Day Uno
So my only friend from college (sad face, what happened to Casey?) joined the Airforce and now lives in Las Vegas. (Peep the cute then and now pic below of Jan 2017 to Jan 2021) So after months of begging (probably not but we gonna pretend there was begging lol) I finally decided I can come visit despite me not doing well in mountains.
We get up at the buttcrack of dawn, jk it was still black out, to go to the airport but my mother loves me so I didn't even have to pay for parking because she just dropped me off. How lovely. Of course I got some Dunkin on the way because Tasha, much like America, runs on Dunkin even tho I don't even drink coffee! Anyways, the sign at the gate said the flight was only 65% full and I was like heck yeah ain't nobody gonna sit with me! But then I boarded and I was like there's a lot of people on here and the pilot was all like "this is a completely full flight!" and I was like 😑😠. But there were a lot of families with kids so there were a lot of like babies on laps so there were still a few empty seats and at first I had the middle open and someone on the aisle but then the flight attendant told the row in front of mine that the front row was empty but those fools were like "we don't care" so then the guy on my aisle moved up there with his girl that was sitting like 2 rows back bc full flight so then I had the row to myself and I was like yessss go me but then about 45 mins-1 hour in the guy from the row in front of me came back and sat on my aisle and of course I was spread out it's a 5.5 hour flight so he almost sat on my foot! RUDE!
Dia Dos
On the second day, we went to the Wynn. I think I offended Zach by comparing it to Atlantic City but like I thought it was common knowledge that AC was like a smaller, East-Coast, knockoff of Vegas? Whatever. Anyways they had a cute little flower path walkway thing and a carousel and hot air balloon made up of flowers. It was cool. We had drinks at the Parasol bar where the ceiling had these like parasol lamps that spun and moved up and down, which was entertaining. They charged $3.50 for "rocks" (ice) in Zach's first drink and I got the Lychee martini and it was so good so then next round we both got lychee martinis. Then we went down to the SW Steakhouse. We got there just in time for the first show; every half hour they have a 3 minute show on their lake and waterfall with special effects. First one was a floating snowflake that talked to us, then there was a mermaid one that I'm pretty sure was Veronica or Venessa or one of the LA mers (it was recorded not live), and there was eye balls and a shark fin to the big song in 10 Things I Hate About You, and singing parrots with lyrics on the waterfall, and it was fancy. I liked it. It was nice having entertainment again in a world where everything is closed. Oh they also had standing heaters all over the place because we sat outside because waterfall and lake, duh, so that was nice. It was supposed to be the best steak I've ever had so let's just go with that because idk if Zach reads these or not so yeah, steak was banging lol
(Idk why these are posting vertical and not next to each other but here's a photodump for you)
Okay, Day Three! Halfway there.
The third day was supposed to be the coldest day, so I picked then to go to the aquarium! I love aquariums, if you wanna come at me, just don't. You're fine to not like aquariums but that's a whole other post that you can find on my mermaid YouTube eventually because I'm sick of getting hate for also going to aquariums when they're "so bad for the animals" (actually they're not but again, another time another place for that).
House of Blues is also inside Mandalay Bay. The casino was legit empty, like not a soul. (Check the pic at the top of this blog post.) Every restaurant/store/Starbucks we passed walking to House of Blues from the parking garage was closed so we were like "omg it better be open" and thankfully it was. They had a tree growing in the middle of the restaurant! Our waiter sucked but I got the brisket and it was good but Wawa's is better.
On the walk to the aquarium from the House of Blues because Mandalay Bay is huge, we could see what was supposed to be the pools but they were totally drained and there were guys working on the big pool. The lazy river still had water in it but it was closed off because of the work. So with all the restaurants and stores closed, nobody in the casino, and the pools drained of water it felt like a ghost town.
So we finally made it to the aquarium. When you go in there's a picture taker guy to take your pictures so you can buy them when you leave if you want but we looked at ours and honestly we got the same picture taken on our phone for free thanks to a nice couple, and yes, I took their picture for them too; I got manners. And yes, we wore our masks in the aquarium the whole time but we pulled them down/off for pictures and even the official picture taker guy at the beginning told us to take our masks off for pictures so don't come at me for that either. Oh I was also wearing this turtle sweatshirt my mom got me for Christmas and I felt like I belonged in the exhibit but aquariums are my thing so I dig it lol
It's a much smaller aquarium than the one in Baltimore, but that is to be expected I think. After all, it is called Shark Reef Aquarium unlike the National Aquarium or even just any full aquarium. But we got Nevada locals discount so at least there's that lol but it was still a nice aquarium.
