Vegas Baby!

Our time in Las Vegas started with a cab driver who evidently thought we were stupid. It took him 20 minutes to go the three miles from the airport to the strip...somehow the shuttle guy on the way back managed to get us there in 5....hmmmm....

Once we got to the Luxor, Dr. HokieKev tried the $20 trick again and we were upgraded to a whirlpool suite on the first floor. This suite was no where as suite-like as the one in NYC but it was nice to have the whirlpool and be on the strip. That is...until our neighbors started up their whirlpool promptly at 7am the next morning. All we heard for a good half hour was the filling of the tub and the whirring of the motor.

Vegas wasn't very kind to Dr. HokieKev this time around. I only lost $2.50. Unless you count the clothes I bought, but then again I have something to show for those purchases. In all honesty, this trip to Vegas wasn't as exciting as the last and we decided to cut it short. By this point, we had been on the road for almost three weeks and were tired and sick of living out of suitcases. So...we had an early anniversary dinner at a restaurant called The Grotto and spent the rest of the evening in the downtown area where prices aren't as high and people aren't as skanky.

I didn't take any pictures this time around but if you really need a Vegas picture fix you can check out these from our trip in July 2005. I think there are some Hoover Dam pictures in there too. Enjoy!

Proof that Dr. HokieKev and I can take a non cracked out picture!

This is from Bob and Laura's wedding. Both of us even have our eyes open. Click on it to see the rest of the pictures from the wedding and a few from our trip to NYC including a top secret shot from deep inside The Food Network!

And if those are not enough NYC pictures for you, you can check out some vintage pictures by clicking the one below. These are from our December 2005 trip when things were a little more crowded and a lot more cold! Go ahead and click on Dr. HokieKev doing his best Donald Trump impersonation. "You're Fired!"

Fun with Hotel Employees- Take Two

So the culmination of the I slept with David Copperfield night was Newark Airport in lovely New Jersey. We spent four days there in celebration of Bob's wedding. Bob and Kevin have been friends since they were like six and he was the best man at our wedding- so it seemed only fitting that we trek cross country to see him tie the knot. It was a great time. I went to the second largest mall in America and once again coveted the Swavorski champagne glasses which I have to admit serve no real purpose other than being insanely pretty. I also spent the better part of an hour looking for a snack. What kind of snack food vendors in a mall don't take plastic these days- seriously. And 15 minutes from NYC- SHEESH!

The rehearsal dinner was fabulous, as was the hotel bar afterwards. Drunk Kevin even made an appearance. For those of you who are unaware- spotting Drunk Kevin is like seeing a yeti. Even though the crotchety bar tender tried his best to put a damper on the evening, I think a good time was had by all. This man was convinced that a hundred people were going to show up any minute to the Hilton Bar and therefore refused to charge anything to the room, a credit card, or let anyone order food.

The wedding was also pretty cool. The appetizers alone were enough to feed an army and were followed by a four course meal and five desserts. I even ate the Jordan almonds. Wine may have been involved. Anyway, Sunday morning we left and headed to Connecticut to meet Chris- one of Kevin's friends from college. We had lunch on a marina and hung out for a while before heading to NYC.

This was the first time I had been to NYC when it was above 40 degrees. It was also the first time I had been to NYC that I stayed in a hotel room not booked by a travel company who stuck us in Acrosstheriver, NJ. So anyway, we had a room at the Marriott Marquis right in Times Square. Seriously, I could have thrown something out the window and hit the Phantom of the Opera. Dr. HokieKev read online that in certain cities, NYC and Vegas being two of them, it is fairly easy to get upgraded hotel rooms by slipping the check in person a $20. All you have to do is slip it between your credit card and driver's license. Supposedly, if they aren't able to upgrade you they give you the money back. He gave this a trial run at this fancy hotel and it worked! The girl looked at the money, looked at Dr. HokieKev, and started typing away culminating in us being upgraded to a 44th floor executive suite. It was pretty fancy (and nice to have two rooms since we had spent the better part of two weeks in tiny hotel rooms 24/7)!

After settling in, we headed to John's Pizza with Anna and Russ (Kevin's high school friend and her fiance). Even though it took us a few wrong turns to find it- and the discovery that you could literally see it from our hotel room window- we made it. If you are ever in NYC go there. The sauce on the pizza is delicious and for $25 bucks for two people to eat dinner in NYC, it really can't be beat. After dinner, we headed to the bar on top of the hotel for drinks and the dessert buffet. The top of the hotel rotates so we got a pretty good view. Of course, you pay for that view by being sucked into the $17 dessert buffet- well worth it for the chocolate covered strawberries and marshmellows! Needless to say drinks and dessert were way more than dinner but it gave us a chance to catch up with Anna and Russ which was cool.

