Las Vegas, NV
I’m off on a quick trip to Vegas for my Global Entry interview. As a 1K United offered to pay for my membership in America’s expedited customs entry program. The program also supposedly has domestic benefits but they are currently only available in limited US airports.
I left Eugene on the early flight to SFO and made it to Vegas at my scheduled arrival time of 10:40AM. My interview was scheduled for 12:40PM so I had two hours of time to kill. I spent the time looking out this lovely window towards The Strip in the United Club.
I wasn’t sure what to expect during the interview. Sometimes customs guys when returning to the States can be pretty gruff, so I was ready to be on my best behavior. It turns out I didn’t need to be. The guy asked me two serious questions. Why I travel and what I do for work. We spent the other 14 minutes of the 15 minute interview discussing football. Somewhere in the midst of our banter about the Ducks and Penn State he took my fingerprints. I’m now cleared to rush through security and customs checkpoints as I choose.
I was quite tired after this, since I was running on three hours sleep, but I still packed in a full day. I returned a shirt to Nordstroms, grabbed some food court lunch, thoroughly explored the Premium Outlet Mall, visited Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (home of Pawn Stars), explored Ross and still managed to make it to my hotel room that was one room from the end of the ginormous hallway without passing out.
This morning I was up early to enjoy a traditional Las Vegas breakfast buffet before heading back to the airport. I stayed at the Monte Carlo this trip because the room rate was a whopping $36. The hotel was totally fine. The only annoyance was that it is redoing its buffet restaurant, so the buffet was in one of the hotel’s conference rooms. I still decided to give it a go. My made to order omelet was tasty. It was also a good protein hit before I visited the dessert table. I only wish I had more conspirators for this meal, so I could have tried everything.
My return to the airport was uneventful. At the airport I had ten minutes to kill before boarding, so I decided to do my first gambling of the trip. My dad gave me $5 to play for him. Walking toward my gate I spotted a Star Wars slot and decided I should play it. On my fourth pull I won 15 times my money! The only down side was that my bet was 10 cents. Regardless I cut my losses there. My dad is now the proud owner of $6.15.
When I arrived at my gate for my flight to SFO, the agent announced it was delayed. I spent the next two hours killing time in the United Club. Upon landing in San Fran I ran to try and catch my delayed Eugene flight. Currently many Eugene flights at SFO are running out of terminal one, which means you have to take a bus to get there. Unfortunately that was the case today. As the bus pulled up I could see that my flight was still there and they were still loading bags. I ran upstairs only to see the agent closing the jetway door. I’ve now had two more Eugene flights cancelled and am going on my fifth hour sitting in San Francisco. My fingers are crossed the last flight of the night will go and I will get to sleep in my own bed tonight. If not, I may just stay in SFO until Tuesday when I’m off to Asia!
Until then,
Katy
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