Sin City: Kids Edition

Never in my life would I think to take the kids to Las Vegas.  And more importantly, never in my life would I think I could convince Martin to go back to Las Vegas after our trip over a decade ago. Our original plan was to fly into Vegas Sunday morning and head straight to IndieCampers to pick up our van.  However flights were $500 more expensive on Sunday morning so we ended up flying down Saturday evening. I leveraged hotel points to get a free night’s stay at the Rio, so it felt like it would save us some money, I am not sure if we ended up making or losing money on the deal, but given it is Vegas, I am guessing we lost.  

We landed in Vegas at 7:30 so we didn’t get to the hotel and into bed until much later than a normal night for us.  And with both kids being wired from both the flight and the lights, noise and general “vegasness” of Vegas, we opted to watch a bit of TV while laying in bed before attempting to sleep (something we never do at home). 

We woke up Sunday morning with no plans other than the complimentary breakfast and a 2pm van pick up.  With the pool closed until 11am, and with Martin’s aversion to Las Vegas, I figured we would hunker down in the room for the morning and possibly watch a movie.  It would avoid the overstimulation of Vegas but offset the anticipated drought of man-made stimulation to come.  So imagine my surprise when Martin suggested we head to the Strip for a few hours to explore and introduce the kids to Las Vegas. 

 

We did everything we could for a G-rated version of Vegas: one where there were no rules, the kids could do what they wanted and we could unintentionally walk nearly 5 miles in less than 3 hours.  We spent an hour in the Arcade at New York New York (Alva was too short for the rollercoaster), we ate ice cream before lunch from the Cosmopolitan, we checked out the flowers and water show at the Bellagio, we took a hot lap through Paris for a break from the heat and we wrapped up the tour with fancy drinks over lunch at Cabo Wabo.  

The walking was a good introduction for the hiking to come.  First stop, IndieCamper, to pick up our “home” for the next two weeks and then straight to Zion National Park!