One of the great things about Las Vegas is that there are lots of coffee shops open 24 hours a day. That means that you can get a decent breakfast when you have an early flight and avoid trying to find something edible at the airport or buying one of those airline snack boxes. I had time to lose a little more money at video poker, too.
Things moved pretty surprisingly quickly and it took maybe 20 minutes from the hotel to the gate for my flight. I did look at the video poker machines at the airport, but they didn't have any of the versions I like. (The difference involves what the pay out is for two pairs. I won't play machines that only return one credit for that, instead of two. I know they're sucking you in on the higher payouts for the big hands, like four of a kind or straight flushes, but those are so relatively rare that it isn't worth it.)
My flight left on time and was reasonably uncrowded. I napped and read and watched the movie - "Invincible," which wasn't bad, though I might have gotten more out of it if I knew anything at all about football. Due to weather, we got put in a holding pattern outside Dulles and, despite the on-time departure, landed 45 minutes late. Luckily the transportation home (Washington Flyer bus to West Falls Church, followed by the metro) all worked smoothly, with only a couple of minutes wait for each mode.
The movie on the plane qualified as half of the traditional Jewish Christmas activities. For the other half, I could have gone out for Chinese food, but I was so tired I just heated up some frozen potstickers. I have plenty of stuff to catch up on at home, but sleep was just a higher priority.
Copyright 2006 Miriam H. Nadel