The Journey Has Officially Started...First Stop Vegas!!

We are off and running or should I say flying? Anyway, we took our inagrual flight at 5:34pm Pacific Time and landed in Las Vegas an hour later. The trip was short, but well thought out. Sara and I thought a short jont to "The City That Never Sleeps" would be a good test run for our flight system.

Well, it wasn't as smooth as I thought it would be, but not bad. It will only get better as we go. Flying out of Burbank airport was definetly a decent choice. It always is a breath of fresh recycled air from the drama-sized arena of LAX. We went straight through security were we had a conga line of plastic bins, carry-on bags, backpacks, a stroller (lightweight) and, oh yeah Pressley. Can't forget the little one. Sara and Pressley got through the security check with no problems, well as far as I could see anyway. Me on the other hand, I got a good old fashioned rub down from our neighborhood TSA agent feeling my backside for god knows what. That's alright though. You can only get pissed off until the one person they don't check ends up on your plane that wants to do something crazy.

Anyway, we made it to Las Vegas and taxied into the fabulous Hotel and Casino de Excalibur and look who Pressley found right away...

It's crazy how these kids flock to this guy! Pressley doesn't even know who this character is and she still knows to point and wave at this celebrity.

After getting checked in and settled with our bags, we grabbed a quick bite next to the "Thunder Down Under" show enterance (no you couldn't see anything thank goodness, but definetly a weird place for a foodcourt!), and then we headed to the Bellagio to catch the water show before bedtime...

Show hasn't even started and she loves it!

She's said, "Dad, you catch'n this?"

Well, just a few hours here and we took in a show, with Pressley's Monkey PJ's on and all!

Tomorrow is a full day of Vegas!

More pics of what we are doing!

Preparation is Everything...

We are only days away from our challenging journey as a young family and there is so much to be done. Preparing for a trip like this is just that... a challenge. There are several things to be handled that you wouldn't even think twice about for a trip lasting a few days, a week or even two weeks.

We've read up on it and you would be surprised at how many people actually do this. With the help from family and friends our house is in good hands, the car will be stored and our mail will be held...somewhere.

Who would've thought packing would be the easiest part of this whole process thus far. I guess when you are only taking two carry-ons and two backpacks there really isn't much to worry about.

Vegas is the first stop and I am looking up things to do there that is cheap and/or free. This is what I have come up with so far:

FREE
Fountains at Bellagio
Every evening, a water and music show plays again and again in the spectacular fountains filling the quarter-mile-long lake in front of the Bellagio.

Lion Habitat at MGM Grand
One look into the MGM Grand's lion habitat and you'll be hooked. The majestic cats command adoration whether they're chasing a large ball, licking their immense paws or just lyin' around.

M&M's World
M&M's World may be the most delicious attraction in Vegas. And judging by its scores of visitors, M&M's World must be doing something right.

Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo
The Flamingo's brilliant neon sign is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable on the Strip. And visitors can take a closer look at the creatures who inspired the bright display at the hotel-casino's very own wildlife habitat.

NOT FREE (but we might go check out)
Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat
The Secret Garden at the Mirage is home to some of the world's rarest and most exotic animals. The Dolphin Habitat features adult bottlenose dolphins, which reside in a special marine facility that contains more than 1 million gallons of man-made sea water.
$15 per adult

Shark Reef
Ranging in size from a 12-foot nurse shark to 1 1/2-foot baby zebra sharks -- which are in a small "touch tank" -- the Shark Reef pleases patrons big and small.
$16.95 per adult


If you have any ideas please let us know!

'till next time!!

What did we get ourselves into?

Our trip is closing in on us quickly so I wanted to get some pre-excursion down on blog. Sara is writing about her experiences and I will be writing about mine. It will be interesting to see the differences and similarities during our little adventure.

This idea of travel is great and I challenge anyone to do the same and that is exactly what this will be...a challenge. Not just one, but many. Before we even thought about what places we needed to go to and what places we wanted to go to we gave ourselves a challenge...

NO CHECKED BAGS!!!

Let's face it. We are not just flying to Vegas for the weekend. We are gone for thirty days, in different cities with a 1 year old baby. Diapers alone is one suitcase! Well we have a plan it looks good, in theory anyway.

So what might our plan look like?



That's all of it folks! Wish us luck!

More blurbs, pics and video through out our journey...stay tuned!

Trying to plan the trip and stick to our budget

Okay so we bought our Jetblue 'aycj' (All You Can Jet) pass that was the first step. There was a little scare with my pass not processing but we took care of all that in 1 day. Once we found out it was all good all cylinders were on and we were thinking of how this was all going to happen. We started by each of us making a list of the places we most wanted to visit. Surprisingly Jeremy's list and my list included the same cities in the same order. I had printed out the map from the JetBlue website to where they jet and we used that to help us. The only thing that was a bummer was that they don't have a lot of West Coast flights. We wanted to start out here in California and make our way North to Seattle before going to the East Coast. That is not gonna happen but that's OK it just gives us more time at the end of our trip.

The trip is mapped out and the flights are booked all the way through NYC. The only difficult part of planning this trip is trying to stick to our budget with the hotels. Did you know that staying somewhere during the work week doesn't help with the cost?

We have traveled quite a bit in our 8 years together and most places charge more on weekends, high season and holidays. We thought we would be safe by planning our trip to put us in most of the big cities during the week, for instance D.C. Since we had never been I had called a few hotels. There weren't may to choose from in our price range that hadn't already been all booked let alone any near downtown. I looked at BnB's, apartments and everything I could think of. I guess this is one of the lessons you can only learn by doing. Next on our to do list is booking a rental car. Wish me luck!

6 days and counting.......

Bye for now!