Day One

Well we made it to Chris’ 50th Birthday Bash Trip!!! It has been 5 years in the making, ever since she mentioned wanting to be in Vegas for her 50th, and Marc made it happen!!!

We actually started the trip on the Wednesday prior to our flight out, with a trip into Seattle to the Moore Theatre to see our all time favorite band “Collective Soul”, who are touring their new album “Collective Soul” featuring “Welcome Home Again”. It was great to see them again, especially since we thought we would miss them, since they played Vegas on the 12th and we were leaving on the 19th. Marc was able to record and got an awesome sound track but wasn’t able to get any video due to security.

The Moore Theatre Waiting in Line

Tickets to the Best Concert of the month!!! Collective Soul in Concert!!!!

Collective Soul

So Saturday morning we got finished packing, and headed out to catch our 5:45pm flight to Las Vegas, only to get all the way to South Center and realize we forgot the camcorder. Chris took 51% of the fault on that little incident!!! So back to the apartment to fetch the camcorder and then back to the airport, but in plenty of time to catch our flight. Mom, Cory and Jill left out of SeaTac earlier in the morning to head to Hawaii, and we hope they are having a great time!!!

We finally were loaded on the plane, (half of it was small children), when the pilot came on and said we would have at least 1/2 hour wait for a mechanic to come and check our Airbus 320, Yep the same plane that went down in France, Air France flight 447. Marc being the wonderful flier he is, suggested to the stewardess, that the pilot should “Try to limp it to Vegas for repair, so we aren’t late”. They didn’t go for that, thank goodness!!! And since the air conditioner wasn’t working on aux, the pilot told us we could deplane and wait for clearance rather than sit in a hot airplane. So we got off the plane without our carry on, only to have to go back on the plane to get our carry on, because they decided instead to change planes and gates. what a pain!!!

First Gate ~ Plane on time On to the Second Gate

Yeah right!!! 1 hour late Oh No!!! Another Airbus 320!!!

No free drinks, no nothing for leaving 1 hour late. ok not horribly bad, but still a pain.

While waiting to board the second plane, Marc realized he forgot the Yuma house keys. No way to go get them, and he took 100% of the blame. So phone call to Bob, since Mom was in Hawaii playing, to find out if Vicki or Vince had a set. Bob wasn’t too sure, but thought Vicki did. So the Plan A to Z.

A. Vicki has a key…probably to easy…so on to

B. Smash out a window

C. Get a locksmith

B & C decide which one is the cheapest

there would be alot of different options between c and z, but Marc thinks Z might be the one…

Z. Get a big screwdriver and break the lock off the door handle and go to Home Depot and get a new one to replace it for $5.95.

We are just gonna get in, that’s all there is to it!!!

We met a guy on the plane that was pretty cool, (how do we know that, he told us himself…Twice!!!) He was full of stories and overall calmed Marc down for the takeoff!!! Marc did extremely well on the flight, especially with the three rum and Cokes he had during the first 15 minutes!!!

Sunset from the Plane

Sunset on the plane

We arrived in Vegas at about 9:30pm a little over an hour later than expected, went picked up our rent a car for the Yuma portion of our trip. Hooked up the GPS, (never leave home without it!!!) Got to our hotel without incident, checked in went to eat at a restaurant in the hotel and then crashed to get up for the long drive to Yuma.

Waiting for a late night dinner at Lucky’s in Vegas