Las Vegas, Chloride and Sedona, November 2003

Las Vegas, Chloride and Sedona, AZ
November, 2003

It has been a couple of months since we have been to Las Vegas and in my mind that is two months too long. This trip will be a pure
husband/wife vacation without any hiking up mountains and deserts that usually mark my trips. It is the first time that we have ever been
away from home on Thanksgiving but as I will relate we had our usual great time.

We left Rochester on Thanksgiving Day at 10:05 AM on United Airlines. I paid $292 each for the tickets which is about the normal
advance fare that I can find. When I am doing my travel arrangements, which I do solely on line, I search high and wide for the absolute
best prices I can find. I don’t mind spending money. I just don’t want to spend a dollar more than I have to. We connected as usual in
Chicago and arrived in Las Vegas at 1:40 PM exactly on time. The flight was full but not totally full since I guess on Thanksgiving itself it
is not a peak flying day. When I was looking for prices for tickets I checked leaving the day before Thanksgiving and ticket prices were
at least $200 more.

I think I will spend a bit of time here and outline my methods of achieving the best travel prices I can find.

Airlines

I first check on of the on line general websites like Expedia. This gives me a general idea of prices. I then will check the actual website
of the airline since you will get bonus frequent flyer miles by buying directly from them. But make sure you check closely. I have more
than once been able to find prices on Expedia cheaper than the exact same days/times on the airline’s website. If you buy on Expedia
don’t forget about adding the extra service charge they tack on to the total. I also occasionally check the airlines that aren’t listed on
Expedia like Southwest and Jet Blue. However, I have found in Jet Blue’s case that they are rarely the cheapest. They do have nice
leather seats and individual Direct TV connections but that isn’t worth $50 to me but perhaps it is to you. They do make the flight more
comfortable. In Southwest’s case they are sometimes the cheapest but they don’t fly out of Rochester but out of Buffalo which is about
60 miles away. Before Rochester got Jet Blue and Air Tran the price difference out of Buffalo used to be $200 or more which was worth
the drive but not now.

Car Rental

Here Dollar is almost always the cheapest. But even if you check and they are the cheapest don’t just sit on your reservation. Keep
checking every couple of weeks or so. Almost every time that I have ever made a reservation I ended up getting it 10% or more less
than my original reservation. In Vegas especially it is demand driven. If the demand drops so does the price. Again, I don’t mind
spending money I just don’t want to waste it.

Hotels

In Vegas this is simple, I get them comped or for free. Comped means that the hotel/casino will give you free stuff like rooms and meals
based on the amount of your play. How much play depends on which hotel, where it is located and what type of room you are looking
for. At an off strip casino like the Fiesta Henderson you can probably get a free room by playing quarter slots or video poker for 4 hours
or so a day. At a strip, premium casino like Bellagio you would probably have to play $1 slots or video poker for at least 4 hours but
probably 8 hours a day to get a room comped. It also depends on what day (Sunday through Thursday are the easiest) and what type of
room. Jacuzzi and suite rooms are obviously going to require higher play. The most important thing to remember is that if you gamble
and you want to see if you can get some things comped make sure you ask. Go to the player’s card booth and ask.

If you are traveling outside of Las Vegas you are going to have to (prepare yourself), pay for your room. Yes, I have been spoiled not
paying for hotel rooms or meals while I am in Vegas but I realize that once you leave fantasy land you have to go back to the real world.
Again the internet is your best friend. You can search for non-chain hotels if that is what you like and find prices, check out photos and a
lot of times even make your reservations on line. In my case I like the comfort of a chain that I like. I know they will provide an acceptable
level of service and if they don’t I have some mechanism for getting it fixed. In my case I almost always use a Hilton brand hotel. There
are two reasons for this. First I like their hotels overall (Hilton, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn). Second they have a
frequent stay club called Hilton Honors that since I have traveled quite a bit in the last few years for my job I have Diamond Card status.
Just like gambling, if you want to maximize your benefits gamble/stay in one casino/chain. You get a lot more if you have 10,000 points
in one company rather than 1,000 points in each of ten companies.

Thursday

After picked up our intermediate car, a Stratus, from Dollar via Fastlane (took five minutes after arriving at the lot) we headed over to the
Fiesta Henderson that was to be our base for the first three nights. Total cost for the car rental including tax was $157.35. Total cost
when I first made the reservation had been $198.60. Such is the power of re-checking reservations in Vegas. No problem, as usual
checking in at the hotel and we spent the rest of the evening doing a little gambling and having our Thanksgiving dinner at the buffet.

