All good parties must come to an end, and today, waking up tired after yet again another late night in Vegas, I think we were actually pretty thankful for that. While we'd had a totally awesome, dreams-come-true visit to Vegas, it was time to move on with our holiday and tonight we were heading south to New Orleans. We had a bit of a sleep in this morning (we needed it given we didn't go to bed till after 1am) till about 10am. This would've been longer, but luckily we realised soon enough that check-out was 11am, not 12pm as we thought, and we also had to pretty much pack everything in our bags again. It's amazing how much you unpack when you're either drunk or hungover; my bag was a mess, my clothes were everywhere! In truth it didn't take too long, and we were ready and checked out by right on 11am. I have a habit of leaving things till the last minute (it really riles Stace and my mum) and still managing to get it done on time, and this was no exception. As it was right on check-out time, it was pretty busy checking out, but we'd done it soon enough. It was even busier at the concierge though. Our flight wasn't until early this evening so we still had most of the day to fill in before needing to be at the airport. I wasn't gonna be back-packery, and Stace certainly wasn't going to cart around her suitcase, all day until we had to leave, so we decided to leave them in checked at the hotel. So did half of the rest of the hotel - the line would've been at least 50 metres long. It ended up sort've working out though having to wait. It allowed Stace to go to the toilet (probably twice), and she received a message from Jenna. We were going to the factory outlets a couple of miles down the road to do some shopping this morning, which Jenna, Leigh and the kids were also going to do. Their hotel wouldn't find them a big enough taxi to fit them all in (note to self: don't have an army of kids), so Jenna had asked if we could all share a couple, which would make it a bit easier for them as we could help entertain the kids (parent us). So, in summary, if we hadn't have been stuck in a queue, we would already have left, and not been able to help them. No wonder they happily waved at us while we were waiting in it. Anyway, we caught the taxi up to the factory outlet at the north end of the city, which were called Vegas Factory Outlets North. There's also one at the south end that's called Vegas Factory Outlets South. Fairly self explanatory names I thought, straight to the point. The taxi driver dropped us off in a bay right out the front, and I got easily amused because there was a big sign explicitly saying 'no taxis'. Rule breaker. I took a photo. Stace and I split up from Jenna and her family to do some shopping and wandering on our own. Our first stop was breakfast, and I got a gigantic slice of pizza just because I could. I wanted 2 pieces, but lucky I didn't because it was massive. Stace didn't have pizza, even though I knew she loved the look of it, because once again it goes against her physical capabilities to stomach non-breaky food as her first meal of the day. Then we shopped. For a few hours. Lucky I love spending time with Stace, and like shopping with her. I know, I excel at this boyfriend thing. I even carried her bags! You can stop fainting now girls. We made our way through the whole centre, which in truth wasn't all that big, and wasn't all that cheap. Particularly when you take into account the exchange rate. But Stace found a couple of pairs of shorts, and even coaxed me into buying some! I know, she's a miracle worker! We also stopped for a quick snack at Cinnabun, Stace never having had one. Cinnabun sells awesome cinnamon scrolls, with a sweet sugary cinnamonny (obviously) filling between the layers. They're delicious! We grabbed a big one to share, which was more than enough. Though I do think I introduced Stace to something she really liked. Lucky they have Cinnabun in Australia. We did a little bit more shopping till about 2pm, and then decided to call it a day. Stace had a friend who'd arrived in Vegas that we wanted to catch up with, and we had shopped the whole store anyway. We located Jenna, Leigh and the kids, and bid them farewell, as we were parting ways for the rest of our respective trips from here. I got lots of hugs at that time, which was awesome. We caught a taxi from out the front of the shopping centre, which again picked us up from next to the 'no taxi' sign. Rebel. On the way back into town, we passed the 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign, which made me happy as I finally got to see it. Another thing ticked off! Our taxi was taking us to the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino, which is where Stace's friend - who is named Bianca by the way - was staying. The taxi driver was new to Vegas, a fact we found out when I had to key in the name of the hotel on his phone because he couldn't spell it, so it wasn't the best ride. In fact, when we got close, he dropped us off on the footpath in a side street that led to nowhere. ********. Because of the sheer number of pedestrians and vehicles along the strip, they've made massive overpasses for pedestrians to completely segregate them from the traffic lanes, including fences so basically no pedestrians are caught in the traffic. Except us. Where he dropped us was the wrong side of said fence, so we actually had to jump it with all our shopping (admittedly 3 pairs of shorts isn't much, but it sounds dramatic), to the bemusement of passers by. I wish I hadn't have tipped the ****er. Once we got inside the casino, we had to get ourselves to the 17th floor, which is where Bianca and her friends were laying by the outdoor pool. True to form, I found the lifts, and Stace went to the toilet, then we went up. It was blowing a bloody gale up there, but was still stinking hot so the pool was packed. As the Cosmopolitan was the only hotel we'd come across that didn't have wifi, we walked around aimlessly, hoping to bump into Bianca, which we knew we had when she came excitingly running over! Yay! There's always something exciting about catching up with people