Bachelorette Weekend!

When I talked to my maid of honor - also my little sister - about what I would like for my bachelorette, we discussed primarily that I liked the idea of doing an inexpensive weekend getaway. Only she and one other bridesmaid could make the trip, so we adjusted the plans accordingly.
With that in mind, we made plans for a weekend in Reno.  Yes, not the most exciting of all places, but close enough to drive and generally inexpensive with enough fun things to do that those activities plus good company ought to make for an enjoyable weekend.

Well.
This trip was supposed to take place this past weekend.
I don't know who saw the weather reports, but on Thursday night I got text messages from my sister, my dad, and my step-mom who had all noted the truly awful weather hitting the Sierra-Nevadas.
This weather was so intense that they closed the roads from the Bay to Reno.
Closed them.
As in, shut down, no one is getting through here.

Many curse words were awash in my brain.
What were we going to do now?

Some ideas surfaced, none of them sounding really all that great
.....
until....
I remembered that, since Chris works for Southwest Airlines, we can get these things called Buddy Passes (a limited number) so that others can fly on standby for free.  After talking to Chris, I decided that I wanted to use these passes for my bridesmaids and fly somewhere.

Where?
Glad you asked.
Las Vegas!

And with that, we were off and running.  We changed all the plans, notified people, adjusted reservations, checked flights and went through the process of completely flipping the trip upside down because, even though both places are in Nevada, the planning and prep for trips to Vegas are definitely not the same as for Reno.

Once everything was in place (with the help of many people!!!), Friday afternoon all three of us made our ways to the airports - myself and one BM to Oakland, the other to San Francisco.  We all, very thankfully, were able to make our flights and we landed together in Las Vegas at nearly the same time.

So far our trip was off to a great start.
I don't want to detail all of our shenanigans here, only partly because that would take to long, but suffice to say we had ourselves lots of fun.

We walked (a lot!!), drank, talked, ate, socialized, and gambled.
I also had some really lovely and meaningful conversations with the BMs, and got to reconnect with them both on several levels.
We even watched the lights go out on the Strip on Saturday night from 8:30 to 9:30, in honor of Earth Hour.  I videoed it, too.

The only truly difficult part of the trip was coming home.
Remember how those Buddy Passes mean that you fly stand-by?
Well, trying to leave Las Vegas on a Sunday afternoon is apparently a very bad idea.
We arrived at the airport at about 1:00pm.
We jumped from gate to gate trying to make flights (all of us with sore feet, some of us with more blisters and injuries than others).
Then, after 9pm we were waiting on the very. last. flight. home.  The employees told us that I was at the top of the list, and my BM's were #s 3 and 4 to get on the plane.
I made a strategic decision to go to San Diego instead - since there were seats on those flights and since I was going the next day anyways (more on that later) - hoping that having me off the list would mean that my BM's chances of getting on that flight were improved.

I moved to the gate for my new flight to San Diego (after calling an old friend who graciously agreed to pick me up and give me a place to crash for the night!!!) and waited.  I got a boarding pass right away (meaning that I was almost-guaranteed to get a seat).

When I was on the jetway, I got a text message from one of my BM's saying that she got on the flight....but that the second BM hadn't gotten on yet.  My heart sang and then sank.  I felt like I was abandoning them and I hoped against all hope and reason that they would both get on that plane and get to be home that night.

I spent my flight in an anxious sweat for my compatriot.
When I landed I got good news: both BM's got on the flight and made it home!

So.
In all, it was a really great trip and I'm soooooo happy we went.
Next time, though, we're trying for the very first flight out!