Ferrari and Lamborghini in Las Vegas
Hello again! I am back with tales of another adventure. I hope at least some of you caught my pun in the title: a spin-off of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. However, while Thompson's novel takes a run at gonzo journalism to follow autobiographical incidents occurring through a drug-induced haze, our Vegas experience was a lot more contained, with a lot less drugs (i.e. just the clouds of marijuana blown in our faces while we walked down the Strip).
For Griffen's 20th birthday, my gift to him was a trip to Las Vegas to drive an Aston Martin Vantage F1 at the Speed Vegas racetrack. There was a Groupon which made the price reasonable, and I was able to book us plane tickets and the experience at the track for Griffen. I know this sounds outrageous, but this gift was planned for well in advance and meticulously budgeted; I have been saving for this trip and setting aside money for this gift for about 8 months. I actually really enjoyed budgeting my income so precisely to accommodate for a big purchase and being able to plan/put everything together. We were blessed that many of Griffen's family members jumped onto the experience as well and generously gave Griffen cash to spend on the trip and a room a stay in, which I also benefitted from.
We headed out from Lewiston at around 5:00 PM on Thursday, June 15. We were both able to take work off early, and when I got back from the library, it was a mad dash to consolidate our things into one suitcase (I am cheap and only paid for one checked bag instead of two carry-ons). There were some other odds and ends that I was hoping to knock off my to-do list really quick, but was hustled out the door by the most time-motivated Griffen I have ever seen. We were able to get to the airport, check our bags, and get through security with plenty of time to spare.
And then, on top of that, our plane was delayed.
Looking back, we probably could have worked through a couple more Star Wars movies in the time that we spent sitting and waiting in the Spokane Airport. Instead, we got some dinner. I read a book while Griffen worked on a drawing of Florence Pugh; when we got bored of that we did online shopping.
We finally boarded our plane at close to 1:00 AM. We were so, so tired. Thankfully, we were lucky to be the only people in our row, but being so tall caused both of us to struggle to get any sleep. We have both been in a rhythm of going to sleep fairly early and getting up early for work, so this was a super jarring experience for both of our bodies. Off the plane, we immediately took an Uber to our hotel. Sleep was around the corner, at last.
However, the hotel system decided to update in the middle of the night. So, another 15 minutes of waiting. We watched videos of baby animals to avoid a breakdown.
Finally, we were able to get to our hotel room and immediately flopped down to sleep. I took a look at my watch before drifting off, and it was almost 5:00 AM. Ugh.
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The next morning, we woke up much later than we would have liked, but there wasn't much we could do--we really needed the sleep after such a late night. We both had headaches, so we drank some water, took our showers, got ready for the day, and set out to find some food.
We were in pursuit of a restaurant called Eggslut, primarily because of the name and secondarily because we wanted to eat eggs. However, upon finding Eggslut we also found a line that wrapped around the little store three times. Therefore, no Eggslut. Griffen was quite hangry by this point, and we kept walking in pursuit of food until we decided to turn around and eat at Nacho Daddy (again, entertaining name, and we thought nachos would be good).
Nacho Daddy was definitely the first of a few very successful food experiences. We were seated immediately and served quickly. I had a margarita, which was probably one of the better margaritas I have enjoyed, and we both had Thai chicken nachos. They were delicious! The portions were big and worth the price we paid. After our lovely meal, we set off for more adventuring.
We tried to be frugal this trip (which did not really end up working out, but oh well), so we walked to anywhere that was within 3 miles of us. We ended up walking around 12 miles a day, which definitely got us hungry for each meal. After we explored some designer stores and were asked in Cartier if we were interested in an $800,000 yellow diamond engagement ring, we walked to the Car Museum/Liberace Garage.
The Liberace Garage was really cool! They had lot of original or replicated cars from many famous movies, like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, James Bond, The Dukes of Hazzard, Batman, Fast and Furious, and more. They also had a few cars used in Valentino Liberace's stunt shows.
After this, we walked back toward Excalibur and took the tram to Mandalay Bay, where we did some shopping and then got to visit the Shark Reef Aquarium, which was one of my favorite parts. I love sharks! The aquarium had two tunnels to walk through and a few different big viewing tanks. My favorite was a little hammerhead that they had in one of the first tanks. It was really cool.
The aquarium didn't take us as long to get through as we planned for, so we sat down for a while before going to get something to eat. For dinner, we went to Kumi, which was one of the restaurants in Mandalay Bay. It was a nice Japanese restaurant, and we got seated in a dome that was decorated with a cherry tree all along the walls with lovely lights above us. We enjoyed a couple sushi rolls, a tuna pizza, and I had a Green Geisha cocktail, which was really refreshing! It was a gin cocktail with melon cucumber puree, lime, The Botanist gin, and Togerashi syrup. Very yummy! We left with happy stomachs and sad wallets.
