Back To The Unknown

And we're off again! When Jess and I first started working at the Hampton we made it a goal to travel at least twice a year! We have no qualms about revisiting locations we've already been to, but we just wanted to make sure we were getting the most out of our hotel perks (and life, but that seems obvious). So, following our Iditarod expedition the whole Covid situation hit the fan and we weren't even thinking about traveling for a while. No point getting your heart set on a place you can't travel to. But we as June rolled around we found ourselves watching and increasing number of Vegas and gambling related content. It started with Molly's Game, then Oceans 13 and finally the two-part series finale of Stripperella and we decided that was it. We were going to Vegas, and we were going for our birthday.

Now, I absolutely respect the stay-at-home quarantine thing. I think it would've ended the pandemic so much earlier or gotten us a better handle on it had everyone just stayed home. Problem is, we didn't have that option. Jess and I we actually asked to move into the hotel starting in March so we could continue working in the event of a lockdown. I was shuffled in my role to be the only housekeeper in the whole hotel while Jess maintained her position as the evening front desk agent. Except for a one week break I got when they thought they were going to lay me off until I was able to move in with Jess, we have worked the entirely of the pandemic. We're been been required to be exposed to hundreds of people at the hotel in the past few months, and as such hundreds have been exposed to us. If we're going to infect people widespread we've already done it, and we got paid to do it. So, I feel a little guilty going on a trip somewhere, but I am constantly reminded that there is literally no difference between us going somewhere to enjoy ourselves and exposing people and us going to work and exposing people. We're not like non-essentials who should, and can, stay home. We never had that luxury or safety, so yeah, we booked our tickets.

That said, back to Vegas! We wanted to do our birthday exactly. the 1st, but lining up our days off at work wasn't going to work for that, so we elected to go from the 4th to the 9th with the 3rd off also as a day with our parents before the trip. We drove down to our parents yesterday and did some mini-golfing and happy birthday mini-celebration things together which was very nice! It rained all through mini-golf but we still had a ball! That evening we watched Ocean's 13 to prepare for our grand adventure and went to bed very excited and also nervous.

This morning I was up around 10am, before the rest of the family (because that's who we are as people) to try and text a friend because a package had arrived at our house just after we left the previous day and I didn't want it sitting there for 7 days. I had to walk up the street to get some signal because my parents house doesn't like Tracphones. I did get a hold of her and she was happy to help because she's a dear (though I do owe her cookies on our return). When I got back the house was starting to wake up and mom made bagels for everyone to get us started for the day. Our flight wasn't until 3:40pm so we had plenty of time to play with. We all ate then, chatting and being idiots, of course, before I made sweeps of the house to make sure everything was repacked in our suitcases. We hadn't brought in that much so it really wasn't an issue, but I needed to keep track of phones, chargers, pajamas, and toiletries that one needed for an evening. With that we were pretty much set so we said good-bye to our dad, who was off to go golfing, and to our cats, who we love and miss even though we're allergic, and our mother began the drive to the Orlando airport. We had to turn around only once because Jess forgot her sunglasses extension in our car, but we hadn't left the village yet so we can forgive her.

We had time, it was only 1:30pm, so we tried to stop at a sub place to get some steak and cheese subs for the plane, but they weren't open on Sundays. Bummer. As we drove around looking, we eventually decided to hit a Moe's for a Joey Box of Donuts and Wrong Doug instead. We were horrified to fine this Moe's location referred to those items as Burritos and Quesadillas. How revolting. They also didn't have beef, only chicken and steak which was weird, but Moe's is Moe's! So we got our grub and went to the airport where we and our mother bid a fond farewell before we headed in. The airport lines were nonexistent. I think we waited maybe 5 minutes at the security line and that was the only line we stood in. Period. We worried our bottle of perfume was going to be a problem for security because we couldn't find it to pull out of our suitcase, but that wasn't an issue. What was an issue was my big, thick hair. As I entered the hands-up-rotating-scanner thing the woman on the other side asked me to flip my side-braid over to my back then when I got out she had to stop me to inspect it. She joked and said usually people's hair is thin, like hers, so it isn't an issue, by my hair is big enough to slip something into so she had to take me aside and flip through my locks. I was totally flattered and happily let her sift through my apparently glorious mane. 

