Shimmery

Hey - Vegas went really well... not nearly as scary as I was expecting. Not to say the trip didn't have its moments (ha ha). I took lots of pictures so bare with me as I share the story! :)Here I am driving to the airport. I was a bit nervous!

The whole airport adventure was ok... I was a bit late so as I finally get through security I went up to the display screen to see if my gate had changed, nope still on the complete end of the gates. Of 32 gates I needed to get to gate 32! . Suddenly next to my flight "BOARDING" began to flash! Of course the gate I needed was on the other end of the airport at that moment. I just began to speed walk! I made it just in time, and as it was an open seating flight I had to find a seat quickly. The first seat that catches my eye had a super grumpy looking lady next to it so I kept looking. Suddenly I see a nice looking black guy and his 4-5 year old daughter. I think, "Yeah that is a nice place to sit". I ask if I can an he is very polite and inviting. Turns out his wife and his two sons were on my other side across the isle. It was like being with my family. It was a really sweet place to be. :)

I arrive to the airport and take a taxi to the hotel. Turns out I'm on the 29th of 30 floors!This is my view of Sirens Cove, the pirate boat show! (I am zoomed in a little)

Once I'm all settled in at Treasure Island I've pack up what I need to get by (no use in carting all sorts of things around unnecessarily in that heat!) I head out to tour The Venetian for our meeting area for the seminar. I go to the front and check in with them, explaining my situation, asking if I can tour the meeting room, or speak with banquets to make sure everything is ready for the following morning. The woman was less then helpful. She didn't know anything, but soon reluctantly got on the phone to find out. All I was able to get from her was that I was in room number ### (you don't need the real number) in the lower level. So I start walking, and what a distance it was! From the lobby, you walk through the casino (its a distance) past the blue man group theater, down a long hall way with lots of other hallways, down another long hallway, down an escalator, down another long hallway and down yet another long hallway... a good 7-10 minute walk! For the past 5 minutes there has been no people around, just big empty space. Once I am finally on the last hallway a huge siren begins to ring! A voice came on the loud speaker saying something like "This is the first alert system, to keep us on alert at the first moments of a possible problem, stay alert." or something equally frightening, repeating over and over, with a loud siren between them. I find the room and quickly begin making my way towards people to find out what is going on. Suddenly across one of the great hallways I see a security guard just standing there. I approach her and she doesn't even seem to notice the alarm, saying that she actually works in another adjoining casino. Ok lady, whatever! So I continue back to where I came from. As I reached the casino, the siren stopped, nothing ever really came from it.Here is the sunset heading back towards Treasure Island.

My camera phone doesn't do it justice. I head back to the hotel for a good night sleep, knowing I'd have to be up and awake and functional - quite early! I needed to be showered, dressed (nicely) and fed and caffeinated and down to the meeting room by 7:15am. That night I learned I wasn't high enough to miss the show downstairs! At around 10pm the Sirens Cove show started below me. At first it was a low rumble of small explosions and sort of a jungle-y type music. Then a big explosion and a bright flash of light outside my window. I jump up to see what it was and realize it was fire works. Luckily (ha) for me the show came every 20 minutes at least til midnight - perhaps later. Here are some sort of lame photos of the show from my room.This the the trail of smoke left after the big fireworks that went up past my window!

It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either! I did fall asleep somewhere around midnight. Got up at 6am and made the "lovely" trek. After getting in black slacks and high heels, and lugging a heavy HEAVY laptop case I walked down my hall way, down an elevator, through the casino, to the lobby, out the door, around the building, across the street, up an escalator, across an over pass, down another escalator, through the casino, to the Grand Lux Cafe to get a coffee and bagel, back across the casino, then through the whole ordeal I mentioned before (from the day before - empty halls forever!) At the second to last hallway I have to go the opposite direction to the package center and pick up a 16lbs box and try and balance that with the laptop case and a hot (burning me) cup of coffee down the last two halls. Keep in mind that even at 6:45am it was still already 86 degrees outside. I survived! :)

Here is a view of the last hallway from where I set up registration for the seminar.
Trust me! It's a distance! Registration went pretty good, very mellow, handled all the small problems that raised.

Here I am inside the Seminar.

And here is my view of the Seminar. (This is only a portion of the attendees)

When I got back to the hotel I decided to take some photos of my hotel room. Seriously the most comphy hotel bed I've ever been in!

Cute little desk area.

Cute sitting area near the floor to ceiling window.

This the the view from window from a distance back.

I thought this was Too Cool! The tray came out almost good foot! Then it can go right back into the cabinet and be hidden! I was impressed! :)


At this point I just started to relax and watch TV. Suddenly all these weather warnings that a severe thunder/lightening storm was approaching, flash flood warnings were being issued, and I was laughing. I mean look outside, does it looks stormy out there? It was at least 99 degrees outside! Suddenly as I was talking on the phone with my friend Lily and I am watching a construction crew across the street, using a giant crane to place a large piece of a building and suddenly a wind picks up and it starts spinning the piece around in the air only feet away from the building - well then it happened the piece hit the building repeatedly. Oops! After a few more minutes I get off the phone with Lily and continue peering outside. After a few more minutes I notice a big dust storm picking up down at the base of the building across the street. The dust just got bigger and darker and eventually the entire city was under a dusty hue. The storm was moving in.

Just a few minutes later!
Yet again only minutes later!
It was pretty crazy! I worried a little about the possibility of my flight being delayed the next day, but it all cleared up and there was no problems! :)

Over all I really do think it was a fun trip, I learned a lot about my job, and gained a bit more confidence! :) I really do appreciate that I get to have this sort of opportunity with my job! Not many people get to travel to fun cities and have it all paid for!

Hope you enjoyed my little scrapbook story!

Thanks for Reading,
Kela