Keeping up with Kyla

Mentally preparing for girls trip to MN. Park Rapids, Maggie’s place and Ely. We had a zoom planning meeting. Jane is already going up to Ann’s place (dropping Lucy at Spanish immersion camp). Kathy and I are traveling up to meet them.

It’s been 10 years since the girls have been in a trip together.

Past Girl’s trips

2000 Windjammer

2001 Maggie’s

2002 NONE

2003 North Dakota

2004 Isle of Palms

2005 NONE

2006 ??

2007 Maggie’s

2008 Ireland

2009 Park Rapids

2010 Maui

2011 Montana

2012 Cabin (a,j,k,k)

2013 Alaska

2014 Minnesota

2015 Seattle (a,k,k)

We were up early and out the door by 7:15 to get to the airport. We had to return the rental car and didn’t know what the lines were gonna be like for that or TSA. But everything went smoothly.

Since it was Gotcha Day, Lucy declared it a “yes” day. Fortunately her demands weren’t excessive. We got up at our leisure again. And we went downstairs and had breakfast at the buffet. We decided to go to the pool. The pool is across the street at the California, which is a sister hotel. So we got on our bathing suits and headed over there. It was cloudy, but we thought, that would be fine. We would be alone at the pool. Boy, were we alone. It was a rooftop, pool. It was really windy and the water was freezing. Before we had a chance to even decide whether we were going to dip in, someone came out and said the pool was closed! Windy? Weather? Who knows. So we went into the fitness room around the corner. Hung out there for a bit. 

Then we changed into our regular clothes at that the outlet mall just south of the hotel to kill time before meeting Wayne and Karen for lunch. We walked around and went in and out of stores. Of course stopped at Starbucks.

We met Wayne and Karin at Aloha’s restaurant in the hotel across the street. There are a lot of Hawaiian people that visit Las Vegas and live there. Wayne says they call Las Vegas the ninth island.

After lunch, we piled into their car and went out west of town to the red rock Canyon scenic Drive. It was cloudy and very windy. And we even saw a couple of sprinkles.

They dropped us off at the Venetian and we walked from there to the Sphere where we were seeing a 5 o’clock showing of the Wizard of Oz. It was a fabulous experience. A couple times I got dizzy with the movement and had to close my eyes. Haha

After the show we hailed an Uber back to the hotel. Everything went quite smoothly.

Grabbed some appetizers in the Triple 7 and then headed to the room to pack and shower.

We took our time getting ready to leave the hotel. We ended up having a breakfast buffet in the garden court at the hotel. We didn’t even know that was there. It was a wonderful buffet.

We then left and headed down to my old house at 2298 Capistrano Ave. I wanted to drive by and see the house. It looks very tired. We left there and headed to Scott and Tricia’s house in Henderson. We hung out there for about 90 minutes before we had to leave and head to Boulder city.

We were taking a Papillion helicopter cruise. We were gonna fly over Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and eventually to the Grand Canyon, where we landed in the canyon and had a little picnic. It was a magical experience. We were gone a total of 2 1/2 hours.

We went back to see Scott and Trish and then went to their favorite restaurant for dinner. Giuseppe‘s, Italian. Great food. Great portions.

It was truly a spectacular day.

After a short night, we got up early. I was dropping Jane and Lucy at some friends’ house. People that they knew from their church in Skokie. Wayne and Karen. They lived in the Del Webb community of Aliante in North Las Vegas. Their backyard was golf course, then desert and mountains very far north. They were all going to church together and then brunch.

I left them there and I went down to see Nancy D’Amora. I stayed for several hours.

Jane and Lucy were deposited at the hotel after brunch, so I decided to leave Nancy’s and head back. I grabbed them and we headed down to the strip. We parked at the MGM and then walked along the street seeing the sights. We went into a few of the hotels and a few stores. We made our way up to the Bellagio. We went in to see the opulence. Then we waited for the fountain show.

