Thursday, time to leave....

Well Thursday was fairly uneventful. We were able to get a late check-out, so we slept in, ordered room service and then packed up. We took our suitcases down to the bell desk, and headed back to the casino in the Venetian. I bet on the upcoming UFC fight, which is on Saturday. For any UFC fans out there I bet $20 that Dan Hederson will beat Rich Franklin by decision in the 3rd round. If I win, I get $65US, which would be great! Then John made a couple sports bets and played some more Blackjack. I played a couple hands of 3-Card poker, tried my hand at the MegaBucks, and before we knew it was time to go. Flying out of Terminal 2 (the charter terminal) at Las Vegas McCarren is definitely the way to go. It's much smaller, therefore there are way fewer lines, and you move through security much faster.

The flight was great, a little turbulent, but otherwise really good. I looked out the window and saw this beautiful sky so we had to take a picture or two.

We got into Calgary about 7:10pm, and drove home. It was a great trip. I think 5 days in Vegas is the perfect amount of time. Enough time to do lots, and not enough time to get sick of all the people! 

Looks like we will be home for awhile now, our next trip is to England and Scotland in April. I can't wait, but it is nice to be home for a while!

Last full day in Vegas (for a long time I think..)

So we got up and ate breakfast a la room service which was great. Then we decided to walk over to the Mirage to see if John and one of the other guys on the trip, Kurt, could get into a poker tournament. John signed up and then we went and waited in the Sports Book for Kurt to show up. After a few minutes he did, so I decided to head over to Caesar's to check out the Forum Shops. I am hooked on Kiehl's skin care so I wanted to stock up at the store there because I don't know when I will get to pick up more. I had a good time shopping on my own and I didn't even go through all the shops, I stayed fairly close to the entrance. I got a couple things on sale at Anthropologie. The sales were really good, and then I made the mistake of going into the Fresh store. They sell skin care, lotions, soap, make-up and all that lovely stuff that I can't get enough of, so I had fun trying out all the stuff in there. It's super yummy and addictive.

We had made reservations at Emeril's Del Monico restaurant, and ended up making expanding it to include two other couples, Kurt & Beth and Terry & Susan. We had a great time with them, and once again the food was spectacular.

Beth and Susan.

Kurt.

I tried frogs legs for the first time. I can't believe it, but Kurt ordered them as an appetizer and insisted I try one. They looked almost like battered prawns except you could see the green and the little flipper. I felt guilty about it for the whole night, because I felt like I ate Kermit! But it was good, it tasted like a combination between chicken and duck. Check it out:

I ordered the Butternut Squash ravioli to start, then the Lobster Bisque which had a huge chunk of lobster in it and was extremely creamy and delicious, and then they Vine-Ripened Tomato Salad. It was so good, and I was so full after.  John had the Gumbo which he absolutely loves, and then Steak and the Parmesan Truffle Potato Chips which are to die for. So yummy!

After dinner which we ate quite early, around 5:00pm we headed back to Caesar's for the group show: Bette Midler!! We were really excited about it and we both enjoyed. The divine Ms. M was very witty, and sand all her hits. She still has great legs and a great voice. It is a very glitzy Las Vegas show with showgirls and everything. I would definitely recommend it, especially if you like Bette Midler. I wish I could have taken pictures, but you were not allowed, and I didn't want to risk getting kicked out.

After Bette Midler, we decided to try our luck in another poker tournament. So we went over the play in the 10:00 tournament at Treasure Island. It's a $60 buy-in and about 20 people entered. It was funny because John and I went out at almost exactly the same time, with the same hand (Ace-King). We played for about 2 hours, we probably went out in about 13th-14th place or very close to it. Which means no prize money. But oh well we gained experience and had some fun doing it!

We were tired so we walked back to the Venetian and gambled some more. John played some Blackjack and I played some 3-card Poker. Neither one of us did very well but we ended up staying up until about 2:30am. John played a few minutes of Roulette and won a little bit of our money back and we hit the sack!

Yaaaayyy, Pictures!!

Here are some pictures finally. Check out our room, isn't it spectacular?!?!

Look at how the credenza lights up, isn't that cool?

Here are some pictures from our dinner Monday night at The Steakhouse at Circus Circus:

The french onion soup was awesome, very cheesy. Even the butter was shaped like beef!

