The Desert Oasis - My April trip

Thursday I drove up to Las Vegas from Tucson around 4pm, and made it there a little after my friend Tiffany's plane was supposed to arrive....but with all the storms in Atlanta, her plane was delayed til 1AM. Tiff's from Virginia...So we didn't do much Thursday other than wander around the Luxor casino looking for my friend David, who is a pit boss at the craps tables there.

We checked into Bally's and watched American Beauty in the morning there. Bally's is in a great location, close to Paris, Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, the Flamingo Hilton, and the Mirage. While we were there, they were featuring George Carlin and their regular showgirl-show, Jubilee. We nearly got tickets to Jubilee, but we were really pressed for time.

Friday we went out to Caesar's Palace and its Forum of Shops, and had lunch at Planet Hollywood. We then drove out to the Las Vegas Hilton and saw the Star Trek Experience, which is REALLY cool.

Very virtual reality stuff. We missed out on meeting two klingon women from the TV Series (the Jura's sisters??) by one day. Oh well. We almost got our picture taken with a Klingon, but settled for Elvis instead. He saw me in Caesar's and said "Cmere darlin', I've been waitin' here for you all day!". Ha :). I hope it came out well.

We headed back to the hotel and changed for the evening. She borrowed one of my outfits, a short black dress that has a lining that makes it look see-thru...I wore this short purple slipdress. Off we went to MGM Grand to see Penn & Teller. The show was great, the two of them are terrific showmen. Anyway......they wheeled out this wooden board with a woman's silhouette on it. They had just picked a volunteer from the audience earlier, and she had been sitting right in front of us. Naturally Penn came right up to us, and asked us how tall we were. Since I was 5' 7" and she's 5' 10", he picked me and took me up on stage in front of 800 people. I was shaking with adrenalin. Teller spoke to me for a moment and moved me over to the board. I had to stand with one arm up in the air, the other on my hip while they were planning to throw knives at me. At the last moment, they decided to blindfold me....I heard three THUD noises - as it turned out, one of them was walking up to the board and pushing a knife into it, I was never in danger. It was basically a big joke on me :). Afterwards they pretended it had all been done with big magnets, and asked me if I believed that. Ha... Anyway, next they said, well, if you don't believe that's how it works, we'll let YOU throw some knives. So I stood in the middle of the stage and they handed me a knife....then decided to blindfold me again! Tiff tells me they had about 1 second free, which they used to replace my knife with one that had a fishing line attached to it. I threw the first one, and when I looked, the knife was right under Penn's arm. The second I threw landed between his legs, and he gave me some funny remark about seeing me look down there first :). I threw the first one, and when I looked, the knife was right under Penn's arm. The second I threw landed between his legs, and he gave me some funny remark about seeing me look down there first :). The last knife made a different "thud" sound, so I looked and saw Penn standing there looking shocked, with a fake knife in his chest, fake blood everywhere....we all got a big round of applause. So I went back to my seat, shook hands with Penn & Teller, and we met Penn & Teller after the show and had photos taken with them, they were really sweet.

Afterwards we went dancing at Studio 54, which is a high-energy, 3-story fancy dance club at the MGM Grand. They charge $20 cover, but they let us in for free. Not a bad deal, huh! Our friend Leigh, who pilots the Monster.Com blimp, met us there, and he had to pay to get in.... We danced until about 12:15 - the club has hired dancers on stages, on swings, platforms, the works. There was even an entire wedding party there that evening!

Us at Studio 54

We took a quick ride out to North Las Vegas afterwards to see the Monster.Com blimp, which is pretty impressive. The cabin, though, is really small, not unlike being inside a car. The winds picked up and reached about 40mph, blowing us all around the landing pad area. Eventually we made a run for the car, drove back to Vegas, and found my friend David at Luxor. He gave us free dinner passes (it was 2am!)....

Me inside the Monster!

Saturday we rode the loop coaster at New York New York, saw the outdoor Pirate show at Treasure Island, took pictures in front of the volcano at the Mirage, went to the Fashion Show Mall, saw Evening at La Cage at the Riviera casino, saw Fantasia 2000 at Luxor, gambled (and lost!) a little, and were exhausted by night's end!

We got to the elevators at Bally's and this flight attendant from Northwest Airlines tried to pick us up! We'd been getting hit on and turning heads all weekend, but this fellow took the cake. He walked by us, turned, walked back and asked if we were up for some expensive wine and good conversation out at the casino pool. Tiff had about had it, and my feet were killing me. I told him we'd be at the pool in the morning (knowing he had to leave Vegas at 6am). We did go out there the next morning; I got a fairly nice tan lying out by the jacuzzi. Finally I left Vegas at noon; Tiff stayed until about 9pm.

Megan and I made spaghetti and watched Quantum Leap in her apartment, then I drove home. We're getting to be like sisters.

I caught my flight to Portland, where Megan and I had a GREAT time. We visited Multnomah Waterfalls (over 600 feet high) and drove along the coast and the Columbia river. They are soooo beautiful!! It was freezing and rainy for much of the time I was there, but the views up in the northwest are just incredible. Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mount Rainier were just spectacular! Tuesday afternoon we met up with our friend Gary, who is also from Phoenix but has roots in Washington, and headed north to Seattle.
	We saw the Mariners play the Indians Tuesday night at SafeCo field, then stayed just a few blocks from the Space Needle. Took a ride in the Needle Wednesday; I had never been there (or to Seattle at all!) before. What a great view! We had clam chowder on the waterfront, then drove back to Portland (3 hours), and flew back to Phoenix.