Vegas Part 1: The Road to Vegas
Josh and I went to Las Vegas for the 3rd time in 25 years over the first weekend in October. Josh doesn't like crowds of people, so Vegas (along with Disneyland) are his ideas of Hell on Earth. Both of our previous trips to Vegas were disastrous--on top of the crowds, we had car problems both trips, so Josh vowed to never go there again. However, this past spring, I convinced him to join me for a concert-filled Vegas weekend in October. He reluctantly agreed, but decided that this time we would fly. We immediately purchased tickets for a direct flight from Idaho Falls. We were set to fly out on Friday night Oct. 6th at 10:45pm, arriving in Vegas around midnight. We both worked on Friday, and after work, as we were getting ready to leave Salmon to drive the 2.5 hours to the Idaho Falls Airport, we went online to check in for our flight. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, our flight had been changed to 10 AM that morning, and we had missed it. I called Allegiant Air and was placed on hold, while Josh started looking for more flight options; he found one leaving from Boise at 11pm that night with a few tickets still available. I was on hold for 50 minutes before finally given the opportunity to speak to someone. The Customer Service Rep. told us a singular email was sent from their company on July 6 notifying us of the flight change. Neither of us had ever seen that email. We immediately checked our past inbox and spam folder, but it still wasn't there. The Allegiant Rep then offered to transfer our flight, but by then (over an hour after I had called the airline) there were no longer any tickets available for the Boise flight that night and we couldn't get any flights out until Monday morning--which was AFTER both of our concert reservations! We had already invested $1,000 in this trip with concerts and our hotel, none of which was refundable at this point. We made the quick decision to drive the 11+ hours to get to Vegas instead. We threw our bags in the car and left Salmon after 6pm. Josh drove the first leg of the trip to Pocatello, I drove from Pocatello to Nephi Utah, and he drove the last long leg. We arrived in Las Vegas at 5am our time (4am theirs). We could see the approaching city from 100 miles away due to a hazy region of reflected light in the sky above the well-lit skyline of the "City that Never Sleeps". I was so grateful to finally see that bright skyline as we neared the city, because it meant we made it! We tried to avoid driving to this place again, but despite our best efforts, that's exactly how we arrived! After we checked into our hotel, we went straight to bed and slept for most of the next day!
Josh and I went to Las Vegas for the 3rd time in 25 years over the first weekend in October. Josh doesn't like crowds of people, so Vegas (along with Disneyland) are his ideas of Hell on Earth. Both of our previous trips to Vegas were disastrous--on top of the crowds, we had car problems both trips, so Josh vowed to never go there again. However, this past spring, I convinced him to join me for a concert-filled Vegas weekend in October. He reluctantly agreed, but decided that this time we would fly. We immediately purchased tickets for a direct flight from Idaho Falls. We were set to fly out on Friday night Oct. 6th at 10:45pm, arriving in Vegas around midnight. We both worked on Friday, and after work, as we were getting ready to leave Salmon to drive the 2.5 hours to the Idaho Falls Airport, we went online to check in for our flight. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, our flight had been changed to 10 AM that morning, and we had missed it. I called Allegiant Air and was placed on hold, while Josh started looking for more flight options; he found one leaving from Boise at 11pm that night with a few tickets still available. I was on hold for 50 minutes before finally given the opportunity to speak to someone. The Customer Service Rep. told us a singular email was sent from their company on July 6 notifying us of the flight change. Neither of us had ever seen that email. We immediately checked our past inbox and spam folder, but it still wasn't there. The Allegiant Rep then offered to transfer our flight, but by then (over an hour after I had called the airline) there were no longer any tickets available for the Boise flight that night and we couldn't get any flights out until Monday morning--which was AFTER both of our concert reservations! We had already invested $1,000 in this trip with concerts and our hotel, none of which was refundable at this point. We made the quick decision to drive the 11+ hours to get to Vegas instead. We threw our bags in the car and left Salmon after 6pm. Josh drove the first leg of the trip to Pocatello, I drove from Pocatello to Nephi Utah, and he drove the last long leg. We arrived in Las Vegas at 5am our time (4am theirs). We could see the approaching city from 100 miles away due to a hazy region of reflected light in the sky above the well-lit skyline of the "City that Never Sleeps". I was so grateful to finally see that bright skyline as we neared the city, because it meant we made it! We tried to avoid driving to this place again, but despite our best efforts, that's exactly how we arrived! After we checked into our hotel, we went straight to bed and slept for most of the next day!
