Part One: Tahoe
We spent the first week of August at Lake Tahoe with pretty much all of Jamie's family (dad's side). Thirteen of us in a townhouse! I finally met all of his brothers, and had a great time getting to know his family better... especially his darling nieces and stepmom, when us girls went bowling one night...
We left Tahoe on Friday morning and drove up to Reno, just in time to experience "Hot August Nights" when thousands of hot rods come into town... very cool!
The gambling was decent... I won $150 on a penny machine and turned $20 of that into $275 on a dollar slot!
We left Reno on Saturday afternoon and headed home to prepare for Part 2 of our vacation.
Part Two: Vegas!
OK. Las Vegas was a *little* more eventful than Tahoe!
We arrived on Tuesday afternoon, with Ed, Lucinda and Amelia. Amelia would turn 21 at midnight, so we had several hours to kill.
We went to the Hilton and did the "Star Trek Experience" which was like Captain Eo and Star Tours smashed together.
So now it's like 9pm and we don't know what to do next.
We decide to head the The Palms... Jamie and I are fans of the show "Inked" on A&E and wanted to check out the shop from the show...
I had been toying with getting a new tattoo and figured this would be a cool place to do it!
I describe what I want and get a price quote... $250! Holy crap! That's basically twice what I would pay at a shop here at home... I go back a forth for a few mintues and finally decide to do it.
This is where Jamie, my pimp (apparently) comes in... as I'm filling out paperwork, he asks the recpetionist "Are you guys filming for the show right now?" When he finds out they are indeed, he says "She's got a pretty good story!"
I explain my tattoo and what it means. The recptionist heads off and returns with a producer who asks if I'd be willing to be filmed for the show! Um. OK!
Best part? They pay for half my tattoo! LOL
I am now the proud owner of a green awareness ribbon located on my abdomen, right next to my transplant scar, which was exactly 50 weeks old when I get the tat.The art was created and inked by the amazing Matt, a very funny guy and (obvioulsy) talented artist!
Keep an eye out for the episode some time this fall! (And yes, I am stalking the website hoping to get some advance notice! LOL)
So that's my first 12 hours in Las Vegas!
Can it get any better?
Next morning, I'm making plans to meet my friend Stephanie for lunch... she's going to pick us up at our hotel... she's running late, so we have about 10 minutes to kill. I plop myself in front of a nickel machine near the door and feed in 2 rolls of nickels.
And look what happens!
I won just over $830 on a NICKEL machine!
I meet Steph, we have a great time finally meeting, she takes us back to the hotel.
Thursday, our second to last day in Vegas.
We have tickets to the Penn & Teller show at the Rio, and it's awesome! Jamie and I are both big fans, so it was a highlight for us. Even better, as we were leaving the theater, there they were! We got to snap a couple of photos and get autographs, allowing me to check yet another thing off my list of 100 Things to Do Before I Die!
So that's our vacation!
(We also went to the Eagles concert on Satuday... WOW!)
