Finishing the Tour

I loved visiting Las Vegas.  I even got to drive Dan's Cadillac, but maybe we shouldn't tell him that.  While I was driving it, though, that old mother-in-law joke about the definition of "mixed emotions" came to mind.  I  quickly forgot about it as I followed Lisa to the place where she was dropping off her car to be serviced.

Lisa had celebrated her birthday the week before when Dan's family was in town for Thanksgiving. Still, even though Lisa said we didn't need to do anything because she'd already celebrated, I wanted to help make her birthday memorable if I could. I told her to invite some of her friends for dinner and that I would take us all out to eat. She invited two friends and we went downtown to P.F. Chang's for our meal. The evening was enjoyable, for me anyway, and think Lisa and her friends thought so, too. Here the four of us were, three preachers' kids and one preacher's wife, laughing and giggling over dinner and dessert. We sent all of the leftovers home with one of the girls whose husband was kind enough to provide babysitting for the evening. We wanted to reward him adequately so that he'll allow his wife more evenings out with Lisa while Dan is gone.


After dinner, we wandered down to The Strip (yes, I actually did make it there, as I'm sure the lady seated next to me on the plane would be happy to hear) and we watched the fountains/light show outside the Belagio:

We also went inside to see the elaborate Christmas decoration. I took several pictures but if you've been to the Opryland Hotel or some other well-decorated establishment you've some idea of the grandeur. Lisa's friend took our picture in front of some of the shimmering lights.

Walking back to where the car was parked in a mall lot, we passed a stand that was selling oysters with pearls. Lisa's friend bought one for Lisa in honor of her birthday and we got to watch as she chose and opened it. When opened it revealed a beautiful blue-silver pearl! She plans to have it mounted on a piece of jewelry someday.

A couple of days after Lisa's birthday, it was time for me to head back home to Ohio. I got up early enough to take pictures of the sun rising on a beautiful day in the desert. I got my farewell kisses and hugs from the dogs and prepared for my departure.

Lisa dropped me off at the airport on her lunch hour and I caught my flights home. Going through security, I was randomly picked for further screenings. I wasn't surprised. I'm almost always one of the ones "randomly" picked for further screenings and said as much to the TSA agent as he pulled me out of line. I immediately realized I shouldn't be so quick to unleash my sarcasm on someone who has the power to keep me from flying, but it came out before I had the chance to bite my tongue. I don't think I was screened in such a way as to reveal much about my person, but I had to point out my belongings that had just emerged from the scanning machines so that they could look through my things for dirty little secrets. Well, I did have a few pieces of dirty laundry and my gym shoes were filthy from the desert sand, but otherwise my belongings were relatively humdrum. I was soon released to my plane.