Weekend in Vegas: Day 1

So this has been a really, really hard winter.  The weather hasn't been THAT awful until the 2014 part of this winter, when we've had some fairly decent snow by Virginia standards.  The threats of bad weather have been enough to shut school down, Leah hasn't been in a decent routine in ages, I've been busy trying to get my ducks in a row for summer, and school started again.  It's been exhausting and overwhelming.  The more I try to settle down and clear my calendar, the more things seem to come up.  For instance, the pre-school Valentine's Day party got canceled on account of snow, pushing it to a day where I already had 3 other things going on, none of which were able to be canceled, because they'd been put off long enough.  It's just been that kind of year.  There are times in my life when it's very quiet and sedate.  This just isn't one of them.

But I have come to realize that a lot of the busy-ness has been a coping mechanism for not having to deal with Mike's death.  So I've been forcing myself to sit down with some of those feelings and let them out.  Between that and the crap going on with my family, as well as some health issues, it's just been a very, very trying winter.  So I knew even though it was a coping mechanism yet again, it was time to get out of Dodge for a while.  I had two criteria: warm and cheap.  So it was that I decided on Las Vegas, and happily I was able to get a great deal on flights and a hotel for me and Leah.

Mike and I went to Las Vegas for our 5th wedding anniversary.  I was so, so, so excited for that trip, I remember typing out a huge itinerary, having it planned to the Nth degree without having any real knowledge of how big those casinos were, and what guiding Mike through that craziness would actually be about.  We booked a couple of tours as well as 2 concerts, so when all was said and done, I hadn't seen much of the Strip itself.  I always wanted to go back, but Mike didn't like it there all that much and had no desire to go.  So even though I've had it in my blood to do it, I haven't had the opportunity.  Till now.

Friday turned out to be a teacher work day at Leah's school and so I booked us to leave Thursday afternoon.  Richmond Airport is the greatest airport in the world.  We got there only an hour before our flight left, but we were at the gate within minutes and had plenty of time to spare.  Leah was excited about the trip--I had let her choose the hotel and she chose Excalibur because she wanted to live in a castle like a princess.  Our flights were uneventful, although we did fly over the Hoover Dam on our way out there, which was pretty awesome.  I was glad to be on that side of the plane--my luck is usually just the opposite!!!  I have now walked across it, ridden across it, and launched from a boat at the base of it, as well as flown over it.  I don't think I can do much more other than slide down it at this point.

I do have to say that American Airlines/USAir's merge isn't doing much for the consumer.  On a 5 hour flight, you get nothing other than 2 beverages--if you want anything to eat, you have to pay for it.  Not even a lousy sack of pretzels.  I didn't know this going into it, and being that we were on East Coast time and well past supper, Leah was hungry and getting worked up, so I did have to buy her a meal.  Additionally, for some reason, their system had Leah sitting elsewhere in the plane than me, so I had to change our seats.  I couldn't imagine that!  I had even requested seats together when I made the reservations.  On the plus side, they called for volunteers to check their carry on bags, so I happily did that so I only had to contend with the stroller and my backpack between planes.

Getting off in Las Vegas, it was a snap to get transportation to the hotel--we used Showtime Tours and got a round trip voucher to Excalibur and back, for 2, for $27.  A guy on the plane warned us that cab drivers often give you the roundabout to jack up their fares, and I can see why given that the airport is quite close to the Strip, so they probably don't make much money off airport fares.  Still, I was happy with the shuttle and it got us to the hotel in good time.

