Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Vegas, baby!

We were so excited when Tomo Ogino, our homestay student from 4 years ago, sent a message saying that she was going to be in the States, going to college in Oklahoma for a year and wanted to see us.  She has the summer off and is travelling around and we invited her to come visit this month.  She was ending up with a friend in Las Vegas on the 4th so we decided we would take a little road trip to go pick her up.
We headed out on Sunday and stayed overnight in good old Beaver with Mom and Dad.  It's so nice to have them as a stop-over point. :)
Monday we hit the road again, arriving in Vegas around noon.  Just like when Yuna came to visit, we stayed at the Excalibur hotel (does that make it a tradition?).  Fortunately, unlike when Yuna came, the weather was beautiful and warm and we spent the afternoon in the pool.
After our fantastic New York style pizza experience in San Diego last year, we have been craving some great pizza so we googled and found New York Pizza and Pasta on Jones Blvd (how apropos).  It was not quite Luigi's caliber, but it was quite good and we stuffed ourselves and had a blast.
 The evening was, of course, spent on the Strip, mostly at the new Cosmopolitan with its VERY high end stores. What a beautiful place! Markee especially loved being in the midst of high fashion.

On the way back to Excalibur we ran into a zombie and discovered that there is a Zombie Apocalypse Store in Vegas!  Oh yeah, that was definitely added to the plans for Tuesday.

So Tuesday, as we were leaving the hotel I noticed that the front right tire was showing metal - not good.  It was definitely something we were going to have to get fixed before leaving town.  Our first stop, however, was to visit Kelley Corcoran Brasier, one of my best friends in high school.  I can't believe we have lived less than 6 hours away from each other for years without getting together.  She lives out in the mountains of northwest Las Vegas, which was a hike for our van with a metally tire, but we got there just fine.  How fun it was to catch up with her.  She hasn't changed a bit - honestly, not a bit!  The picture is definitely not a flattering one, but I was glad to have it anyway. :)
We stopped at Costco to get a new tire and grab some lunch and snacks before heading - you know it - to the Zombie Apocalypse Store!
 What a fabulous idea!  It's an emergency preparedness store mixed with zombie fun.  We could have stayed there for a long time, but the road was calling our name.
We did make one more stop before heading back to Utah; we stopped to visit Marcia's parents in Mesquite.  Todd and Kay are so great!  They were generous hosts, having the pool ready for us along with cookies and lemonade - could you ask for anything more?  The kids and Jared had a great time in the pool and I just enjoyed the beauty of their home, neighborhood and the area in general.  What a paradise!  How fortunate we are that Mark brought Marcia's family together with ours!  Love those Wooleys!

Finally, back in the car for the long rest of the drive back.  The tires were fine and we arrived home around 10pm with no incident.  A quick trip to Vegas chocked full of new memories!  Now we have a week and a half to enjoy with Tomo!

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