Vegas Part 2: P!NK at Allegiant Stadium
We saw P!NK in concert nearly 10 years ago in SLC on her "What About Love" tour. She is hands- down the best performer I've ever seen in concert: she sings, dances, does aerial acrobatics, and plays the piano during her shows. We agreed back then that if we had the opportunity to see her in concert again, we'd go. Fast forward to 2023... her new album "Trustfall" was released this spring. This album got me through some really dark days. Some terrible, traumatic events happened to me earlier this year that forever altered my future and stripped me of the happiness and joy that I used to feel doing things that I loved but could no longer do as a result of the tragic series of events. That's a whole other painful story that I'm still not ready to write about yet. Anyways...there were days that I felt so hopeless and lost and the ONLY things getting me through those low times were the support of my husband and the music of P!NK. I listened to her new song "Turbulence" probably a thousand times; it really spoke to me, allowing me to feel all my desperation, and also giving me a reason to keep living: the message in the song was to not give up because the moment of tragedy wouldn't last forever, it was "just turbulence" in life. When I found out her "Summer Carnival" tour would be in Vegas at the same time we were planning to be there for another concert, I of course booked tickets for us to see her again! Seeing her in the new Allegiant Stadium with 45,000+ other people was nothing short of pure magic. And the icing on the cake was her opener Brandy Carlile. The music of both of these powerful, performing women touched my heart and woke up my dormant living soul at its core. I cried during several songs, including "Turbulence". I was so completely immersed in the entire experience that I felt the joy that's been buried so deep within me the past 6 months. I've had such a void where my joy used to be, and it felt so good to get a glimpse of it back. P!NK was even better this time around, still using all her best performing tricks of dancing, singing, acrobatics, and aerial stunts combined with each song's thoughtful messages and beautiful harmonies. This woman has been my hero for years (which is why I used to dye my bangs pink) and I'm so grateful for her music that continues to touch me so deep. This concert was more than just a concert to me. We definitely did not have the best seats in the house, but my heart began a transformation in that crappy stadium chair on a Saturday night when I was in the same room as P!NK and her music made connections to my broken, hurting heart.
We saw P!NK in concert nearly 10 years ago in SLC on her "What About Love" tour. She is hands- down the best performer I've ever seen in concert: she sings, dances, does aerial acrobatics, and plays the piano during her shows. We agreed back then that if we had the opportunity to see her in concert again, we'd go. Fast forward to 2023... her new album "Trustfall" was released this spring. This album got me through some really dark days. Some terrible, traumatic events happened to me earlier this year that forever altered my future and stripped me of the happiness and joy that I used to feel doing things that I loved but could no longer do as a result of the tragic series of events. That's a whole other painful story that I'm still not ready to write about yet. Anyways...there were days that I felt so hopeless and lost and the ONLY things getting me through those low times were the support of my husband and the music of P!NK. I listened to her new song "Turbulence" probably a thousand times; it really spoke to me, allowing me to feel all my desperation, and also giving me a reason to keep living: the message in the song was to not give up because the moment of tragedy wouldn't last forever, it was "just turbulence" in life. When I found out her "Summer Carnival" tour would be in Vegas at the same time we were planning to be there for another concert, I of course booked tickets for us to see her again! Seeing her in the new Allegiant Stadium with 45,000+ other people was nothing short of pure magic. And the icing on the cake was her opener Brandy Carlile. The music of both of these powerful, performing women touched my heart and woke up my dormant living soul at its core. I cried during several songs, including "Turbulence". I was so completely immersed in the entire experience that I felt the joy that's been buried so deep within me the past 6 months. I've had such a void where my joy used to be, and it felt so good to get a glimpse of it back. P!NK was even better this time around, still using all her best performing tricks of dancing, singing, acrobatics, and aerial stunts combined with each song's thoughtful messages and beautiful harmonies. This woman has been my hero for years (which is why I used to dye my bangs pink) and I'm so grateful for her music that continues to touch me so deep. This concert was more than just a concert to me. We definitely did not have the best seats in the house, but my heart began a transformation in that crappy stadium chair on a Saturday night when I was in the same room as P!NK and her music made connections to my broken, hurting heart.
