Never Homevember 2019 - Las Vegas

Never Homevember Intro and Walt Disney World

Not spending weekends at home in November meant no Christmas decorating.   Full Christmas decorating is an 8-10 hour process and tear down slightly less.   This year we went with our 2’ prelit tree and 2 star showers on the lawn.   Cleanup will be easy.   

We decided to take the first flight out to Las Vegas since we didn’t really want to waste a portion of a day off from work at home.  We landed around 9am.  Our reason for taking this trip was to run some of the Rock & Roll races on The Strip at night and to spend time with friends Tom and Maggie (father and daughter).    

We were able to check into our room at The Linq early.  When we visited in May we thought the hotel was a good choice based on location, the number of eateries, a good beer selection at a couple bars, and they had the horse racing game where the horsies go around the track.  Our rate was pretty reasonable too for an event weekend.   Before heading to the race expo via Monorail we grabbed a burger at In-n-Out.   This was our second time at the chain and we still don’t understand what all the fuss is about.   Holly was thrilled to be doing the half instead of the full marathon this weekend, but out of habit she went to the wrong check-in tables.  Dave ended up getting Corral 1 for the 10K, which meant if he stayed in that corral race day he would likely be trampled.  

After dropping Expo stuff back in our room we made our way south towards Mandalay Bay with a few stops beforehand.  The monorail took us to MGM Grand, which we toured around a bit before crossing over to New York, New York.   We made our way to a little park that was home of the Hello Kitty Café.  This is basically a semi-permanent trailer/food truck selling snacks and coffee.   Some items are shaped like Hello Kitty characters.   

After snacking we got some walk-around beers at a nearby bar and headed towards Excalibur.   We enjoyed the continuity of theme throughout the casino (Sherwood Forest Bar and suits of armor lining an entryway).    The MGM casino monorail took us over to Mandalay Bay, which we thoroughly walked through.   We were disappointed to find the Shark Reef required admission and the pool had been closed (it’s a nice pool to look at).  We were hungry and decided to eat at Noodle Shop in the hotel.   We decided we’d eat a lot of Asian food this trip since the Asian restaurants in our town are awful.  Our final stop was at Luxor to take a look at their Egyptian theming.

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Our evening activity was Cirque to Soleil’s Beatles' Love.   We’ve never been to a Cirque show and figured having music we are familiar with would help us ease into the experience.   We were surprised that the show was more of a dance show vs. people hanging from the ceiling or balancing on each other.   We ran into Tom and Maggie after the show and we decided to meet up again in the morning for a trip to the Hoover Dam.  We went back to The Linq for dinner at Virgil’s BBQ before calling it a day.

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Saturday morning we ate the most expensive Starbuck’s breakfast in Harrah’s (you thought airports were overpriced) before meeting Tom and Maggie at Mirage.   Tom rented a mini van to take us on the hour trip to The Hoover Dam.   We spent time walking around the dam, making every “dam” joke you could imagine, before taking one of the shorter tours offered by the Bureau of Reclamation.   Although the dam is big, it was actually smaller than we thought it would be.   It’s worth the trip to see the dam, but an added benefit is the beauty of the area.  There were some great desertscapes intermixed with the river and Lake Meade.   We stopped for lunch in Boulder City, a town created to house the builders of the dam.   The town was very cute, but our lunch location was lackluster.    On the way back to town we stopped in Henderson and enjoyed some beers at LoveLady Brewing. 

Back in Las Vegas we split up since Tom and Maggie were running the 5K race that evening.   We walked down to the Fashion Mall to visit the ABC Store – a Walgreen’s sized convenient store from Hawaii.   They have good snacks from Hawaii.   We stocked up on macadamia nuts, Hi-Chews, and Kona beer for the room.   We toured around our hotel area visiting Flamingo, Cromwell, and Caesar’s Palace.   We discovered a great craft cocktail bar in The Cromwell – Bound.  We ate dinner at Beijing Noodle No.9 and gambled a bit before calling it an evening.

