, my geocaching stuff, shower stuff and other random things I wanted to bring along with me.  That took a few hours to do.  By that time it was close to heading over to Grammie’s house for Easter dinner at around 2ish.  I got everything packed in Doug’s car and started getting the food we were suppose to bring over in a separate container and took that outside to the car.  Then mom couldn’t find her key from yesterday.  I told her I set them on the counter.  Whatever happened to them after that is not my fault.  Doug got impatient and so I got in the car and we went over a little earlier. 

We got to Grammie’s house and unpacked the stuff we brought and took it in the house.  Roscoe greeted us with too much excitement.  I helped Grammie set the table and noticed mom and dad finally made it in mom’s car…they must have found the keys.  Turns out dad took them off the counter and brought them into the bedroom with him, why he did this, I haven’t a clue.  It did mean I was off the hook though.

Grandma arrived shortly after and Kevin and Karla were going to arrive late so we started eating without them.  The Easter food was delicious.  I probably had way too much than I really needed.  We talked for a while and then Kevin and Karla arrived with their food and some purple mashed potatoes.  They thought they heard Tracy say over the phone we were having pizza.  They weren’t sure if they heard her right.  That was the topic of conversation for the next fifteen minutes along with the purple mashed potatoes.

Grandpa went outside and hid the eggs and Easter baskets.  Tracy and Grammie cleared the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher. 

It was time to go outside in the gorgeous weather and look for eggs and baskets.  I found my ten eggs and my basket.  I traded silver money for pennies.  The Easter egg money came in handy for later on in my day.

We had about another hour before I had to leave.  We played croquet.  I got the course all set up and we all picked our mallets and balls out and had fun playing.  In the beginning I was losing and had to catch up.  Luckily, being in the middle of the pack worked out in my favor in the long run.  Doug took a huge lead and became poison and started going after people.  He ended up killing dad first.  I some how snuck by, became poison and started going after people.  My first victim was Grandpa, then Tracy, then Kevin and then finally Grandma. 

Then we threw sticks at the hanging limb from the huge tree in the back yard.  We must be from Rainier, huh?  It was actually fun.  Doug managed to get one of his sticks stuck up in the tree.  We all came close a dozen times.  I figured that we needed to throw the stuck kinda side arm and it did work after the first couple tries.  I managed to get it down from the tree and Doug got his stick out of the tree as well.

By that time it was time to go and we said our good byes and headed towards the freeway via Lacey.  I had to stop by the bank before we left.  I’m glad I did.

We had a couple of spots on I-5 that were a bit sketchy so we went 512 to 167 and then 18 to I-5 to avoid the construction in Tacoma.  We got to the airport with a little more than an hour and a half to spare.  He dropped me off and I went inside and checked in my bags.  I got my boarding pass I printed and started heading for the security check.  I realized my phone was still in Doug’s car.  I was so glad I had that bag of change from the Easter eggs in my backpack.  I frantically tried to call Doug from the pay phone.  I got a hold of him and told him I left the phone plugged into his car.  I really thought I put it in my pocket before I left.  Guess not.  He said he would be there in about 20 minutes because he had to turn around.  I’m so glad he answered his phone.

I went and stood outside and waited for him.  He got there, I told him I was sorry and thanks for doing that for me.  I went inside and went though security.  This time I wasn’t picked out of the crowd for more screening.  I walked down the terminal and looked at some stuff.  I called mom and watched the sunset from the airport.  Then I called Bev and told her Happy Easter and a few other things.

 I walked down to a store that was still open and grabbed some Chex mix and a Cherry Coke for the airplane ride.  I walked down to my gate and sat down for maybe ten second and they started boarding the A passengers.  I was in group A so I got on the plane really early.  I got on board and immediately took a window seat close to the front of the plane.

I sat there and read some of my book while the others were boarding and the flight attendants were getting ready for our flight.  Around 8:30 we pulled away from the gate and made our way to the runway.

And then the best part of the whole flight is the take off.   I get excited every time.  As we got off the ground I heard a kid across the aisle say, “next stop Las Vegas!”  I couldn’t agree more.

I read my book for a while until we could turn on our electronics.  I turned on my laptop and got it on the Southwest Airlines page and got to watch our progress on the map that was updated every few minutes.  I didn’t want to spend eight bucks on WiFi so I worked on my blogs I got behind on.

The flight attendant went by with snacks and beverages.  I took the snacks but declined the drink.  I continued with my blogs until I heard the pilot mention that we were on our descent into Las Vegas.  I put away everything and stared outside the window.  Las Vegas was literally the only thing down in the desert.  You could tell from above where it actually ended.  We circled around and you could see the strip from the right side of the plane.  We were on our final descent onto the runway.  We got lower and lower until you felt the tires touch down on the asphalt.  We came to an abrupt halt and then slowly made its way to the gate. 

I let Brenda and Ray know we had landed.  I got my stuff and was one of the first groups off of the plane.  I walked and used the escalator to make my way down to the baggage claim.  My bags were right there as I got to the carousel.  I grabbed both and headed to the shuttle area.  I stood in line, got my booklet/ticket and one of the shuttle employees took my bags and put them in the trunk and I got on the shuttle and waited.  About ten minutes later we had a few more people on board and we were off to the strip!  I was the first passenger to be dropped off.  I was going to the Monte Carlo.  

 

 We made it in a few minutes, I got off, grabbed my bags and went into the lobby.  I met Brenda and Ray in a few short minutes.  We went up the elevator to the 30^th floor and I started getting ready for bed.  I had the bed next to the window.  You could hear everything from outside.  We all used the restroom and got into bed.  I did not sleep very well at all the entire night.

Next Adventure:  The first 500 caches of the ET Highway and The Little Al'e'Inn.