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The Kalotai
Family’s First Las Vegas Vacation in 2005
by John
(hold your
mouse over the pictures for the caption. Clicking on the image will take you to
a full sized shot)
!
It all started innocently enough, as such things do. Lenore
and I were sitting around discussing this and that with the other bowling
parents. What are bowling parents? We are the ones willing to drive for hours to
deliver our child along with six (yes, that’s right, SIX) bowling balls to
various venues throughout the Northeast. You see Andrew is still involved with
the Junior Bowling Tour and bowls for scholarship money. Afterward you and 16+
kids and adults waltz into the nearest Applebees, TGIF or I-Hop and expect them
to seat you....together. You Soccer Moms and
Baseball Dads don’t know what you are missing! Bowling parents know how to live!
So, there we were talking about this and that when the
subject of the Las Vegas Open came up. This event is THE event of the
season with kids from all over the United States converging on Nevada to
compete. “Wouldn’t it be fun to go”, said one of the parents. “Yeah, you know
that would be a blast. We could make a vacation out of it”. The words were out
of my mouth before I realized what I was saying. One moment I am giving
direction to Laurel Lanes in Plainville and the next I am planning the logistics
of transporting my family and 6 bowling balls to Las Vegas. Now, how to sell
this plan to Lenore? No worries! Our friend and soon to be traveling companion,
Renee Cofrancesco, was already working on her. Then, Maggie heard about our plans.
M- “Can we come, too?”
D- “We? We who?”
M- “Me and Justin” You see Justin is Maggie’s long time boyfriend.
D- “OK, I guess” Dad’s a pushover.
I am now up to 4 adults and 2
adult-sized kids (still 6 bowling balls).
The time passed quickly as we discussed the best airline to
take us there, how long we should stay, and most important, how do we get all
those bowling balls there?
The big day came fast. All of us met in front of our house
so we could caravan down to JFK airport; seems that I am the only one of the
group that flies on a regular basis and actually knows the way to the airport. “All
of us” included:
Immediately it was apparent that we had a slight problem.
Seems that despite having a substantially large van there was no way to fit 6
adults, luggage for said adults, and the 6 (yes 6!) bowling balls into the van.
I had to redistribute the luggage into the other van that was traveling with us
(they only had 4 people and 8 bowling balls). We were off. Ali’s 6 balls were in the trunk of
his father’s car.
We arrived at JFK. Now we had the challenge of getting all
that crap from the long term parking, on to the Air-Train and across the
terminal. Somehow we managed the feat with only 3 Smart-Carts. I could kiss the
guy who invented rolling luggage. Lenore was a little nervous about flying. The
last time she flew was with me to Florida 25 years previous. Getting on the
plane was easy; leaving the ground was painful for me. See, she had a hold of my
forearm. It took a week for the fingernail marks to disappear. She did relax her
grip and all was well on the flight. We arrived in Las Vegas and we were immediately
assaulted by slot machines! We got all of the luggage off the conveyor
including 20 (yes 20!) bowling balls. All this was pushed, dragged and rolled to
the ground transport area to our bus. The look on the bus driver’s face when he
saw the 20 bowling balls was priceless!
Las Vegas was a blast. All of the casinos were amazing.
Where else could you visit Paris, New York, Venice, the Roman Forum, a medieval
castle, Persia and the Pyramids all in one place! There are lions and tigers and
dolphins , not to mention a volcano, at the Mirage. The Sirens can be heard
luring Pirates to their doom at Treasure Island. I could have stood in front of
the Bellagio all night long watching the fountains.
 On
Freemont Street you can see classic Las Vegas while standing under one of the
world’s largest video displays. Getting there was an adventure in its self.
In addition to the 12 that flew down with us, three more folks joined us. The
logistics of
getting there involved a bus to the Tropicana, walking to and through the MGM Grand
(1/2 mile) to get to the monorail. We rode to the last station at the Sands
then took a bus
to Freemont Street. This trip took 1 hour. One word of caution: stay off the
buses on Las Vegas Boulevard. We endured the “Bus Trip from Hell” on the way
back on the Las
Vegas Boulevard Express. The “express” bus was packed and took almost 2 hours in
the company of drunks, weirdoes and obnoxious teenagers to get us from
Freemont Street to New York, New York, a distance of 3 miles. The 1.5 mile trip
back to the Orleans took 5 minutes by cab! (We just couldn't stomach another bus
trip for the rest of way, even though the Tropicana Ave. bus is relatively
tame.)
As
far as the tournament, it could have gone better. None of the kids from
Connecticut managed to get into the semi-finals. For the adults it meant we had
more time to see the sites. For our kids, it meant they could run their Texas Hold’em game that much longer.
The week went fast. We did all of the things
you hope to do in Vegas: see show girls, gamble, eat great food in the buffets,
gamble, lounge in the pool, gamble. Wednesday came much quicker than any of us
wanted and it was time to leave.
We repeated the loading of
the kids, bowling balls, luggage and stunned bus driver. The return trip was
thankfully uneventful. Following our arrival at JFK we made our way out to
our cars and headed home. The one thing that struck us all when we
returned to NYC was the appalling
humidity! Even though it was hot (typically 98 - 100 F) in the desert it
was dry so we
were able to deal with it.
A few weeks later we all
got together at the first week of bowling, each of us hauling the collection of
pictures that we took during our vacation. While we recalled all the good times
we had someone said "So when we go next year..........."
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