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Sunday: Race day. Afternoon/evening races are not our favorites since it is hard to judge what to eat and when. We had an early breakfast at the hotel and then tried to figure out how to kill time. We headed to The Venetian and just sat on the steps enjoying the sun and watching gondolas go by. Dave had to leave around 2pm for his race and Holly could walk to her start line a little later. Dave would start the 10K 45 minutes before Holly would start the half.

Dave’s 10K Comments

I had too much time to kill. I exited the Monorail at the Sahara (nice casino) and crossed through the casino with many other runners. A Plinko type machine caught my eye so I gave it $5. Our staging area was the fairgrounds, which is just a vacant lot when there’s no fair.  Many of us chose to soak up the sun on the artificial turf while waiting to corral up.   We had access to real bathrooms, a plus.     When it was time to get to the corrals I decided to go to the back of Corral 1 so I could avoid getting in the real runners’ way (I actually do not run but can walk fast).  Unfortunately we did not have a wave start as advertised so I ended up moving really fast to try to get to the side and out of the way.  Spacing on the course really didn’t open up until Mile 2.   I probably ended up with my fastest single miles ever in a race.  I ended up finishing at 1:22, better than expected.

It was fun getting to see a part of The Strip I’d normally never go near:  The old wedding chapels, biker bars, run-down dispensaries, and urban decay.  Some bars near Fremont looked fun though and the casino lights on the way back were pretty.   I was hoping for a margarita to cross the finish with but the race barriers kept me from reaching the stand.  The light show at the finish was decent and course entertainment was adequate.   The process to go through the finish chute and cross streets to get back to the sidewalk was underwhelming.     I figured Holly was going to be coming to my area soon so I grabbed a beer from Sin City Brewing.   I videoed her running by before heading back to Linq for a shower.

Holly’s Half Marathon Comments

I was excited to run on the Vegas strip.  I wasn’t excited to start running at 4:45pm.   I usually eat very little before any race so I wasn’t sure what to do.  I had a big breakfast and then just had a Lunchable as a snack around 1 because I was starving.  It worked out well.   The start area was much more chaotic for me.  It took forever to get from the staging area to the corrals.  You had to funnel thousands of people into a small alleyway.  Not fun.   After I got to the start corral it was fine.  I enjoyed running up and down the strip and it was great to see old Vegas.   I’m glad I did the race.  It did kill the whole day though.   By the time I was done running and got through the finish and got a shower, it was probably 8:30.

Video from the Race – mostly from the 10K

After the race we were hoping to meet up with Tom and Maggie for dinner but someone ran into Maggie while running the half and she was icing down.   We had burgers and beers at Black Tap in the Venetian, played a few games, then went back to our hotel for drinks and some live music.     While it was fun to do the races, afternoon/evening races really kill the whole day.

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Monday, time to head home.  We had a late-afternoon flight so there was still time to play.    Breakfast was in the hotel at Hash House a Go-Go.  We started the morning with mimosas and obscene amounts of food.   We left our luggage with bell services and played a few games.  We were down around $220 for the weekend and decided we should stop soon.  Holly wanted to try the Jurassic Park 3D machine so we gave it our last $30.   She ended up winning around $250!  Hot dog, back in black!  We played a few more games and maybe left the town $30 up.   

To celebrate we took a lift to China Town (nice area) and had drinks at The Golden Tiki.   This place was fantastic!   The good thing about going to tiki bars early is they tend to be empty.   The bartender was super friendly and told us about how the place was designed by former Disney Imagineers.   Many Disney references and props all around the bar.  They had two replica Tiki Room birds that had raunchy banter from time-to-time.   Back on The Strip we had one more Asian meal at Noodle Asia in the Venetian.  

Another fun weekend in the books!  Next stop, Jamaica.

Doing Lincolny things in Springfield Illinois

In April we spent a weekend in Springfield marathon to visit with our friends Stan and Pam and for Holly to run in the Lincoln Presidential Marathon Half Marathon.  She had wanted to do this race for many years but the timing was never right.  Of course the year she finally pulls the trigger, they move away from their iconic penny style medal to a top hat style. Still nice, but not the same.   

