DAY 4: IT'S TIME TO HEAD HOME

Well with my terrific skills in planning (not) we wouldn't be getting out of Vegas until 5:10pm today. We pretty much had the entire morning to entertain ourselves before heading to the airport.

The hubby was on his 3rd cup of hot caffeinated go-go juice before the kids woke up and I had already had my shower and was ready for breakfast. The kids wanted to go to Denny's again but we wanted to try something different and save our legs. The day before we had found a restaurant inside Flamingo and we decided we'd just go there. A nice sit down restaurant. It was the Havana 1957.

The hubby and I both ordered omelets, taters, bacon and sausage with toast. It was really good.

Sakari had french toast and I don't think I even seen what "Karl" had. They both ordered an Iced Coffee, Iced Latte, Ice Mocha, Iced Matcha....whatever you call it because I don't know the difference since I'm not a coffee drinker either hot nor cold.

After a nice breakfast we decided to go back out to the flamingo habitat again since it was day time and we would be able to see better. All the critters were out today.

There were a couple of ducks that were chasing each other non-stop. We watched them for awhile. It was the girl duck chasing the boy and he would dive under the water and disappear for a moment but no worries, she would find him. 😁

It was another beautiful day out and was going to be even warmer today and we just had to leave now. Boo!

This time we took a stroll and found where the Flamingo hotel pools were located. They had several including an adult pool area and also what looked like a slide and a bridge. This area went out to the street and circled back around. Sakari said "We're going on a nature hike today!!" (She loves nature hikes and it was one that "Karl" could do).

Once we made it back inside, Mr Pelican was sitting in his usual space and drying his feathers. He was there every single day.

We decided since we had so much time to kill before we had to head to the airport, we'd check out the shops located inside the Flamingo since we hadn't done that yet this trip.

I ended up buying a few magnets to add to my new "magnet board" (which is something I decided to create after having the side of my refrigerator loaded with all the ones I've collected from everywhere we've been and it was just getting to be too much).

I ended up with a Flamingo to represent our stay here and a cute little slot machine (that actually works) for Vegas. I also bought a poker chip to use in my scrapbook once I have time 🤣to start those back up for each of our journeys.

I also found a cute pair of heart earrings I just had to have. Nothing related to Vegas but me likey...so me wanty!

We went back to the room for last minute packing and to wait until it was officially time to check out (11am). I remembered that I hadn't taken a picture of our "view" from our room and decided why not now? It was NOT a great view.

Hey, you could see the Flylinq Zipline from here lol

The actual street was down there...

We could see the mountains off in the distance:

Once it was 11am and check out time, we gathered our things and headed downstairs to say our goodbyes to this place. Checking out was as easy as checking in...we used the kiosk.

We headed out to the taxi stand and called the ADA taxi. They did come fairly quick, compared to the other night, but they were stuck in the traffic in the turn around. The other issue was there was a lady sitting on the sidewalk who had fallen and stated she couldn't get up because her leg was twisted and it hurt...all while she continued to chug her beers beside her. 😅 So what's the issue with this? The issue was that there was an ambulance there, parked in the area of the handicapped pick up section that we needed.

We finally managed to get "Karl" loaded up with the luggage and it was time to head for a short drive over to the airport for the cost of $32.34.

We wasn't sure if TSA was going to be open when we got there due to the issues with the government shut down and the agents not getting paid. It was supposed to be in effect the day we were leaving. But, we got lucky and it was still open when we arrived.

Of course "Karl" having TSA doesn't help as much as before since he would need to be scanned, patted, and promised his first born before being released.

We would have a bit of a wait now until our 5:10pm flight. We sat and waited and charged our phones to full capacity while these kept starring at me.

It got the best of me and eventually I started to gravitate toward them (but made sure to go around the corner as not to be spotted by the rest of the family what I was doing). 😉

After a few hours, it was time for some food. The kids had already caved in and ate but the hubby and I needed something before the flight. We ended up with Chinese...which appealed to me when ordering but after receiving it, I didn't feel like eating but about 1/4th of it. I would just save it for later on the plane. Everyone loves to smell Chinese in an enclosed area such as a plane right? My apologies ahead of time. Just saying...

It was getting closer to boarding time and we would have a gate change and also a delay because they go hand-in-hand right? It wasn't too much of a delay (from 5:10pm to something like 5:25pm). Then it was time to roll "Karl" down the passenger boarding bridge for his chariot to take him on the plane. Again, it's quite the process to transfer him from the wheelchair to the airplane wheelchair, they buckle you up twice across the chest both ways and a seatbelt.

Did you know that you can now track your luggage? You just sign up. I'm not sure if this is a Southwest thing or all planes do it but it's new to me. They tagged "Karl's" wheelchair and eventually we would see it being scanned so that we knew where it was at and loaded up in the plane. How cool!

The sun was setting and it was beautiful out...even though we had to experience it from the plane.

As we started to take off, we would see that Vegas was coming to life and starting to light up. Man, why couldn't we have stayed longer!

Up, Up, and away we went!

Going across the mountains:

It was going to be a long flight home and the husband is already trying to be cute and funny.

We landed after midnight and after gathering our luggage, the kids waited inside (IT WAS COLD!!! 🥶) and we battled the weather over to the shuttle, to our vehicle, then back to the airport to pick up the kids and luggage. Everyone was tired...but...we still had to take "Karl" home. What a night! We landed in bed by 3am. 💤Yes, I had to work that day as well. Go me!

So hopefully this trial run we bring some light to our future travels. Hopefully "Karl" had a good time, it wasn't too stressful on him or Sakari and he will consider what's next for him. I was trying to plan a trip to Bonaire, since we've never been before, but he had mentioned that he believes a cruise would be a little easier than a land trip. I guess it's time for a "family discussion" to figure it out. Meanwhile, I thought once Sakari graduates in 3 months we'd be free to travel whenever and then reality hit me in the face. We will still have to travel when she's out of school as she plans on jumping right into college in August. So...we will see what's next for us. Hopefully a summer vacation. I need a REAL vacation.