We spent Monday doing semitouristy things like taking the tour of NBC studios and taking pictures of a non snow covered Rockefeller Center. We also met Kevin's friend Lisa for lunch. We went to a little diner across from Chelsea Market and had the best diner food I have ever had. Halfway through our lunch who should walk in but noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker from America's Next Top Model. Apparently, he lives in the neighborhood. We spent a while at lunch and then headed back to Lisa's office for a tour of The Food Network studios. Apparently, this tour is only available to contest winners and VIPS like us because again, that's how we roll! It was pretty cool seeing the test kitchens and TV sets. This particular day it was set up to tape "Guy's Big Bite" and it looked like he was making meatball subs! You would be really surprised at how small that studio is for some of the things they tape. I may never watch Iron Chef America the same way again. Funny thing about The Food Network- aside from the small candy bar- there is no food. Seriously, all they have for craft services is candy. Lisa said most people figure that there is a ton of food around all the time and that just isn't the case.

We concluded our day by visiting Crumbs! and ordering some fabulous cupcakes. I highly recommend the Artie Lang- named after Howard Stern's sidekick- it taste like a black and white cookie filled with chocolate cream. Yum! Then it was back to the hotel to tip the bell guy, the valet, the guy who helped with our luggage, and every other human within 10 feet of our car. Nice hotels are great but you better have a cache of $5's ready to go. After the tipping was completed it was off to....VEGAS!!!

Pictures Only!

So Sue Me

I am a few posts behind because we haven't had reliable internet in a while. It seems that nice hotels want to charge you for it and we like to stay at them because of their fluffy beds. Luckily, Dr. HokieKev got our internet working this evening so that I can get back to retelling our journey. But for now, here are some pictures from Seattle. Click on it to see the rest!!!

Guess who I slept with last week...

Wednesday we had the pleasure of taking the red eye from Las Vegas to New Jersey. At least we were upgraded to first class because that is how we roll...or because Dr. HokieKev flies alot... but we were not sitting together. I guess it is better to be in first class and apart then scrunched up next to each other. Anyhow. So we get on the plane and I go to take my seat and I look over and see this odd looking character being VERY fidgety. I thought he was hopped up on meth or something. He goes on to have a freakout because there will be no food on the plane and no movie shown. The flight attendant tries her best to explain to him that people like to sleep on these red eyes and I worry for my arm as I think I am sitting next to a hungry meth addict who may try to use my arm as his dinner.

So a few minutes go by and the flight attendant leans in and asks crazy guy "Are you that magician guy?" Crazy guy responds "Yeah, I am that magician guy." Whatever, I think to myself, we are in Vegas where magicians and other odd characters are a dime a dozen. I put my feet up and try to go to sleep. Meanwhile, tons of passengers are coming in including one pregnant woman who was unfortunate to be stuck in a middle seat. She looked like she was at the point in her pregnancy where the baby was beginning to think her bladder was a trampoline. She was also trying to get her seat switched so she wouldn't have to climb over the guy next to her every 20 minutes. The flight attendant would have none of that and told her she would just have to wait and see if someone should switch. Clearly, the flight attendant had other things on her mind.

So she comes over, practically knocking into me and says to crazy guy "David, may I call you David- we have a pilots meal available I can pull aside for you if you want." Crazy guy loves that idea and I am now sure I am sitting next to that magician dude named David. Again, whatever, lots of magicians, lots of guys names David. We get off the ground and crazy magician guy is brought his meal which looked a way lot better than any plane food I have ever had. Dr. HokieKev was a bit disgruntled and asks me how he got the sandwich. I replied "well, he is famous and you aren't." Kevin wanted to know who it was but at this point I was still unsure.

Fast forward an hour and crazy guy pulls out his iphone and begins to watch some magics acts. Then it is Family Guy- the Family Guy where he was the guest star. When that was over, he pulled up Conan and this is when I was convinced crazy guy was I was relevant in 1994 magician David Copperfield because guess who the guest on Conan that episode was.....David Copperfield. Dude spent THREE HOURS watching himself on TV. Weirdo.

He then went through the skymall magazine and ripped out pages of stuff I am assuming he wanted to buy and then folded them up into really tiny pieces. I guess no one told him that he can take the magazine with him. It is free and no one really needs any of the crap in there anyway. But never the less, he spent at least an hour going though and picking stuff out. When we got off the plane, he pushed me out ofthe way to get out. He proceeded through the terminal completely unnoticed....again, he was once relative...in 1994. The flight attendant spent the rest of the flight fawning all over crazy dude. "So you need water....coffee....orange juice....my first born..." Totally nuts.