We arrived in Springfield early-evening on Friday.   Unfortunately Holly had booked our room at the Hilton Springfield, MISSOURI instead of Springfield, ILLINOIS.  Apparently it happens all the time. Lucky for us they still had vacancy.  We did have to coordinate the front desk teams of two hotels to talk to one another so they wouldn’t charge us for the room in the next state.  After an Italian dinner in an old-school restaurant we walked a few blocks to have a beer at Obed and Isaac’s.  Their operations occupied several buildings on the block and they had prime real estate near the capital building and the Lincoln Home historic site.  The beer was good.

Saturday was race morning and it was cold.  Low 20’s with a bit of a windchill.   With our hotel a few blocks from the start the lobby was packed with runners trying to stay warm.  Pam and Dave saw no need to make their way to the start.  They chose to eventually make their way to Starbucks for breakfast and spectate at one spot before heading to the finish.   Holly was trying to beat a goal time and missed it by half a second.  Dave blames himself for being on the course, causing her to slow down for a few seconds.  The finish line after-party was on the grounds of the old capital building.  Abe and Mary Lincoln impersonators were out for photo opps and handed people pennies.  While we were in the finish area we happened to be standing near the shirt exchange table (trade in your shirt for a new one if the one you picked up did not fit).   The man working the table left which gave people the idea the shirts were free for the taking.   Dave couldn’t tolerate this behavior and took it upon himself to man the table.  It was fun to watch him send people away and take the time to re-sort the shirts into the proper size/gender piles.

Stan and Pam dragged us to another brewery for lunch.  Engrained Brewery featured a farm-to-table menu and a variety of beers on-tap.  Most of the beers we sampled were approachable true-to-style brews made to please everyone.  We decided to try a Springfield favorite: the horseshoe.  It’s a burger served on a piece of Texas toast, topped with fries, and covered with a cheese/herb sauce.  For us it was too much.


Our next stop on our jaunt was next door at the Scheel’s Sporting Goods Store.  It put our local Bass Pro Shop to shame.  There was a Ferris Wheel in the store along with an arcade, shooting gallery, and mammoth taxidermy display.

Eventually we made our way to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site.  They had a small museum with a few displays of furnishings, household trinkets, and a model of town that traced Lincoln’s funeral procession route.   Tickets to tour the home are (surprisingly) free thanks to the provisions the Lincoln family put on the property as a gift to Illinois (now the National Park Service runs the property).  The park encompasses several homes from the period and keeps the street as true to the period as possible.  By day these homes are state government buildings.   Tours of the home are guided to 1) give you facts about the home and it’s decor, 2) to control the crowd flow, 3) make sure you don’t touch anything.  



Since we were on one of the later tours of the day we did not have time to visit the Illinois State Museum.  Maybe next time.  We did find time to grab a couple beers at Buzz Bomb Brewing   We sat in a comfy section of their upstairs taproom and worked in a few games of Uno while we enjoyed our beers.   For dinner we returned to Obed and Isaac’s to enjoy pizza, Mac and cheese, and bacon wrapped dates.  We had an after dinner drink at Celtic Mist - nice space and good beer selection on draft.

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Sunday breakfast was at Charlie Parker’s Diner - made famous nationally by Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  The restaurant is in an semi-circle-shaped military building on the edge of town.   Inside the decor is diner-retro.  Here you can get a breakfast Horseshoe twice the size of our lunch Horseshoe or a mammoth pancake (one is all you need).  Pictures below are a snippet from Google Images.

Our final stop of the day was Lincoln's Tomb.  It's pretty big.   We rubbed the nose of the bust like everyone else does (for luck) before walking into the tomb.  As visitors make their way around the hall they can see several bronze statues depict moments in Lincoln's life and read plaques about significant milestones.

