*Author’s Note: Hello! This is Sienna, from the future! I underestimated how much time I would have each day to write my journal entries in Las Vegas, however I did manage to take plenty of photos. I am backdating the Vegas entries but it’s worth making a note to say that I am writing each entry now that I’m back home in the UK.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, or whatever Shakespeare wrote. Nevertheless, it’s still true! Although our flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until two in the afternoon, I’ve always found it useful to arrive three hours ahead of departure to allow for check-in, TSA, and maybe a bite to eat. With that in mind, we decided to head out of the hotel around 11, which meant we had yet another early morning call time. We showered and finished packing before heading down to grab a quick breakfast and an iced coffee, then we went back up to the room to grab our bags and say goodbyes.

Once we had checked our bags and gotten our boarding passes, we found our way to the departure gates. On the way there, determined to use up the last physical dollars we had at the airport, I found a twenty-five cent slot machine. I slid a dollar into the machine, then Alex and I both held the lever and pulled. We won! I hit “cash out” straight away. With my $1.50 voucher in hand, we put one more dollar in the machine and played a total of five rounds (we won once but then lost that straight away; I was content with my $1.50 voucher). Satisfied with our success, we found the woman with the money and proudly handed her the voucher in exchange for a dollar bill and two quarters. After that, we went to a little gift shop and spent our winnings and the rest of our American cash on postcards and trinkets.

The airport was much more disorganised than I’m used to seeing in the UK, but it was a pretty painless process all things considered. We were both so tired from our trip I don’t think it really mattered what the world was going to throw at us. We bought some salads and then sat at our departure gate to eat before the flight. The first flight was to Phoenix, and then we would get the red eye to London. I’m surprised neither of our flights were delayed because so many of my friends had difficulties with their domestic flights out of Vegas! I think it was really windy and dusty at the time, too. Once we got on our last flight I felt like I could relax a little more and try to get some sleep.