I also learned that when fish open and close their mouth (check out my mermaid insta for a vid), they're pushing the water back to their gills so they can breathe. When the fish are swimming, the swimming motion is automatically pushing that water back, so they just keep their mouths open, but when they are floating in place, such as when they are looking at humans through the aquarium tank, they need to manually push the water themselves by opening and closing their mouth. Isn't that interesting?
Then of course they had the shark tunnel as seen in the picture above! Normally they have dive encounters you could do but not currently due to Corona. Oh before the shark tunnel they had this floor to ceiling tank and the fish were coming straight at us; I felt like Aquaman. After the tunnel was a big ray tank, a jellyfish tank, and a tank with an octopus and tons of huge starfish - bigger than Zach's head! Next there was another shark area but they made the human part like a giant wooden ship which was very cool. There were saw tooth sharks and even a sand tiger, which I was excited to see because I will be spending lots of time with the sand tigers aka raggie tooths in Africa.
After the aquarium, we went over to the Luxor hotel, which is the big pyramid one. Honestly, I think we were looking for a Starbucks but they were all closed. Lame. But the pyramid hotel looks like a pyramid on the inside as well and even has a sphinx inside near the food court. Mandalay Bay also had a sweet smell, like Australian Gold sunscreen, and I was like oh that's probably the gambling air, like in Percy Jackson but there was nobody gambling so I was like maybe I'm imagining it but the Luxor didn't have that smell and going back over to Mandalay Bay it was very strong so yeah. Personally I think the Hard Rock cookies have a better lotus affect than the Mandalay Bay smell but I know nothing, so.
On the way back we finally got our Starbucks and I tried a iced peach green tea (venti with light ice) with vanilla and heavy cream instead of water. It was like a more liquid smoothie! Would order again. Thanks, Pinterest.
Day Four
On this day we went hiking to Red Rocks. It was cold and cloudy and turns out I do not like hiking, which I already knew but then I really knew. I thought I was dying. It felt like I had covid again! (Last year I went to the doctor 3 times because I couldn't breathe and I couldn't even keep up with my mom shopping and she's a super slow shopper and the doctor just kept being like "it's been two weeks it must be almost done" and two weeks later I'd come back and he'd be like "well it's been another two weeks so you must really be almost done" and whole time I was straight up dyingggggggg and then like a couple weeks later 'rona was a thing.)
We walked for like 2 miles on this trail to "La Madre Spring" and there was no spring. No water. We eventually did make it to a concrete slab tho, and then we turned around. The way back was a lot better. Going up I couldn't see; I couldn't breathe; I was dying. But going down I was fine! We made it down probably like 4 times, if not more, faster than we made it up. Then instead of going back to the car we went down this other trail that Zach and his roommates had gone on before because there was a big rock I could climb so I could get that classic hanging in a canyon picture.
This second walk/part was also a lot better than that initial one so maybe I just needed to get acclimated to mountains because I am no good in any elevation. Did you know the Delmarva Peninsula is the flattest part of the entire continental United States? Even flatter and lower elevation on average than New Orleans. The highest point is only about 107 feet above sea level and that's all the way up at the top of Delaware in the Newark/Wilmington area.
Dia Cinco
Leave it to the mermaid to find the water! On this day we went to Arizona Hot Springs! About 30-40 minutes from downtown, about an hour from where I was staying, right near the Nevada/Arizona border but actually in Arizona, is a hike to the hot springs. Alternatively, you can take a boat from the Colorado River and then it's only like a 5 minute hike but I didn't have a boat so hiking it was.
So it was supposed to be 5-6 miles roundtrip depending on which path you took. It ended up being 8 miles, up and down actual mountains. The return trip was rough, and afterward I couldn't walk for 2 days. But overall I think it was easier/better than Red Rock because the ground was more sandy whereas Red Rocks was, you probably guessed it, rocky. Apparently the sandy material is harder like physically, but I live at the beach so I'm all about the sand and definitely much preferred it to Red Rock.
We got back as the sun was setting but made it back just as it was getting dark, perfect timing.
Final Day Six
On the last day I could not walk due to the previous two days of hiking. I could barely stand and was so wobbly it looked like I was drunk. So I took a boatload of medicine in hopes that I wouldn't look too drunk for them to let me board the plane home. It worked! I could walk again and got wobbly after it wore off, which thankfully seemed to be when I was in my dad's truck on the way home.
On our way to the airport, we stopped for Habit Burger and my cheeseburger was nothing to write home about but the milkshake was good. It still wows me that there are slot machines all over the airport in Las Vegas. How interesting.
Anyway this flight was truly empty. I'd say less than a dozen on the entire flight and I'm very surprised they didn't cancel it for too few passengers, but my grandmother said they must've needed the plane in Baltimore for the next flight. Additionally, this flight also landed an hour earlier than expected so that was lovely!
Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha
