Thursday 17 January 2013

Late Night Caching In Vegas

Layout details - altered sticker cluster - Jimjams 
Back in March 2012 I was visiting Las Vegas with some girlfriends and we certainly saw plenty of sights.  However there was sight that I did not see: the Bellagio Fountains from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

"So what?" I hear you ask.
Well, the thing was, I needed to photograph the fountains from the top of the Eiffel Tower in order to claim another of the virtual geocaches in the city.   Jacqui agreed to keep me company after our visit to see Penn & Teller (awesome show ... truly magical, highly recommended), while the rest of our group took a separate taxi back to the hotel.

Late night traffic was heavy and it was a slow drive to the Paris Hotel but there was no queue at the ticket desk to ascend the tower lift.  A cheesy souvenir photographer delayed our arrival at the base of the tower where there was a short wait for the tiny lift, guarded by a wonderfully knowledgeable pensioner in red jacket with gold epaulettes.  Only she would not let us into the lift!  No!  Some "priority" guests came up a private stair-case and were allowed to go first!  Right in front of us!

We Brits know how to queue; we delight in queueing; we don't like queue jumpers! However we Brits aren't that great at complaining, so we just stood there and rolled our eyes.  That'll teach 'em!!

We finally squashed into the lift and made our way towards the top.  We caught glimpses of the illuminated  fountains through the girders when suddenly we heard loud bangs ... gunshots? ... cannons? ... fireworks?  Our lift operator cheerfully informed us that this signalled the last fountain show of the evening, it now being midnight!  What?  How could that be?  Midnight isn't late?

Layout - Sight Unseen - Jimjams

We had a wonderful view of the fountains, duly photographed to claim the geocache, but they weren't actually spraying any water!!!

My page is based on this month's sketch over at Sketchbook365 and the remnants of my November Counterfeit Kit match the colours from UKScrappers' Simple Recipes challenge this month.

19 comments:

glorygirl said...

What a great story and a fun memory!!!! Love the colors you used here and how you told the story! Someone on my blog commented about printing the blog post to attach to the back of the layout. Maybe you'll want to do that with this story!

MiliPea Designs said...

Love pages like this that have such a great story behind them! That pop of yellow looks smashing on your page!

Mary B said...

s'not fair b***y queue jumper lol

Dawn said...

Saw this page in the making, love all the little details especially the pinked circle! Love the story too, hopefully you'll get the chance to return one day!

helena said...

great story and page. I hadn't heard of virtual geocaching before - off to google. would love to hear more about your geocaching experience, tips for taking part etc

alexa said...

Super story and loved the eye-rolling :). Your page really captures the vividness of the colour against the night sky.

Missus Wookie said...

Oooooh the cheek of the cheesey photographer and the queue jumpers. But yeah, weird that the fountains closed down at midnight...

I like the brightness of these colours against the dark cardstock.

Lesley G said...

Great story-I would've complained :)
Great LO combining both challenges ;)
Why don't you come up on GoogleReader?

K said...

How RUDE! Thank goodness you rolled your eyes. AT least you have what's probably a fairly unique photo, & can say you were IN the eiffel tower as the clock struck midnight.

Sian said...

What Mary said!

Still, you've turned a good tale from it, and made a fab page, so that's good :)

Beverly said...

I LOVE the grey and yellow and the layout, so glad you got that marked off the geocaching list ;) Here in the States many places allow you to pay a premium to not have to wait in the regular line. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not. Even our city's First Night event last year offered it for the skywatching/stargazing on the rooftop of the museum. We didn't want to pay the difference but I had to go sit while the boys held our place in line that moved verrryyy slowly. Think of it as the Express Pass at Disney World/Land.

Alison said...

Love the yellow and grey together! Shame about the fountains being off, but great shots!
Alison xx

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

I would never had suspected they stop at midnight, but I suppose it's because it would disturb the guests with rooms on that side.

Vegas & Atlantic city are big on giving people 'priority' status. It just means they forked over more money for their tickets or they gamble a lot of money at their tables. Personally i'd rather wait a bit & save some money. :)

Great looking layouts!

Unknown said...

I love the play with the title :-) I don't like line-jumpers either! Grey and Yellow is such a lovely colour combo and I am not even a fan of yellow! I fell in love with the combo when Teresa Collins did a range using it. A lovely layout with a great story.

Susanne said...

Great pictures and layout, Jemma. But honestly, what made you think that seeing a "Paris attraction" in the States would comply with British queuing protocol! LOL!

Melissa said...

Great layout - your neutral background & spots of yellow really showcase the photos.

I have to agree that "Brits know how to queue" - I was amazed when we visited the UK how nicely everyone lined up everywhere! The Russians were a different story altogether.

Jennifer Grace said...

How annoying that they jumped the queue! We got very annoyed in Disneyland Paris when French children kept ducking the barriers to jump the queues - we did holler at some of them, but all we got for that was a cheeky grin from them!

Great layout, I love the notepaper punching along the top and bottom of your photos. x

Sandie said...

That's a great story and what a fun time with girlfriends. Love the idea of a photo challenge while you were there.
On our visit we stayed in the Bellagio and had a room overlooking the fountains. It was an amazing sight - sorry to hear VIP queue jumped and made you miss your viewing and photo shot!

Morag Cutts said...

Great story. You were far more polite than I would have been. TFS your fabulous layout.