We received an invitation to Monique’s baby birthday party at their home in Vegas. Christine asked if we were interested in going, knowing that I love adding trips to our docket. I rushedly looked up flight options, points usage, comparing prices, and said yes. I don’t know why I was so rushed needlessly. Maybe I felt that if I didn’t book it quickly, prices would go up or points availability would run out. 

Booking and Airport Parking

Flights a month out of August 7 for a Friday-Saturday roundtrip to Vegas were quite expensive. Roundtrips were going for about $300 per person for FSC regular economy. We also had a very time window during which we wanted to fly, to maximize our 1-night stay. The birthday party would be on Saturday 11am and last through the afternoon. I booked a Friday 1pm LAX-LAS on United using $150 credits per person that I had put in the United Travel Bank three years ago, and a Saturday 7:30pm LAS-LAX on Delta with 7.5k Delta miles per person.

I found a Sixt 24-hour car rental for $50. And Home2 Suites Las Vegas Strip South for $150/night, which I covered with the Amex Delta Business Gold’s stay credits. Done and done.

During our 30+ trips last year, when the flight was out of LAX, we were always taking Uber to the airport. It was super expensive. Often it was $100 after tip. Once in March we tried taking the Metro (A Line -> C Line -> LAX Connector Shuttle) but the C line stations were uncomfortably cold at 5pm and the train would randomly get delayed. The day you are taking off on a 2-week trip is not when you want to get sick. Until today, I had assumed airport parking would be very expensive.

Then I found out that it isn’t. Through SpotHero, I can browse parking options near the airport, ranging from $20 to $40 per day. We reserved 48 hours at Embassy Suites South LAX Hotel for just $27. The most convenient parking spots are on Century Blvd, and the shuttles run there often (20 minutes or less). Places like Sonesta run every 30 minutes during peak time, and 1 hour during off-peak, but don’t run them between 11:30pm and 4:30am. There’s lots of options here though. Some parking lots would be reachable through Metros C and K line (which might be faster than waiting for a 1-hour shuttle). 

This was our first time trying out one of these parkings and it was pretty seamless. We got to the hotel at 10:45am, went to the underground parking, scanned SpotHero’s QR code in the gate barcode, went to the bathroom, and got on the shuttle in front of the hotel at 11am. We got to Terminal 7 at 11:15am and 10 minutes later we were walking past TSA Precheck security.

On our return, I got confused by their shuttle arrangements. In LAX parking, there’s the Century Blvd hotels and garages which usually cost almost double of off-Century Blvd ones. Century Blvd hotels and garages have frequent shuttle service 24/7, but off-Century the service is usually every hour and stops after midnight. I assumed the our off-Century hotel shuttle would arrive at LAX to pick up passengers at 10am. Actually, 10am is when the shuttle leaves the hotel, which gives us plenty of time to get picked up at the airport, although we have to call the hotel to let them know that we are at Terminal 2. I panicked and for a moment considered Uber for $30 or UberBlack for $45 (which would be faster than doing the awkward Uber shuttle). Instead, we took a hotel shuttle to one of the Century Blvd Hotels, and from there, called an Uber to Embassy Suites for $12.

Car Rental

To minimize costs, I booked a 24-hour rental window via Sixt from 3:30 PM Friday to 3:30 PM Saturday for just $50. However, with the 11:00 AM birthday party and a 7:30 PM return flight, returning the car at 3:30 PM would have truncated our schedule.

Initially, when I attempted to push the return time back prior to the trip, I received warnings about extra daily charges or forced vehicle upgrades. However, after picking up the car in Vegas, I was able to modify the return time in the app by one hour (to 4:30 PM, plus the standard 30-minute grace period allowing a 5:00 PM drop-off). This successfully generated a revised contract for us with no additional fees.

Skies in Las Vegas during this heatwave were gorgeous. We took some photos. While we were driving, we noticed some rain pour happening in the distance to the west under darker clouds.

Eating

On our way to LAX, we stopped by Myungdong Noodles at 9:40am, a Korean restaurant in K-town for a late breakfast. We were craving Kalguksu noodles and dumplings. The restaurant owner’s granma at first thought we were not Korean (as we were talking animatedly with each other in English), was glad that we were eating with enthusiasm, then learned that I was Korean, and started talking to Christine in Korean. The idea was to have a late brunch and skip lunch, although now that I think about it 9:40am isn’t exactly late. In any case we were fine waiting until 5pm for dinner. 

After landing in Vegas checking in to our hotel, we went to Lotus of Siam. We had visited last year and loved their deep fried garlic prawns. The prawns are artistically separated from the shell but still attached to the shell via its tail, and the whole thing is battered, deep fried, and sauced. The thin shell becomes a delicious umami chip. We ordered garlic prawns, Mee Krob, and Moo Yang. The garlic prawns were still very good, although slightly more moist than last time. 

The Mee Krob is a deep fried vermicelli with orange chops mixed in a sauce that tastes like orange chicken. The waiter warned us, “it’s sweet dish, will you be okay?”. We confidently said that no amount of sweetness was too much for us, expecting Pad Thai’s sweetness. Turns out that this intense orange chicken was too much for us. We mixed it up with rice. Moo Yang is grilled marinated pork jowl. I made my own “bossam” of sorts, putting some leaves over my spoon, then a layer of rice, then Moo Yang, and topped with the Mee Krob. It was the perfect storm of flavors. Amazing. We were worried that we would be too full after three dishes, (I thought we could take leftovers to the hotel, as it has a fridge and microwave) but the portions were relatively small.