And seriously, dude has millions- if not billions- of dollars (I looked on Wikipedia, he made $54 million last year, and we all know that if it is on Wikipedia it must be true) why in the world is he flying on the US Scareways complaining about the lack of video entertainment? He owns his own island for crying out loud! Maybe Sigfried and Roy had the private plane that weekend or maybe he likes to go through major airports hoping to be recognized- who knows.

All I know is that I slept with David Copperfield Wednesday night and he was really weird.

<3 I left my heart in San Francisco <3

We spent my birthday and the day after in San Francisco. It was cold. Seriously, 62 and cloudy is not fun. This is California for crying out loud. So anyway, we woke up early in Seattle and took a cab to the airport. Our flight was delayed- something about fog. When we finally landed, we retrieved our bags and proceeded to lug three giant suitcases on an airport train, a subway train, and a historic streetcar. The streetcar part was really annoying as it was completely packed and the other people on it were not too amused by our luggage situation. I was also a bit disappointed that these weren't the fancy red trolley cars rather actual used streetcars from all over the world. We arrived at the hotel around 2:30- tired and STARVING. Our room at the Fisherman's Wharf Hyatt was not ready so we ditched our bags with the bellman and went in search of birthday food. I really wanted cake but seeings as how most restaurants do not have birthday cake on the menu, we opted instead for some seafood at Neptune's Palace. The west coast is apparently the land of dungeness crabs so, for the third time this trip, I got something crabby for lunch and it was delicious!!! This was also the point in our trip that we realized we were staying in a HUGE tourist trap.

So Fisherman's Wharf is basically a carnival geared towards cruise ships- there is a carousel and a million street performers adding to the smell of carnival food wafting through the air. Tons of t-shirt shops and discount jewelers also line the streets. I was once again attacked by a bird- this time more The Birds style- divebombing towards my face. These birds seriously do not mess around. It probably has something to do with the abundance of street vendors and all the food that makes it onto the street. After lunch, we tried to take an Alcatraz tour but they were booked up for the next five days. You could sail to the island, around the island, and maybe even under the island but not actually go onto the island until Sunday which was kind of disappointing. So we forwent that tour and instead went back to the hotel to take a nap figuring we would wake up in time to have Ghiradelli sundaes for dinner. (That is, after procuring a chocolate covered caramel apple which I spent the whole way back to the hotel trying to convince Dr. HokieKev of its healthfulness. Whatever- it was my birthday.)

Not so fast my friend! You see, Ghiradelli chocolate started in San Fran and, even though production has moved across the bay, there is still a store in the famous Ghiradelli Square- 4 blocks from our hotel. So we wake up and Dr. HokieKev takes to the internet to see when the place closes- 8:00pm...WTF!!! Are you telling me that fancy ice cream place in tourist trap town closes before most people have finished their dinner? A call to the ice cream parlor confirmed Dr. HokieKev's worst nightmare. Instead, we headed back to the overgrown carnival to find that most of the things there we closed too. We settled on funnel cake for me and a Ben and Jerry's shake for him. Not the same.

We ended up back at the hotel pretty early and pretty disappointed that the city closed at 10. Come to find out, we were just in the wrong part of the city. Next time we will know this and probably stay downtown instead of in tourist land. The next morning, we dumped our bags with the bellman and headed for Ghiradelli square- nothing like a giant ice cream sundae for breakfast- although by this point it was 11:30 so it was more like lunch. When we got to the ice cream place we saw CLEARLY marked on the door- STORE HOURS: 9:00am-11:30pm. Ummm...last night you told us you closed at eight. What's up with that? Although the sundae was a delightful breakfast, it would have tasted oh so much more tasty at 10 the previous night. I concluded that they get so busy at night from foot traffic that they tell people they close at eight to keep them away. Whatever, don't take my money. We then tried to kill time before our DUCK tour. Yes, we were the losers taking the DUCK tour to see as much of the city as we could on our one and a half day visit. At least in San Fran you get quackers....in Boston you actually have to quack at people.

We visited the exteriors of some old ships and the interior of an old arcade that had working games going back as far as 1880. Crazy some of the things that used to amuse people. We also took another look at the California Sea Lions. Some of which were still chillaxin in the marina by the carnival pier. The DUCK tour was pretty good- we saw the parts of the city that stay open past 10. Next time we will know. The water part of the tour was FREEZING!!!! Next time I will also know to bring a jacket. After the tour, I managed to convince Dr. HokieKev that a Strawberry Hazelnut crepe was a healthy dinner because it had strawberries in it- so we got one and headed back to the hotel to wait for the airport shuttle. Thus concludes our whirlwind stay in the land of Rice-A-Roni!!!

Tune in tomorrow when I reveal who I slept with the other night...that wasn't Dr. HokieKev!