Friday

A couple of cool things are happening today. First of all we are having dinner with one of our friends from Rochester, Gordon Simmons
and his girl friend Tracy. Gordon and I were talking and I mentioned our upcoming trip to Vegas and it so happened that his trip
overlapped ours and there you are. This is Gordon’s first trip to Las Vegas. We met for dinner at the Pullman Grille in Main Street
Station at 7 PM. I had read very positive reviews for this restaurant and in particular that they served the best Alaskan king crab legs in
the city. Overall I would rate it okay. Nothing unsatisfactory but nothing special either. To date I would say the best restaurant that I have
eaten at in Las Vegas would have to be Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand. Also unlike many of my video
poker aficionados I am not a big fan of Main Street Station, it is too small, too crowded and no TITO (ticket in ticket out) machines. To
wait 30 minutes for $4 worth of nickels is just crazy.

But the dinner conversation was very nice and everyone had a good time. Gordon and Tracy were staying at the Rivera and their review
of their hotel was not good. Old tired rooms and just tired employees working there. My first stay in Las Vegas in 1984 was actually at
the Rivera and the rooms were nothing special then and I don’t think anything has been done in the nineteen intervening years. After
dinner we parted company with Gordon and Tracy and headed to our next destination that evening, the Amazing Jonathan show at the
Flamingo.

During previous visits I had read favorable reviews of his show saying that if you had a good sense of humor and an open mind you
would have a great time. Well, Maggie and I have a good sense of humor and open minds so why not? The short and dirty of it was the
show wasn’t as funny or as offensive as I expected it to be. There were certainly some very funny moments in particular with his female
sidekick, Psychic Tanya, but nothing particularly shocking. I would give the show a grade of B. I picked up an autographed t-shirt after
the show for $20 for my son which he seemed to enjoy.

Saturday

Today’s big event was a promotion that was occurring at the Orleans. The Orleans recently built a large arena to host concerts and
sporting events. The minor league hockey team in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Wranglers, plays there home games in this area. The
Orleans as a promotion offered double pays on royal flushes on Saturdays from 9 PM to Midnight if you had a ticket from the game.
Normally Orleans has pretty good video poker so if you add double pays for royal flushes it pushes the expected return to well into the
positive range. So we decide to go and give it a shot. And guess what? We had a blast, no so much with the gambling (we didn’t hit a
royal) but with the hockey game. It was a family friendly atmosphere with all the fun of minor league sporting events. I would heartily
suggest that you check it out if they are home when you are in Vegas. Everyone needs a break from gambling and glitz once in awhile.

Sunday

During almost every trip to Vegas I drag my wife or my son or sometimes both on an out of town trip or trips. This time we are headed to
Arizona, specifically Flagstaff and Sedona and places in between. We head south east over the Hoover Dam towards Kingman,
Arizona. About 20 miles outside of Kingman is an old mining town called Chloride. I wanted to stop there to view some murals painted
on the rocks outside of town during the 70’s. I always like to find these out of the way spots to visit because, well, it’s a lot of fun to how
many different places can make up America.

Chloride is located a couple of miles off of the main interstate so it really isn’t that much out of the way. You wind your way through the
small town and follow the signs to the murals. They are more different than particularly striking. You can certainly imagine what particular
mind-altering drugs that the painter might have been experimenting with when he painted these. But that are certainly Americana. On
the way out of town we saw the sign for the cemetery and since both my wife and I enjoy touring these we stopped. What a joy this was!
When I die I hope my family can honor my life in such a way. Take a look at these photos (LINK) and you will see what I mean. Instead of
the sterile tombstone these gravesites are dedicated with what was important to these people during their lives, whether it was a phone
or a bottle of Bud. This alone makes the short detour worth it.

We continued along the interstate through Kingman and then across northern Arizona to Flagstaff where we were spending the night at
the Embassy Suites using Hilton Honors frequent stay points, thank you very much. After settling in for a bit we headed to Sedona. We
drove the scenic route along 89A through the Coconino National Forest and then into Red Rock Country and finally Sedona. We did the
shop crawl along the main drag which was actually quite interesting. In addition to the normal t-shirt/gift shop outlets there are quite a
number of specialty stores offering very nice products. I actually discretely ordered a piece of Navajo pottery for my wife for Christmas
after visiting one of the stores.

After shopping we had dinner at a restaurant in the shopping/dining area called Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. We then went to a
very nice Christmas lighting and decoration display at Los Abrigados Resort & Spa. This display was the 13th annual Red Rock
Fantasy. There were 50 displays, some made by families, some by organizations and some made by businesses. You walk through
the resort using a map from one to the next. While it was a little cool as far as the weather was concerned it was very cool and I would
encourage you to visit it if you are in the area. When we were there it was running from November 21st through January 4th. Check out
the photo gallery for some pictures. After spending quite a bit of time going through the displays we headed on back to Flagstaff up the
scenic route through the forest.

The next day we headed back to Las Vegas for the final two days of our Thanksgiving adventure before heading back home. Our flight
back was through Dulles in DC without any problems. We arrived home on United at 10:26 PM.

Pictures from this trip.