You Can’t Get Lost - Day 14 and 15

 This is IT!  It’s the

BIG GAME!!!

And I could care less who wins.  I have a slight preference for one, but it is not great enough to put my enthusiasm into the positive side.  

I’m sitting in the stands across from where I sat all week in the top picture.   This is the seat that I paid for. It looked like ants running around on the floor.  I started to get a nose bleed and dizzy from being at that elevation, so I moved down to the lower circle.  It ended up I sat in the middle of one teams section.  I sat there the first half, then switched to the other side near the door so I could run out quickly and beat the car crunch from having only two exits from a huge parking lot.  In fact, I stood at the top of the stairs with a group of other people with similar ideas, and left with the buzzer still ringing in my hearing aids.  Boise beat San Diego 53-52.  It was actually an interesting game, with changing leads back and forth for the last five minutes.  Frazz put it really well.

 

One observation   They have this fancy Dan scoreoard, it shows stats, scores, quarters/halves, but it doesn't have a possession arrow.  The only possession arrow was the one on the officials table and it was only visible on the court side.  It doesn't seem like it should be that hard to put a little arrow next to the team names. 

The reason for wanting to leave so quickly was that niece Jaye and Lyndon were in Vegas with Lyndon's son Byron at the Tahiti Resort just south of the airport.  It was a quick weekend for them, and they had to leave the next morning, so I wanted to get there fast.  It was kismet that we got together, neither of us knew each others schedules.  It just worked out.  

In looking back, Bryon and I both agreed that probably the last time we saw each other was at Jaye and Lyndon's wedding in 1998.  He and his brother Lyndon had spent one or two Christmas's with us before that.  A lot has happened to Byron since then, probably the most important has been getting married to Rachel and having their two boys.  And (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=byron+talbott) and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqSq3sbbeqk) and, incredibly, 9 years ago, both Byron and Rachel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOeOFHC4WZg)

It was "big" Lyndon's birthday party with the requisite safety flares on chocolate cupcakes.  Of course, the grandkids had to help blow out the sparklers.  

Lyndon, Rachel, Bryon with their sons, Tyler, his girlfriend Elana, and Jaye.  

Later that evening, Lyndon, Byron and Rachel and Tyler and Elana took off to cruise "the strip."  Jaye and I stayed behind with the boys.  The resort they were at had an arcade and we went there.  The youngest and I did some track racing (though it was really more "off road" than track!) and Zombie Blasting.  

On Sunday (March 13) I went back over to Jaye and Lyndon's place.  Byron and Rachel had already left, but Ty and Elana were still there.  Tyler and Elana were going over to the Venetian hotel and Jaye and Lyndon will go over on Monday.  So, we all piled in to their SUV and drove up Las Vegas Boulevard to the Venetian which is on the north side of the Casino row.

Sally and I had walked around the hotel and the Canal area in 2012 when I attended a workshop there. Surprise, it is opulent inside, and the gondola's on the canal are quite the sight.  On the other hand, it is loud and lots (and lots) of people and I had had enough of that with the tournament, so, it was fun to see and just as fun to leave.  We had dinner that evening in their room, and as I left, we went up to the top of the resort to look over the city.  

The bright light under the tower on the right is the Thomas and Mack Arena 

where the Mountain West Tournament was held.

It was so good to see Byron and meet Rachel and the boys.  We said several times it would be fun to get them all together with Erik and Liz.  Maybe one day.  Saying goodbye to the rest of the family was not so bad, as I will see them in Albuquerque in a week and a half.  

Adios.

And my brother Mike informed me that UW Men made the NCAA and will be playing Indiana in Dayton, Ohio on March 16th.  And the UW Women will be playing in Laramie against Idaho State on March 17 in the NIT!  Go Pokes!!!