I had the chicken and it was really good. They must marinade it in something cause it is so juicy and flavorful. John got the steak and crab legs. Look at the size of them, he says they are to die for, the best he has ever tasted. Oh and the steak isn't bad too.

We thought this would make a good picture, everyone at our table piled up the crab legs on John's plate.

At Circus Circus they have this huge net over the casino and they had Trapeze acts throughout the day. We caught the beginning of one.

Here are some photos from our Heninger poker tournament, John went out 19th and I went out 12th. We both won $100 gift certificates from Chinook Centre which was cool (even though we organized the prizes).

After the tournament, we hit the spa, and then Tao. Here is me at Tao, I love that place!!

We sat upstairs which was different, check out the size of the koi fish in the pool, it might be hard to see, but they are huge!

Okay, I think we are all caught up on pictures now! Sorry for the delay, I will do my best not to forget my cord again!

Tuesday in Las Vegas

Today was a really fun day. We got up a little early because John had to go to his Manager's meeting. I just lounged around the hotel room and watched some TV which was nice. Then we headed over to Treasure Island for a group lunch. We just ate at the coffee shop there, so it was good, but nothing spectacular, but the company was great.

On a side note, I actually ran into some people I know from Calgary that I haven't seen for about 5 years, so that was kind of cool.

Then it was time for our group moral building event. Can you guess what it is?? A texas hold'em poker tournament! It's actually really fun. Treasure Island sets us up 3 tables in the poker room with dealers and chips, and even an announcer. We always have a lot of fun. We also always make sure that everyone gets a prize, this year we did Chinook Centre/Market Mall gift certificates in different denominations. So John finished in 19th place and I finished in 12th place. We had a lot of fun. And everyone always sticks around and watches and cheers everyone on. It's a lot less pressure when you are playing with friends/people you know. I think it is the most successful and exciting part of this Manager's Trip. I don't think there was one person out of the 27 that played that didn't have a good time.

After the poker tournament we headed to the spa. It's the Canyon Ranch Spa at Venetian/Palazzo and it's apparently one of the best in North America. I went for a pedicure, which was fabulous and you get to keep the nail polish which I thought was cool. My feet feel so smooth now. It was great but a little pricey. John had a massage but was really unhappy with it. It was supposed to be for 80 minutes, and John said it was only 70 minutes at max. Plus he said it was just a bad massage, the therapist went way to fast and she didn't communicate with him. So he felt pretty unhappy and ripped off. Which was really too bad, especially because it was so expensive.

After the spa, we went to Tao for dinner. I made us a reservation there a couple of days ago, and we were a little disappointed because even though we had a reservation for 7:45pm we weren't seated until 8:20pm. That kind of put a downer on it for us, especially because John was already a little choked about his massage. But once we got a table the service was excellent and the food was even better. Just as good if not better than we remembered it. If you ever get a chance to go there, you have to have the Lobster Dumplings. They are so good. Tao is a really neat place, and although it was very noisy and busy tonight, we still really enjoyed it. I think next time we will just go earlier.

After Tao, we went to Godiva in the Palazzo shops and got chocolate covered strawberries. They were mouthwateringly good. The chocolate just melts in your mouth, but they too are expensive: $4.50/strawberry! With our chocolate craving satisfied, we stopped in the casino and lost some money playing 3-Card Poker and Blackjack, and then Roulette and Wheel of Fortune. And now it is off to bed. Hard to believe this trip is almost over!

Las Vegas so far.....

