Back at it...Kind of

So, I am traveling again.  Nothing as adventurous as usual, but I got on an airplane for the first time in over a year (since November 2019 to be exact) and went on another birthday adventure.  It's been a bit of a long road.

My job has been stressful for more than a few reasons.  First, I work in the travel industry...enough said. I have also been working from home for the last 13+ months too, so work is always here and in my house.  

Christie, my bestie, who has made an appearance in a few of my posts, was determined for us to get back out on the road...plane...boat...as soon as possible.  Her superhuman determination got us in to get vaccinated early on.  So, yes, I am fully vaccinated.  As soon as that shit kicked in, we were booking trips.  Oh yeah, she bought an RV...so that may make an appearance here eventually as well.

I knew it was too early to do Europe for my birthday, so I thought I'd do something easy.  Very touristy and somewhere I've never been but wanted to go.  I settled on Las Vegas.  Due to covid...it's Vegas lite.

So, there are no big shows right now and I'm not much of a gambler.  I have an old friend who lives there, so there was the chance to reconnect with her but I was looking just to get away for a bit, not to run myself ragged doing a lot of planned activities.   I booked a cabana by the pool for my actual birthday, Christie made dinner reservations, and booked three hotels so that I could have a choice. 

First choice was The Mirage with a volcano view, which would have been cool, second was The Luxor because I thought it would be cool to stay in the pyramid (I'm a huge fan of Egyptology), or Paris with an Eifel Tower view.   I decided on Paris because of the central location and the view.

Flight was direct with our friends at Southwest.  We did book flights at the butt-crack of dawn, so I was up at 5am and on the road to the airport.  Right before landing, we had some really interesting scenery...I think of the Grand Canyon.

Early flight flying west means we got in really early, got a Lyft, and were at the hotel too early for our early check-in.  So, we dropped off bags and had breakfast. 

After we were done stuffing our faces with second breakfast (we got tacos in Austin airport...as one always should) we were able to check in.  Dumped our stuff, and headed out to explore.  We poked our heads into the casino, the Miracle Mile Mall, and wandered around to acclimate ourselves.  

We went deep into the Miracle Mile Mall and got trapped by an offer of a free CBD gummy. Once trapped, we were given samples of a CBD salve for our aching backs (we're both old, OK?) that turned us into greasy handed monsters.  I had oil spots on my shirt and on the front of my pants from trying to wipe it off of my hands.   

Then, we got samples of their wrinkle-eradicating undereye cream.  That was the BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE.  It was like having super thick crusty egg whites drying on your skin.  It formed a thick, dry shell under my eyes that took forever for me to remove and caused some serious damage to that delicate area.  I had a red spot that wouldn't go away for days.  

All the unaccustomed to walking hurt our feet. so we got expensive pedicures (Christi got a mani too).  I opted for the paraffin, which made my arthritic foot happy. 

So first pedicure in over a year!  Then, it was dinnertime!

I forgot to take a picture of the shrimp tacos...they were delicious! Back to the room and found that, since our room faced the strip, bright yellow lights shone right in the window.  Made it really hard to capture the great view.

There is a bit of a glare from the lights, but you can see we got a good view of the pool, Eifel Tower, and the fountain at the Bellagio across the street. 

The next day (yes, I'm combining things here) was a shopping day at the North Outlets.  There are two outlet malls, both run by the same outlet mall chain.  One on the north side of the city, one on the south.  Our Uber driver to the mall was the best one we had the whole trip.  He was from Boston (no mistaking *that* accent), drove like he was from the East Coast, and yelled at other drivers.  "People out here have no idea how to merge...they're all on their damn phones!"

We mostly went purse and shoe shopping.  No shoes, but I got a little black Coach purse and found out that I got a birthday discount...YAY me!   

Then we hit the Disney Outlet.  Oh boy...we went a bit nuts!  Apparently, with Disneyland being closed most of last year, there is a lot of good park merchandise that went unsold.  It's all in the outlets.  I've been eyeing Haunted Mansion leggings for awhile now, but didn't want to drop 40 bucks for them.  They had them for 15 dollars, so I snagged 2 pair.  Plus a matching t-shirt.  And a pair of park themed leggings and a matching shirt.  Oh, and an Alice in Wonderland themed shirt...and 2 packs of 4 masks...and a thermal mug for 98 cents.  It was *dangerous* in there.  Hey, but I spent about half of what Christi did...so there is that.  Although, she didn't find a purse, so our total spent that day was close to the same. 

The Uber driver on the way back was not quite as entertaining.  He just asked if the AC was high enough for us and was pretty quiet the rest of the way.  Until we got to our hotel.  Apparently, the entrance to Paris is a magnet for idiot pedestrians.  This would be the first time we saw a pedestrian stand still in front of a vehicle challenging it to run them over.  THAT got a reaction from our driver.  

The next day was to be slow, relaxing day...or so Christi thought.