Mojave: Las Vegas Day 1

This is the lead-off post in a series of posts on our recent trip to the Mojave Desert, flying in and out of Las Vegas. Our trip to the airport started unusually in that I slept for 8 straight hours before our early morning flight. Go figure. I rarely sleep and never before a flight. Our airport shuttle arrived five minutes early on a gloomy morning. On the ground, it was a gray rainy day (apparently we got out just before a major deluge in the coming couple of days). We pulled up to a very quiet airport and got through security really quickly as usual.

On the short 40-minute hop we had plenty of sunshine above the clouds. Our full 737 took a big bounce on hitting the cloud layer on the descent into SEA and lurched drunkenly in a ten-degree roll to starboard. Then we rolled back past vertical ten degrees to port. Either the autopilot overcorrected the initial roll or the pilot gave too much input while the autopilot was correcting the roll. Our stomachs finally lurched back to upright, leaving us all feeling a bit queasy.

Our follow-on flight to Vegas was posted as delayed by 30 minutes initially, which was a good thing as we had a long hike to change terminals between flights and our original schedule was tight. The departure time was delayed well over an hour by the time we arrived at the gate. Ultimately, our plane did not arrive until after our original departure time and then it was on maintenance hold until after our scheduled arrival in Vegas. We could gripe about the delays, but if a pilot does not want to fly a plane until it is repaired, I have no interest in being on that plane. Though given that SEA is Alaska's primary hub, you might think that they might have a spare plane to swap in.

We had no fixed plans in Vegas in the afternoon, so no harm was done. We left slack in our schedule, at least a full day, because air travel out of Redmond in the winter is so hit and miss. After we pushed back from the gate and moved on to the taxiway more than two hours late, planes were lined up for taxi as far as I could see. I counted more than a dozen vertical stabilizers ahead of us, nose to tail like circus elephants. I noted that the Alaska 737-800s looked tiny in line with a lone Korean Air Cargo 747.

The weather system moving into the PNW caused us a bumpy flight out of SEA. Although it settled down after 30 minutes, halfway into the flight there was enough turbulence to have the cabin crew buckle up. Our arrival at LAS was uneventful and we retrieved our bags before going outside to catch a shuttle for the rental car center. Hundreds of people were on line for a shuttle and the shuttles were not moving very efficiently. We had to wait for the fourth shuttle on an overcast afternoon.

During all our delays, I looked for a brewpub where we could relax and perhaps grab some dinner before checking in to our room. After we got our car, still dripping from the carwash, we drove to Able Baker Brewing in the Arts District. While I paid at the kiosk for street parking, Ann wrangled two outside seats at a bar facing the inside of the building which has a cool Bend x Industrial vibe.

The brewery is named after the first two nuclear bombs detonated at the nearby Nevada Test Site; the interior motif is Atomic Age-inspired. The beers were very good and that is no mean feat given the area's crappy water quality. Also good was our food from the Arts District Kitchen, a separate business housed inside the brewery.

At Able Baker Brewing in the Arts District

Garbage Nachos, the Garbage being Pork Belly

Pork Belly Tacos

After dinner, we went to an ATM to get cash for valet tips and then we navigated to our room, a condo in the Vdara Hotel, an MGM property, right on the strip at Harmon Ave. Although we got through the convoluted maze of ramps and circular roads that join the Vdara, Aria, and the Cosmopolitan without too much issue, finding the valet at Vdara proved a bit more difficult as I pulled into the Uber/taxi line and not into the valet line tucked around the corner of the building. It appeared that to pull into the valet, we had to drive up on the sidewalk, and although I hesitated to do so, that is what the designer intended.

We Passed the Strat in Heading for our Room

At Able Baker, we met a frequent visitor from Nashville who told us about a hidden speakeasy right near our room. After we got settled, we went in search of said speakeasy which we were told was behind a closed door marked simply with a tiny image of a skier. We found the door easily enough and a tuxedoed staffer led us directly to two seats at the uncrowded bar. The place would fill up and there would be a longish line of folks waiting to get in when we left, but our arrival at 9pm or so is early by Vegas standards. But how secret is a place with a long line of people queued and waiting for entry?

Interior of Ski-Themed Ski Lodge Speakeasy

Sitting at the bar of the Ski Lodge we had a couple of cocktails. Welcome to the land of $25 cocktails! The drinks were good and well crafted and as we enjoyed them, we got to talking with Nick from Brooklyn at the bar. He seemed to have intimate knowledge of all the nearby speakeasies and proposed a speakeasy crawl. Our spur of the moment plan was to speak-hop with Nick, but suddenly my back crapped out, despite the anesthetic I had on board.

I had to call uncle after a longish travel day. It may not seem like a trip from Bend to Vegas is a lot, but the cumulative stresses of the day added up. We called it a night and walked back to our hotel and made our way up to our room on the 32nd floor, high above the Strip. We spent a few minutes gazing at all the lights that people have come to associate with Vegas.

Out Our Window: Bellagio, High Roller Ferris Wheel, The Sphere, Paris Las Vegas

One thing to love about Las Vegas is that the airport, formerly named McCarran and renamed for Harry Reid, is situated right in town. One thing not to love is the planes screaming in to land. Fortunately, they stopped at some point and we got to sleep, ending our travel day to Vegas.