Viva Las Vegas round-up

As of last night, we're officially home from our trip to Las Vegas. Home, sweet home!

The trip was fun, but I must admit that both Mel and I wished we'd had a better time. We both had a lot of moments when we really felt VLV had gotten bigger than the space allotted for it. And I think we've learned that whether we like it or not, it's just not how we like to spend our vacation time. But my blog isn't for complaining (okay, not often anyway), and there's no reason to dwell on the negative, especially about a vacation. And in spite of some frustrations, we managed to have lots of nice times, too. So on to something more fun: the photos!

Thursday we were at the airport around 5.30 a.m. The funniest thing about this picture is we were reviewing photos on Thursday night and couldn't get over the fact that this had been earlier the same day. Travel days feel like a week, don't they??

We stayed at the hotel that hosts VLV, the Orleans. It's both convenient and a pain staying there, all at the same time. It makes it really easy to get to your room quickly, but it's a pain when you have to wait with 30 other people for an elevator every other time. We had exactly one elevator ride by ourselves the entire time we were there! Though we did ride the elevator with Deke Dickerson twice, who we discovered was staying on our floor. Of course I was too shy to say anything. I mean what am I going to say, "Ooooh I recognize you, you're a great musician! I found a Dunlop guitar pick on our floor so I thought it might be yours but I put it in my purse. Hee!"

When we settled into our room, I instantly took over the desk with jewelry and accessories. It was like having a dressing table, something I would love to have but we just don't have the room for. So it was a nice little indulgence.

It's also easy to forget when you're in Las Vegas that there are beautiful mountains nearby!

I decided to be really good about taking outfit photos, except poor Mel's usually ended up looking like a mug shot and half of mine made me look terrible, so I'll spare Mel but dutifully post mine anyway. This was my traveling outfit, and I ended up not changing my clothes once I got there so it remained my daytime outfit Thursday. The cowboy shirt that I got at the vintage show in February and Freddie's jeans. On this trip I realized that this pair is ready to get retired from nicer outfits and needs to be relegated to more casual things like hikes and camping. Time for new jeans!

For some reason, in my head I mixed up faux statues and asked Mel to make sure to get a photo of me by the cigar store Indian while I was wearing my Western shirt. When I got up to it, I realized it was a Sailor Jerry hula girl. What was I thinking?

Thursday afternoon we relaxed under a gazebo out by the pool, where it was insanely windy. I was really glad I had tucked a bandana in my purse. This is a good closeup of my shirt, and the VLV wristband. I'm not sure why they switched it from plastic to woven fabric with a metal closure, but I'm glad I at least asked the girl to cut off the excess so it wasn't flapping around all weekend, even if she looked at me strangely when I asked. (Hey, I figured they had scissors sitting there for a reason!)

Thursday night we both had decent outfit photos. This is my Mexican circle skirt from BombshellShocked, my handknit sleeveless blouse that I finished just in time for VLV, and Mel in an awesome short 30s tie. This was the only night I did my hair in rolls, not that you can really tell in the photo.

Here's a good photo of the Still Creek Brothers, one of the Thursday bands. They were great! We were annoyed that we forgot to see if they had a CD.

In vending, we stocked up on pomade. Well, Mel stocked up on Black & White and I got a more travel-friendly size of Layrite. I use so little so traveling with a 4 oz container is really silly.

Breakfast on Friday...

And Friday's daytime outfit of my Nudeedudee overalls and vintage blouse. Yes, those are little ducks on it.

Pendleton love!!

And a booth that had a lot of great Western items, including these child-sized shirts.

As expected there were a lot of inflated prices on clothes but I was able to come out with a few good finds, including a Mexican hand-painted skirt, a blouse and a rick rack trimmed dress.

We got lots of music of course, too! This collection grew as the weekend went on.

Taking a breather with my favorite activity Friday afternoon...

Then Friday night's outfit, probably my favorite from the trip. This is a blouse and skirt set, I think rayon. I love the set and had a momentary freakout when we arrived because I couldn't find the blouse, only the skirt. Fortunately it was at the veeeery bottom of the suitcase!

The B-Stars were awesome Friday night...

On Friday we realized we hadn't been outside all day and were really feeling it. All that recirculated air makes you feel like crap, so Friday night we went for a walk outside the hotel. Here's the sign welcoming VLV...

Saturday was the car show. I'm not a huge car person (I don't even drive), but I do of course have a soft spot for 50s cars and especially trailers, so we did a bit of oogling. In our dreams, one day we'll have a vintage teardrop/canned ham style camper. This one was cute...

And then this one was OMG so great!!

Take a look at the cuteness inside!

I mean, seriously!

It took awhile but I did find a Chevy pickup to take my photo by. My dad drives a Chevy pickup and used to drive a Blazer so I kind of have a soft spot for them.

