Item

Las Vegas Wedding April 2023

Title (Dublin Core)

Las Vegas Wedding April 2023

Disclaimer (Dublin Core)

DISCLAIMER: This item may have been submitted in response to a school assignment prompt. See Linked Data.

Description (Dublin Core)

The weekend of April 15, 2023, I flew to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the wedding of one of my best friends from college, Anthony Dramisino and his soon to be wife, Amy Menegay. I realized I was attending my first post-Covid wedding after the government lifted CDC recommendations and restrictions. I flew United Airlines in economy that Friday afternoon and touched down around eight in the evening due to the time zone difference from Washington DC. The airline did not force us to wear masks but recommended we do so due to confinement in a small space with a lot of people. Other than the presence of a lot more hand sanitizer stations around the airport, Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas bustled with the activity of people enjoying Las Vegas to its fullest. The first thing I saw when I deplaned was a group of slot machines. I ubered to the hotel, the Flamingo Resort, a Las Vegas icon since the mob sponsored its initial construction in the 1940s. Renovated in the 1990s, it stood as one of the oldest still running hotels in the city and this is where the wedding party reserved a venue for the ceremony. Overall, one could not tell there was ever a pandemic by how the hotels and casinos functioned. People strolled in and out of the building at all hours and the Strip pulsed with noise, lights, and activity. I met up with the wedding party and we stayed up till 3 in the morning on the casino floor socializing unimpeded. The next day, I got lunch with Anthony and some of the wedding party. We went to a Yard House restaurant on the Strip. Like many restaurants, it converted to a QR code menu or optional touch pad ordering system. The server still took our drink order and brought out the food. I had a steak frite bowl over quinoa to steel myself for the wedding day. The ceremony took place in a private outdoor garden grotto that somehow blocked out the noise from the surrounding resort. The moment stood out as strange but beautiful as an Elvis impersonator married my two good friends to each other. Afterwards, the reception dinner lasted well into the night. The balcony at the Caesar's Palace stood isolated from everyone, but overlooked the Vegas Strip glowering in its nightly desert beauty. The venue let us stick around well past the end of the reservation. I went back to my hotel room at midnight to pack for my six am flight back to Washington DC. I took a picture of the new massive globe telescreen built during the pandemic. It danced in a complex light show at night, but apparently it can play full videos as well. I would say my first major post COVID trip was a rousing success and an excellent first time experience in Las Vegas. I would definitely go back again.

Date (Dublin Core)

April 15, 2023

Creator (Dublin Core)

Adam Craddock

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Adam Craddock

Event Identifier (Dublin Core)

HST643

Partner (Dublin Core)

Arizona State University

Type (Dublin Core)

photograph
text story

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Biography
English Travel
English Events
English Food & Drink

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

wedding
Las Vegas
post-COVID
United Airlines
Harry Reid International Airport
Flamingo Resort
casino

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

Arizona State University
HST643
Fall B Session 2024
History of Tourism
travel story
first time in Vegas

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

10/31/2024

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

11/04/2024

Date Created (Dublin Core)

04/15/2023

Item sets

This item was submitted on October 31, 2024 by Adam Craddock using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

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