Saturday 10 January 2015 Regina to Las Vegas

Celeste has been doing such a good job accumulating Air Miles that we had way more than we could possibly use going back and forth to Vancouver. So, a couple of months ago we decided to burn some on a trip to Vegas just before her 60^th birthday. Air Miles covered 100% of the hotel and all but $300 of the air fare. Not a bad deal.

We departed on time at 5:30 pm, arriving about 6:20 pm Vegas time (8:20 in Regina). We walked quite a long way to clear immigration and claim our bag, then walked another considerable distance to catch a shuttle to the Excalibur. It was another substantial walk through the casino to the check-in, but we finally made it to our room by 7:30. From our window we can see the airport a few blocks away. There are different food vendors all over the property, but there is a concentration at a food court similar to what you would find at a mall. We grabbed some chicken from Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen at about 8 (10 pm at home – we were hungry!) and went to explore the small city that is the hotel. There were people everywhere, so I guess Vegas and the US in general have recovered from the recession. Smoking is still allowed in the casino. Of course, not everyone smokes and they do a pretty good job of air handling, but it was a bit unusual for us to occasionally smell that smoke when you walked by some people.

We had an early night for Vegas, but will do better in the days ahead.