Wednesday in Vegas: Trying to Leave

Wednesday was set to be our last day in Vegas. The plan was for everyone to go to some morning sessions until noon, then we would all meet up for lunch before catching a cab to the airport. My flight was to be first, and everyone else was to leave 25 minutes after me on a separate airline. Only that didn't happen, exactly.

I received a text alert from Delta on our way to the airport that my connecting flight in Salt Lake was delayed. No big deal, since it was the second leg. As I was standing in line to check my bag curbside, I received my second text alert that my first flight was being delayed by over an hour. This meant that I would have 7 minutes to make my connecting flight - in other words, not happened. The curb agent sent me indoors, pretty much where he was having to send everyone else. Turns out that some computer failure at an air traffic control facility in the region of LAX was causing a ground stop for several flights flying into LAX...which was then trickling to Vegas somehow. Basically my options were:
1-fly to Salt Lake anyway, stay the night there, fly home Thursday morning
2-fly out of Vegas at 11:30 PM to DETROIT, land there at 6:18 am, then fly to Dallas
or 3- stay in Vegas and fly out Thursday morning.

I chose option three, of course. I'm not sure what agent in their right mind thought I was going to actually choose to fly to Detroit, Michigan on my way from Las Vegas to Dallas. I actually laughed at her.

I let Nick know the news, and I pulled out my phone and booked a room at Paris Las Vegas for the night. I figured as long as I was staying, I might as well stay at my third hotel for the week, right?  Later in the evening it would work out that Nick and Tom both stayed in Vegas as well, since they volunteered to stay behind so others could fly in their places. It was pretty perfect.

Once the finally made it back to the hotel from the airport, we decided to grab some dinner. The restaurant I wanted to eat at in Paris had a 2 hour wait, so we decided to walk down to The Venetian and eat at Buddy V's, which is owned by the Cake Boss himself, Buddy Valastro.  It was quite tasty, but the best part of the meal was dessert - Nick and I had cannolis.

Our room had a view overlooking the Strip from both windows (we were on a corner) so we could watch the Bellagio fountains from the room as well as hear the sounds of the Strip. This also meant that the nightclub located under the Eiffel Tower restaurant was about 11 floors below our window as well. In case you are wondering, they shut the music off at 4 am. It was obnoxiously loud.