Lively Up Yourself
The Nerf folks pulled the whole travel itinerary together, and both Portland teams (8-12 and 13-17) flew together on both flights. This made for a common bond among the 8 players too.
The flight itself was actually very routine.
My wife had checked us in on line 24 hours ahead of time, so within the Southwest Airlines scheme, we were in the lower end of the "B" group. So, the plane was about half full when we boarded. Fortunately, the teams were able to sit mostly together, and it was a typical raucous flight to Las Vegas. The Nerf folks met us at baggage, and shuttled us to the Hard Rock Hotel for our 3 day / 2 night mini-vacation. At this point, some of our group split off to see shows, while the rest of us hit the the Dew Tour for some shwag and then the pool (it was 86* and mid-afternoon). If you've never been to the pool at the Hard Rock, its kinda like Spring Break all the time. There's rock music cranking at one set of pools while a DJ is spinning beats at the main pool. Crazy time. Fortunately, the only pool that had a slide wasn't the pool with the half-dressed (drunken staggering) 20-somethings. The boys stayed near the slide, and so did I :)Them Belly Full
After enjoying the pool, and connecting with Gramma Marianne, everyone was hungry. Marianne lives in Las Vegas and has done so for 20 years, so she was able to route us to the best buffet in town under Planet Hollywood. Incredible eats spanning many different cuisines. The desserts were amazing - I had a chocolate mousse pie, and we shared a crape. The boys ate like they hadn't seen food in days, and we actually welcomed the very long walk back to the car. That's one thing I forgot about Las Vegas - everything is so spread out, you have to walk, like 1/2 a mile from the hotel lobby, to your room. We fell asleep early-ish, hoping to boost energy for the competition on Saturday. Not all of our teammates had luck getting to sleep early, however.
I Shot the Sheriff
Saturday was competition day. First thing in the morning, I got a text from T that he had seen Shaun White walking through the hotel. We had many such encounters this weekend, and grabbed some pictures along the way.
For example, we met Ryan Sheckler in the Bell-Hop line. Great guy, nice as can be and totally down to earth. The competition wasn't supposed to start until 2:30, and it started late. By the time they figured out the competition round-robin it was almost 3:30. Still, our team was in the first match, and they lost to the eventual champs (Salt Lake City) by 1 point. The boys got upset about some calls, but we parents tried to explain that if they had played their usual run-n-gun style, the points wouldn't have been close. They took that to heart the next 2 games and blew out Boston and Las Vegas. As they announced their last match, I could see the boys grow uneasy. The ref said "with this win, (our boys) go into the finals". Well, they tensed up, didn't play their style and lost by a less than 10 points. So, they were out of the competition, but they bounced back. Before the finals had even started, C went bull riding at the Matador booth and T was off getting shwag from the Verizon booth.Exodus
Leaving the Tour grounds, the boys were a little dejected, but a dinner of pizza and soda turned them around. The following morning, we hit the pool for one last dip, and visited Las Vegas a little bit. T rode the roller coaster at the
New York - New York, and C won prizes in the arcade. Then we hopped the train over to the Luxor to see the inside of the great pyramid. Time was getting tight, so we hopped a cab back to the Hard Rock, and joined the teams for the shuttle back to the airport. The other Portland team also came in third. Oh well, we all agreed that the trip was a great prize for winning the regional, and look forward to competing again next year. The final flight was delayed on the ground for 2 hours because of lightning, and we had some turbulence in-air, but otherwise, passing through McCarran Airport was a breeze for a Sunday.I think we all agree that it was a great trip, and the boys plan to compete again next year. They can't be on the same team, as the age grouping has pushed T and the other boys into the higher age group. Still, C will figure out another trio of boys to compete with while T finds one more shooter. That's it for now. I'll post on the bus when I actually have a few minutes to work on him.
pictures:
top - The Hard Rock Guitar in front of the hotel - now my phone desktop picture :)
middle - the Nerf team enjoying their pre-contest breakfast
bottom - a huge Ozzy lithograph hanging in the Hard Rock Hotel
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