I heard good things about Octane Raceway and I decided to check it out. I knew the boys would love it, so we headed up to Scottsdale today. We stopped for lunch at Matty G's Steakburgers and then drove up to Scottsdale. The boys had a great time! Jonny wasn't too sure about it at first, but he drove like a pro and did a great job. He only wanted to do one race, but when he saw that Daniel would be the only one in his second junior race he decided to go again. Andrew had fun in his adult races. You had to have a license or permit for those because it went up to 45mph. The junior races only go up to 25mph.
Waiting our turn
Ready to race!
Jonny won this race
Ready to race!
Andrew came in 8th in this first race
Watch him pass someone right before that first big turn
Daniel won the second race
Andrew came in 6th on his second race
It was a fun day and I'm so glad the boys loved it! We'll have to do this again!
Betsy and I had so much fun
on our trip to Las Vegas to see Derek Hough’s dance show!!
September 16, Friday
I saw the boys off to school, finished
packing, and picked up Betsy and went to the airport. Some lady was sitting in our seat, so we had
to wait for her to get her ticket out. We were in seats E and F and she was
sitting in E but she was supposed to be in B. I don’t know how an adult can’t
find the correct seat on an airplane, but whatever. The flight was short and
pretty bumpy. We ordered an Uber once we got off the plane and figured out
where we needed to go. We only had eight minutes so we walked quickly. I even
got a text saying that the driver would wait for us for two minutes and then
start charging us, so we started hustling even more. Then, as soon as we got
there, when it was about time for the guy to show up, we got a notification
that he canceled the trip so we had to find another Uber. I was so mad. We had
to wait about eight minutes for a new one. Oh well. It wasn’t that long it was
just annoying. Our Uber driver was very nice. It was Betsy's first Uber ride.
We got to the hotel and got our keys and went to
the room and got settled in a bit. We got dressed and freshened up and called
another Uber. It took quite a while to get over to the Venetian because there
was a lot of traffic. The Venetian is quite the maze and it’s hard to figure
out where you need to go. I somehow got it figured out and before we knew it,
we happened upon Casanova restaurant where Betsy had made a reservation for 5
PM. I had also made a reservation at Buddy V‘s for 3:45 PM, but obviously we
missed that and as soon as we ran into the Casanova we decided to just eat
there because neither of us had much of a preference. I had decided to order the lasagna, but they
didn’t have it on their menu for some reason even though it was online, so I
got the fettuccine Alfredo. It was just kind of average. Betsy got the chicken
kebabs and she let me have a piece and they were really good. A group of about
six ladies came in and they were all wearing sparkly sequin jumpsuits in
different colors. They seemed to be a little bit older, like in their 30s and
40s, so we weren’t sure if it was for a bridesmaid’s party or what. We never
did ask them. We saw them a couple more times.
Casanova restaurant
After dinner, we walked around for a bit.
First, we went to Carlo’s bakery. The line
wasn’t too bad at all, but they messed up our order. Betsy wanted a piece of
chocolate cake and we were going to share a chocolate chip cookie sandwich with
icing inside. When she went to pay, they had given her a rainbow-colored cake
so they switched it out for the chocolate fudge cake. Then as we were walking
away and pulled out the cookie, we realized it was just a basic cookie and not
the cookie sandwich. Betsy didn’t really want to go back but we paid $6.95 for
that thing I really wanted the one with the icing inside so we went back and
told them they made a mistake and showed them the receipt and they gave us the
right one. It’s weird that we only ordered two things and they messed them both
up. Oh well.
We walked around the Canal shops. Betsy
especially enjoyed going to Jimmy Choo, Tory Burch, and Michael Kors.
By about 7 PM, we went to find the theater and
it was pretty easy to find.
Derek Hough's mirrorball trophies from Dancing with the Stars
Betsy was pretty shocked when I told her that I
got us seats in the second row. The seats were amazing! The first row would’ve
been fine, too, because the stage wasn’t that tall, but our seats were perfect.