Well, I cannot believe I did this but I forgot the cable for my camera! Errrrrr! I even looked right at it and thought, I need to pack that. But noooooo I forgot it! Which really sucks, because now I don't have any pictures to add to my posts. And that's my favorite part!!!! I guess I will just have to add pictures later. Brian Heninger has the same camera as me, so there is a small chance he brought his cable with him and I can borrow it, but we'll have to see.
Anyways for now, we'll have to make due with words.
So the flight here Sunday night was great, it even left a few minutes early and arrived a few minutes early. (I watched Grey's Anatomy on the plane on my new laptop and it was fabulous, great sound and even better picture!) We got our luggage quickly and were in a cab and off to the Venetian in record time. The Venetian is really nice, but they spray this fragrance everywhere that's really perfumey, and it makes me feel slightly nauseous. Thank goodness it doesn't smell that way in the rooms. The girl at the check-in desk was unusually friendly for Vegas. She was making small talk and being all helpful. Usually we get really surly check-in people so it was a nice change. I think it might have something to do with the slowness and bad economy.
Our room is on the 28th floor, and all the rooms at the Venetian are suites so it is huge. We don't have the best view but you can see the Palazzo tower and pool which looks nice. And really we don't spend a lot of time looking out our window anyways. There is a super comfy king size bed, with this beautiful credenza that lights up (wait till you see the picture!). And then you step down to this little living room area with a sectional, a flat screen TV, a table and chairs, and a little desk/workstation area. And don't even get me started on the bathroom! It's massive, with 2 vanities, a soaker tub, a stand up shower and a separate toilet area (there's even a phone in there! Who talks on the phone when they are on the toilet? Eww). It's really beautiful and they are giving these suites away right now!! Only $99/night. Isn't that amazing? I think the Americans are starting to freak out a little. The bed is amazingly plush and comfy too. I love sleeping in fresh sheets. It's amazing the difference between the hotel bed here and the condo bed in Maui! The bed in the condo in Maui was old and flat, and felt like sleeping at Grandma's house.
We didn't really do much Sunday night. We were a little hungry so we ordered room service which was outrageously priced. $5 for this mini bottle of coke!! And it wasn't even that great. Then we watched some TV and hit the sack.

Monday morning we headed down the the Grand Lux Cafe (the Venetian cafe) for breakfast. It's from the creators of the Cheesecake Factory, so the menu was like 8 pages and the portions were huge. John had bacon and eggs, and I had fruit with toast. It was really good. The fruit was super fresh and tasty. We ran into Michael & Lana (Michael is the General Sales Manager at Heninger) and decided to share a cab to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets. We got some good deals. They have added a whole new block of stores so there is a lot more selection. I finally got John to try on some new jeans. He hates shopping, but he was in desperate need of a couple more pairs of jeans. The one pair he owns was getting worn and holey, but also when we go to England in April he will need at least two pairs, because I am not sure if we will get to do laundry and we will be gone for at least 2 weeks. So he got 2 pairs of Lucky Brand jeans and they were buy one get one 50% off, so he was happy. I also got a pair of jeans and a shirt for steals too. We even picked up some shirts for the boys, so all in all it was a successful day of shopping.
When we got back from shopping, we had some time to chill and change and then we headed out for our first Heninger group dinner. It was at The Steakhouse at Circus Circus. Once again it was a fabulous meal. No complaints, although some of our guests got a little drunk and noisy. Luckily, John was able to pay the bill quickly and we were on our way. We caught a glimpse of the trapeze artists that perform over the casino before we left. I got some good pictures which I promise I will show you later. We got back to the Venetian, we went to Godiva for dessert. Unfortunately they were out of our favourite chocolate covered strawberries, so we got chocolate covered fruit kabobs (strawberry and banana). They were really tasty. Then John played a couple hands of blackjack and it was off to bed again.
Not very exciting stuff without pictures is it? Oh well there will be pictures later!

Viva Las Vegas....

Well here we are again, bags packed, and ready to hit the road to the Calgary airport. We are off to Vegas our first trip of 2009. I have a feeling that it will be one of very few to Vegas this year. I really think that we have worn it out. Neither one of us is really looking forward to it. Which is really too bad, because Vegas is fun!

Anyways I'll write more when we get snuggled in to the Venitian!!

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night......

So yesterday, we went to the airport for our 1:30pm flight out of Kahalui to find huge line-ups of unhappy, disgruntled people. The boys and I got all our luggage together and got a spot in line while John went and returned the rental car. By the time he got back, the line hadn't budged one spot. It was crazy, so John went to make a few phone calls and when he got back we remember his Platinum Aeroplan AMEX card!! Which gives us access to the business class line. So the boys and I stayed in our current position while John went to the business class line to wait, it looked incredibly long too. But while we moved about 5 people, John got to the beginning of his line, so much to the chagrin of everyone else in the line, we jumped in with John and made it through in know time. They had already delayed the flight again to 2:45pm, but had to make it even later because they couldn't get everyone checked-in in time.

