Lesse...
90 minutes to the airport, then 90 minutes IN the airport, then being fondled by the TSA, then a 55 minute flight (it would be shorter, but from PHX you basically climb out, then as soon as you finish climbing, you descend into LAS immediately... and all well under cruising speed... under 250 knots for much of it in fact) then 30 minutes getting out of the airport, to get a car or a hotel shuttle, then 20 minutes to the hotel... Call it 5 hours...
Or, a 381 mile drive (6-7 hours), hotel and mileage paid for by someone else...
Did I mention that yesterday was our 8th wedding anniversary?
...Hopefully a job offer, and a free anniversary trip to Vegas out of it?
...Yeah, no brainer.
So we packed up the kidlet, loaded up the truck, pointed it northwest, and boogied.
We took the "back way" through the western Arizona mountains (which are absolutely gorgeous by the way) and just relaxed, cruising and enjoying the scenery and the quiet.
... though surprisingly, we had 3g most of the way, even 4g... so no escaping the phone or email completely...
We hit town after almost exactly 7 hours (we made 3 stops, about 90 minutes total, for gas, food, and pictures. Actual drive time about 5.5 hours, net avg 69mph, gross avg 55mph), and watched a beautiful sunset on the way in to the hotel.
As if all that wasn't nice enough, when we were checking in I told the nice young man that we were here for our anniversary, and that it was Mels first trip to Vegas (she's driven through it, never stopped).... and he did something VERY nice...
He upgraded us to a nicer room (hot tub in the room... very nice), with a great view...
...and then he comped us a second night stay.
There are times I really love Vegas.
I meet with the hiring manager in the morning. Mean time, we're relaxing and enjoying ourselves.
The Mirage has a Carnegie deli... Mels never had a REAL New York Deli Sandwich... we're correcting that now:
Update: This is the Las Vegas version of the Carnegie Deli pastrami and swiss on a kaiser. It's pretty damned good... it's not QUITE as large, and not QUITE as good as the real deal in NYC... but it's better than just about anything else (though I actually think pastrami club does better pastrami.. or at least did in the late 90s/early 2000s last time I was there).
