Ryzzie's Advenutres in Wonderland

So I got to go on what I affectionately call a work sponsored vacation last week.  This time they sent me to Las Vegas.  I must say that I genuinely prefer to go places I don't typically go...and this was no exception.  I always come home with this aweful, anxious, twitchy feeling about me, and this time was no exception.  Well.... except in that it was MUCH MUCH WORSE this time.  Typically we drive, so I thought flying would be BETTER.  Boy was I wrong!  By the time they pulled in to our gate I was ready to crawl over people to get off the plane.  Then the fact that no one was meeting me at the baggage claim made it even worse =(.  I had to wait alone, and cut off from the world (my phone was not adjusting to the switch from airplane mode to 3G very well) for my bag, in an extremely edgy and anxious state.

Plus I thought the whole world was going to come crashing down around me when I got back to work.  I was dreading it from the moment I sat in my seat on the jet on Saturday.  Know what?  Today wasn't so bad!  We had chocolate cake before breakfast, and then as I was having my strawberry snack later, one of the girls came around with cheesecake.  It was meant to be!!!

So I spent the week at Nellis AFB with a group of excellent people doing jet stuff.  3 days in the meeting room, and 2 days in the hangar.  I know Nellis can be miserable, but it was positively beautiful while we were there.  I wanted to take pictures of the mountain ranges surrounding the flight line, but operative word there being "flight line", meaning no paparazzi (or mamarazzi) allowed.  BUMMER!  No I didn't get to go for a ride-a-long either.  BOO!

I did end up being the event/dinner coordinator, since I go to Vegas all the time and seemed to know where all of the reasonably priced foods were.  We ate at several great places:

• Margaritaville
• Harley Davidson Cafe
• Cheesecake Factory
• Spice Market
• Viva Zapata's

Lunches were much less exciting, we ate on base twice, skipped lunch one day, and Olive Garden on another day.  Oh we hit some BBQ place too, that was pretty good.

Everything went super well, and in fact we had such fabulous support from the team at Nellis, I can't thank them enough!

Wednesday we went to the Hoover Dam.  That was a TON of fun, and beautiful.

Friday night I met up with a friend from a previous AFB adventure (who is stationed at Nellis) and we did like a supermarathon barhop.  I think this list encompasses where we went:

• NYNY - Irish Pub
• NYNY - Roller Coaster
• NYNY - Piano Bar
• MGM - Studio 54
• Walked all the way over to Mandalay Bay
• Drove up to Venetian

By the time I was dropped off (I only had 3 drinks other than copious amounts of water) it was 5am, and time to load up my car.  I had time to meet everyone for brekkie at 630 before sharing goodbyes and getting to the airport.

I forgot to mention that Kiefer decided to plan a fun weekend for us at Catalina first weekend in May.  I'm really looking forward to the trip, and it will definitely be unique.  I'll explain more later, but for now, it's CIAO!