My attempt to remember our Pittsburgh-Las Vegas vacation

We are now home in 50-something degree Seattle; however, we recently took one of our longer vacations to date. From previous posts you can see that we first flew out to Pittsburgh mainly to attend Johanna and Mark's wedding but we decided to spend a couple extra days in Pittsburgh to see what Pitt was all about. We did some shopping at the downtown Macy's -- in Pittsburgh there is no sales tax on clothing that is neat. The wedding festivities began on Saturday October 20th with a big dinner. The 20th was also Johanna's birthday -- Happy Birthday again Johanna. We had dinner at The Grand Concourse where the seafood platter was memorable but the champagne punch they served was superb. The wedding itself was Sunday and the ceremony was at Phipps Conservatory with a very intimate reception at Soba. Both locations were great and perfect for the small wedding of about 25 people. Johanna looked fabulous and it was fun to be there to experience everything. We took photos along with what it seemed like everyone else in Johanna's family, but the official pictures from the wedding photographer are located here http://www.kreedphotography.com/show/johannaandmarkwedding/. Congratulations again to Johanna and Mark.

On Monday we flew out of Pitt to Las Vegas via Atlanta. The Atlanta airpot is HUGE and it gave us a brief opportunity to experience some Chik Fil A chicken sandwiches. Yum...we arrived in Las Vegas around dinner time. The next few days until yesterday (Friday) we were living it up Vegas style. We stayed at the new Signature at MGM -- very nice because there is no casino in the hotel itself so there is little if any smell of cigarettes in the hotel and rooms. A casino isn't too far away though, 3 moving trams later you are in the MGM itself and well a casino basically. We treated ourselves to countless rounds of video poker and other assorted slot machines. We got to see 3 shows -- Blue Man Group, Phantom of the Opera, and the live version of The Price is Right.

Tuesday was Blue Man Group - overall very entertaining and surprisingly refreshingly new. The show has moved from the Luxor to the Venetian since the last time I saw them in Vegas. There were some elements from their original show (marshmallows, twinkies, gumballs, Captain Crunch) and some great new things primarily from their PBS special like plumbing, how to be a rock star, etc. It was almost 2 full hours of BMG and was worth it. After BMG we had a late dinner at San Marco. San Marco was great - a Mario Batali restaurant located in the shops area of the Venetian. Our waitress was fantastic and we followed some of her recommendations and they were wonderful - the wine with the cod special! Excellent eats. Prior to all of this we did the casual casino walk as I like to call it. We started off at MGM, then visited M&M World, Coca-Cola, Flamingo, Harrahs (all of those smaller casinos in between), Paris, Bally's, Forum Shops and Caesar's Palace, Mirage and over to the Ventian. We had the lunch buffet at Paris which was reasonably priced and had a great variety of food. We appreciated how they didn't try to make food that they knew they wouldn't be good at...for example, there was not an attempt at asian food, no sushi, no fried rice. There was no attempt at hamburgers or pizza or anything you would normally see at a generic buffet. Instead there was a ton of great French entrees and it was definitely very European with pate and cheeses.

Wednesday was Phantom of the Opera - was worth seeing live again. We agreed that probably because of the "time stigma" of Vegas that it was unfortunate that the conductor and orchestration felt really rushed. The show barely pushed 90 minutes but the entire time the whole musicality of the show was too rushed IMO. The person who played Christine Daae was sub-par at best. It is difficult because when you hear the music in your head you think of Sarah Brightman and it is hard to envision hearing anyone but her, but still -- the performer on stage was struggling with the super high arias and keeping her diaphragm down (i.e. her lungs were not filled). The person who played the Phantom though -- very impressive. It was definitely the most dramatic Phantom actor I have seen whether live or on film. After the show we ate dinner at the Venetian's Cafe -- which blows all of the other regular casino cafes away. This cafe had everything and more for good cafe prices. We ended up taking over half of our food to go since it was too much. It helps that our hotel room had a kitchen so we knew we could reheat and eat our leftovers with ease. Prior to coming back to the Venetian for the show we basically killed the day at NY NY -- had lunch there at their Americana cafe and played in a slot tournament where Chris won $50 of Free Play!

Thursday was The Price is Right -- totally fun and worth the $50/ticket in my opinion. This show was at Bally's so before we had a light meal of crepes from Paris. TPIR was great, we have name tags just like on the regular show and there was multiple chances for everyone in the audience to become a contestant. Everytime there was a new item up for bid, there were always 4 new contestants. Basically every part of the show you would see normally just had new people everytime (no one person could win it all). Neither of us were selected but it was still fun to see Plinko, Hole In One, The Big Wheel and of course the Showcase Showdown. The host was some guy named Roger Lodge and I only remember his name because it sounds so fake and made up. He was good and added just enough cheese and sarcasism to keep his credibility. After about 2 hours of TPIR we walked out feeling refreshed and entertained. We tried to make a reservation to eat outside to watch the fountains at the Bellagio but they wouldn't "guarantee" them, so we ended up at The Wynn and had their dinner buffet instead. So much food, ridiculous.