Saturday during the day I was wearing my sleeveless knit blouse once again, with my hand sewn castles skirt. That was my one totally me-made outfit. When we were taking outfit photos, we did a couples one in the mirror each time as an homage to our friend Moe and her husband who weren't in attendance this year (we missed you so much!), but we didn't quite realize that with me holding the camera low (so you could see our outfits better) but keeping our eyes straight ahead like you normally would, most of the pictures would make us look really weird. Whoops! At least this silly one was okay.

Mel's outfit for the day included an amazing vintage shirt from BombshellShocked that has barbecues and barbecuing utensils all over it. The label even says "For the Barbecuer". It's amazing, I'll have to get better photos someday. Mel adores this shirt! (Thanks Niki!!)

Later that afternoon we watched Delco Nightingale play in Brendan's Pub and were really impressed. We always do our homework ahead of time and check out bands we might not know and they were one that we were really looking forward to. They didn't disappoint! I loved her stage presence and they were so much fun to watch. (And another CD added to our pile.)

Moving along to Saturday night's outfit, which in hindsight I realized was the only dress I wore the entire time....

On Sunday we didn't attend the tiki pool party but we both dressed up with some Hawaiian style. This was my one major hair fail day but I made it work okay. I ended up pulling it back at the sides and rolling the length up in the back after scrounging around in all of my secret bobby pin hiding places for enough. Ha!

And that is the ONLY photo we even have of ourselves together! Our friend Esther took it. We ran into her several times (though boo, we didn't see you after Charles Phoenix so we didn't get more photo ops with your grandpa's camera!).

It was also the only day during VLV that we went to the strip, since we knew we'd be staying there a few days after the event. We went to Paris to Mon Ami Gabi for an amazing lunch, complete with champagne.

We took one last pass through vending on Sunday afternoon. Mel has always wanted a Shriner's fez. Do you think a photo wearing one will suffice?

And that's the last of the photos from VLV. I am so bummed I didn't take any photos with the bloggers I met! That was a great and unique part of the trip. I had a few people recognize me who I didn't already know including Gloria, who was adorable, and a woman named Kat (Cat?) and her husband, who we talked to for a good long time during a show in Brendan's Pub on Friday afternoon. They were so much fun to chat with, it was one of the highlights of our trip. (Please say hi so I can find you again. :)

I also met Holly and Gabriella, both of whom were charming and impeccably dressed each time I saw them, I wish we'd gotten to chat more. On Saturday I was so pleased to hang out for a bit with fellow Midwesterner Barbara and her husband. Barbara, in spite of what she said, most certainly did not look like she'd just crawled out of Death Valley, even though she literally had! Unfortunately I never ran into Kim, Tara or Lenora. There were so so many people, I didn't even spy any of them from a distance. It was GREAT to say hi to the bloggers I was able to meet, however!! Makes me sad that none of you live nearby. :)

After Viva ended, on Monday morning we moved on to the Flamingo for three days. Hindsight is 20/20, and we probably should just have gone home. The room was amazing, don't get me wrong...

But we were surprised to have really poor service there (unlike the Orleans where everyone was super friendly and helpful). We were also surprised that some of the places we ate on the strip seemed not only more expensive than we remembered (and good grief is the strip expensive enough as it is), but the quality had gone down. Which was a bummer when we were kind of thinking of it as the more luxurious and relaxing leg of the vacation. Frankly I think we were just tired at that point and would rather have been home, so everything was a bit disappointing. Lesson learned. That being said, there were also nice times on the strip, too, including having a scrumptious dessert and cocktails as dinner Monday night at Max Brenner's chocolate restaurant in Ceasar's.

Seriously, this was dinner.

So was this.

And this was my cocktail. It was all a-ma-zing.

Other highlights included a stop at the Coca Cola store. I hate Pepsi and it seems like they must have an exclusive contrast with many of the hotels in Vegas, because rarely can a Coke be found. This was 1 liter of joy in the form of Mexican Coke in a glass bottle!!

By the way, those are plaid capris from BombshellShocked with the blouse I sewed to match. I had my hair in a ponytail or braids the entire time we were on the strip because there were some insane wind gusts.

We also walked by a store and I completely missed the fact that the entire window was filled with antique sewing machines until Mel pointed it out to me!

A couple more shots from the strip...

And finally a bit of relaxing poolside...

And that's a wrap for our trip! Like I said, it was fun, though I think we both wish that we'd had a better time overall. We might explore the possibility of going to one of the rockabilly weekenders in Europe in the next year or two, as I think our time for VLV has come and gone. Or maybe we'll face the music that we're really old fuddy duddies at heart and don't like taking vacations with a thousand other people. Hee hee. We're excited to have two weekend camping trips planned in May to really relax in our element.

When I got home from our trip I found out I need to travel to New Mexico next weekend as my grandmother is suddenly not doing very well, and we're starting to plan the first of our parties for our civil union that will be sometime in June, and I have invitations I need to design, and more thinking (and knitting) to do for the Briar Rose Knit-along, so I apologize if this is a bit of a quiet week or two around here! I hope to do some catching up in the blogosphere soon. :)