Las Vegas
The day after Christmas we drove down in our brand new van to Las Vegas, NV! The main reason for going was because my sister Jill wanted to take her Aussie husband to see the city. Jeff and i used to frequent Las Vegas B.C. (before children) but since then we have not been. We like to gamble, and stay in the hotels. A trip to vegas with kids doesn’t sound fun, but we had Grandma and Grandpa to help watch them.
Earlier in the day, Mike took Vinny to Toro Park. Jill, Glenn, and Don went along too.
Cute photos, Thanks Jill!
The road trip took about 10 hours including stops/breaks and traffic. We left at about 1:45p and got there at around 12:15 midnight. Overall the kids did fine. Vincent just played on his iPad mostly and became obssessed with the game “Subway Surf” (he calls it big boy surf)
He even got Uncle Brad and Grandma Jerrie to play during the trip. Even if its a one person game.
We stayed at the Aria hotel, an ultra modern/contemporary hotel that i guess attracts the elite crowd. Lots of asian people and swanky women who hold Prada bags and travel with dogs. I felt a little out of place, but better this way then the other end of the spectrum. I like the way the hotel was designed.
Our room was nice, king bed and plenty of room for our stuff to spread out. I was reading reviews on the hotel before we arrived and they had no coffee maker! What! I dont drink coffee but i still find that absurd. You should have seen the line at the hotel Starbucks! Vincent did fine sleeping between us. He got to fall asleep to the iPad every night.
The first day we got there, Jeff had food poisoning from Wendys the night before. So i was stuck with the kids. I ordered room service for breakfast — $100 for a bagel and cream cheese, berries, waffles, orange juice and yogurt.
It was pretty darn tasty though, and a lot better than starving or venturing with both kids and only 1 stroller! The berries were delicious!
While Melanie napped i took Vincent walking around. We explored the hotel, rode the tram (Vincent saw the train on the night we arrived, all the way from out 28th floor) and the nearby “Crystals” shops.
They had giant christmas tree.
A cool light/water display.
And a nice red race car.
The thing he wanted to do most though was ride the escalator. At first i said no since i brought the stroller, But then i figured, why not, free entertainment. Parked the stroller, then went up and down… and up and down…. and up and… well you get it.
Selfie! See us?
Saturday night was the Britney concert. I went with my sister Susan and her friend Brad. We sat in the last row of the first section. Not bad seats at all. I enjoyed the show — it was put together very well, dancers were awesome and i was thoroughly entertained. I also read reviews on this concert and was prepared for Britney to lip-synch and only flail her arms, and barely connect with the audience except for a few “What’s up Vegas?” shoutouts. Pretty much reviews were spot on, but i did think Britney danced pretty well and did more than move her arms a bit. There were certainly a point at where i questioned if she was just tired or if she was supposed to not be dancing… but for the most part her dancing ability exceeded my expectations.
I gambled and didn’t lose any money! I pretty much broke even for the whole trip – about 3 days of gambling. I mostly played Roulette, video craps, and a few slot machines. I hate slot machines! I was down $100 my first night, was about to turn in for the night but texted Jill and Glenn and ended up gambling their money (they gave it to me!) and won my money back! Sweet! I think i took their beginners luck!
We took Vincent to Circus Circus to see the circus acts. We thought maybe they’d have animals, but nope. We also won the kids a few stuffed animals (Pikachu for Vin and a Hello Kitty for Mel.
It was a fun time with the whole crew! (Minus Melanie and Grandma who stayed at the hotel)
What else did we do? Oh, buffet. We had a breakfast/brunch buffet at the hotel. It was okay. Nothing too impressive. Lots of different foods. Didnt really get to eat dessert though because it was so early. Stole some fruit for my fruit boy for later. We also ate at the cafe several times. Food was pretty over-priced and nothing to write home about. Vincent had a lot of fun playing with his new car toys and sugar packets (making a road!).
We went to the Shark Reef. The line was sooo long! Ugh…
We bought the photos you take when you walk in! The aquarium was okay.
They had piranhas! And sharks of course. We have an awesome aquarium right here in Monterey so that is pretty tough to beat.
Vincent loved the tank shaped in a tunnel. He is is pretty obsessed with tunnels right now for some reason.
We met and had lunch with my aunty and uncle who used to live in Hawaii. They seem the same! The gave the kids gifts — Cars hat and build a truck toy for Vincent, and a musical monkey for Mel.
We went to the M&M store with 3 floors of junk. At the top floor was a race car!
We say the Bellagio water show.
Vincent was impressed. Melanie seemed to like it too! It was pretty cold outside.
We walked to Ceasar’s Palace afterward. It seemed so close, but took forever to walk there. By the time we got there the kids fell asleep. I remembered talking statues, but we were too lazy to find them at that point.
On our last day, we went to Childrens Discovery Museum. Perfect place for Vincent — he loved the balls and the water area. Couldn’t get him to leave.
We started our drive to LA after stopping for some lunch at Capriotti’s. The drive normally takes 4-5 hours but it took us 8 hours. Ugh… major traffic jam going over the mountains because of freaking SNOW. Doesn’t ever snow there, well — except when we travel through it. Then there was freak hurricane force winds while Vincent had a potty break at McDonalds! An adventure. My parents had already reached there hours before, despite only leaving 1 hour before us!