My (Secret) Public Weblog: June 2012

For our trip to Vegas last week we flew Allegiant for the first time. It is the only direct option out of our airport going to Las Vegas. They only have two flights a week, so we didn't have a lot of options. Most people go to Vegas for the weekend, so they have a Friday afternoon flight, and a Monday evening flight. We used those, but we did the opposite. We flew out on Monday, and came back on Friday.

I expected our flights to not be all they way full considering our odd schedule, but I was wrong. Both ways were packed. Boarding was a mess, and our plane was late in both instances. When I fly for work I usually am on American, and I've not experienced the lax scheduling. Allegiant's time seem more like a suggestion than anything else. We weren't on a tight schedule so it wasn't a problem, but it was frustrating.

As we waited to get on the plane there were a few people (a-holes) who gave us the "your baby is going to make my life horrible on this flight" look. For those people I almost wish Amelia would have screamed the entire way, but she was a perfect angel. She is a great traveler.

We made it out and back fine and so did all our bags. In the end that is all that matters. Even though the process of getting on the plane and getting in the air seemed sloppily managed, the overall experience was good. For Vegas it is by far the best option. I don't know about for anywhere else.

My wife was an amazing packer and got all three of our things in one bag. Which was awesome considering you have to pay by the bag. When we got back to Arkansas our bag almost didn't come home with us. We were waiting by baggage claim and the third bag down the conveyer looked a lot like ours. However, I was on the other side so it went past a lot of other people before me. I noticed an old man pick it up off the conveyer, pop down the handle, and wheel it towards the door. I figured it must be his by the confidence he grabbed it with.

As he wheeled it away I took another look and noticed the logo on it was exactly the same as our bag had. I decided I better check to make sure he hadn't taken the wrong one. I caught up with him and his wife just as he got to the door of the airport. I asked him to make sure the bag he was carrying was his. As soon as I said that his wife looked back at the bag and said, "Well that isn't ours at all."

I opened it up just to verify and sure enough our stuff was in there. I'm so glad I ran them down to check. I'm not sure they would have noticed until they got home to unpack. We definitely avoided a huge headache. We still had to wait for the car seat and stroller to come out so I watched the old guy as he queued back up at the conveyer. He took another bag... one that looked nothing like ours. It wasn't even totally the same color and the handle on his was totally different than ours. What the heck was he doing? I guess he was in a hurry to get home and took the first suitcase that remotely resembled the one he used. Anyway, crisis averted.

We spent this past week in Las Vegas. It has become my home away from home. This was the second time I've been there in the last three months. This time it was a family vacation. We flew out last Monday night on a direct Allegiant flight. Amelia was super excited to ride on an airplane. She is a pro at spotting them flying in the sky and always makes sure to point them out. She loved seeing them up close at the airport.

Amelia has always been an awesome traveler, and this was no exception. Within 5 minutes of taking off she was asleep and she was out the entire way. She did wake up crying when we started to land. I think the pressure in her ears scared her. She cried and whined for about 5 minutes then was back asleep.

She slept all the way through the airport, then finally woke up at baggage claim. She was excited to see her stroller and carseat again. She was pretty upset when we had to check them in. We got to skip the entire taxi line and jump right in a cab and be on our way. We took our carseat just for the ride to and from the airport, and we are glad we did. It was a bit of a pain to carry through the airport, but we didn't have to go far with it. We weren't required to have it. The cab driver said most people just hold their kids in the car. We all know how risk-averse I am, so it was worth it to have the peace of mind. You never know when you could have a car accident.

Aside... I am so risk-averse that this is my second consecutive trip to Las Vegas where I didn't gamble a single cent. The closest I got to gambling was trying to win a stuffed animal for Amelia out of the claw machine at Denney's. (I didn't get it.) There is no way we were riding in a taxi without a car seat. We thought maybe there were certain taxis that had car seats in them. Then I thought about my daughter sitting in a communal taxi cab carseat and that was out of the question. We were taking our own even though we only used for about 30 minutes the entire week.

We made it to our condo about 11:00pm Vegas time. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Niece, and Nephew had come in the day before, so they were waiting for us. Amelia had been pretty sleepy, but when we got into the condo she was wired. She ran around with her cousins for an hour or so, but then we made her go to sleep.

We had a busy week of playing at the pool and going all over Vegas. We went to see Mystére, visited the shark reef at Mandalay Bay, made a trip to Fremont Street, and ate out several times. There was lots of riding in shuttle busses and waiting around, and Amelia did great through all of it. I am always amazed at how good she does when we are carting her around all over the place and getting her out of her routine.

We flew back Friday afternoon. We left Vegas at 4pm, and got back to Arkansas around 9. That time difference is killer. It is nice to have a weekend to recover from our trip. I was able to get all the yard work done yesterday and today we'll catch up on laundry. Yesterday was hot, but not miserable. Perfect day to go get a snow cone.