Today we were ALL up early to say farewell to Christy – who had to leave for airport at 5.30am for her two flights to Iowa to spend 3 weeks with her fiance Makayla, whom she was actually meet in real life for the first time.
It has been really nice having Christy with us for the last week and I know she will have an amazing time with Makayla. Seems odd though that we now won’t see her until next year (she arrives back in Australia on the 2nd January.
We didn’t have to check out until 10am so I had plenty of time to finish waking up, have some time on the computer and then get ready and finish packing. We finished off the last of our Chef Kenny’s meals for breakfast. Odd I know, but the food was too good to waste – and we didn’t eat until about 9am so it wasn’t too early :-).
Just before 10am Kevin completed the check of our room and we checked out of the Wyndham (highly recommend – just avoid the time share presentations they offer) and ubered to the airport. and took advantage of curb side check-in (you just give them a tip). We were here in plenty of time since our flight wasn’t until almost 1pm. We got through security (I had my bag checked this time – it’s normally Kevin’s) and then found the gate to sit near.
Kevin had lunch chosen for the plane but I went in search of a vegan option – which was hard to find. But I did manage to get a salad baguette.
Around 12.30pm boarding began. Just yesterday I had pais (about AU$200 to choose our seats – window for Kevin, aisle for me, as neither of us wanted to be stuck in the middle for a 4.5 hour flight. But this morning we got an email to say our plane type had changed and our seats moved. It was good that it was just two at the side so both our needs could be met and we were seated together (we weren’t going to be). However we had now moved into the section of plane that could have paid less than $50 for seat selection !!!! I somehow made the mistake of booking the cheapest seats – which at the end of the day probably cost as the same as having paid more upfront. We did get 2 free checked bags (only had to pay for one) – we think this might because of our Qantas Club/One World Membership.
We took off about 1.30pm and had a nice easy 4.5 hour flight to Miami. I enjoyed my lunch and read on my kindle – in between little naps.
Kevin had the window seat so got the enjoy the sunset as we flew across the country.
We touched down about 8.30pm and by the time we walked to the baggage claim, collected our luggage and headed outside it was getting close to 9.30pm. When Kevin initially requested an uber it quoted about US$118 fee and a 50min trip (according to my research it normally took about 30mins. We then invested Super Shuttle which was going to cost US$77 but we would have to wait 30mins before we left. We decided to head back to Uber and this time were quoted US$45.
However it was indeed a long trip – there was at least accident, possible two and our driver got slightly lost when his Uber app crushed. I’m really not sure how long it took us but I’d say over an hour. We gave a generous tip, so we paid about the same as the super shuttle but had a private car deliver us straight to our destination – the Sun Tower Hotel & Suites. Once again we were told we had been upgraded since we were the last people to arrive and the Ocean View Suite was free.
The room is lovely – but of course, we wouldn’t see the view until the morning.
Although the hour was very late we still felt like we should eat dinner. It might be 10.30pm but it was only 7.30pm in Vegas. There were only two places available at this time through Uber Eats and one happened to be vegan. Kevin ordered a burger – but they used beyong burgers patties (which I’m afraid of since they are supposed to taste very close to real beef) so I got cheesy chilli fries. They were pretty yummy but I didn’t even manage half of this serve.
We stayed up till about 12am to let dinner digest a little and then headed to bed.
