From Grads to Nomads

We went down to Fremont Street tonight and had Tony Roma's steak and lobster ( I had beans, rice and corn) and then we gambled at the slots and played some blackjack. My mom won a small jackpot on the slots, of 133.50!!! Needless to say, she was excited. I on the other hand have zero luck with gambling, so I was not so fortunate this evening. Tomorrow hopefully we can sit by the pool, if it warms up enough, and we are still here until midnight on saturday!

We have been having a fabulous time in Sin City! The internet here is 10.95 for 24 hours, so this will be our one day online!! We arrived on Monday night, after routing through Atlanta, which is completely out of the way while connecting from DC, and we had a late bite to eat and drinks with our parents over at Nine Fine Irishmen. The next day was outlet shopping, and we had an amazing dinner at Sensi at the Bellagio. I have also been enjoying the water show from our room, as we look right over top of it from our 9th floor window. Checking in was amusing, because as always, the man informed us "there are no non smoking rooms left". I insist that we must have one. So as we go through all the hassle, and then the second we suggest that they could comp us a free dinner for our hassle....a room is suddenly free!

We saw Mamma Mia on Tuesday night, which is my favorite musical of all time, it was excellent. At the end they were just playing a few Abba songs, and the highlight had to be when this gay couple beside us got up in the aisle and all intertwined, were dancing away to "Dancing Queen." Let me tell you, there was a bit of laughter at the amusement of it all! They were just living it up in the spotlight too, being right beside the stage!

Yesterday we discovered the Fashion Show mall, where I swear, every store known to mankind that I have ever heard of is either there or somewhere on the strip! I found a few things, as did Rob ( we both lucked out with jeans in Macy's) and then we had dinner at the Venetian, in the blue sky version of St. Marks Square.

Today I plan to sit in the heated pool for a bit before wandering the strip some more!

Well we have been busy the past 3 days, and walking around 4 hours or so a day....needless to say our feet are a little sore!! We found a Sharper Image store in Georgetown today and thoroughly enjoyed the massage chairs! (As you all know, I am just a "little" fond of massage chairs"

Friday we wandered all over, beginning with lunch at Thai Chef for the best pad thai known to mankind. Following this, we dropped by the new office of the United Nations Association and I met the new interns, and made plans to meet up with my old workmates. We walked down the the Washington mall, and when we walked up to the Washington monument to get a closer look, we were offered free tickets from a military man to go up the elevator to the top of the tower, so that provided an awesome view!! One picture is from the top. We then went to the American History museum and saw all of the first lady's gowns, Lincoln's top hat, and Ben Franklin's suit, amoung other things. Later on, we met up with my workmates for martinis at Cloud, and had a great time catching up.

Saturday we checked out the start of the cherry festival, doing the walk around the tidal basin and viewing the large monuments. The trees are in partial bloom, and there are crowds a plenty!!! It was a fairly nice day though, and I forgot to mention, we had seen the vietnam wall and the LIncoln memorial the day before. We had lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill, the busiest restaurant in the city, and then had a late afternoon nap (much needed) before heading out to Virginia to meet my old roomate and her boyfriend for dinner at a Caribbean restaurant, which turned into a 3 1/2 hour and several mojito reunion!!

Today we saw the Hope Diamond, and some parts of the natural history museum, the Art gallery, where I was impressed by seeing Van Gogh's self portrait, and then we tried to see the Holocaust museum but it was full for the day, so that is up for the morning. We went ot georgetown instead and I found some fabulous tanks at J. Crew.

We have walked by the White house numerous times, wondering what exactly goes on in there. An old man was out on the street yesterday yelling "come out George, don't be a chicken!!"
Tomorrow we leave DC for Vegas, so more updates to come!!

When we finally arrived in LA the other night, we went to find our shuttle for the Howard Johnson. As we had arrived at 11pm and had to be back at the airport at 5:15am we really wanted to get to the hotel fast to maximize sleep!! I called the hotel and talked to the stupidest man alive, who I swear was high or tripped out on some illegal substance. Our conversation went
Me: Hello, can you tell me when the shuttle is suppossed to come
Him: ok
Me Repeats question
Him: ok
This same exchange about 3 more times
I finally get frusterated and almost yell at him "I am ASKING YOU A QUESTION"
He hangs up on me. We ended up waiting 30 min for a shuttle to the hotel which was 5 minutes away, and coincidentally, in Inglewood, the area we had tried so hard to avoid getting to. We had our 4 hours of sleep in a gross but clean smelling room, and onto our DC flights we went. Rob and I got seated rows apart which kind of sucked, but at least no one too weird sat by me this time. I did have to almost punch the guy next to me to wake him up so I could go to the bathroom!

We took them metro into DC once arriving, and it is just as we remembered it!! Last night we had some great pesto chicken sandwiches at Cosi and then walked around, saw the White House, which looked very pretty in the evening with lights on, and then we came back to take hot baths, as it was chilly outside here! Of course, we saw the OC (What an episode!!!!) and had an early to bed to make up for lost sleep. Today we are off to see my old office (in a new location) and just wander around, perhaps take in a museum. Tomorrow the cherry festival. I am unsure how internet will work, we are suppossedly charged for it in the room, but when I went to pay, it was suddenly free!

Trip #2 of 2006 is underway, as we currently sit at the Vancouver Airport waiting to get to Los Angeles, where we will sleep roughly 4 1/2 hours before heading onto DC in the early hours of the morning. We just had some fast food chinese/sushi, and the California rolls were the only good part. Dinner was followed by some very stale cinabon's. We were surprised to discover that there is free internet at the airport, so carrying along the laptop is already proving to be very useful!

We attended Rob's Kappa Sigma formal on Saturday, and it was an enjoyable evening.....tasty food, good company, and it is always fun to get dressed up!
We are off to DC next Wednesday, and we are set to travel again! (Although only for 12 days this time)