From there we zipped right onto the little tram to take us to Southwest 103 and were there in a flash. It was 2:47pm by the time we arrived at our gate so we just had time to fill our water bottle and hit the bathroom before the 3:10pm boarding began. Jess had been prepared the day before to check-in for our flight so we could get early boarding and she did good! We were group B numbers 14 and 15! Pretty good for a Southwest flight! Don't think we've ever been higher than a C group! As we boarded we headed right to the back cause we like to be as close to the bathrooms as humanly possible. We chose seats one from the furthest back and got comfy! We put one of our bags in the upper-head ad one stayed below because there was no reason to put it above. The bags are pretty tiny. We'd already separated all the snacks into the Moe's plastic bag and had our headphones and whatnot in our pockets or with Jessica's laptop so once we pulled out our card game, Fox In The Forest, we were set to go for a fun flight!

We took off right on time and just as we began Jess and I remembered we'd forgotten gum. T make up for it we began shoveling Moe's chips and salsa into our mouths with absolute ferocity, partially for our ears sake, but mostly because we'd only had bagels at 11am and were in desperate need of sustenance. Once the plane leveled out we had my burrito and the attendants gave out the plane snacks. It was 'Plane' cookies, some kind of chex mix without chex, and ice water. No hot chocolate for me this time. Sad face. But have no fear! I packed plenty. Yes, for Nevada.

We stayed stationary for the rest of the 4+ hour flight. We chatted, then listened to music, then turned to the free movies Southwest now provides straight to people's devices. Talk about progress! At the hour-to-go mark the Wi-Fi movies started to glitch so we both decided to have her quesadilla and the descent began! We munched on my 'plane' cookies while we went down and watched the desert and canyons out the window! It was awesome! The descent wasn't as bad as usual! No motion sickness, but that could be cause I kept shoveling food into my mouth. We took out our bag as soon as we landed and I did some eyeliner and we got our new dresses ready to go.

We headed to the bathroom right off the plane and got dressed into our new fancy dresses. We were kinda a mess tryna sort out the clothes thing, but we made it happen and headed through the enormous Vegas airport through legions of slot machines to the baggage claim. At baggage claim 2 a man held a tablet that said Jessica Algieri and he led us to our limo. Yes, we were THAT extra! It was HUGE! It was one of those party ones! The driver drove us to a store where we bought some spiked cider and Four Lokos because we're casuals then he drove us up the strip to our hotel! The strip was awesome! It was so cool to keep swinging around the limo to look out the window at all the cool stuff we were passing! And the best part: People kept stopping to take pictures of the limo! I dunno who they thought was in it or why it was there, but it was so cool! Highlight of the day!

We got to the hotel and tipped the driver then checked in. The front desk agent have us an upgrade to a king corner suite so we scooted on up and got ready to explore! We checked out the fitness center, marketplace, and pool when we saw the pool closed at 7pm and we wanted to swim so we raced upstairs, got changed, and ran down! And we made it! We only had like 25 minutes to swim but it was just enough time to enjoy! We just bobbed around and chatted but it was fantastic! The water was so warm! When they finally threw us out we ran back upstairs (cause it was freezing in the AC) and got some hot cocoa going! We brought some bath bombs with prizes in them and since we were already in bathing suits we used the tub as a foot bath and threw one in! See chilled there for about 45 minutes until Bless the Harts came on and we went out to watch that! We love Bless the Harts, and they've got new episodes! Jess tried to get her computer to connect to the Wi-Fi while we watched but it just wasn't happening. So, I took a shower while she struggled, then while Jess showered I got the episode of Bless The Harts that I had missed up and we watched that before we finally dozed off to be at 11pm Nevada time, but 2pm our time.