24 Hours in Vegas

Anyone that knows my parents knows that they love going to Vegas. Over the years, Vegas has hosted many of our best family vacations. Mom and Dad saw Elvis there in the 70s. I was too young to go to that one, so my consolation price was to see the Osmonds - from the front table no less. We've also seen Wayne Newton (he kissed my Mom, it was a hoot), Bill Cosby, George Wallace (the comedian, not the politician) and various versions of the Supremes and Temptations with at least some of the original members, and at least one show that featured some topless showgirls which was horribly embarrassing to be seeing with my parents. This summer, my nephew and I even got to see the one year anniversary performance of the Cirque du Soleil show Love with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the audience too.

One would think that as often as Mom and Dad go that they are some type of high rollers, but that really isn't the case at all. My Mom is more into playing the penny slots, and Dad just likes to enjoy relaxing in the spa area or enjoying a cup of coffee while people watching.


But, since they have been going to Vegas and staying at the Flamingo Hotel exclusively since the 1960s, they are elite level members of the hotel frequent stayer/player program, and therefore they are offered all kinds of free rooms, free entry into slot machine tournaments and many other assorted comps. So - they can get there free, stay there free, eat free and play free. So it is basically cheaper than staying home. (Here they are enjoying the free breakfast buffet.)


They left late Christmas afternoon on their most recent trip, and I decided that if I took a vacation day Friday, I could leave after work on Thursday and join them for a 24 hour mini-vacation. I was a little worried about getting there, as there were no standbys getting on any of the earlier flights to Vegas, but I lucked out and arrived in time for the one flight that had plenty of room for us all. I even got the coveted bulkhead seat and an empty seat next to it. Which was great, because my knee was killing me after walking all the way to Gate A2 at the end of the concourse terminal. (Why is my flight always at the last gate?)

By the time I arrived, I found out that my parents had run into my best Delta friend Glenda and her husband Larry.


Glenda and I have talked about making a trip to Vegas at the same time for years, and it never worked out. And yet, without knowing it, we both ended up there at the same time and stumbled across each other randomly. We were even on the same flight coming back home, where we all got in first class (YAY!) which hardly ever happens anymore.

Mom won $50 in the tournament, but that was about the only luck we had gambling. But, you really aren't gonna get rich playing penny slots anyway. But it is still nice to dream.

We took the midnight flight home, and arrived in Atlanta at about 6:30 in the morning, and I was fast asleep by 7:00. And for the most part, I've pretty much been asleep since then. So maybe this post should have been named "24 Hours in Vegas, followed by 24 Hours in Bed."