We really should plan another visit to Springfield to take in the museum.  Another brewery/distillery is expected to open soon (Anvil and Forge), providing 3 breweries in walking distance of downtown.  

2017 Baltimore Marathon Race Report and Video

Holly's Race Report from Baltimore with Dave's comments and video at the end:

There aren’t a lot of choices for a Maryland race, so Baltimore it was. Everyone said it was a hilly course. They didn’t lie. I was running this one with Stan, Brad and Jessica. Jessica was also running the Marine Corps Marathon the next day. She is a ROCKSTAR! Our hotel was right by the start so we all met there and had a short walk to the start at Camden Yards. It was not a chilly morning and temperatures were expected to get up in the 70’s by the afternoon. We had a nice national anthem with a huge American flag flying over the start.

The start was up a huge hill that went on forever. This was a sign of things to come. It was pretty much uphill all the way until Mile 4 when we entered the Baltimore zoo. Here is where we had the best photo stop ever. A cute penguin named Peach was just sitting there and posing with all of us runners. It was the highlight of the race. We ran through some cool spots, like the zoo and John Hopkins University. We also ran through some boring neighborhoods, but the police posted at every intersection couldn’t have been nicer. They were great and would cheer us on. I have never seen as many police officers at a race before. The other nice thing about the race was at every third or fourth stop they had Utz chips as a snack. This was great to have a couple of salty chips to counteract all the sweating we were doing.

It was getting hot and I was feeling it. Jessica and I have the worst luck when we run together. We haven’t had a warm summer so I’m not used to the warm weather. I started feeling not so great around mile 15 or so. I tried a bunch of things but nothing was working and around mile 20 Jessica left us and kept up her pace. She did great! We switched to 1:1 intervals and I felt better and was able to keep a better pace.

Dave and Joe were race chasing and they were doing an amazing job despite the really bad traffic in the city. I’m not sure I want to know how they did it. The final miles were full of hills and we did our best to get up and over them. We finally made it to the finish at the famous Inner Harbor. We got a super cool crab medal that opens and has Fort McHenry inside. There were more chips at the end. We didn’t make it to the beer tent, because it was too far away. I didn’t feel well at the end. I had some chips and Gatorade and finally started feeling better. I definitely didn’t fuel properly for this one. The organization at this one was top notch, with a great expo, and medal. The course is a tough one and I wouldn’t hurry back to do it again because of that.

Dave's Comments

We arrived in Baltimore early enough to have lunch with Stan and Pam at Dempsey's, a brewpub inside Camden Yards. After a quick walk-around we took a short drive over to Fort McHenry National Monument. This site is where the U.S. National Anthem was written (well it was written on a boat looking at the fort but close enough). After our tour we had a beer at Inner Harbor before joining Tom, Liz, Harper, Steve, Jess, Brad, and Joe for dinner at Sabatino's in the Little Italy section.

Joe and I had a great time race chasing. Our bad luck of reaching places in time gave us plenty of down-time to relax and chat. We didn't make it to Mile Two in time so Mile Six was our next best option - and it was only a few blocks from Mile Two. We missed them at Mile 9 because we stopped to watch the half marathoners go by. That gave us another four mile break in Inner Harbor. It was great having Joe drive because he exectued some awesome Starsky and Hutch maneuvers. We won't discuss the father pushing a baby carriage through an intersection at Mile 16. Baltimore was a lot like St. Louis or Providence in the fact that all the good things to see and do in the city are in one small section. Having the race finish at Inner Harbor brought traffic to a halt in the heart of the city. We missed seeing everyone finish the race. Oh well, not the first time.

Post-race we enjoyed lunch at Pratt Street Ale House (a brewpub) and then some post-drinks at Dick's Last Resort.

The next morning we coaxed Stan and Pam into touring Annapolis with us. We enjoyed a rushed tour of the museum and grounds of the Naval Academy, but could not go into the chapel or John Paul Jones' crypt due to a memorial service. Lunch was at the Middleton Tavern. Downtown Annapolis was nice, but small and touristy.

 

Here's the video: