Las Vegas

This morning we got up bright and early!

Met our bus and set out on our way to the Hoover Dam.

We were, by far, the youngest in the tour group. Our guide was good and not too terribly cheesy!






Upon arrival at Hoover Dam we went on a tour. Which was very informative and riddled with bad jokes using the word “Dam”

It was hard to comprehend how the dam was built back in that time. They did not have the technology or knowledge that we now have. It amazes me that it’s still there today (and working)!

And the new bridge they are building nearby is also a mind boggling feat!
















Time for the signature pose

Now that's a damn fine photo!





It’s funny because people always offer to take our photo and then we have to politely explain that we don’t want help – it’s a tradition.

Look at how much the water table has gotten (the white part of the rocks)

Next on the tour was Lake Mead

We then boarded a riverboat to go on a tour of Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam from the water.

Very interesting. And again, just can’t believe how low the water has gotten.

The colors were amazing. Actually, the photos don’t do it justice.

On the ride back to ‘port’ I think we both blacked out for a bit.
Just a long, long day!

Next stop was some cactus garden / chocolate factory / M&M Store. We had zero interest. Dave used the bathroom while I walked around and looked at cacti.

Thru out the day, we kept our composure as the ‘older folks’ on the tour said funny stuff. But we both lost it when sitting at a traffic light and one of the ladies behind us actually thought she had spotted an “original” McDonald’s.

Where the hell does she live that she has never seen one of these?






Once back at the hotel, we took a nice nap.

Later that evening, we decided to take a cab downtown to Freemont Street.

Where Dave managed to hit it big AGAIN!

The display they do on Freemont Street every hour is always so cool.

We stayed for a few hours and did very well.
After another video display, we decided to head home.

Our cab driver was really nice. Got to talking and she too grew up in Fort Myers.
We had hoped she would take us to In & Out Burger, but it was after midnight and they were closed.

So we wandered around back on the strip looking for a place to eat.
We ended up somewhere and had breakfast around 2am. We were so incredibly game over!

Las Vegas

This morning we headed down for coffee and a bagel on our way to the pool. The pool opens at 9am, but if you are not in line by 8:40, it’s next to impossible to get a chair.

New rule. No food or drinks allowed in pool area.
What?

As people were turned away, word got around that if you had the receipt proving you bought it in the hotel, you could enter with it.

So Dave ran back to the café and found a receipt that matched our order and ran back. He got there just as I was to the front of the line. Whew!

We got okay chairs. They were shaded by a tree for the first 45 mins, but they would do.

We sat there all morning.

In the afternoon, Otto picked us up for lunch at Chipotle.

Upon returning to the hotel, Dave napped and I went back to the pool.

Otto had gotten us tickets to see “Human Nature”. So we went to see them that evening at the Imperial Palace.

They are four Australian white guys celebrating Motown. They were really, really good!

We gambled for a while and then decided to head over to Bally’s for our favorite Vegas meal – The Gobbler!

A friend of ours had recently been to Vegas and had reported back that he never found place that sold “The Gobbler” – but we were hopeful.

Unfortunately, the place still existed, but new menu. And it was closed.
Dejected, Dave posed for this photo.

Dave made a couple hundred bucks off Bally’s and then we high tailed it out of there! They took The Gobbler from us, he won money, I was not about to let them take it back!!

We headed across the street to the Bellagio and had a great dinner at their deli. Not “The Gobbler” – but good.

We gambled there for awhile and did pretty good.

They had an amazing tulip exhibit going on, so I spent some time taking it all in.

  

We headed outside to watch the water show.

While waiting, we posed for our signature shot.

After the water show, we headed “home”

Have to get up early tomorrow for our damn tour!

Columbus > Las Vegas

April 25th


A few weeks ago Dave had me pick out a day trip for our Vegas Vacation – he “knew a guy”. On our numerous trips there, I have always wanted to go to the Hoover Dam or to see the Grand Canyon, however, gambling seems to always prevail.

So I chose a Hoover Dam trip mainly because the tour bus picked us up at 8am and the tour only lasted 7 hours. The Grand Canyon tour bus left at 6am and was like 14 hours.

Since we were only there for 3.5 days, I didn’t want 1 of them spent on a bus.

Anyway…. The whole picking out a trip thing seemed a tad suspicious. When I picked the trip and he booked it, I asked him to please forward me the receipt so I could put it in our travel file. A few days later he sent me this lame letter:
“Mr. ____, this email is confirm that you have booked a Hoover Dam Tour for and a guest on April 27th.”

I shook my head and wondered what Dave was up to. I was expecting a receipt, but whatever. I had too much going on at the time to deal with it.

He had also volunteered to arrange for the airport transfers – something I always pre-arrange. But since he knew I was swamped, he volunteered to do it.
Who is this man?

Fast forward to today….
Our flight out to Vegas was good. We went on Southwest and we of course packed in like sardines. But I kept a good attitude.