Once we made it to Excalibur, we definitely were in for a hike to find the registration desk.  Then we had another hike to go to our room.  Leah was thrilled with our view, as we did overlook the castle and had  a lovely glimpse of The Strip.  And then as soon as we did that, Leah was hungry and wanted dinner, so it was another hike to find dinner.  By the time we ate and got back, it was after 10 East Coast time, but only 7 Las Vegas time.  I wanted to stay up for a while, but honestly I was exhausted.  So we both crashed on East Coast time, and woke up at 4AM Nevada time, and that was definitely NOT cool.  Trying to keep Leah QUIET in a hotel for 3 or 4 hours till we could reasonably get up and go get breakfast and start our day at 9:00 when things got moving was quite a chore.  The only thing to do in Vegas at that hour is gamble and she's not permitted to do so, nor am I permitted to let her watch while I do so.  We tried the TV, but there was nothing kid-friendly on, and the internet access in the room was wired only so I couldn't hook up my iPad and let her watch Netflix.  It was intensely frustrating.

Finally around 6:30, we went to breakfast--Krispy Kreme and Starbucks.  I had made a list of "must do" activities that we had paid for tickets for, and then a list of 'suggested' activities that we COULD do if we had the time and inclination.  By 8AM, Leah was ready for action, so we struck out in search of adventure.  I knew about the tram that ran from MGM Grand (across the street from Excalibur) all the way up to the north end of the Strip near Circus Circus, and so I decided we should do that until we got our bearings.  First we got to cross the pedestrian bridge to New York New York, which Leah was thrilled with, given her present obsession with New York City.  She REALLY wanted to ride the roller coaster that threads through the facade, but I am not a roller coaster person by any stretch of the imagination, so my answer to that was "Hell no."  Still, she was happy to see a fake NYC, but got reassurances that we would still go see the real one sometime.

After that, we walked through MGM Grand and found the Pearls of Hawaii stand.  They are in all the casinos, but this was the first one we saw.  As you know, when I buy a souvenir of a place, I cross the following possibilities off my list:  T-shirts, stuffed animals, mugs, shot glasses, keychains, spoons, and other 'crap' as defined by 'stuff you can buy at the airport'.  So Leah was really taken with the idea of choosing an oyster to open and for 14.95, it seemed quite the bargain.  So I agreed she could do it.  She picked an oyster and she and Miss Isabelle did a little opening ceremony to convince the oyster to die with dignity.  She got a beautiful little pearl, and I agreed that she could have a charm and a necklace to put it on if that was going to be her Las Vegas souvenir.  So she said yes, that was what she wanted.  And as we were being rung up, SURPRISE!  We had spent enough money that we got to open a second oyster!  (Translation, we hope that if we give you one, you'll buy even more stuff!)  So Leah opened a second oyster and got a second pearl.  We were told the first one was green and the second one was pink, but honestly I couldn't see much difference in the color of them.  Still, I managed to get through the hard sales pitch and just put my pearl in a baggie and off we went.  Leah LOVED her necklace, although she has already forgotten about it, so I'll put it away for her for a special occasion like her prom or her wedding or something like that.

By then we were finally near the monorail and hopped aboard.  We only went 1 stop--down to Bally's/Paris because I decided that since Leah's other favorite city is Paris, we should see both.  We went on in and I decided that since it was just opening, it would be a good time to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and see the Strip from up there, which is what we did.  The other thing with Las Vegas is that they take your picture nearly constantly when you are about to do things, so this marked the start of a massive pile of picture taking--none of which I bought because the mark up is HUGE.

The view was gorgeous, you could see out to the mountains, past the city limits.  It was great.  It was early and there were only 2 other people up there. But Leah said it was too cold, so we left after about 10 minutes up there.  Oh well!  Next we walked over to Caesar's Palace, as I thought it would be fun to see the living statues and there's some sort of battle on the hour every hour, but Leah thought it would be way more fun to pretend we were being chased by lava through the casino, so we just ran around screaming "Look out behind you, there's lava coming!"

By now it was lunchtime Nevada-time, and we were hungry and tired, so we took the monorail back to MGM and went to the Rainforest Cafe.  I was kind of pissed off because of the whole entire restaurant, they sat us on the very perimeter away from the majority of the animatronic animals--and I was like "Hello, I have a 4 year old here, this should be your core audience for being on the inside!"  So we spent lunch watching people come in and out the doors of the casino.  Yay. 