We walked to the CVS nearby afterwards and got some refreshments, then walked back to the hotel to charge our phones and get ready for the evening. We watched a couple episodes of the show we have been working on for a while, collected our phones, and headed back out. We ended up getting some gelato from Cocolini and watching the fountain shows at the Bellagio for a while. Then, we headed back, got comfy, and continued watching our show before going to bed. It was a lovely way to end the night, and we felt satisfied that we made the most of our first full day in Vegas. We set our alarms to do our long runs in the morning.
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And we slept right through them. We woke up so late, again! It was clear long run would need to wait until Sunday. We got up, got dressed, and made some oatmeal for breakfast. Then, we got some lunch from Chick-Fil-A and then called an Uber to SpeedVegas, which is the track where Griffen was scheduled to drive the Aston Martin. We got there, checked in, and discovered they were having some sort of a deal, so Griffen paid a little bit more to get two more laps in. We sat through a briefing class for the drivers on how to drive the cars, and then Griffen took a couple laps with a coach to get a feel for the track and how to drive the supercars best.
After a bit of waiting, Griffen got his helmet and was off in the Aston Martin! He was almost too tall for the car, and had to sit a bit hunched with his head right up against the ceiling. Oh, well! He went off on his seven laps, and it was really cool to watch. There were a lot of really neat cars out there, and Griffen looked like a kid in a candy store. I loved to see him so happy.
After we checked out, bought Griffen's car video, and tipped John, his coach, we took an Uber back to the Bellagio. We had some great Uber drivers this weekend! We ended up chatting a lot with each one, and every ride was enjoyable.
Inside the Bellagio, we looked at the impressive botanical gardens and conservatory, and then decided to head back to our hotel to relax for a while before the Magic Show later that night.
At the hotel, I made the magical discovery that I could fit a full bottle of wine inside my Yeti tumbler cup, so I did just that, and then we ventured up to the pool on the roof. That's right--38th floor, baby. We sat in the sun, cooled off in the water, and I finished that entire Yeti cup of wine. I had my eyes on the rooftop bar, too, before Griffen reminded me of our timely obligations and we returned to the hotel room to finish an episode of our show and then head out. It was 16 minutes long, so we planned on finishing the episode and then heading out. Griffen had some oatmeal to get him through the show until we could eat some dinner.
Well, sleepy, wine-drunk Megan did not notice the episode flip over to a new episode, and neither did Griffen, so we quickly devolved from cozy cuddling time to frantically throwing on nicer clothes, touching up hair/makeup, and heading out the door. We ran the last little bit (as much as we could with the hordes of people on the Strip) and made it to the show just on time, if not a little sweaty.
After that show, it was finally time for dinner! We tried a place called Gen Korean Barbecue, where we payed $35 each to get in, and then could order whatever we wanted off of the menu until last call. It was great! We ordered a few sushi rolls, lots of meat (there was a little stovetop in the table we could cook our own meat on), edamame, gyoza, steak carpaccio, jalapeño poppers, and some other odds and ends. We were absolutely stuffed when we got done, but we sure got a great amount of value out of that flat fee.
Luckily, the barbecue place was right across the street from our hotel, so we waddled back to the room, put on stretchy pants, and watched some more of our show before I tapped out and wanted to go to sleep.
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The next morning, we only woke up an hour late, and then I dragged us both out of bed to do our runs. Griffen was able to get his all done, but I was only able to get in about 6 of my 12 miles that I was planning on doing that weekend. Oh, well.
We showered and packed up very quickly after that, because check-out was 10 AM. Luckily, the bell desk held our luggage for us so we could explore a bit more, because our flight was not set to leave until around 6:30 PM.
We ended up exploring the mall near our hotel, and had a lovely time shopping. Whenever we go shopping, we tend to get into this game of buying each other things instead of lots for ourselves, so we took turns going into "Megan" stores and "Griffen" stores to try on different things, and left with a few bags to consolidate, some new Polos, a couple pairs of shoes, and more.
After our spending adventure, we consolidated everything back into the checked bag and our backpacks, then called an Uber to the airport. From there, it was a pretty straight shot back home. We boarded our plane on time, landed, struggled to find where we parked the car, and then Griffen drove us back to Lewiston (I performed the grueling and miraculous job of staying awake the whole way back). Griffen had a pretty bad headache, so he stayed in Lewiston that night instead of continuing on to Cottonwood; He got some headache medicine, lots of water, some food, sleep, and some lavender aromatherapy before heading back in the morning.
It was a wonderful weekend! I could never spend an extended amount of time in Vegas, but being there for a few days was a great amount of time for Griffen and I, and we really had a lot of fun. It was very nice to be able to step away from all the stress of everyday life and enjoy a new environment, new activities, and each other. I hope we can take a trip like this again sometime soon; except maybe this time, it's somewhere within driving distance, and we can camp somewhere and bring our own food. I am done spending big like that for a while, ha!
The happiest of trails to you all! I hope everyone finds the adventure they need this summer.
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