2012 Vegas GT/Thursday

This part is called... meeting up!

Nati: I left the house at 5am :( but it was worth it. With like 3 or 4 hours sleep I made it to the airport and was on my way! I hear both Wish and the Sagan/Kat team also left around the same time. The funny thing I've been to Vegas a few times now but when I landed I had no CLUE where I was at all! Turns out us Canadians have been moved off to terminal 2! Katrana, Sagan and Wish were all in Terminal 1 waiting for me so I ended up walking up the path and managed to find them. After hugs all around we waited in the taxi line were off to the hotel.

I'm completely convinced EVERYONE in that taxi line thought we were insane, it was constant mud talk! It continued in the taxi and while the driver kept her eyes forward you really have to wonder what she was thinking.

At the hotel we all checked in and then came back down for a lunch in the Mexican restaurant. We shared a HUGE plate of nachos before a proper lunch.

Katrana: We (Sagan and I) left the house at 5:30am. We managed to remember to set the coffee maker to auto start though! So we were awake by the time we reached the airport. When we reached the airport, Squish was there too! He was standing under the Penn and Teller sign! We met up and hung out for Nati. All the while discussing TFC in standard GT fashion.

Nati's description of the HUGE is an understatement. There were 4 adults and we could not finish the never-ending plate of nachos. It was insane!

Tynian: Those 4 adults did a pretty good job on those nachos. There weren't many left...

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  View from Natilena's hotel room

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  NACHOS!

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  Wish checking his phone

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  Sagan taking a picture of the nacho plate

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  Wish with a thumbs up for food!

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  Beer for Katrana

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  The ribs Wish got after the Nachos, how he ate that much I've got no clue!

Nati: In the middle of dinner I got a message from Tynian he'd arrived at the hotel. Nobody knew he had decided to drive down. I told everyone I needed to make a phone call and went to bring him back to the restaurant. I introduced him just by saying "I brought a friend along, hope that's ok!". Wish was so cute and proper and asked him if he played TFC at all. That had the rest of us in giggles. After a little chatting we all had some down time to unpack and such. I checked in with Bliss and she was still not even close yet! I also found out Wistom had missed his flight and would be arriving later that evening as well.

Katrana: For the record, I called it the night before that Tynian was gonna show up! Haha!

Bliss: The traffic leaving Los Angeles was horrific. Domo was being incorrigible and completely irritated Papa Smurf. Domo kept saying, "Are we there yet?" and Papa Smurf said, "No. We'll be there when we get there." In the midst of this, Tynian said he was at work, but just checking to see how the drive was (little did I know he was already in Vegas - so tricksy!)

Tynian: Well, my drive was pretty uneventful, though longer than I had originally planned. Everyone knows that the quickest way to Vegas from Phoenix is... oh. You don't care? Okay. Long story short, then. I was using Google Navigator on my phone, but wasn't paying much attention to it. It sort of guided me the long way around. I didn't realize it until I hit Laughlan. Ha ha, pretty funny, Google! Answering Wish question about whether I played with "from time to time" was personally pretty amusing, too.

• Bliss' driving companions!
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Dinner and Drinks

Nati: We met for drinks and had dinner at the Vietnamese/Thai place. Gheorghe joined us there! Dinner was fantastic, I got my Bun Thit Nuong I love so much.

Tynian: I've never been to a Vietnamese/Thai restaurant. Evidently sensing my bewilderment over the not-McDonald's menu, Nati offered food descriptions and advice, which no doubt made the difference between an enjoyable meal and "what the heck is this??"

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  Gheorghe and Katrana!

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  Pretty flower on the table

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  Sagan on the swing in the restaurant

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  Yeah.. I don't know about this one either! I blame Gheorghe.

The After-Party

Nati: At this point Wistom showed up and Bliss finally showed up too! We knew she was actually IN the hotel and our extra special immortal senses tracked her down. Or maybe it was just that Katrana saw someone carrying a Papa Smurf doll. Hello's all around then Bliss went to unpack her room.

I was exhausted. Tried to go to sleep but that didn't work. Found the rest again and we all decided to hang out and chat with some drinks in Katrana and Sagan's room. Bliss somehow made me her pack horse and insisted I carry 2 very large bags filled with pillow pets across the casino. I had 3 separate people come up to me and ask what was in the bags! Rest of the evening was low key, pillow pets were distributed, I fell asleep on the chair.

Katrana: I gave chocolate to our resident chocoholic. I ended up with a penguin pillow pet (Nightfighter loves penguins) and a rainbow unicorn pillow pet...long story:P

Bliss: At the check-in counter, they found me. I gave Papa Smurf to Nati, she said well turn around, you can hand it to him yourself... I thought, "Whaaa..." So I turn around and see TYNIAN!!!!! Live and in person! Yay! "semi-heartattack* *big hug* Pass off the Papa Smurf! You sneaky devil, you! Later, Nati helps me (hey, she said she could do it!) carry the PillowPets while I got food. Nice visit in Katrana and Sagan's room with Tynian, Natilena, Katrana, Sagan, Wish, Wistom, Gheorghe, and me! Each and every one of them is extremely nice and I'm so glad I met them all. Forced them to pick random PillowPets but I think everyone was happy at the end :) Forgot to take the chocolate Katrana brought me. :( But, I'm making her keep it 'til I see her next!

Tynian: I don't know how "live"-ly I was when Bliss finally made it into town, but the surprise was worth keeping my GT plan a secret.

Nati's Pillow Pets