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| Our crappy seats at Allegiant were on the side of the stage. We watched the vertical LED screen of what was happening on the main stage which was sadly hidden from our view. |
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| She did come sing to our section during one song, though! |
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| We could see her whenever she went out on the runway, too. |
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| She still sang when she was hanging upside down! |
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| This was incredible to watch--she was doing acrobatic dances with a male dancer as they were both hanging from cords and she sang the whole time! |
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| I've never seen any other musician do this stunt while performing! It's so amazing to behold! |
Vegas Part 3: U2 at The Sphere
Back in 2009 (when I was 30), I created a "Bucket List" and one of the items was to see U2 in concert. We had tickets to see them on their 360* tour in SLC at the U of U Stadium in 2010, but Bono had emergency back surgery prior to our concert date, and the concert was postponed to the following year on a date we sadly couldn't go. I didn't know if I'd ever have the chance to see them again. During a Superbowl commercial back in February, it was announced that U2 would be playing at the Sphere in Vegas; their residency would begin in October. I was elated! When tickets went on sale in April, I checked ALL day for ticket availability and was SO relieved and excited to secure two tickets that evening for a concert on Sunday, Oct. 8. Seeing U2 was the entire reason for our trip to Vegas, in order to cross off my bucket list item from 14 years ago. And it was well worth the wait! Their performance at the Sphere was out of this world! They were the first musicians to perform at the venue, which just barely opened at the end of September. U2 hadn't performed live since 2019, so it was an incredible opportunity and location for them to return to the world of live performances. The Sphere has the world's largest LED screen and is the largest spherical building in the world. It fits 20,000 people, has a state-of-the art sound system that projects the same sound to wherever you are in the dome, and its 160,000 sq. ft. wrap-around screen has 64,000 LED panels which are visible from nearly every seat. Josh and I were in awe the entire concert from our spots in section 310 (the 3rd floor on the far right of the stage). The sound was incredible and we had an excellent view of all the digital graphics that were all over the spherical wall above & behind the stage. There were a few songs without graphics, which I was grateful for, so everyone could focus more on the amazing performance that U2 is still capable of without the wow of technology surrounding them, but the songs with grandiose graphics were hard to ignore during some of the songs because they are so awe-inspiring, too. It was surreal being in this new state-of- the-art structure with all of its technological capabilities while listening to the classic U2 tunes, many of which I've loved since my teen years, and watching their band perform live. I can't even describe how impactful it was on me. I left feeling overwhelmed and speechless: it was the music of my past, the technology of the future, and my newly awakened heart of the present all merging in one memorable moment. I will NEVER forget this concert.
Back in 2009 (when I was 30), I created a "Bucket List" and one of the items was to see U2 in concert. We had tickets to see them on their 360* tour in SLC at the U of U Stadium in 2010, but Bono had emergency back surgery prior to our concert date, and the concert was postponed to the following year on a date we sadly couldn't go. I didn't know if I'd ever have the chance to see them again. During a Superbowl commercial back in February, it was announced that U2 would be playing at the Sphere in Vegas; their residency would begin in October. I was elated! When tickets went on sale in April, I checked ALL day for ticket availability and was SO relieved and excited to secure two tickets that evening for a concert on Sunday, Oct. 8. Seeing U2 was the entire reason for our trip to Vegas, in order to cross off my bucket list item from 14 years ago. And it was well worth the wait! Their performance at the Sphere was out of this world! They were the first musicians to perform at the venue, which just barely opened at the end of September. U2 hadn't performed live since 2019, so it was an incredible opportunity and location for them to return to the world of live performances. The Sphere has the world's largest LED screen and is the largest spherical building in the world. It fits 20,000 people, has a state-of-the art sound system that projects the same sound to wherever you are in the dome, and its 160,000 sq. ft. wrap-around screen has 64,000 LED panels which are visible from nearly every seat. Josh and I were in awe the entire concert from our spots in section 310 (the 3rd floor on the far right of the stage). The sound was incredible and we had an excellent view of all the digital graphics that were all over the spherical wall above & behind the stage. There were a few songs without graphics, which I was grateful for, so everyone could focus more on the amazing performance that U2 is still capable of without the wow of technology surrounding them, but the songs with grandiose graphics were hard to ignore during some of the songs because they are so awe-inspiring, too. It was surreal being in this new state-of- the-art structure with all of its technological capabilities while listening to the classic U2 tunes, many of which I've loved since my teen years, and watching their band perform live. I can't even describe how impactful it was on me. I left feeling overwhelmed and speechless: it was the music of my past, the technology of the future, and my newly awakened heart of the present all merging in one memorable moment. I will NEVER forget this concert.