Air Canada is really unbelievable. You would think that they might have brought in one or two extra staff for their mistake! But no, they didn't, they let 3 agents check-in the whole plane. They added a fourth briefly but then she must have had to go on her break. And as we were sitting at the gate, one of the flight attendants went around telling everyone that there would be no fresh food on the flight and that there was already limited items, so not enough for everyone. I appreciate that she took the time to do that, because at least then we had sometime to get some snacks to bring with us.

We finally took off around 3:30 or so and the flight was good, it actually went quite quickly, just over 5 hours. 

Then we landed in Vancouver. 

We got our luggage and then they announced that they were giving out hotel vouchers for people who had to spend the night in Vancouver. We didn't know that they were going to do this, so we had already booked 2 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express. They hadn't made this announcement until after we already had our luggage, but I decided to go wait in line and see if the voucher would be good for our hotel. After close to a 30 minute wait, we were told that they had Holiday Inn vouchers but they weren't sure if they would work at the Holiday Inn Express. We took two anyways and decided to try our luck. When I booked the hotel, I made sure that they had a 24-hour shuttle service, so we weren't worried about getting there.

It was close to midnight at this time and we hadn't had a meal since breakfast, so we looked around the airport for somewhere to eat, as the hotel probably wouldn't have anywhere. We found a Burger King and ate some food there. Once we were done we went to look for the shuttle. We found a phone to call for it, and the guy on the other end told us that their 24-hour shuttle means after midnight take a taxi and we'll reimburse you. John was livid, he swore a little and told the guy that we had 10 bags including golf clubs and it would probably take us 3 taxis to get there. Anyways to make a long story short, the shuttle driver came and got us, and we tipped him very well because of it.

The hotel was pretty nice, but they didn't take the vouchers. We didn't get to sleep until probably 2:30am or so, but we slept in until 10, so that was okay. So we all got up and ready and headed back to the airport. 

Here was the view out our hotel window:

We had no problems with our flight to Calgary. We checked in quickly, with an extremely nice agent, went through security quickly, and then the flight left really close to it's scheduled 2:00pm. And I can't even tell you how good it is to be home. I don't even mind the cold, although it is not even near how cold it was while we were gone.

I am so happy to be sleeping in my own bed and cuddling my little dog. So I will enjoy it for a few days and then we are off to Vegas!

Last night in Maui....or so we thought.....

Well you are not going to believe this but...our flight got cancelled. I guess there is really bad weather in Vancouver, so the flight from Vancouver to Maui tonight was cancelled, therefore they have no plane for us. John had been checking the flight status from for the last hour before we left the condo and it just kept getting worse, delay after delay. But we stuck to the plan, and headed out for dinner to Peggy Sue's.
Our last dinner of our holiday:


We stalled there for longer than we normally would, and then made the drive to Kahalui (it's only 10 minutes) to the movies. We saw The Day the Earth Stood Still. It was actually quite good, and for a 150 minute movie, it went by really quickly. I can't believe how skinny Jennifer Connelly was though. She has lost a lot of weight. She doesn't even really have boobs anymore. Keanu was pretty good too. The theatre was empty so I took advantage of the opportunity and got a picture of John and the boys:Anyways after the movie, we checked the flight status via Nick's iPhone, and found out the flight was cancelled. So John dropped me off at the airport and I discovered that the flight has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 1:30pm. Luckily we didn't return our rental car, so we decided to take a chance and head back to the condo. John was smart and locked the key in the lock-box outside, so we went back in and discovered it hadn't been cleaned yet. We took this as a sign that it probably isn't rented for the night, so I sent the owner an email and we are going to stay here overnight. The agent advised us to be at the airport to check-in 3 hours prior to our flight, so we'll be leaving early anyways. Fingers crossed that there aren't more problems!

It's not the end of the world, I can think of worse places to be stuck! And we have a car and a place to stay so that makes it even better. And the other good news is that now we get to have a good night's sleep and not fly through the night.

