20th Wedding Anniversary, part three
We put our bags in the car, and spent the next few minutes figuring out how to adjust the seats and start the car (there’s no “key” in the cut-piece-of-metal sense, just an electronic fob that looks like a thumb drive). Once we got going and got on the road, I told Kathy I’d booked us a room at a place somewhere here in town. I asked her to punch in 2000 Las Vegas Blvd into the car’s in-dash GPS, so it can tell us how to get there. As we passed many of the large resorts, Kathy kept asking if this was where we were staying. I faked innocence. “Is the GPS telling us to turn here? No? Then I guess this isn’t it. We’ll just have to keep driving until we find it.”
Last November, the whole family drove to Las Vegas and stayed for a couple days as part of a larger road trip vacation. We rented two cheap rooms at the El Cortez hotel, right near the heart of downtown old Las Vegas. It was fine for what it was, a really cheap place for the five of us to sleep. It wasn’t the least bit romantic (nor was that trip intended to be). We don’t have any bad feelings about the El Cortez, we just think of it more like the “McDonalds” of Las Vegas hotels, I guess. We mentioned to each other at the time how great it would be to be able to stay at a nice place on the strip, rather than having to settle for just a bed and a TV downtown.
While planning this trip, I knew that Kathy would have been happy just being with me no matter where we stayed, even if it was some fleabag far removed from the strip. I decided early on in, however, that I had just one chance to really blow her away. So, as much as I could afford it, there would be no compromises.
Kathy and I were still heading north on Las Vegas Blvd. in the Mercedes, passing resort after resort, with the GPS telling us how much more distance was left to our destination. Kathy started thinking that we might be staying at some cheap hotel downtown, maybe the El Cortez again. Soon, however, the GPS told us to turn left, and I dutifully followed its guidance into the parking lot of the Stratosphere Hotel, at the north end of the strip.
We went inside and walked up to the check-in desk. I handed my credit card to the agent at the counter, and a few minutes later we were off to find the elevator to the 18th floor. When I opened the door and let Kathy in to see the room, she said “Wow, this is bigger than our first apartment!” I had rented a 650 square foot suite, with a king sized bed, a couch and chairs around the TV area, a small kitchen area, a dining table/work table and chairs, and a gigantic marble bathroom. The windows faced south, so it had an amazing view of the strip. It was perfect.
As Kathy started to unpack, I told her to hurry, we really need to get going. She tilted her head to the side, squinted her eyes a bit and asked if I had even more planned. I just said, “I’m really hungry right now, we haven’t had breakfast yet. And remember, don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.”
Add comment October 9th, 2008