In the middle of the summer, in the midst of kids fighting and toys strewn about the house, I decided that it was time for a Kim and Eric Break. Eric's favorite band is Rush. The last time they came to the valley, Eric didn't go. With their tour this time around, they skipped us all together. However, they were stopping in Vegas. So, I quietly planned our Rush Vegas trip. It was so hard to keep it all a secret and to make all the trip decisions myself, but I did it. Friday morning I showed up at Eric's work, just under the premise that I was stopping by to say hi. I tried to talk Eric into leaving work early, but he couldn't because he had appointments. I then had to ask him what would he do if I told him the appointments weren't real, that I had some help scheduling those "appointments" from his assistant, to keep his schedule open for us to leave in the afternoon for our getaway.
Eric was able to wrap things up and leave the office in pretty good time. We hit the road. We made great time getting to Vegas. We had enough time, that we were actually able to catch a show Friday night. Do I dare admit that we saw Carrot Top at the Luxor? He was very funny (after I tuned out the not-so-nice things he said). After the show, we went to Aria, our hotel. This was one of those tricky decisions that I had to make by myself. I wanted to stay in a nice hotel, but I had to keep the price down. I ended up doing a you-pay-this-price-without-knowing-the-hotel-name deal. We ended up getting a suite at Vdara. REALLY COOL! It is the only hotel on the strip that does not have a casino and is non-smoking. It was a great place to stay. The room was awesome, and we had a lake view and could watch the Bellagio's fountain show with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
We found a yummy buffet for breakfast, at the hotel next door. We walked around the strip. Eric has always loved playing the games at Excalibur, so we headed there. Eric won some stuffed animals for the kids. We headed to CSI: The Experience at MGM. We used to watch CSI, and so I thought it would be fun to experience it. I liked it, even though it was kinda cheesy. Eric just thought it was cheesy. However, I do have a CSI diploma to show for my hard work (it's in Spanish though - I clicked on the wrong button).
After CSI, we headed over to ph to "Meet and Greet" Tori Spelling who was in town for HSN for her jewelry show. When we finally found her (after being misdirected by a dumb lady at the hotel), I stood in line, only to be told like 5 minutes later by a little man that I was too late and the line was closed. I tried for the next 15 minutes to convince little man (he wasn't an actual little person, he was just shorter than me and incredibly irritating) to let me join the line or at least wait in case Tori finished early. He wouldn't have any of it. I was so mad I wanted to kick him in the shins and pull out his stupid hi-tech "security" earpiece! So, I ended up being 10 feet away from Tori, and not able to meet her. I did, however, get to stand one foot away from Mehran (her jewelry co-designer), and didn't realize it until after I left. I felt so bummed about it all. I wasn't like some super-crazy obsessed fan, but I liked her. I grew up watching her on 90210, and have since followed her on her reality show. It would have been super cool to meet an actual movie star. Oh well.
We went to a Brazilian restaurant for dinner, which ended up being quite disappointing. Eric loves Brazilian restaurants and is always willing to eat at one. This one wasn't so good. Maybe we ticked off the server by using a coupon and not ordering drinks?! It was quite exciting, getting to the concert, zipping through Vegas in a taxi. It's been quite a while since I've been to a concert, that I actually enjoyed feeling the drums beat in my chest. At first. Then it got a little loud. The concert was good. I think Eric enjoyed it (he better have!) I still couldn't believe that the guys next to me and in front of me were smoking pot, though. Yuck!
Sunday morning, we ate at the best buffet ever (Rio), Eric decided. We started to head home. Just before we got to the dam, the traffic was backed up, so we decided to turn around and go a different way (through Laughlin). Shortly after venturing the other way, I got sick. We had to stop and take care of things. We continued driving along. A couple hours down the road, we were greeted by signs warning of an accident ahead. We ended up stuck in traffic that wasn't moving. We sat there, in the desert, for 1.5 hours. We watched people walk and play ball. We watched the sun set (it was gorgeous). We had found out from a trucker there had been a fatal head-on collision down the road and that the road was completely closed. When the road finally opened up, as we drove past the completely totalled cars, I couldn't believe it. The cars were mangled, and torn apart. There was absolutely no way that anyone walked away from that. I sat there, as we drove, for the next two hours in complete shock. I really feel that we were protected from being in that accident. I think we should have stayed on the road to go on the dam, and we would have totally avoided the accident. But we didn't. We went a way that would have gotten us to the accident area quicker. So, since that didn't slow us down, I got sick and we had to stop, which slowed us down enough so that we weren't in that mangled mess of metal. This just totally strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father is completely and fully aware of each of us and will protect us and guide us.
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