Las Vegas - Day 6

Today was fairly low key regarding classes. We attended sessions in the morning and were scheduled to work as volunteers through the lunch meeting. When we went to the volunteer/registration counter to sign in, we were told that we weren't needed...that the election of officers for the group was not going to require more than a few people and that they had that covered. Hooray! We didn't want to do it anyway, so this allowed us to eat and get out of there a whole lot quicker.

After the crazy lunch of a lasagna piece with a blanched carrot and string bean on top (really, that is what it was!) and a strange cookie-crust custard thing, we grabbed my son and husband and took off.

We went to the Stratosphere to ride the rides. Seriously. If you've ever been to Las Vegas, you'll know the Stratosphere is on the north end of the strip and towers above the landscape. About ten years ago, at another conference at the same hotel, I went with my daughter to ride the Big Shot on the top of the Stratosphere. Back then there were two rides on the top - the Big Shot and a roller coaster than curled around the top. I would never in a million years have done the coaster. I mean, come on! It was insane to think about it. Here's some footage of the coaster from YouTube:



But the Big Shot just goes straight up and straight back down. You start on concrete, you land on concrete if the worst should happen. Seems better, somehow, than going in a circle around the outside edge of the top of the building and if you fell, it'd be straight down to the street. Here's a sample of the ride from YouTube:



It goes up so fast, it's insane. I had forgotten that part, however, when I agreed to go again with my son. It is one incredible rush and my son, who had never been on the ride, yelled as loud as he could. Didn't help, but made him feel better.

To make it worse, he wanted to ride their newest ride, Insanity. Here's how this one goes, once more courtesy of YouTube:



And there's more - they have one more ride but neither one of us had the guts to go on it. It's called the X-Scream and it is insane. Here it is from YouTube:



It just dangles right out over NOTHING. NOTHING. No way would I ride that thing!

After the fun of the Stratosphere, we headed back to our hotel for the conference banquet. The DH didn't want to go, so only my son, my co-worker and I went. It was the WORST banquet I have ever been to. The food selection was incomprehensible. It still don't understand who make those choices. The meat was beef with small rolls to eat it with. That was pretty normal. Next to it was a Louisiana "station" with white rice, red beans, shrimp to be cooked and some kind of crazy chicken sauce thing.

The "fresh vegetables" were actually roasted carrots, zucchini, cherry tomatoes...it was so strange! No dip, nothing to eat with them.

The dessert, rather than a collection of cakes/pies, etc. was the only bright spot. But if you didn't like it, you were out of luck. It was one thing only - bananas foster. Vanilla ice cream with a rum-based banana laden sauce on top. It was good, but the other stuff was blah. Needless to say, I didn't stay long. We ate what we could and went out for one last "fling" at the casino.

I won $33.00 on slots, so I quit. That leaves me down about $30.00 for the trip. Not bad, really.

We went to bed early due to the long travel day the next day. Didn't help. It took 14 hours to get home in total. Yep. One layover, one delay and an hour car trip at the end.

Guess I won't complain. I was happy to be back home. Traveling is fun...returning has its own charm as well.