2008 GNI - Vegas Opening Day

March 27 - The day dawned bright and beautiful - eventually - as it was still dark at 4am when JR and I picked up Anne and Aileen to go to the airport. JR had a flight to Chicago at 6am which was only 20 mins before our flight, so we decided to all go together. JR would meet up with Anne and Aileen on Sunday and take them home while I stayed an extra day to hang out with Angela. Anne, Aileen and I must have picked the "starter" TSA line as it seemed to take an iterminable amount of time to go through the puffer. We emerged on the other side unscathed and found our gate. The plane was full of vibrant lively people considering the hour and our flight was pleasant. I had plenty of free drink tickets, but it took us a while to decide we wanted a drink. Anne was sitting nearest the window, Aileen in the middle and I took the "elbow" seat - you know, the one the cart always bumps (see The Wedding Singer for more explanation). Since I was on the aisle, I was able to overhear different conversations and it seemed the group of more tenured ladies sitting around us were having a good time. We started talking to them and found out they are part of a senior ladies tennis tournament and we shared info about our different reasons for visiting vegas and favorite locations. The ladies remarked that they couldn't believe all 3 of us had ordered water at the first go round when I had so many drink tickets. I gave them some of mine and thy vowed to use them on the way back. After landing and going to the place one goes immediately upon landing - that would be the restroom - we overhead the women remarking about me giving them the tickets and how nice that was. Since we were on our way to wreak havoc on the city, it was nice to know it started out with an appreciated gesture.

We waited in one of the restaurants for the arrival of Susan's plane and then Angela's plane and then bustled ourselves into a limo (what you thought we wouldn't go first class?) and dropped our luggage off at the hotel - Residence Inn 2 bedroom suite - and had the driver drop us off at the Hilton where the girls got a little tutoring on slot machines. Some of us lost and some of us won, but we thoroughly enjoyed the process.

The Hilton is the home of the Star Trek Experience and we wasted no time once the store and restaurant were open to explore new life and civilizations, er sorry, to shop and gawk at the plethora of merchandise. Also, there were ferengi and borg walking around to play with, so of course, we did. I believe his words were "female human tall" in a very snarky voice - very ferengi. I tried to stop Aileen from assimilating with the Borg, but as they say "resistence is futile". There is an enormous amount of memorabelia and a timeline to help tie in all the startrek series and movies.

We experienced the 2 interactive rides - one a Borg invasion and the other a Klingon encounter - and had a blast - pun intended. The woman tending the line of the ride was an ex-showgirl and we revelled in hearing her stories of Vegas and travel abroad. It's nice to know that when I'm around 60, yes she was around 60 and looked amazing - I can go work in Vegas. We had lunch at Quarks Bar where the fare is basic, but has cool star trek names. My co-worker from San Diego, Colleen, met us for lunch and we all had a wonderful time.

We then wandered across the street to the Riviera Hotel and picked up our tickets to La Cage - a wonderful drag show. Frank Marino, who plays Joan Rivers and introduces all the girls was on Miss Congeniality 2. Before we went up to the show, we stopped at the Italian Restaurant and had appetizers and dessert with some wine and coffee. While we were there, actors from the Soprano's Last Supper came over and interacted with us - it was a hoot. Thanks to Aileen's newfound Soprano's knowledge, we were able to play with them.

After the show, we cabbed it to the Belaggio where the girls got their first taste of 'classy' Vegas. Then we walked down the strip to the MGM and waited for the shuttle to take us our rooms so that we can have a good night's sleep and prepare for the next days activities.

Nighty Night!