Cankles, War, Soufle, Skanks, Roulette...oh my!

I've been meaning to post about my trip to Vegas, but I keep forgetting. Baby brain is no joke, seriously. So S and I decided to go on a trip before the baby was born...sidenote - I will not call it a "babymoon" because I think that may be the most ridiculous term I've ever heard (other than "push present"). Anyway, we wanted to pick a place we may not be able to go for a while and Vegas sounded like the perfect getaway. Bright and early Thursday morning we boarded our plane headed for Sin City. I think the "Vegas Baby!" count was already into the double digits at this point.

About halfway through the nearly 5 hour flight, my back was killing me. Didn't help that I was in the middle seat on a packed plane. I got up to walk the aisle for minute to stretch and noticed my cankles right away. I thought they were huge, but little did I know I hadn't seen anything yet. When we finally arrived, we spent a long time standing in the taxi line. Then we spent a couple of hours walking around our casino (Paris Las Vegas), and down the strip to Caesars and through the Forum Shops. I forgot how far away the casinos actually are from each other even though they look like they are close. We had a pretty low key first night that involved dinner and watching the fountains at the Bellagio (more walking!). I was pretty spent by the end of the night. Not to mention bummed out that I had already lost $100.

Did you know that War is an actual casino game now? I felt like Clark Griswold in Vegas Vacation. I kept expecting to find a table where I had to guess what number the dealer was thinking of. Anyway, War sucks. I thought it would be great since there's no skill involved, but it quickly took all of my money. Meanwhile, S was busy losing all of his money at black jack. Vegas 1, Us 0.

Friday morning S went indoor skydiving which was pretty amusing to watch. It was a very long walk from the monorail to the skydiving place, and everything was killing me. It was at that point that I noticed just how large my cankles were. They were definitely name-worthy, so the righty was named "Mama Cass" and lefty was "Ham Sammich." If you got the reference, good job! I had a feeling it would be a long time before I saw my poor ankles again. It was the start of the fun game of "let's push on the cankle and watch how long the indentation stays there." Good times, good times.

We had a lovely dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant at our casino where we had excellent food, great service, and a perfect view of the strip and Bellagio fountains. It was really beautiful. I didn't think anything could top it until my dessert came. I ordered the chocolate souffle because I've never had souffle in my life and I figured a French restaurant is a good place to try it. Oh my God! It was the most incredible thing I've ever tasted. I am definitely a fan of souffle. The night only got better as I started playing roulette and actually WINNING! I won the next day too. Overall I didn't win a lot of money, but since I never win anything, I was stoked. We decided that I totally rocked at roulette. I am going to give Patches all the credit though since I was playing mostly his numbers (due date, conception date, etc).

The rest of the trip was awesome. We did so much: saw a burlesque type show which was pretty entertaining, saw the Lion King (AMAZING), went to Madame Toussauds wax museum, and took a gondola ride through the Venetian. We played at lots of different casinos and did I mention we did a ton of walking? One of the funniest things was watching skanks stumbling out of the casino at 8:00 am, still drunk in last nights clothes, trying desperately to remember the name of the guy whose tongue is down their throat as they say their awkward goodbyes. Also, I got a lot of weird looks from people which I can only attribute to "why would you come here pregnant, especially since you can't drink???" But since I didn't bother to ask, I'll never know.

I'm ashamed to say the trip ended with me in tears. Our flight left 45 minutes late and we were in danger of missing our connection in Cleveland. When we arrived in Cleveland and finally got off the plane (we were in the last possible row), they had already been boarding our plane for 15 minutes. We were 15 minutes away from takeoff and had to walk one terminal over. I kept telling S to go ahead without me and see if they could hold the plane until I got there. He wouldn't leave me. Finally when he heard final boarding call he agreed to run ahead. The lady at the gate was so sweet when he told them his pregnant wife was coming but couldn't run. I tried my best to run/waddle to the gate, and they were waiting for me. I was in so much pain though. My foot had been bothering me for a day, and I had been having really bad lower back and hip pain. The hip pain was so bad I almost fell because I couldn't put weight on my left leg when I was going up the stairs. By the time I got on the plane the pain was really bad, and my emotions got the best of me. I cried. I felt stupid for crying, but I couldn't stop the tears. That was only the 2nd major breakdown I've had since I've been pregnant, so I guess I can't complain.

Overall, it was a great trip. As an added bonus, since I've been home my ankles are slowly returning. Ham Sammich has been gone for a few days, but Mama Cass is being a bit stubborn. I know it won't be the last of them though :(