Off we went to JFK Airport. Our Uber driver, who was from Bangladesh, told us about his travels and we told him about our upcoming trip. He said that life is too short, and we should  all see  as much of our beautiful earth as we could. We heartily agreed!

Our flight was fine until the final 90 minutes, when there was a lot of turbulence. Meanwhile,  Nicholas’ plane encountered so much  turbulence that the flight  attendants never left their  seats. Eventually  our planes landed, and the four of us met at the airport in Las Vegas, where the temperature was significantly warmer than it had been at home.

We took a shuttle to get our rental car. Nick had requested a Toyota Camry. Instead, we were given  a red Chrysler Pacific minivan. I drove a minivan in the 1990s, and I absolutely loved it. This minivan was completely different from mine! It was huge, so much so that it could hold eight people and their luggage with room to spare. We asked for a different car. The only one available was a white  GMC Acadia that had just two miles on it, also called a minivan. We took it.

It was a short drive from the car rental to the Luxor Hotel. While Nick was driving,  there was a problem with the battery light. Nick continued driving to the Luxor parking lot, where we tried to figure out how to solve the problem. I called the help line, but the person there said his job would be to arrange to  have the car towed. While reading the manual, Nicholas  discovered that there was a way  to resolve the battery warning light problem: engage the  hazard lights and then hold the start  button in for fifteen seconds. That seems bizarre, but it worked, and the battery  light problem ended. Obviously that should have been done by the dealer! Finally, we registered at the hotel and went to our rooms.

Right away we noticed that everyone in the hotel from employees to guests was very friendly. There was  art  all around that reflected the Egyptian theme.  Slot machines seemed to be everywhere. The only casino experience that Nick and I ever had was in Atlantic City many years ago, when people carried around buckets of coins to insert into the slot machines. Now you simply use a credit card.
We were leaving the next morning, and we wanted to take in as many of the sights as possible in the limited time we had,  so we began walking down Las Vegas Boulevard, aka The Strip. The three of us first timers took in everything Nicholas pointed out to us. We had dinner in Paris at a restaurant  called Mon Ami Gabi, at which Nicholas had eaten before. He ordered a frisée salad topped with croutons, bacon, and a poached egg, while Carla ordered steak au poivre. My stomach was still unsettled because of the turbulence in the plane, so I told Nick I’d just have a bite of his meal, which was a hanger steak. The steak was incredibly  tender, one of the best I have ever tasted.

If you know Nick, you know that he loves dessert. He ordered one dessert with four forks: tarte tatin with caramel sauce, served with vanilla ice cream, so delicious. Carla offered to pay for our meals. She was taken aback when the check was for $680.00. Obviously that check belonged to a different table.

We were across the street from  the Bellagio, which was highly recommended by a friend of mine. However, we couldn’t get close to it, because many construction workers in hard hats and yellow vests were working on it  well into the night. The fountain was operative, though, and it displayed dancing waters every so often.

By that time we were exhausted. We took a cab back to the Luxor.

14, 465 steps