Finally, we made our way back down to the MGM. We had covered a lot of ground on foot and we’re pretty sweaty. We went back to the hotel and we had dinner at the triple7 restaurant and brewery in the hotel. By the it was time to get to go back to the strip to Treasure Island for our Cirque show at 8:30.

I awakened at 4:30 in the morning to drive to Shalimar. I was parking in my car and Dana was picking me up. I had a little trepidation about TSA and bag check.

It went very smoothly. I boarded my flight in Destin and made my connection in Dallas with no problem. I arrived in Las Vegas at 11:30 in the morning, a few minutes early. I decided to go to meet Jane and Lucy at their gate in the C concourse. That was quite a walk. Then we traveled together to baggage claim. Their baggage came out relatively quickly and by the time I got to my baggage claim, the bags from my flight hadn’t even arrived yet.

Once we got all the bags, we exited the building to get on the shuttle to the car rental place. The shuttle line was the entire length of the airplane terminal. It took us about 50 minutes just to get on the shuttle.

When we arrived at the budget car rental, my name was up on the display, saying that I didn’t have to go to the counter. I could just proceed directly to my car.

We decided to head directly to our hotel. When we exited the freeway, we went through a homeless tent city that was only several blocks away from our hotel. Both Lucy and I looked at each other and were concerned about the hotel. It turned out to be quite lovely. Art deco. Dark wood. Nice place.

We were too early to check in, so we met Alessandro and went to lunch together. We walked through the Fremont experience up to one of his favorite restaurants.

Lunch was good. And we walked back. Making a few stops. Lots of steps.

Finally checked in and chilled a bit before the symphony. We were meeting Alessandro in the lobby and walking over together.

The Smith Center was an amazing venue. The concert, the music of John Williams, was also amazing.

Walked back to the hotel, showered and hit the hay. It was 11 pm PDT but it was 1 am body time!!!

3/27/26

Laundry. Groceries. Packing. Getting things ready so that Tom has a smooth couple of days while I’m gone.

We all got up and we’re out of the hotel around 8 AM. Bobby headed home and Alexis and I are headed to the lake. Fairly uneventful except when we got to Alabama, I remembered the Ave Maria Grotto near Cullman, Alabama. So we pulled over there to see what that was all about. Very interesting place. A German monk who came to the US at the early part of the last century to St Bernard Abbey. And he built miniature replicas of religious buildings throughout the country. It’s very strange and reverent at the same time. The grotto was opened in 1934 on the site of a former stone quarry that was used by the Abbey. The first replicas were built around 1912 and his last one was built in 1958 when he was 80 years old. 

We got up and ready and headed out the door for our 10:30 AM appointment at Misty Pond alpaca farm. It was a couple from Cleveland, Ohio, who moved here about six years ago. They bought a 45 acre parcel and decided to raise alpacas. Very nice people. Rick and Ruth Brinly.

From there we headed to the Purple Toad Winery. we each were allowed up to eight samples of the wine. They had quite the selection and they varied from not too sweet to very sweet. I ended up buying four bottles of wine to bring home. I bought a bottle of Prosecco so that we could enjoy it there. I bought some cheese and they gave us some crackers and we went outside and had a lovely visit in the beautiful 70° day.

We then made our way to dry ground brewing company. That was a total bust. Out of their 28 taps all their barrels were empty except for four. It was not good. It had a weird vibe and we had our one beer and left. We went back to the hotel and chilled for a little bit. Both Alexis and I went out for walks. She and I were together for a while, and then I continued further south cause I was scoping out where we were having dinner and how that was in proximity to the concert hall, where we were going to a show.

We went to dinner at The Freight House. It was a marvelous location. Amazing food. The service was a little slow, considering that they weren’t packed. But, the concert venue was across the parking lot. So it was really easy to get from the restaurant to the Carson Center. We were seeing The Simon & Garfunkel Story. We were able to exit out of there when the show was over and jumped in our car and made it back to the hotel lickidy split. It was within walking distance of our hotel, but we didn’t want to push that with Bobby.