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July 09, 2014 - 10:09 p.m.
"viva las vegas" or "the day that never ends!"

Hey Journal!

10:09pm PDT, 1:09am EST

Wow!! Today has been a LONNNNNNG day! We got up at 3:45am Eastern Time to get ready to leave for the airport! Re's Dad arrived promptly at 4:15 to pick us up and we were waiting at the front door, ready to go!

We arrived at JFK at almost exactly 5:00. We had a short line to check our bags and then headed through security. We didn't have to take our shoes off or anything. We had plenty of time before our flight boarded, so we got some breakfast. Dan and Re got a stromboli at some pizza place and I got eggs, sausage, and hash browns! We ate, and then headed to gate 5 to wait for boarding!

At 6:00, they let us on the plane. There was this woman who had been assigned to sit in the exit row, but for some reason felt that she wasn't capable of doing whatever would need to be done in the event of an emergency, so she created all this craziness with asking people to switch seats, and then needing two seats together... It was annoying, and we left about 10 minutes late.

The flight was great... it was super-smooth. I watched a little TV, and then tried to sleep for a while. Re read her Nook and then took a little nap as well. Dan watched TV most of the time. I did manage to get a little nap in, but only about 20 minutes or so. (I think!)

They hadned out snacks and drinks and I got Animal Crackers and pretzels. Re and Dan got Chipper's Chocolate Chip Cookies, which were actually pretty good.

Towards the end of the flight, our TVs froze and we couldn't change the channels anymore or see the map. It was unfortuanate, but not terrible.

So, we landed around 9:00 and made our way to baggage claim. We got our suitcases, and then headed to the rental car place. We had to take a shuttle there, and once we arrived, we looked for the "Payless Rental Car" desk. There were at least 8 different car companies there and ours was the ONLY ONE that had a line. The line was INSANELY long! Some poeple defected and went to other companies, but the thing is.... this place's rates were LESS THAN HALF of the next lowest rate from any of the others! Dan even went over to ask if they would match the price....and they wouldn't!

So, we waited patiently and finally got a car. It's a Hyundai Sonata. We rolled out around 11:00.

We were all REALLY hungry, and before heading to the hotel, we wanted to get some stuff at Target. Water and snacks. We found one nearby and headed over. We stocked up on stuff to snack on in the room, and then we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch!

The Cheesecake Factory is the one by the Green Valley Ranch where I stayed for my work conference in 2008. We parked in the GVR parking garage, walked to the Cheesecake Factorm and had lunch.

When we were done, we went back to the casino to play some of the slots! Re was playing a Willy Wonka game and we were approached by a woman who wanted us to sign up for a players card. We did, because it gave us free money to play with! We also each got a deck of playing cards! Wahoo!

LET ME TELL YOU... This Willy Wonka game is INCREDIBLE! It's so much fun, and it has random movie clips in it that are so strange and amazing. I want one of these machines for my own. It's so great.

After spending some time there, we headed to the hotel! The Palazzo! We parked, and then headed to the desk to check in. The room wasn't ready yet, so we got changed in the bathroom and then out our stuff in the car so we could walk around. No sooner had we done that.... they called to say that our room was ready. We brought everything back in, and up to the room.

We took a few minutes to get settled and have some water and snacks. Then we were off to the strip!

We walked down and made our way through the casinos. At one casino, The Quad, which I had never heard of before, Dan played some blackjack. He lost about $40, but then we went to a section with dealers dressed up as celebrity impersonators! That was fun, and Dan won some there, so we were up $12.

Here's our gambling total for the day: We are up $15.

We stopped at Fat Tuesday and got some GREAT drinks! I got Strawberry mixed with Margarita. It was REALLY good, and definitely enhanced our trip down the strip. We switched sides at the Bellagio to see the fountain show, which was set to Your Song by Elton John!

Then we continued on that side of the street down to New York New York and then went over to MGM. There, we got something to eat at McDonald's. There, they had a GIANT sign that said $5 for 20 PIECE McNUGGETS. Dan and I decided to share them and... when they rang it up, it came up as $6! I told the girl it was supposed to be $5, and she looked at me like I was crazy! I pointed it out to her and she called her manager over. Now it get's good. The manager told me that the sign was wrong, and then just kinda walked away. I was NOT having it. I asked her for her name and the number to report the incident to corporate, and then she decided to just changed the price to $5. I think it was a wise decision.

Next, we got tickets to go to a TV screening thing. We went and had to fill out a survey. We got picked to come back tomorrow and for our efforts, we'll get $75 each! NICE!! Meanwhile, today, we watched a crazy show with Laurie Metcalf, and then took a survey afterwards. (We didn't get paid for this one.) It was so funny because during the show, I turned to Dan and said that I was SURE that the whole thing was NOT about the show, but about the commericals that were on during it... and sure enough, when it was over, they asked a million questions about the promos that were on during the commercial breaks!!

When we were done with THAT, we were all starting to feel tired so we walked the LONG walk back to the Palazzo from the MGM.

We got back, all showered up, and now we are READY FOR BED! It's now 10:33pm MST, which is 1:33am EST, and we've been up for almost 22 hours! This is crazy, and we MUST get to bed. Tomorrow, we're gonna go see the Hoover Dam! Exciting!

Now it's time for bed!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)