Allegiant Stadium and Return Home

We slept in on Sunday, December 7th, and then packed our bags and checked out of the hotel.  We drove to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign south of the Strip and waited in line to take a picture.  After waiting for a while we asked a lady behind us to take our picture and we went to one side.  Then we continued south to a Smiths grocery store and bought some breakfast items.  We drove to the Allegiant Stadium and found our parking spot about a block away.  We walked to the stadium and went inside to find our seats.  It turned out to be quite a problem.  We took the elevator to the 200 level because Wendy was using her wheelchair, but the Suites on that level blocked us from reaching our section.  We were told to take the elevator to the 300 level, walk around, and talk a different elevator back down.  We tried that but none of the elevators were operating where we needed them to.  We finally ended up walking down a steep ramp to get back to the 200 level, and I had to hang on to the wheelchair firmly so Wendy wouldn't go flying down.  It took about half an hour to get to our seats, but we were happy with them when we finally found them.  We had so much room to ourselves, and we were right next to the box suites.  We were dressed in our Denver Broncos shirts, and I would guess that at least half of the stadium was wearing orange.  The game was fun to watch even though the Raiders never really did threaten to win.  The final score was 24 to 17 with Denver taking the win.  After the game we drove to St. George, Utah and found a room at a Hampton Inn to spend the night.  After checking into our room we drove to a Chili's Restaurant for dinner.  We shared a bowl of soup and a quesadilla, and then we topped it off with a warm chocolate chip cookie and vanilla ice cream.  We returned to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a bit before going to bed.  It was a really nice day.

On Monday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, filled up the car, and drove home.  The return trip seemed so much longer even though we covered a shorter distance.  We listened to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban going both ways, and we almost finished it on our drive home.  We managed to get home just before 4:00 p.m. when we had an appointment with Google Fiber to install our new modem and router and connect us to the box attached to our home.  The installer was already there when we arrived home waiting for us.  He only took about 30 minutes to get us up and running on Google Fiber.

The Sphere

On Saturday, December 6th, we slept in and took our time leaving the hotel.  It was about 10:00 a.m. when we boarded the Monorail, and it was a short trip to the Linq/Harrah's Station.  We walked through the Linq Promenade, but it was still too early to eat so we kept going across the street to Caesar's Palace.  We walked though the Gallery to look at the shops and displays for about an hour.  We could see Harrah's across the street that was advertising a show with Donny Osmond.  I wanted to see if we could buy tickets so we went to the theater, but it looked like he was sold out or not performing until January.  We decided to eat lunch at Five Guys before going to the Venetian.  As we were walking to the Venetian a barely clad tall woman walked past me and slapped my rear.  It was a little embarrassing, so I avoided walking too close to those women.  We also didn't care for the strong and steady smell of pot everywhere we went.  After getting into the Venetian and walking the Grand Canal Shoppes we couldn't find a way to the Convention Center to take us to the Sphere.  We had to exit out the front and walk around the Venetian Resort to get to the Sphere, but we had still had 15 minutes to spare when we arrived.  We got into our seats, and we noticed that the round ceiling was not smooth but had different heights.  There were also large speakers hanging near the front, and we wondered how that would look when the movie started.  We were amazed to see that the movie was clear and smooth when it began with no sign of the speakers.  The movie was great, and when the tornado scene was done, accompanied by a pretty forceful wind, rumbling sound effects and tissue paper leaves swirling around the auditorium, the audience erupted into applause.  We were also able to retrieve two foam apples that fell from the ceiling during the tin man scene.  The apples had the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere printed on them, and people commented how lucky we were to get them.  After watching the movie we decided to return to our hotel.  We rested for a bit, and then I suggested that we go to the Fremont Street Experience.  We took the Mazda and drove to a parking lot at the Encore Hotel first to take photos of the Sphere at night.  Then we drove to Fremont Street and found a parking lot about a block away.  I really wanted Wendy to see the lights which were amazing, but I didn't realize how wild it would be.  It was a Saturday night and the street was packed with people.  There were three different live bands playing loud rock music and the smell of marijuana was very strong.  We watched as people rode a zipline from one end to the other.  We were hoping to eat a nice steak dinner at Tony Roma's but the line stretched far into the casino, so we decided on a slice of pizza and a quick getaway.

Las Vegas Weekend

We planned a weekend trip to Las Vegas back in September.  We wanted to see The Wizard of Oz showing at The Sphere, and we decided to attend a Denver Broncos versus Las Vegas Raiders NFL game the following day.  I waited until the last minute to make hotel reservations as I couldn't believe how expensive the hotels were.  I really wanted to stay at The Venetian, but they wanted $700 per night.  I finally settled on The Sahara because it seemed to have better reviews than other hotels, free parking, and it had its own Monorail Station to connect us to The Sphere.

On Friday, December 5th, we packed up a Mazda CX-50 and left the house about 9:00 a.m.  It had snowed the day before, but then the temperatures rose above freezing by the time we left.  We stopped at Hobby Lobby so Wendy could get supplies for a Christmas Wreath she was making, and then we hit the road for an 8 hour drive to Las Vegas.  The road conditions at Malad Pass were a little sketchy, but we made it through just fine, and the rest of the drive was easy.  It went by surprisingly fast, and we arrived at The Sahara about 6:00 p.m. local time.  It was already dark when we were driving into Vegas, and we had a clear view of the Strip and the Sphere.  We checked into our hotel room which was located in the newly renovated tower, and then explored the hotel and casino which was nicely decorated for the Holidays.  We ate street tacos for dinner at the Uno Mas restaurant in the hotel.  They were very good.  We relaxed the rest of the night watching Plex in our hotel room.

Thanksgiving Day

We spent a nice holiday at home.  We had Tyler and Jaylen's family and Caz and Ashley's family for our Thanksgiving meal.  Ashley brought a turkey from Mission BBQ that we heated in the oven, and it was delicious.  We had Geraldine rolls, salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy.  We also enjoyed a homemade cherry pie and a French Silk Chocolate pie from Candace.  Ryan and Megan and kids watched Wicked Part 2 and Stranger Things.  We still need to finish watching season 4 before we start Stranger Things Season 5.  Kevin, Kay and Kaleb flew to California on Wednesday and spent Thanksgiving with Kay's mom.  We watched some football and played with the grandkids.  It was a nice day.

Wicked - For Good

We have anticipated the release of Part 2 for Wicked since we watched the first movie last year.  Yesterday we took the time to rewatch Part 1, and tonight the three of us went to watch the second part at the Pocatello AMC Theater.  We sat in the Big D theater that has a nice large screen and comfortable seats.  Wendy got there early and saved a good view from the middle of the theater.  Quite a few people eventually arrived, but it wasn't full.  We all enjoyed the movie very much.  The second part is definitely darker than the first, and the movie's character choices can be difficult to explain, but I think the writers did the best they could and the acting was done well.  Some people say the movie could have been told in one longer movie rather than in two parts which may be true, but I still think it will be one of those movies that we could watch again every year.