On another note: as we were tidying up, John put the cover back onto the BBQ and look what was underneath it:


A TOAD!! I have never seen a toad in the wild. I thought it was pretty cool and also pretty ugly. When we came back to the condo tonight, the boys and I waited in the car while John went to check out the condo. It was pretty dark in the doorway, but I saw John jump a couple feet back, and then go in. Well it turns out that another toad (or I guess it could have been the same one) jumped and scared John.
Anyways I am off to bed and keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow.

Last Day in Maui

It's hard to believe that this is our last day in Maui, our last day at the Palms at Wailea (and it's a travel day). For an almost 3 week holiday, it sure seemed to fly by. While I am sad to leave this gorgeous weather and this beautiful little island, I must admit I have missed home. Especially my little Solomon. It will be nice to crawl into my own bed to sleep tomorrow, and I know that John and the boys feel the same. I think the boys are getting a little sick of each other, and are looking forward to seeing their Mom and friends.
I'm gonna miss seeing fresh flowers growing everywhere,


the green grass, the palm trees,

and my workspace (and the little creatures I share it with).


Let's see over the last couple of days we haven't really done anything new. I went back to the Sister's & Co. Boutique and Salon and splurged on some new clothes. I love that place!! It's really my style, and the ladies are so nice and genuine! They helped me to pick out a couple things that really accentuate the good parts of my physique and downplay the bad parts. It was really great! Not so good for the old Visa bill ;), but great for the self-esteem. I will definitely go back there, if we come back to Maui.
We took the boys to Cheeseburger Island Style, which is one of the famous Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants. They have fabulous fries, and the burgers are good but really greasy. I could only eat about half of mine. But the boys love it. Here is Matt & Nick arm-wrestling before dinner came.
What else...Matt went skim boarding and forgot he had his cellphone in his pocket. He remembered before he got went, but then bit it when he turned around to put in on his towel. It got covered in water and sand, and now (surprise, surprise) it doesn't work. He is pretty bummed out, because he just go this phone in October for his birthday after breaking his last one. Oh well he should know better than to bring it to the beach!

The last couple nights we have been watching the British version of The Office. It's a little hard to understand at first, but it's pretty funny, and vulgar. Lots of sex humour, but we enjoyed it.

For our last day, we decided to head down to Stella Blues for one final brunch, which was delicious as ever. And then we came back to the condo to relax a little and pack up, oh and to watch football (it's the playoffs, so I have to surrender my Sundays to it). Our flight isn't until 11:20pm, but we have to be out of the condo by 5:00pm. The regular check-out time for this place is 11:00am, but I was able to negotiate a later check-out, which I thought was very generous. So our plans are to hit Peggy Sue's (the boys really want to eat there one more time) and then go to the movies in Kahalui where the airport is. We went to the movies last year, and it's a good way to wind down and kill time. Last year we saw Alice Cooper at the theatre, which was 1 of 3 sightings we had of him, apparently he often spends Christmas in Maui too.

But I digress....so we'll eat, see a movie (probably The Day the Earth Stood Still), and then it'll be off to the airport. I don't really like flying overnight, because everyone gets so crabby on no sleep, but it's worth it to have one more day in paradise. At least the boys are a little older now and they handle it better. The first time we did it with them, they were pretty young, and they all turned into walking basket cases. But we get into Calgary at about 11:30am so everyone can go home and just veg. I feel bad for the boys that they have school right away Tuesday, but they had a nice long holiday which makes it all worth it.

Here we are packing up:

John and Nick vegging:
Hope you enjoyed reading these posts as much as I did writing them!

John and I are home for a week and then it's off to Las Vegas on Sunday for the annual Heninger Toyota Manager's Trip! We get to stay at the Venetian and I am so excited!! Neither John nor I have ever stayed there, and it only has suites, every hotel room is a suite!!

On another note, I am thinking of buying myself a laptop. I have some money saved up and it's something I really want, so I am hoping to be blogging my next trip on my new 13-inch Macbook, but we'll see how it goes. If anyone has any advice for me about laptops, I will happily listen! I am also hoping to have better pictures for my blog too because we got a new, small, fits easily into my purse, digital camera. It's really cool! Every year Heninger Toyota gives their managers a Christmas gift and that's what we (John) got this year. I'm tell you being a manager at Heninger is where it's at!! Although we'll see how this coming year turns out, if the economy falls, it might not be so great after all. Check it out:

Until next time....