While approaching the baggage claim area, Dave went up to some random guy and started talking to him. Then he came back over to where I was standing. I asked him if he knew the guy and Dave said, “No, he had a Cavs shirt on, so I asked him what the score was”

A few minutes later the bags started to come out on the other side of the belt, so I started to walk around to that side. I thought Dave had followed me. As I struggled with dragging the bags off the belt, I look up to find Dave talking to this guy again.

He came over and said, “Hey this guy I was just talking to has offered to take us to the hotel – he has to go right past the Flamingo anyway”
WHAT?

And Dave had me, I couldn’t pitch the fit I wanted to pitch because the guy was standing right there. My mind was swirling! Is Dave REALLY this stupid? Is he really putting both our lives in jeopardy because some guy was hanging out at the airport wearing a Cavs shirt?

I just stood there dumbfounded, trying to come up with a polite way to say no thank you. Regretting the fact that I ever let Dave “help” with our vacation plans. I was just so freaking scared and outraged that I looked at him with daggers and said, “Whatever!”

And then he lost it. Apparently he was expecting a total fit and I failed the test.
He started laughing and said, “I can’t go on with this. This is Otto, we were roommates in the Air Force. He lives here. He is the guy who arranged the Dam tour for us. He is here to pick us up.”

I was so relieved and angry and surprised that I am not sure what I said.

As we walked to the parking garage, I was still unsure what was true and what was not. Did Dave really know this guy? Or did he know I was upset and quickly make up this story?

Upon getting to his car, he opened the trunk and in it was a giant cooler filled with Miller Lite and bottles of wine. Which was awesome! It was at that point, I knew this was not a stranger. Dave had indeed arranged this.

Although I was still in a state of shock, I was starting to relax a little.

Otto drove us to the hotel and helped bring our bags up to the room. Him and Dave went down to the bar to finish watching the Cavs game. I went down to the pool for an umbrella drink and to relax a little. My head was still spinning

A few hours later I went up to the room and the boys were there hanging out in our room.

We decided to head out for some gambling and dinner….
The gambling wasn’t working out so well, so we settled on dinner.

Otto works for Vegas.com; that’s how he got us the tickets for the tour. And why there was not a real ‘receipt’ – just the silly email confirmation. All the pieces to the puzzle were coming together.

After dinner we walked around a bit more and then called it a night.

What a day!

Hartford, CT

April 22nd – 24th


Warrior Lacrosse Classic - ESPNU
Denver vs Fairfield and UMass vs Georgetown

Where is that "A" coming from?







On Thursday afternoon, my flight from Columbus to Detroit was delayed. We sat on the ground in Columbus for 2 hours – all just to take a 28 minute flight!

Missed my connection, but there was another flight shortly after.

Upon checking in at the Crowne Plaza, I asked if the shuttle drive could take me to Morton’s at 7:30pm. “Sure, no problem”

I really dislike this hotel. I have stayed here a couple times and it is just a glorified Holiday Inn. (Which in reality, it is since Crowne Plaza is owned by Holiday Inn) The rooms are dumpy and dark and the customer service is lacking.

I got settled and was downstairs by 7:30 to catch the shuttle for dinner.

Didn’t see the driver so I went over to the front desk and inquired.

Well, the driver didn’t show up for work today so the shuttle wouldn’t be running. Then why was I told upon check in that the driver WOULD take me?

I went around in circles for a few minutes with the front desk girl and then gave up and told her to call me a cab.

Seriously, this was stupid. Any other hotel, the manager would of driven the shuttle.

Waited and waited and waited. Around 7:45 a cab showed up. I don’t think it was mine, but I took it anyway.

Morton’s is only about 10 blocks away. But from this hotel I have to cross a rather busy street and after dark, downtown Hartford is crawling with panhandlers.

I sat in the bar at Morton’s and the waitress came right over and apologized because my “usual table” was not available tonight. She then confirmed that I wanted my usual drink and dinner items. Wow. This is why I love Morton’s! Such service! I go to that one maybe 3 times a year?

I decided to just walk back to the hotel. Figured the walk would do me good since I had just eaten so much. And of course I was approached twice by panhandlers.

Friday morning, I went downstairs to breakfast. Had a coupon for a free buffet, so why not? Oh dear God, what a pathetic excuse for a breakfast buffet that was! To make matters worse, the omelet they served me was bubbling with raw egg.

All bad! And the servers were less than accommodating.

When I went back up to my room, housekeeping was inside.
WHAT?

I had left my “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door.

I was beyond furious and started yelling because I had left my laptop on the bed – it was downloading graphics for work and even the slightest bump can interrupt the download and I have to start over.

Not only had they entered my room uninvited, they had moved the laptop and hard drive so they could make the bed.

Of course they pretended “No Engles” – but they knew I was pissed and I escorted them out. I immediately called for the front desk and let loose. I was given a weak apology and a promise to “look into it” – the Housekeeping Supervisor would be calling me.

Once I was ready for work, I went down downstairs and asked for the manager. I again pleaded my case and was again pretty much blown off.
This only enraged me more!