The show was amazing!
I really didn’t want to take any video, I just
wanted to sit and watch, but I knew I’d want to remember it so I took quite a
few. I wanted to show Emily and put some on the blog.
One fun highlight from the show was when he brought this group of ladies up to the stage. These are the same ladies we saw at dinner. He had to take the opportunity to bring them all on stage. He does a trick where he calls up volunteers from the audience and jumps over them. He said he has never done this big of a group but he made it and it was epic!
Singin’ in the Rain was especially good.
Everything was amazing: the costumes, the
dancers, the music, the choreography. It was outstanding! I was pretty surprised that even though everyone gave a
standing ovation, they quickly gave up and just left instead of trying to get
an encore, but maybe that’s not a thing they do here. I told Betsy that I had
seen on Instagram that Derek Hough comes out and greets the audience but I
wasn’t sure where. I asked and they said it was outside the theater so we stood
there and waited for a while. A bunch of other people did too. It wasn’t long
before Derek came out and was very kind and offered to take pictures with
everyone. All we had to do was wait our turn. I was worried he would give up
and go back but he made sure everybody got a picture and that was really nice.
Betsy told him how much she loved the Singin’ in the Rain routine and he seems
sincerely grateful for her saying that. We got a picture with him and then
Betsy went and called home to check on everyone.
In the meantime, Derek's fiance Hayley came out. I tried
telling Betsy but she was in the middle of her phone call and I tried calling
her over again later but she was still talking and I couldn’t resist getting a
picture with Hayley.
We thought about going to The Delmonico
restaurant to try and get dessert, but they only had three choices and they
were kind of lame so we just headed over to the High Roller Ferris wheel.
It wasn’t that hard to get there. I couldn’t
resist stopping for some cookie dough at the little trailer right outside the
High Roller entrance. It was really rich but so good! We headed into the High
Roller line. We didn’t have to wait very long to get on the High Roller. It was
kind of cool how people get on and get off as it’s still moving.
Bellagio Fountain show from the High Roller
View of the Las Vegas Strip from the High Roller
It took 28 minutes to go
all the way around. Betsy googled it and the High Roller is actually bigger
than the London Eye, but I think the little pods of the High Roller are
actually smaller than the ones on the London Eye. After the ride, we stopped at
the gift shop and I bought a magnet. We walked down the LINQ Promenade and
Betsy stopped at another souvenir shop to get some pins and some candies for
the kids. We walked across to the Bellagio and walked past all the fancy shops
that were closed. We tried to go outside to watch the fountains but we just
missed the last one. We ordered an Uber back to the hotel and had to hustle
again because we didn’t quite know where to go, but luckily, we figured it out
and got to the rideshare area before she left us and got back to the hotel at
about 12:45 AM.
September 17, Saturday
I slept very soundly until my alarm went off at 9 AM. We got ready and
packed and checked out and took an Uber to Caesar’s Palace. We were dropped off at the Forum shops. We
walked around for quite a while.
We didn’t have much luck
finding anywhere to eat. Even the food court was a disappointment because the
one place I wanted which was the crêpes place was closed. We walked around
a little more. Betsy was excited to go into Balenciaga so I watched her
suitcase while she went in. We had been pulling around our carry-ons since we
had checked out of the hotel. It was kind of annoying but not too bad. I
enjoyed one store called Altar’d State and got a few pieces of jewelry there.
We would’ve like to see the Atlantis show, but we just missed it and another
one wasn’t on until 1 PM and we didn’t want to wait that late because we needed
to get to the airport for our flight at 3 PM. We had another Uber cancellation
but we made it to the airport fine. I was excited to get a Sprinkles cupcake
from their ATM machine. I had read that the banana cupcake was amazing and I
thought it was just OK. The flight was OK but it was really bumpy again and I
was so nauseated by the time we landed. I dropped Betsy off at her house and
then went home.
I am so glad we were able
to go on this fantastic trip!