Afterwards, we went back to our room for a couple of hours.  It was only 1 o'clock, but we'd already been up and moving for quite a while and I was tired.  After a while, Leah got bored of the iPad and wanted to do something.  I had seen a free tram between Excalibur and Mandalay Bay and I knew there was a shark/aquarium attraction over there, so I suggested we go do that, and Leah thought it sounded like a great idea.  Again we hiked through Excalibur, took the relatively short tram ride, and then hiked all the way through Mandalay Bay to get to the shark reef.  One thing about casinos, besides the sheer size, is that you read the signs and head in a general direction, and you're positive you're going to get lost, but somehow you never do.  You can be walking 3 or 4 minutes without seeing a sign that you're on the right track, but you still wind up at your destination.  It's very odd, but nice.  We didn't get lost once.

Anyway, I was happy Leah was free because there wasn't a whole lot to see at this Shark Reef.  And Leah also, it turns out, doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of patience for waiting in line, and there was a family of 8 in front of us and they were sign readers.  And animal observers.  The attraction itself is beautiful to see, but if I'm being honest, I didn't notice too many sharks or very much reef.  There were a couple of underwater tunnels we could walk through, and there was a small touch tank with sting rays and horseshoe crabs, but unfortunately it was fairly deep and the wall around it quite tall, so Leah had a hard time touching anything.  She finally got a finger on a sting ray, and that made her giggle.  But kind of a bust.  It was good entertainment in a pinch, but nothing to necessarily write home about.

By now it was dinner time, and so we grabbed a quick bite, went up to the room to get the stroller because I knew it was going to be a late night and I didn't want to be carrying Leah home, and headed to the Monte Carlo to see Blue Man Group.  I've wanted to see them for quite a while, as I love shows like that--Stomp has always been a favorite and I've seen it a few times.  I knew that most of the shows on The Strip appeal to a more 'adult' audience, but BMG seemed like it would be great for Leah.  She was super intrigued by the blue faces.  As we were watching the show, the Blue Men went out into the audience and as the cameras panned and followed them around, I caught sight of Kody and Christine Brown, of Sister Wives fame.  And just as I thought, "Holy crap, that's Kody Brown!" the woman behind me said, "Oh my God, that's the guy from Sister Wives!" and the place erupted as everyone recognized them.  I felt a little bit bad for the Blue Men, but they put on such a show that it was quickly forgotten.  At the end, as we were coming up the aisle, I noticed a lot of people stopping to tell the Browns good luck, how much they loved the show, yadda yadda, so I got in line to do that too and before I knew it, it was just us and them in the auditorium.  So I started blabbering like an idiot and finally I asked if I could get a picture of them with Leah.  They hesitated but Kody said "Sure, why not?" I think if there had been other people around they would have declined, but it was awesome that we had the timing right.  An usher offered to get all of us, so there we are!  They got down with Leah and Christine asked her some questions and Leah talked to them like no one's business.  And then I thanked them and we left.  When we got out the door, a Blue Man walked right up to us and got right down with Leah, and Leah FREAKED.  I asked her if I could take a picture of her and the Blue Man and she was all, "HELL NO!"  So I said I would get in the picture with her, and she agreed to do it only if I held her, so I picked her up, gave the phone to another usher, who happily took a picture while the Blue Man eyed Leah, who gamely smiled.

By then it was most definitely bedtime.  I strapped Leah in her stroller and headed out.  Monte Carlo was only just past New York New York, so I walked it.  By the time I'd gone about 15 feet, Leah was snoring her head off.  She had collected a pile of streamers from the show (and I am not allowed to part with One. Single. Inch.), and she clutched them and fell asleep.

I was very fortunate that everyone in Las Vegas was so kind--people got elevators for us, opened doors, etc.  When we finally got to our room, I put Leah to bed, and then I just absolutely collapsed.  It was an amazing day, very, very full, and I knew we would both sleep well that night.  And I was right.  We didn't wake up till nearly 6AM.