The Thursday before Labor Day, we flew to Las Vegas with lots of other Gopher fans to watch the Golden Gophers take on UNLV Thursday night. Ryan and Sara drove up from San Diego to go to the game, also! It was a fun, but long day - I think the game went to triple overtime! It was 12:30 (2:30 MN time) by the time the game ended and it was a little hazy. It was a very long day, but we had a fun time tailgating with lots of Gopher fans and the Gophers did win, so that was good.
Friends tailgating
Ryan having a great time grilling
Aaron and me after the game (finally ended) in a Gopher victory!
We stayed at the Sam's Town casino near the stadium (not on the strip), which made for a nice short drive after the game. This was our view from the room.
This was the view in the hotel atrium with the majestic waterfall and the entertaining animatronic animals.
Ryan was startled by the life-like cougar
We found the sign!!!
The guys had to make a stop at the "Pawn Stars" store. It was smaller than we thought and seemed to have a lot more TV merchandise for sale than actual pawn items...
After doing some sight-seeing Friday, we headed to San Diego for the weekend.
Saturday was a beautiful day, so we decided to make it a beach day! The day was going great - laying in the sun, tossing the football in the surf - until tragedy struck!
Okay, not really, but I got stung by a stingray on my foot! I was just standing in the waves, minding my own business and a wave swept in and a felt a sharp poke on the side of my left foot. It started burning, so I hurried out of the water to see what it was. There were 2 little slits on my foot bleeding. I thought it was just stinging because of the salt water, but nobody was really sure what it was. I put some ice on it and elevated it and it started to feel a little better, but the stinging was travelling up my leg, so Aaron asked if he should go down to the lifeguard station and see if this might be something more serious. So he ran down there - it was about 1/4 or 1/2 mile away. When he described the wound to the lifeguard, he lept onto his 4-wheeler, started the flashing lights and asked Aaron to show him where I was. Aaron didn't get to ride on the 4-wheeler, he had to run back!
The lifeguard was all business, he called in the situation, he told me that it was definitely a stingray sting and that it's better to put heat on it to break down the venom protiens instead of ice, so he wrapped my foot with a heatpack and said a boat will be here for you soon. I'm like, what? A boat?? So this motor boat shows up with 2 more lifeguards and they take me to the main lifeguard station a few miles up the beach - Aaron came with, too. We went over a lot of waves and I thought I was going to throw up, but I held it together. I was greeted by another lifeguard with a wheelchair to take me over the sand to the station.
Then after all this, the amazing stingray sting treatment I got was putting my foot in a bucket of hot water. So for about 1 hour or so, I just soaked my foot in hot water to break down the venom. It was really very painful to take my foot out to refresh the hot water, but once it was in the water, it felt great. Everyone at the lifeguard station was very nice and they got me water to drink and they had a TV with cable that we got to watch while we waited.
Ryan and Sara went and got their car and met us at the station, so we headed back to their apartment once my foot was feeling better. So after the excitement, we took it easy the rest of the day.
Sunday, we went and saw the Midway aircraft carrier. It was pretty cool, but a lot of walking and a lot narrow stairways.
Inside the Midway
Aaron checking out the planes on the flightdeck
The "island"
Us on the Midway with Coronado bridge and island in the background
The rest of the weekend was lots of fro-yo, a meal at the legendary Albie's, a visit to the San Diego Mission, and some fishing on the pier.
Overall, it was a great, fun trip, and can't wait to go back!