Met up with Stephanie and we went to work.

Set day was good. Nice to be back to lacrosse again.

That evening I stayed in. Saturday was going to be a long day – so I needed my rest!
Plus I had two projects I was working on; Red White & Boom and one for WOSU.

The games were being played at Rentschler Field – where UConn plays football.

After the games, I rushed to the airport as I could not miss my flight. It was the last one that would get me home and tomorrow Dave and I are headed on another adventure!

Columbus > Louisville

April 20th – 21st

Syracuse vs Louisville Softball - ESPNU

Drove down to Louisville Tuesday morning – I had a half set day because we have a double header tomorrow.

The truck had to park on a busy street – eek! I always hate that. Feels like at any moment we will get rear ended!

Set day went well. My friend, Alex was the AP, so of course he was very prepared.






The hotel we stayed in was very strange. Well not so much strange as gigantic!  The Galt House is the largest hotel in Kentucky with 1,290 rooms.

I didn’t do anything on Tuesday night – I was so exhausted still from the NYC trip. So I just ordered room service and tucked in early.

Nothing really to report about the games on Wednesday.
The Cardinals won both games.

New York City > Columbus

I had left the Coney Island trip in Dave’s hands - He had looked about a month ago and had seen that it was open on weekends and starting on April 12th it would open daily.

Saturday, after I had gone to work, he spoke to our new friend, Omar, and got all the info on the best subways/trains to get there.

Last night before going to bed, I had him look again to see what time they opened. That is when there was MAJOR trauma!

When he had done his initial research, he didn’t notice that it said, “Open daily the week of April 12th” – NYC Spring Break. What he “saw” was “Open daily starting April 12th”

So we debated still going just to see it and have a Nathans Hot Dog, even though we couldn’t ride the Cyclone. Nope, he didn’t want to go.

Hmm… what are we going to do then?
Our NYC Passes expired, so any attraction we went to would cost full price.

He mentioned wanting to go on an actual train (to this point we had only been on subways) and he wouldn’t mind going to see Yankee Stadium.

So I got online and after numerous tries with the terrible Yankees website, I was able to get us tickets to the Yankee Stadium Tour.

Okay, flash forward to this morning…

Here are some pics of our view:

We had our free breakfast downstairs, then came back up to pack.

Left our bags with Omar and set out on our final day in the city.

Took the 4 up to the Bronx.

We had over an hour before the tour started, so we walked around a bit. Mainly to look at old Yankee Stadium.

After talking to a guy also taking in the sights, we had just missed a section of it coming down. It was imploded about 10 minutes prior to us arriving.





Dave really enjoyed looking at the ruins of the stadium. His years of hating the Yankees were set aside to take in the nostalgia.

Me… well anyone who knows me, knows how I feel about major league baseball. But I will admit it was pretty cool to have the old stadium to the left and the new one to the right. I might hate the MLB, but I do appreciate what I was fortunate enough to see in person.

So out with the old and in with the new!

We still had some time to kill so we walked around the outside of the stadium. Figured out where the TV trucks parked and geeky stuff like that.

Then we came across this sign on the parking garage that is attached to the stadium

Wow! That is confidence in your team!

The parking rates for playoffs and World Series are on their permanent signage!

We had a good laugh about that one. After years of living with losing teams, it’s just unimaginable to us to have signs like that.




Our tour was really cool! Really cool.

One of the first stops was the Yankee museum. Which had tons of memorabilia. From seats and tickets over the years, to signed balls and just a few trophies.

Then we went to Monument Park that is in the outfield.

The view from there was awesome!

We made various other stops around the park. And then we went into the Yankee dugout.

Another great view!

Dave hanging out like a player

And his dislike for the team

Ok, now that’s better

Next we got to see the indoor bullpen and the Clubhouse.

However, no photos were allowed. They even made us put all cell phones and cameras in our pockets. The second someone got out a phone, they were told to put it away.

The Clubhouse was pretty cool!

After the tour we sat outside the stadium on the plaza and just soaked it all in.

Next, we decided to ride the 4 to end of the line. Dave wanted to see some ghetto.

While waiting for the train, I got this shot of Dave on the platform with the old stadium in the background.

And new stadium

Well what we saw was scary enough for us, but we knew it was not really the ghetto!

And I proceeded to fall asleep on the ride.

On the way back, I am pretty sure I was not the only one that nodded off.

We switched trains like absolute pros and headed back to Grand Central Station.

Our day was coming to a close. We would soon have to head back to the Hilton and then on to the airport.

But we spent our last moments taking in the sights of Grand Central Station.

It took a while for me to decide where to get lunch from. Shocking, but true.

I did find one little piece of gold… a perfect way to end our trip.

A black and white cookie!







We ventured back to the hotel to retrieve our bags and wait for the car service.

Before we knew it we were back at LaGuardia, thru security and in the Delta SkyClub.

Flight home was just fine.

Exhausting couple of days, but we sure packed a lot in!