you know overseas! Stace has known Bianca for pretty much most of her (now that she's 30) increasingly long life. A few years ago, Bianca moved to Canada, and later in this trip we'd booked to go to Banff in Canada, where Bianca lived. At least at the time of booking she did. Literally the day after we booked, Bianca had got a job in Vancouver, so by the time we were gonna be in Banff, she wouldn't be! While that was a bit sad, it wasn't gonna deter us from having a good time, but it also meant that this was the only time we were likely going to cross paths with Bianca now, so it was nice to see her. We ended up only being able to stay a couple of hours, as we had a plane to catch and Bianca had a party to be at - she was in Vegas for a friend's hen's party. It was probably good because it was really hot on that roof and I was sweating up a storm, but it also encouraged me to have a few beers, which went down delightfully. Not that I'd have needed much encouragement anyway. After saying our goodbyes (and getting more hugs), Stace and I made our way back downstairs and towards the hotel. Along the way we stopped for the biggest ice cream I reckon I've ever had (discounting the 2 litres I ate in a high school physics class once in the middle of winter; that was cold), which I absolutely demolished as it was so hot, and I didn't want it to drip on me. I hate sticky hands. When we got back to the hotel, we collected our bags and caught a taxi to the airport. We had to pay a little bit more at check-in because, despite having checked bags, our bags were overweight. This concerned me a little bit, given the fact this was still inside our first week away and if the bags were overweight already, we were gonna face an uphill battle for the rest of the trip. But we were travelling with a budget airline - Spirit - which was the only time we were, so that was probably the reason. Either way, it was always good to get rid of our big bags and get through security (which is so tight here) to our gate, and comparatively relax. With the full-on nature of our days, sometimes a couple of hours waiting at the airport is the only opportunity to relax! As it turns out, our flight was delayed about an hour, so relax we'd have to do to pass the time. Also to pass the time, we grabbed a bite to eat, had a drink, and put some cash into the pokies. By the time the plane was ready we were fed, hydrated, and had lost money. Stace did her best to dehydrate for the plane by going to the toilet a dozen times too. The 3-hour flight to New Orleans was actually pretty eventful. It was pretty windy in Vegas so the first bit of the flight was fairly rough, which Stace didn't particularly like (yet she loves roller coasters), but that wasn't the eventful part. Not much sooner after we had left, they had to shift some people from a row in front. It turns out that a lady had completely passed out in that row and wasn't in a good way. In fact, she was in such a bad way that when we landed in New Orleans we all had to say seated while they called paramedics onto the plane to assess her. She had no idea what was going, and couldn't even stand up on her own. They basically had a small army there to escort her off the plane, most of which were getting in the way of each other, but they finally did get her off, and we passed her on a paramedic trolley on our way out of the airport. She'd either had way too much alcohol, or something else. Ah Vegas! The worst thing was that the whole episode wasn't entirely unexpected. One of the airport workers said she wasn't surprised when she heard the call come through, from a Spirit plane on the way from Vegas. Must be a regular occurrence! On another note, while we were waiting to get off the plane, I saw 2 gay blokes kissing. Not that that matters; I just thought I'd point it out seeing as I pointed out lesbians in one of the previous blogs. I hope Stace doesn't wanna have a foursome with them. Not that I want one with lesbians or anything. We lost a couple of hours due to time difference when we landed in New Orleans, making it after 2am when we got there. Wing delayed had made it worse, but someone pointed out to Stace that we were actually lucky; she'd just been told she'd been delayed by Spirit again flying out of New Orleans. It was now a 4-day delay and counting. That's ******! We knew we were somewhere other than Vegas by a few pretty obvious pointers. One was that we'd been flying for a few hours, and if we'd just gone in circles even I would've been ****** off. And I don't normally get ****** off. The second was the lack of pokies in the airport. But the third was probably the most obvious; the Southern drawl of an accent on everybody. Think lots of 'y'all' and 'baby-dolls' and it'll be like you were there. Getting our bags and transfer was really quick, and we were gone from the airport inside 20 minutes from landing, which was a good thing given the early hour. The trip itself was only about 20 minutes, so when we arrived at our hotel it was still before 3am. Our hotel was on Canal Street, basically the main drag down New Orleans, and just metres from Bourbon Street, basically the party capital of New Orleans. Despite the early hour, the streets were absolutely jam packed with people so drunk they'd have given plane girl a run for her money. Goodbye Vegas, hello New Orleans! We wheeled our bags through the drunkenness and into the calm of our hotel. Or so we thought. We tried to check in, and while they had our booking, they didn't have a room. They'd overbooked and they were full. That's just ******. Needless to say, we were pretty ****** off, especially given the time of the day. But as annoying as it was, they had a contingency plan in place, and in no time at all they had us in a taxi - paid by them - and to another hotel 5 minutes away. The most annoying thing though was now we'd have to check out of there in the morning just to go back to this one. But at least we had a bed. And it was actually a pretty nice hotel truth be told. Finally by 3am we'd made it to a room and crashed into bed, ready for a good sleep ahead of a good time in New Orleans. Y'all.