Category: 2014.07 – Jessica’s Grad Gift

Finally got our decent sleep-in day today. Woohoo! Somewhat late breakfast followed by going to the Bodies Exhibit, which is another remarkable exhibit, just fascinating! After seeing that we made our way down the Strip and I took her to see Caesar’s Palace and The Forum Shops. Sure enough, we were able to finally get our Penny on at the Cheesescake Factory in the shops for lunch. Of course, Penny’s Cheesecake Factory is not remotely as elaborate as this place. We managed to stuff ourselves pretty good, anyway, before heading out for a further walkabout in search of Madame Tussaude’s, which we were certain we had seen on Monday during our first walkabout. We did eventually come across it and partook of the exhibits. It’s really quite remarkable how realistic the statues are. Those artists are fantastic.

Yesterday on our way out of town Jessica noticed there is a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant on the Strip, so we had to make our pilgrimage. We’ve been to the Bubba Gump in Orlando, New York, and now Las Vegas. As usual the food was fabulous and we stuffed ourselves silly. Managed to pick up two more Bubba Gump glasses, too; shakers this time instead of the flashy light ones.

You’re probably wondering at this point if we got to see any of the shows. Well, yes, we managed to sneak one in tonight. We went to see Vegas! The Show, which gave us a historical accounting of the rise and fall of the classic Vegas casino’s, shows, and entertainment. It was really enjoyable and while all the cast was fun to watch, the two headliners were fantastic.

We returned to our hotel, stopping at Bellagio on the way to watch the fountain and get the obligatory photograph for Monique. Vegas is hot.

Leaning Towers of Vegas

Liberace’s Car

The Cheesecake Factory

Holding Jon Bon Jovi’s Hand

Life is like a box of chocolates.

Jessica’s Favourite Store

Bellagio

Our last day in Vegas required the Tetrising of our suitcases, checking out of our room, and baggage checking our luggage so we could go shopping at the discount mall unencumbered. We spent most of midday at the Las Vegas Premium Outlet Mall South browsing the stores and picking up a few wardrobe items for Jessica to have at university. Really fantastic dresses that Jessica just looks amazing in. Mid-afternoon we were done though and decided to try and find Ben and Jerry’s again on the Strip before getting our bags and going to the airport. Unfortunately we guessed incorrectly where we thought we had seen it and turned in the wrong direction from Planet Hollywood. By the time we realized it we were already more than half way to MGM and out of time. We just kept going, said goodbye to Vegas, and caught the first leg of our flight home. Vegas is hot.

We are finally on our way to Las Vegas! So excited, Jessica promptly fell asleep on my shoulder between Yellowknife and Edmonton…

Arrived in Edmonton after the first leg of our flight with no issues. Jessica had a good nap and I got through a little more than half of the convention schedule.

We grabbed a few Cookies by George and a milk before heading to the US Quick Express to get to customs. The cookies were fabulous and the lady at the Quick Express was very nice. I’ve never been through there before, so it was interesting having to wait for our luggage to be transferred in the cargo area from one plane to another and get photographed along the way; we had to identify our luggage by the photograph on the lady’s computer screen before we were allowed to go through to the customs gate.

The line up at the customs gate was maybe four people long, including Jessica and I. We go individually to different officers and I can hear Jessica answering his questions:”Where are you going? Why are you going there? You got your hair cut since your passport photo? Yeah, you look a little like Ezri Dax now. Live long and prosper.” I turn to smile at that and he looks at me and says she didn’t respond to his farewell. I looked at Jess and she’s day dreaming, and I ask her what kind of Trek fan are you? Turns out she hadn’t heard the customs officer’s live long and prosper. Hehe…she was embarrassed.

Anyway, we got through customs and proceeded down the hall to the gates. Along the way the designers of this area commissioned this fantastic aerial view mosaic mural of the city of Edmonton that I thought was just fantastic. See photo.

While waiting to board we browsed in the stores and at one there was this book cover that made me laugh. I nodded Jessica’s attention to it. At least, I thought I did. She laughed at the shadow puppet on the book next to the one I wanted her to see first. Can you tell which is which? See photo. Oiy.

When we were checking our bags in Yellowknife the flight attendant commented that we might have gotten a seat upgrade for the Las Vegas leg of our trip. Alas, that was not the case — we were seated directly behind the last row of Plus seating — but due to our plane not having any seat back TVs our fantastic flight attendants decided to compensate us another way. In order to ‘win’ a free meal or a free drink or a free upgrade to Plus seating (the plane was obviously not full) we had to correctly answer various trivia questions. Jessica managed to pull one off by correctly answering that there were eight emergency exits on the plane. Bonus! Free meals for both of us.

In Las Vegas we got our car from Enterprise –yes, appropriate, I know — and checked into Luxor for the night. Got a free room upgrade from the pyramid to the tower. Only downside so far here is the only internet access in the rooms is with an Ethernet cable. If we want to use the free wifi (like, say, on our iPhones or iPads) we have to go into the public spaces. Annoying, but true. Unfortunately, it also means my travel blog posts aren’t likely to get uploaded until I get to a reliable, free wifi connection.

The first leg of our flight home got us into Edmonton at around 12:30 am and through customs without any issues by 1:30. We knew this would be the case and with our flight to Yellowknife departing at 11:30 am decided we’d just sleep in the airport. What we didn’t anticipate is that we wouldn’t be able to check our bags and go through security until 6:30 am. The plan was to get through security right away so that we could just settle down right by our gate. But noooo…they don’t want to hold luggage for more than five hours prior to scheduled flight departures. Something about the ridiculous number of bags they have to transport and the increased likelihood of losing luggage in the chaos. All very reasonable when one is well rested; I was not well rested so I regretfully admit I was not a very happy camper sleeping on the cold, hard floor of the pre-security departures level of the Edmonton International Airport for five hours. Remind me not to book my flights like that again; it’s either get home in one day or have more than a 12-hour lay over so as to justify staying in a hotel. But we did get home, catching more naps, breakfast, and an episode of DS9 post-security, and sleeping on the plane.

Jessica and I had a wonderful trip and thoroughly enjoyed the Star Trek Convention, seeing Craig and Geoff, and Vegas in general. We both admitted that two weeks in Vegas without the convention would be just too much, for future reference. It was nice to get home and see the boys.

Now to begin preparing for the university road trip…