Vegas, Air-sickness, and My Shame

Long time no write, I'll explain later.

First of all, Vegas was amazing! I love how busy it was.  Sometimes calm, and peaceful is nice, but I prefer the busy, always changing cities for the most part.
The stripper cards, and signs everywhere weren't my favorite, but they were easy enough to ignore. The casinos were a little more difficult to ignore, but all the activity was exciting, even though my eyes became red and itchy if we stayed too long. (Walking through, I am too young to gamble, legally)

Saturday, the 5th.

On the first day we were there we ended up going to the Miracle Mile Mall with my dance team, instead of starting our list right away.  The mall was huge.  The ceiling was painted to look like the sky outside.  There was a rainstorm inside, we got to see it once, and the end of it another time.  There were lots of different kinds of stores, and kiosks.  It was pretty amazing to a girl from New England!

After returning to our hotel for a short while we hit the strip again, this time with lunch in mind, and headed down to the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was quite a bit farther than I expected it to be, and while I didn't really enjoy what I ordered (the fries were good!) the restaurant was really cool.  I play electric, acoustic, and bass guitar, so the guitars hanging on the wall that belonged to famous musicians were my main point of focus.  I even got some neat picks from the souvenir shop.

Once we finished our meal we went to the MGM grand hotel, walked for what seemed like miles through the maze of a hotel (so many casinos, my eyes felt like they were going to explode they were so itchy and watery), until we found the pilot screening area.  What they did was have us signup, then they put us in a room with a bunch of other people each in front of a screen.  They told us the rules, and then had us go through a brief survey before showing us the pilot.  Afterwards we went through another survey about what we thought of the show.  I can't give you any details about the show, but it was an interesting experience, I recommend it! This is something I forgot to post on our list.

After that we hung out at the hotel for the night, we had to get up early.

Sunday, the 6th.

Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam day.  *Warning, they gave us quite a few facts about the dam and canyon, so if you don't want to read them all skip this day!*

Las Vegas is a valley, in fact "Las Vegas" means "The Meadows" in Spanish, according to Wikipedia.  The highest of the surrounding mountains is Mount Charleston (11,913'), which has a ski resort on it! Mount Charleston is more than 20 degrees (F) colder than Las Vegas at all times.

There were officially 93 deaths of workers while building the Hoover Dam.

The workers dipped their hats in tar to make them hard, in order to protect their heads, these are considered the first construction hard-hats.

The Dam construction was almost stopped because the employees went on strike due to poor living and working conditions!

The water in 100' below where it should be.

You can be fined in water if you are caught doing things like watering your grass at the wrong time!

The bypass bridge opened in October of 2010.

The Dam cost $49,000,000 and was completed 2 years ahead of schedule, the bridge was completed 2 years behind schedule because a cane crashed during a thunderstorm.

A security checkpoint was put in for people visiting the Dam after 9/11.

Vegas gets 80% or more, of their water from the Hoover Dam.

The Grand Canyon had only 44,000 people visit it the first year it was a National Park in 1919.  Now it gets 5-6 million visitors per year! (The West Rim isn't technically part of the National Park, because it is owned by the Hualapai (Wall uh pie) reservation.

10-12 thousand year old artifacts have been found in the Canyon.

During the summer Nevada, and Arizona are the same time, but during the winter Nevada is an hour behind because Arizona does not observe daylight savings.  However, the Navaho in Arizona do observe daylight savings!

There were a lot more I just didn't write them down.

The Canyon was amazing, it didn't look real, it looked like a painting! The colors, the sights, the wildlife! (Meaning a lizard, and a bunch of ravens...) I still can barely believe that I got to go to such an amazing place, like why did I deserve to be there?  I'm not sure I've done much to deserve to have seen that, but I'm going to work on that now.

Monday, the 7th.

The day I was supposed to preform my Jazz solo.  I didn't.  I sat in competition most of the day, except for walking to Walgreens with some fellow teammates.

Tuesday, the 8th.

The day I preformed my Jazz solo Contagious  to the song This City is Contagious by The Cab.  The Cab is a rock band that was formed in Vegas, the song (if the internet is to be believed) is actually about Vegas.  I have vowed never to preform the dance again.  The song came from Vegas, I danced it several times in New England, and then I brought it back to Vegas.

Also the day we visited the Flamingo habitat at the Flamingo hotel! I'd never seen a Flamingo, or Pelican in real life until then.  There were some pretty gigantic koi there, too.

Wednesday, the 9th.

The day I preform my musical theater (AKA theater dance) trio to Dream Girls, my jazz group to Fox Mambo, and my tap groups to Five Guys Named Moe. 

Thursday, the 8th.

The one day of workshops I got to do.  Workshops are fun, though tiring.  I wish I could have done the rest of them, but I suppose it's better that I didn't, my knee injury from April was starting to hurt again.

Also the day we went to the mall again (only cup of decent coffee I had while in Vegas, I hate Starbucks...), and then spent several hours in the pool.  Not my favorite ending, but it could have been worse!

