Due to the unrelenting stares of Hartman and Cousin Alissa, I proudly present:

The Griswold Family Vegas Vacation!


Not to worry, this was nothing like the Griswold Family Christmas Cruise! Though there were a couple of close calls... which I will divulge in due time.
As you can see in the photo above, we were living the high roller life! Why?

Mom hit the jackpot on the penny machines! Woooo! Oh... wait a minute... wrong photo...


Ok, here's the right pic! Wooooooohooo! hehehe. Hey, not bad Mom. Not bad at all!

So we hopped in our Limo stocked specifically for me (for those of you who don't know: I'm a total coke addict).

We arrived at our final destination:


The Top of the World Restaurant at the Stratosphere!

The view was awesome. The meal was awesome. My family is awesome. You know what turned out not to be so awesome? Well, for me at least?

The restaurant rotates so everybody eventually gets to see the strip. It goes very slow. It takes more than an hour to do a full rotation. Nobody even feels it.... well.... almost nobody...


This is what it felt like to me! haha. The older I get the more sensitive to motion I become. Dave and I ate at this restaurant years ago for our anniversary and it didn't bother me a bit!

Not to worry, this was no Discovery Christmas Cruise. I just took a couple of five minute breaks away from the rotation and all was well. Phew! Until..... we tried to leave.


You see, the night was still young for us high rollers. We had 6 tickets to see the Blue Man Group after dinner. However, there were only 2 or 3 elevators that seemed to be in use taking people up and down the however-many-stories (like 80 or something) and there were always full when they came to our floor! I eventually asked a worker if they could get us an elevator:

Worker: No...

Me: Well, isn't there a service elevator or something we could please use? We are going to miss our show because we can't leave the restaurant.

Worker: No... sorry....

So, the next elevator that opened, I stuck my foot in the door so it couldn't leave and asked the elevator operator to please help us.

Me: Please, we've been trying to leave for nearly 30 minutes. We're going to miss the Blue Man Group.

Elevator Girl: No, sorry. I don't know.

Me: There has to be someone you can call. Could we take a service elevator?

I apologized to the people on the elevator I was holding up, but hey, we were not going to miss the Blue Man Group over this! The standoff ended peacefully with the Elevator Girl calling an elevator for us.

What greeted us at the base of the Stratosphere was--- a line for a cab! We were going to take the monorail, but we used up all of our time trying to negotiate our way back down to earth. It was 15 minutes till showtime when one of our cabs was available. I handed out the BMG tickets and dispatched Dave, Mom and Dad in the first cab.

Me: Don't wait for us. We'll catch up!

Minutes later, John, Olivia and I hopped in our cab. It was 10 till. How on earth were we going to make it?? I'm sure the cabbie appreciated the clock play by play. "Oh no, 9 minutes! 8! 7! 6! 5!"

When we arrived there was 4 or 5 minutes till showtime! And you know how Vegas is. You arrive at a hotel and you have to walk a mile in it to get to where you need to be.

We flew through the front door. Olivia and I shared a look:

Olivia: I've been training my whole life for this!

The whole world moved in slow motion.

Chariots of Fire began to play.

I think we passed a Cheetah racing through the casino.

We were giddy with laughter, actually, running through the Venetian like crazy people. We caught up and passed by Mom and Dad and Dave.

We arrived safely in our great seats to the Blue Man Group!

The show rocked!! One of the Blue men was stalking John after the show!
Ok. So you know how Hartman was staring at me until I wrote something about the big trip? Well, now she's staring at me telling me I need to pay attention to her... or else. I may write more later. It's up to Hart!