100% Over Stimulation

The reason for going to Vegas on vacation (planned 5 days before leaving) was for warmth and sun - and we received both items! YAHOO!! :o)

The day we flew in (Monday the 26th) on a bumpy ride into Las Vegas (which sounds like others had a bumpy ride too) we arrived at the MGM Grand and were hungry. Well, we ended up eating at a very expensive Chinese restaurant within the hotel. It was really good food, but way more than we wanted to spend. (AND they corrected me with using the wrong spoon for the soup!) We crashed early this night.....(I was so extremely tired having had taken motion sickness medicine!) (oh and did I say that you can hear everything in this hotel? EVERYTHING! Anyone talking in the hallways, the people next door, etc.? Upon arrival the door next to us (room 312) had a sign on it that said "Club 312!" - they played some hip hop type music and talked some of the night.....PLUS the helicopters, sirens....it was crazy - like I'm saying..... 24/7 OVER stimulation!

Tuesday we got up and moving around 9:30am and went to the Rainforest Cafe for breakfast. We didn't want any gut bomb breakfast so ordered some oatmeal. (Wait, I forgot to mention......no coffee pots in the rooms - so we had to 1) order coffee out at the restaurant and/or buy it). Well.....now we have another issue - Randi is a complete coffee snob and has a very sensitive stomach - AND head (ugh) as I cannot have palm oil (in most creamers) and I *need* enough coffee to not give me a headache......(now if that doesn't show you how much 1 cup of coffee can control a person!) I ended up getting Starbucks coffee 3 of the mornings and 1 morning trying to drink regular coffee....with lots of non-dairy, non-palm oil infested creamer and LOTS of sugar..... After the breakfast and yummy fruit....we piddled around - wandered around. We headed down the strip (we were on the North end) and we walked through every hotel, casino along the way all the way to the South end (Treasure Island) for a free show at 7:00pm. Well, the show was cancelled due to high winds! So, we made our trek back......in hopes of catching the Bellagio's dancing waters at night.......they too, were cancelled due to high winds - nice huh? Oh well, we got lots of exercise, got to see lots......and it was warm! :o) (and by the way, at this point we still hadn't lost any money we gambled!) :o) (and we stayed up almost till 12am!)

Wednesday we had planned on laying out by the pool and just relaxing. It wasn't all that warm for pool laying...the wind was blowing, the sun would come and go.....so we literally laid out for 1 hour and I was done. We were going to head to Freemont Street to see the light show that night - but decided to just stay close to home and hang out. We had a blast just chillin'.

Thursday we got up a bit later and wandered this time using the Monorail and seeing a few different hotels. Well.....what we then decided is that for the time it takes us to get to the monorail station at each hotel, and then to walk to the hotel destination - we could've walked there in the amount of time! (we ended up walking back!) It was fun to see some new sights though.......Thursday night we saw KA' by Cirque de Soleli - absolutely amazing, astounding, and we were 4 rows from the front. It was crazy and amazing what people can do. We packed up Thursday night......

Friday at 5:00am came TOO early and we showered the night before so we could just pack up and go.......and we did just so. When we walked downstairs to catch the shuttle I said to K "Did these people get up way early or did they stay up all night?!" She said "probably a bit of both!" there were LOTS of people and it was 5:30 AM!! We had a smooth flight home and then caught the shuttle back to the Red Lion in Portland and then made the trek for home and got home about 3:30pm. (Bless K's heart as she drove all the way to Vancouver - and drove 98% of the way home due to my stress issues and motion sickness sleepyness) AND for those who know me - KNOW I don't sleep in cars :o)

Today we started our laundry, planted our garden (Onions were planted awhile back, rhubarb is growing like crazy (anyone local want some?), corn, cucumbers, our raspberries are going to go crazy this year, carrots and last will be beans! I made some dinner for Jenae and family (lasagna) and visited with them for a little bit. She absolutely amazes me. She's moving around pretty well (having just had a C-Section on Wednesday).

I am so thankful we got a few days to recoup before having to go back to work.

A few things I learned over vacation:

1) I hate flying. It stresses me out to no end. I just hate it.
2) Unschooling makes 100% sense - not only to me - but to my partner also :o)

With that.....I'll sign off.
Randi