Taking on New Adventures

It’s been six months since I’ve been on a plane. That’s the longest time since 2002 I’ve gone without flying, I think. The last flight I took, on March 16, was back to New Orleans from Seattle, where I was covering the initial Covid-19 outbreak. While things had started to change that day, little did I know how much it would change.

Fast forward to this past weekend and Chuck and I took a long-planned trip to Vegas. We had been scoping out the blogs, Twitter feeds and news reports of what the city restrictions were for weeks leading up to our Saturday departure. What we found was very similar to the restrictions in New Orleans. Masks required, 50% restaurant capacity and social distancing. Bars did reopen while we were there but most had already been open and serving food. I

An early am flight on Saturday (note to self: early AM flights are brutal!) had me back in MSY and feeling excited. I flew through Clear and PreCheck before heading to the gate. While there were quite a few people at the airport to make it feel somewhat busy, it was nowhere near normal. But nice to see.

Of course, as always, there are those few people who just cannot grasp the concept of taking off your shoes and taking your electronics out of your bag in regular security. So I sat and waited for Chuck, who inevitably gets stuck behind someone like that every time.

I got upgraded to first class for the MSY-LAX flight while Chuck made it up to Comfort Plus. Unfortunately, due to the internal rules applied by Delta, half of first was empty and they wouldn’t allow him to sit by me since the row behind me had someone. I got it, just was disappointed.

The flight was seamless. Everyone seemed to comply with the mask rule, I got to finally watch “Bombshell” and there was little to no turbulence. All in all, a very good flight.

We had a layover in LA so made our way to the Sky Club. They have definitely cut down a lot of the services but it was still nice to sit in an area that felt clean and away from others while drinking coffee and catching up on the early football games.

We managed to both get upgraded on the short flight to LAS and were able to quickly deplane, pick up our bags and hop in a cab.

Checking into the Aria this time was super simple. While it wasn’t hard or long the last time we stayed here, this was even easier. I checked in ahead of time on the app and let them know what time our flight landed. Fortunately, our room was available when we made it to the hotel and thanks to the digital key, we didn’t even have to go to the desk. We headed to the room, quickly unpacked and made our way down to The Pub for some lunch and a beer.

We did some walking around and then went back to the room to shower and get ready for dinner. Both of us were exhausted but figured a walk and a good dinner would help us sleep some Saturday night.

We made our way down to The LINQ Promenade to people watch. I’d say about 70% of people were wearing their masks correctly. But like anywhere, there are people who just flat out refuse to comply or simply think the rules don’t apply to them.

Dinner Saturday night was just off-strip at Battista’s Hole in the Wall. What a unique and cool place! The menu was on the wall, and everything was included in the one price for your entrée. It was fantastic and we ate entirely too much! So much so that we both slept like crap because we were way too full. Good problem to have, I guess.

Sunday found us walking to The Cosmopolitan for breakfast at District Donuts, Sliders and Brew. We always try to grab at least one breakfast here to support our hometown favorite. We did some more walking and then I hopped on a baby shower Zoom while Chuck did some work. Afterwards, we headed out to brunch at one of my favorite Vegas spots, Mon Ami Gabi.

After an excellent brunch, we decided to head out to the Arts District to hit a few of the local breweries. One of the bartenders even recognized Chuck from our previous stop there in December! Chuck was thrilled and we had a great afternoon.

We made reservations that evening at Bardot Brasserie in the Aria. We probably should’ve just gone back to bed as we were both exhausted and day drinking contributed more to that factor. But we went and it was delicious.

Monday was chill. Exactly what both of us really needed. We hit the pool and people watched our way through the morning. Later that afternoon, we grabbed garlic knots and a slice of pizza at Moneyline and then hit the lobby bar for the Saints game.

We all know how the game went and so Chuck and I made the decision to grab sandwiches at the Aria Patisserie and head to the room to eat and crash.

Our last full day found us doing a ton of walking and we decided to nosh our way through the day after breakfast at Eggslut. However, we had a quick change of plans when I found out my old friend and boss, Maria, was staying at the same hotel! So we spent some time catching up before she had a call and then Chuck and I headed out to grab a bite.

We made our way to Flights, which is a newish restaurant in the Miracle Mile Shops adjacent to the currently closed Planet Hollywood. Cool concept and we enjoyed what we had. From there, we walked around the strip, grabbed some food and a beer at Yard House then did more walking and exploring before hitting Gordan Ramsey Pub & Grill.

We ended the day with wine at the Chandelier Bar at the Cosmo, which is one of the places we try to always hit at least once.

Finally, since so many of the casual restaurants were closed on Tuesday due to lack of crowds, we grabbed salads and sandwiches and a great dessert from the Patisserie before crashing.

Sleep was rare, though, thanks to a shooting that happened right outside of the hotel. The gunshots woke me up and at the time, I didn’t really understand what it was, just that it was a different popping than the building had done during our stay. Fortunately, only one person was injured and she was already released from the hospital, according to local reports.

An early morning flight again had us at the airport at 4:30 a.m. and we slowly made our way back to New Orleans. Overall, I felt very safe and was pleased to see a majority of people complying.

But here are my takeaways:

• Vegas is dealing with the same thing New Orleans is, most of the locals comply and about 2/3 of the tourists. The rest just really don’t care.
• It was the quietest I’ve ever seen the city. But it feels like things are slowly coming back to life.
• As usual, we had great service at almost every place we went. But we could both tell that some of the places we dined at were still adjusting, and some had only reopened a few days before we got there. So there were some lapses that probably wouldn’t occur once the staff gets used to the new system.
• The amount of security in the hotels seemed much larger than before, likely because there is more rule enforcement going on.
• If you go to Vegas any time soon, definitely make reservations where you want to eat. With the dining number restrictions, some places are really hard to get into these days.

I feel a bit refreshed from the travel and it was fantastic for the overall change of scenery. Chuck and I are already planning our next trip and hoping for another great experience in the skies or on the road.