Friday we enjoyed our leftovers while watching the scary reminder of the SoCal fires on CNN. We left our hotel at 10am for a 1pm flight which at first I thought was way too early, but it ended up being a good thing. We had to wait through the worst security lines I can remember. The security at SeaTac is one thing -- at least there are clearly marked lines as to where to wait and where to move to. At Las Vegas there was NO indication of where to stand, so it was very chaotic for at least 15 minutes. There were random security guys yelling at us telling us in a "you are stupid" tone that there were 4 lines to form when the reality was there were like 7... anyway like I said it was a good thing that we ended up at the airport early because we didn't get to our gate until 1145 -- again for a 1pm flight, so you can see how long we spent through security. The plane ride I don't remember because I slept the entire time, but we land and get our luggage -- drive home through rush hour and get home sometime after 5pmish. I had every plan on curling, but I got super super tired right before 7pm so no curling for me.

And back to now, today -- Saturday October 27th. We need to go grocery shopping. I should be getting myself back into work-mode but honestly I have NO desire to do so. I figured why scare myself now, I'll just wait until Monday. I hope I remember my password. Hahaha. Our next vacation isn't until late January. I am looking forward to it, but honestly I'm super excited that Heather will be back in Seattle -- finally moving back from LA -- in only a week or so. Hip hip hooray for Heather!

We're in Pittsburgh!

Our vacation has begun. Yippy!! Our flight was broken up into two legs; Seattle to Las Vegas then Vegas to Pittsburgh. We learned today that the blue septic water in airplane toilets is fondly called juice (per US Airlines crew members). Our flight from Seattle was slightly delayed because apparently the toilets were in need of juice. I learn something new every day!

We land in Vegas, I proceed to quickly waste $5 on a nickel slot machine (Lucky Larry Lobster, how can you resist) and we walk to an area where we can sit for our 2 hour layover -- and what do we see but a personal electronics vending machine where the items are iPods, iPod accessories, and other assorted expensive items such as Bose headphones. Holy crap -- I don't know if this is a new airport thing or just a Vegas thing?

We board our flight to Pittsburgh and I am instantly delighted by the gentleman sitting in front of me who proceeds to lower his seat to the most extreme and thensome reclined position -- the chair back was almost touching my knees. Sad...sad...sad...

Pittsburgh is a lot nicer than I remember it, but of course the last time I was in Pittsburgh it was covered in layers of dirty snow. We are staying at the newly rebuilt Doubletree Suites on Bigelow Sq. Very nice, our room is spacious and definitely feels like an apartment due to size and layout. The restaurant -- Bigelow Grille -- we are very pleased with. We had a great dinner there with appetizers, drinks, entrees and dessert the total cost was $100 - what a deal especially since that is American Dollars, not Canadian. :)

I should probably go to bed soon since it is almost 140am EDT...more to come later!

My usual catch-up-post-before-vacation message...

A lot has happened since my birthday (last blog post). Workwise things are so-so, there were some major moves within the office so now I have a new officemate. I didn't think I would miss sitting with Gail simply because she and I aren't super close friends, but I do miss Gail's presence. I think she misses me too because every time I walk by her office door she always flags me down and we end up chatting about something random. Now my entire team is split up between two floors and we are all spread out. Some feel disjointed or no longer part of the team. I do feel isolated only because I share an office with a new contractor who isn't exactly warming up to being social with me.

I've still been working a lot, although admittedly I am consciously trying to work less -- like it is OK to not work a 10 or 11 hour day, it is OK to leave at 430pm. I thought that it would be good to remember what real work-life balance is and the beginning of Curling season has helped. This year I will be playing in Monday and Friday night leagues -- very fun. I found out that some of my co-workers (from a different department) are trying out Curling so I need to remember to ask them how they are enjoying it when I return from vacation.

But for the next 10 days or so I am not going to think about work (too much). We are heading out bright and early tomorrow for Pittsburgh...yes, Pittsburgh. Stop looking at my blog that way yes you read it right, Pittsburgh. My friend Johanna is getting married in a very small way; a total of 28 people includes everyone in the wedding party and all of their guests. She and Mark live in Pittsburgh and have for a while so Pittsburgh it is. After the wedding we are then going to spend the rest of our vacation in Las Vegas doing whatever and whenever and eating whatever and whenever we want. So haha, haha to all of you.

And now...I must try to sleep. More to come later I'm certain. Oh--Happy Belated 32nd Birthday to a Mr. Joel Arnold Bakken.