We went to Milk Cow for milk tea and icecream. This was in the same plaza as Cleaver, a steakhouse we had visited last year. Christine recognized the plaza immediately, but I couldn’t remember anything about Cleaver. It’s this dark fancy steakhouse that has painted portraits of celebrities as decoration in every wall, except the celebrities are dressed as 19th century military officers. We got the pistachio & chocolate swirl icecream. The final product didn’t quite look as pictured. We got an additional cup of just pistachio and chocolate to add to the cream. We ate some there and took it to the hotel. But most of it melted during our 15 minute drive. 

For Saturday breakfast, we considered going out to eat something nice, but at the end decided to get the hotel’s breakfast. It was slightly better than the Home2 Suites in Carlsbad. This one had a somewhat fried egg instead of the usual scrambled rubbery mess, and their ham was better than the usual soggy sausage patty.

We had Saturday dinner at The Club LAS in T1 Concourse D. Reviews had shown the buffet options to be terrible and that there were some items available to order, but it looks like they got rid of the order system and expanded the buffet. It was okay. They had chicken sliders, elote grilled corn cob, a soup, a salad bar, basic desserts, and a coffee machine.

Hotel Pool

The 115 F heat wave was pretty hot, but with the dry air it was pretty passable in the shade. We ate the Milk Cow icecream in the hotel room watching another episode of Shrinking. Then we went to the hotel’s pool. It was empty. I did a lot of physical activity in the pool – some push ups, carrying Christine around, jumping up and down and using the water’s waves as propulsion. This was great because I had been very inactive this past year. Usually, I can’t cause this much ruckus because we don’t make the water splash out to respect the house or guests, but this time there were not guests.

The pool had a clever shelf-style seating space carved out. This was a great design idea and much more functional than those stylish half-submerged chairs. Christine sat there and read a book.

After all the jumping, I realized that my state ID and hotel keys had fallen from my swimsuit pockets to the bottom of the pool. Christine bravely dove down and rescued the cards. She had to do it with eyes closed because she’s wearing her contacts. I guided her to the last card by touching it with my foot. Christine followed the leg.

After an hour, a group of three preteen girls and their mother joined us. The girls were very social. They told stories, did flips in the water, sang baby shark. They come from Idaho and have 10 siblings. Their older brother (not present) is mean and when they get in the pool together he tries to drown the sisters as a prank. The mother looked like 35 at most. Are they mormons.. or maybe a cult?

Other than these three, we didn’t see any other guests in the pool during our three hours there. The rooms were also mostly dark. Do they have low bookings? Or maybe all the guests are out on the strip.

The design language of the Home2 Suites brand is very much like those expensive apartments in downtown LA. It has a BBQ grill area, Gen Z incandescent light bulb lit eating area, a pool with a very modern and chic (bright neon green and purple color set for the recliners and stands!) look but cheap furniture.

Birthday Party

We celebrated the birthday at their home. Their backyard is quite jam-packed with amenities like a pool, hot tub, pagoda. They added some more tables and chairs for the 20 guests that joined. We spent most of the time in the pool and at one point I fell asleep on the floatie. It was hot and the sun was burning the air but there was shade everywhere and the pool had an extendable canopy setup.

People brought all kinds of gifts and we held a quick gifts unpacking event. Cassen was mostly uninterested in the many boxes that the adults seemed to be cheering about. Until one person opened a sensory board and spun a fidget spinner. Cassen immediately got interested and kept spinning it until all the other gifts were unwrapped. He showed no interest in anything else.

Christine held Cassen a few times, and at one point she found a drizzle of liquid by their chest. Turns out Cassen peed on her while being held. She’s now got to keep this story until his wedding day and then spill the beans.

Flights

Once we boarded, the captain announced a 30-minute ground hold due to heavy air traffic at the Las Vegas airport. Our flight, originally scheduled for 1:20 PM, did not take off until 2:00 PM. During our wait on the tarmac, the cabin air conditioning was barely functioning.

The LAX-LAS flight was super bumpy. The extreme temperature differential between the rising hot air from the desert floor and the cooler air at altitude caused violent, multidirectional shaking. At one point, the aircraft was descending but with its nose pointing up. I had never seen that before. The captain also told us that the airport had notified them to wait until the traffic cleared – maybe the airplane was getting ready to land but had to ascend back? It was very shaky and we happened to be looking at our screens that time and we felt sick. Apparently with climate change this is only getting worse and we will continue to see more and more violent and unpredictable turbulence in flights.

Our return flight was not eventful other than getting delayed multiple times until it left at 8:30pm instead of the original 7:30pm. I remember one the flight attendants had a very strong “S” sound when saying “headsets”. So when they were handing out headsets, I could her her say “headsetSSSSS?” “headsetSSSSS?”. After she walked a couple rows away, all I could hear was the rhythmical “SSSSS”, “SSSSS”, “SSSSS”.

Costs

This was a simple trip using mostly statement credits. We used $290 + 15k Delta miles, with the Delta miles covering $220 in flight fares.

• $300 LAX-LAS United
• -$300 Amex Plat Airline Credits (saved from 2024)
• $10 + 15k LAS-LAX Delta
• $150 Las Vegas Home2 Suites Strip South 1 night
• -$150 Delta Business Gold Hotel Credit
• $40 LAX Parking 2n + Uber to Parking Hotel
• $150 Food
• $30 Birthday Gift
• $60 Car Rental 25h + Gas