Las Vegas, NEVEDA

May 28-29, 2010

FRIDAY - After 6 hours in the car we finally arrived in Las Vegas. We would have arrived sooner but we spent 1 ½ hours in near standstill traffic at the Arizona/Nevada border. We did enjoy seeing the Hoover Dam.

Our hotel is called the Golden Nugget (the kids call it the Golden Chicken Nugget). It is, like everything else in Las Vegas, huge, elaborate and gaudy. We felt out of place and a bit like the Griswalds in Vegas Vacation as we walked through the lobby with jaws wide open. Remember, we came straight from camping and hadn’t had a shower in 4 days. Ginny’s hair stuck up like Pippi Longstockings, Micah had no shoes, Joshua’s feet were black, Ryan had smudges on his face and Tyler’s shirt was torn and filthy (Jeff and I didn’t look so fresh either).

It was 7:00 by the time we checked in and we immediately headed to the pool (it closed at 8:00). The pool is awesome and the very reason Jeff chose this particular hotel. The final part of the three water story slide allows you to travel in a clear tube through a shark infested aquarium. The aquarium sits in the center of the pool so you feel as if you are swimming with these killers.

After we showed (the simple pleasures in life), we went to find food. As we stepped out of the hotel, we were immediately met with a million lights and people. Ryan said, “I don’t think I could ever get use to this.” Ginny commented, “I have never seen anything like this before!” We found a seafood buffet and discovered another benefit to Ginny being short. The waitress told us that 4 years and under were free. We told her that just one of our kids qualified. She looked at Ginny and said, “She looks 4.” We replied, “She’s 8.” The waitress said, “I’ll give her a free buffet since she looks 4 years old.” So we all ate fried shrimp, fresh shrimp, crab legs, sushi, etc till we were stuffed. My husband ate his weight in crab legs!
When I told the kids that there are 10 times as many weddings here in Nevada than any other state Ryan said, “Why would anyone want to get married in a place called Sin City?” Joshua said, “Now I know why they call this place Sin City….because everyone is smoking.” While out, Micah pointed to a man and laughed, saying, “Look! That guy has a candle in his mouth!” (It was a cigarette.)
We got back to the hotel at 11:00 and everyone crashed. It was good to be in a bed.


SATURDAY – We started our morning with donuts. When Micah saw the Dunkin Donuts sign he got real excited and exclaimed, “Hey! It’s like Donut Day!” (We do donuts once a week as a family). The rest of the morning we went swimming in the Shark Tank and then in the afternoon we walked (and walked…and walked….and walked) the Las Vegas strip. We went in New York New York, Excalibur, MGM (kids loved the mechanical animals in the Rain Forest Café), the Luxor, and Circus Circus. We spent the most time in Circus Circus watching the various shows (we all agreed that the juggler on stilts was the best), playing carnival games, and at Adventure Land. In Adventure Land, Ryan and Jeff rode a big roller coaster, Tyler and Micah soared on an airplane ride and Ginny and Joshua spun forwards and backwards on a disc ride.
By 7:00 we were exhausted and hungry so we headed back to the same buffet as the night before. It turned out to be another late night for us all and another night where we fell into bed exhausted.