Then we sat at the airport for a while before boarding the place, and beginning the most miserable trip of my life.

Air-sickness 

I'm not one to get motion sick.  It doesn't happen often.  Unfortunately after hours in the pool I'd apparently swallowed quite a bit of chlorine-filled water, at least that's what my stomach felt like.  I dozed fitfully all the way from Vegas to Philly.  Then I broke down crying in the airport before we had to board for our final flight.  My ears hurt, my head hurt, and I felt like I was going to puke up pool water any second.  I slept a little better on the way back to NE.

Shame

Now this is the reason I didn't post until now.  I've been too ashamed.

You know the project I posted about?  The whole trying to find people from all 50 states in the airports thing?  I couldn't do  it.  I couldn't go up to people and ask them where they were from because I was just too shy.

So I've finally posted and admitted that I was too shy, and I'm starting a new tag.  "GAAP" - Growing As A Person.  This time I was too shy, but maybe next time I won't be.  We won't know.  Every time I plan something like this, if I'm too shy or something, or if I overcome a huge fear of mine I'll add the tag GAAP.  In a few years I hope I'll be able to look back at all of it and see how far I've come.

Las Vegas Destinations

Two days and one hour until I arrive in Las Vegas for the first time.

Considering I'm going for a dance competition I won't have much free time to wander around.  I'm also traveling with 3 other people (just my family, not my dance team members), which means I won't be able to do just what I want anyway.  However the things we're planning on doing are going to be a lot of fun!

Hardrock Cafe - My Mom wants to go for lunch, and to get a button.
Flamingo Habitat - Sounds really cool, plus I've never seen a flamingo in real life!
New York New York Roller Coaster - Goes over 60MPH.  Terrifying, but I know if I ride it once I'll be fine with it forever afterwards.
Hot Topic (Curse my teenage-girlness, Hot Topic is my favorite store)
Bus tour to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and a few other smaller attractions along the way. - Visiting all the National Parks in on my list of 100 things, so this will be one more off my list! (I've gotten 3 so far, all within the last year)
Volcano at the Mirage - Erupts every night, and is really close to where I'm staying.  Hopefully this is as neat as it sounds.
The Pool in our Hotel! - One of the things I've heard over and over about Las Vegas is that it's hot.  So the pool will be our #1 priority whenever possible!

You can expect pictures from all these places (well maybe not the pool at our hotel) after I get back from
Vegas on here.  Or follow my Instagram BlackRosePhotography5678 for pictures each day!

Las Vegas packing list

For me it's time to start packing for Vegas, I leave the 4th!

Depending on the place you go there'll be essential items that you just need.  Consider Nevada is hot some essential clothing items are:

Lightweight/Sun dresses - I have three dresses, two of which happen to be black which kind of is opposite of the point I'm trying to make, but oh well.  They're all light, short, and sleeveless, so they'll be cooler than even shorts and a t-shirt!

Camisole tank tops - Again, light and sleeveless, making any color other than black (which is again the color I have most of) cooler than a shirt with sleeves! A downside is they're tight fitting.

Flip-flops - the most open shoe available as far as I know.  Also considered the most annoying, the grossest, and least formal shoes.  I'd think they'd è great for wearing as a tourist in the south west USA though!

Other things I need:

Lightweight scarves - Vegas, and scarves??  Let me explain.  I read a lot of articles about traveling, and something I read recently said that lightweight scarves are good to bring on a plane to be used as a pillow and/or blanket.  They can be worn onto the plane, used as a blanket, then worn off!

Sneakers - As in any city, walking is going to be a big part of the trip.  While my sneakers aren't the best for walking long distances (Canvas sneakers) they're what I'm used to wearing, and changing it up right before the trip sound like it would be uncomfortable.

Filtering water bottle - I discovered this at my local grocery store recently and thought it was interesting.  I figured when traveling you never know what your water situation is going to be like.  Besides, maybe the water won't taste so different from my house water with this bottle!

The complete list:

3 dresses

5 tank tops (I like options, and they're small and easy to pack!)

4 pairs of shorts

1 pair of pants

1 sweater 

5 pairs of pjs

7 sets of underclothes 

5 pairs ankle-socks

2 scarves

Bathing suit 

Dance stuff

iPhone & charger

Earbuds

X2 flip flops 

Sneakers

Sunglasses

Hats x2 (different styles of course)

Now the catch, I have to fit all of that (except my dance stuff) into one normal sized backpack, and a small "purse".

For me it should be easy, flip flops in the backpack, clothes in the backpack.

Sneakers and one scarf worn on each plane.

Sunglasses, iPhone, iPhone charger, earbuds, wallet, etc in my backpack purse. 

Then vóila! I am packed for Las Vegas.

I should be posting everyday other details like:

Fun facts about Vegas.

Travel tips.

Where I'm going and what I'm doing in Vegas.

From the plane.

Then when I get there hopefully I'll have time to post, but we'll see!