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| The Sphere as seen from the High Roller ferris wheel earlier in the day. People in our cabin on the ride had seen U2 the previous night, and told us how spectacular it was! It just made our excitement grow! |
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| The view from the steep escalators, getting up to our 3rd level inside the dome. |
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| The screens looked like a cement backdrop until U2 came out to perform. |
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| Then it looked like the cement was opening up and crumbling apart, and the screens just got more and more amazing after that. |
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| Their stage looked like a giant record player turntable. |
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| The graphics during this song were insane! |
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| In contrast, it was nice when there was no graphics during this song, so the audience could strictly focus on U2 and their music. |
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| It's impressive that these 2 are still performing, and with such high quality, after so many decades of making music together! |
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| This was so cool--it started with how the Strip currently looked, as seen from the location of the Sphere, and then time started reversing, until all that was left was desert. |
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| Then it kept going even further back in time, until it showed prehistoric creatures native to the area. |
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| At one point, the entire audience stood up almost completely simultaneously. We were all in such awe, and the audience grew quiet as we all witnessed this incredible transformation around us! |
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| And then color was slowly added to the the prehistoric creatures. It was remarkable to see the progression! |
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| And that's how the concert ended! They received a standing ovation and cheers for many minutes afterwards. |
Vegas Part 4: Sightseeing
We stayed at a crappy motel next to Circus Circus on the Strip. We weren't in love with the accommodations, but it was affordable, and the location was handy. There was a bus stop close by to utilize the local public transit system that goes up and down the strip, which we took advantage of to save us from walking as much--which we still did plenty of! We walked several miles each day on Saturday and Sunday! We slept in all Saturday morning, since we'd arrived there so late, but we ventured out late in the afternoon. We ate at Little Eataly (which was Josh's LEAST favorite part of our Vegas trip, other than the drive!) and walked from there to Allegiant Stadium, along with thousands of others for the P!NK concert! For large events, they close down a road that connects the strip with the stadium, crossing over the freeway. After the concert, we walked back over that overpass, and got on a bus to head back up the strip to our hotel, but it took forever because the streets were SO busy that night!
On Sunday, we left the hotel much earlier in the day and walked around parts of the strip that we hadn't explored on any of our previous trips. We went on the High Roller, the 2nd tallest Ferris Wheel in the world. It had great views of the Strip and of the new Sphere attraction. We ate at Maxie's at the Linq, then we rode the gondola at the Venetian. That night, we walked to the Sphere, along with the masses again, this time for the U2 concert. It was fun to see the exo-Sphere light up in a variety of ways! We walked back to the strip, along with thousands of other people. The amount of people walking with us was insane! We opted to not ride the bus again, since it took so long the previous night, and walked all the way back to our hotel instead.
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| Saturday afternoon, waiting for the bus |
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| Eating at Little Eataly. There were SO many choices of Italian food in this open food court. |
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| On our walk to the stadium. The sidewalks were pretty bare at this point. |
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| But once we turned off the strip, there were suddenly thousands of people walking along the closed overpass road heading to the concert. |
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| Sunday morning on the strip. I love me some hot air balloons! |
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| The view of the nearby Linq from our cabin on The High Roller, just as we started ascending. |
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| I didn't realize there was a golf course so close to the strip! |
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| It was fun to see into the courtyards of the massive hotels that line the strip! |
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| The view of the nearby Linq from the top, right before we started descending on the giant ferris wheel. |
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| We ate in the outdoor seating area of Maxies. Josh was MUCH happier eating there than at Little Eataly the day before! |
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| This was a very iconic thing to do in Vegas. However, the ride was expensive and short, and we'd never go again! |
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| From our hotel, we could see part of the Sphere, and it was so fun to see how it constantly changed. (I didn't take these photos, tho) |
Vegas Part 5: The Road Less Traveled
We left Las Vegas on Monday morning. We drove back to Salmon via Hwy. 93 through Nevada to Twin Falls rather than coming back up the freeway through Utah. It was a nice change of pace, but it was kind of like driving from Salmon to Mud Lake except for 9 hours straight with lots of sagebrush and distant mountains. We stopped to walk around Nevada's Cathedral Gorge State Park on the drive, which was an unexpected stop. It was so pretty! The only other stops were for gas and quick meals on the go, and we finally arrived in Salmon that evening. Josh was SO happy to be home! But I was SO glad for our amazing weekend away--my heart started healing on this trip, which was unexpected, considering that it happened in Vegas of all places! So I guess I could say that what happened in Vegas definitely didn't stay in Vegas, because my experience there was just the beginning of my heart and soul re-awakening after laying dormant in its hurting state for far too long.
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| Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada was right off the highway! |
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