— छह हजार एक सौ पंद्रह —
What a great time to be going to the movies! The year so far has been fair for movie-going, but until just a couple of weeks ago I still had no solid-A movies. Now I have two, and last night I saw what I think right now would be my #3 movie of the year:
Wildwood, which was a truly spectacular stop-motion animated feature that blew me away to such an extent that I am eager to see it again.
This took up most of my evening: I saw a 4:20 showing at Pacific Place, leaving work a bit early to get over there; and the run time is a surprisingly long 2 hours and 10 minutes—which just zip by, the movie moves at such a zippy pace (sometimes too fast, honestly). I walked home and spent about an hour writing the review, and was posting the link at 8:38.
— छह हजार एक सौ पंद्रह —
— छह हजार एक सौ पंद्रह —
But! Then I spent the rest of the evening texting with Tracy as we went about finalizing our trip plans in January. We had been talking about going to Austin, but then I tentatively broached the idea of Las Vegas, as by January it will be a record five years and two months since my last trip there, and I've been eager to go back. Shobhit isn't interested in Vegas right now anyway (mostly due to his resentment toward Nevada going to President Fuckwit), and I was concerned Tracy might not want to go there as I believe she's been back even since we were both there over Halloween weekend in 2021—but, her response was:
I love Vegas... And that settled it!
The idea had come to me because I got an Expedia email listing super cheap flight deals, and one was $170 to Las Vegas. Well, I waited to long to get that specific deal, but I still booked flights last night that worked out to about $230 each—still a good $100+ cheaper than flights were to Austin. I got flights even that cheap by switching the dates I searched: instead of three nights between a Friday and Monday, I switched to Saturday through Tuesday (January 9-12). That made a significant difference.
It also made a significant difference in hotel rates, which I booked on Hotels.com this morning. I found wildly varying hotel rates, but multiple hotesl with a nightly rate of $11! Now, with taxes and fees that came to about $70 per night, and in the end I also went with a slightly higher-grade room. But, after much discussion, we settled on The Flamingo, which neither of us has ever stayed at, and is very centrally located between all the places we want to go this trip (including the Sphere; Meow Wolf's "Omega Mart" immersive art exhibit; and the perrennial visit to the Bellagio Botanical Gardens).
I didn't mean to do this, but I wound up applyinh the $73 in "OneKey Cash" I had available at Hotels.com. I had wanted to save that for a later trip with Shobhit, but when I was
not applying it, I was being forced to spend roughly that amount at the time of booking, and then the balance at the property. I wanted to pay the entire thing at the property, and applying the OneKey Cash allowed me to do that. This gave us both an even bigger discount, though, which means that in the end these three nights at a hotel (we are sharing the room) will cost us both only about $85. An incredible deal, the very aged state of the Flamingo notwithstanding.
I was totally willing to go with higher rates (but still below $100 a night) at other, newer hotels. But Tracy was all about "old school Vegas," which The Flamingo definitely is. I'm sure it will be fine. But, I did choose a slightly higher rate for apparently nicer rooms there. And then still used the OneKey Cash to get an incredible deal on three nights in Vegas for us both.
I've booked both flights and hotel now, and either spent or committed us each to all of $315 for travel
and three nights' lodging. When Shobhit and I went to Vegas in 2021, we managed airfare for $233.60, and that was for both of us so about half what I'm spending now—but, we splurged on one night at Harrah's after the two nights Sachin got us at The Venetian for only the hotel fee per night. That one night at Harrah's alone was $256.29. Our per-person cost for travel and lodging in 2021 was thus about $307, so very comparable. But, five years ago! $307 in 2021 is actually equivalent to $395 today, so I'm still coming out comparatively ahead.
I'm just super excited that this is going forward, and that's going to be Las Vegas. I now have another trip to look forward to only two and a half months from now. We're going to have a great time!
— छह हजार एक सौ पंद्रह —
[posted 12:34pm]
