Las Vegas has been one of those places I have been to before, but have not experienced in all its fullness. The first, being with my boss on a trade show, and the second, with my mom watching a Barry Manilow concert. Both wonderful and memorable trips, but not exactly an indulgence in sin city.
Third time's a charm? Not really. This time, I went to a musical theater competition and had the kids in tow. But I will say that going with them let me explore Vegas with a whole new perspective and game plan, which was surprisingly nice.
We drove up a day early to really explore the strip. I didn't know what to expect from the kids, wondering if they would think it was boring or interesting. You never can tell, depending on their hormones and moods that day. Luckily, the hormone gods were on my side, and everyone was pleasant and enjoying the day.
We started off at the Luxor, immediately introducing them to the wonderful world of inside smoke and casinos. As we made our way to Excalibur, where we were greeted by a virtual manual ride operator, who offered us $5 instead of $20 for the kids to take a ride. I bit, and the kids loved every second of it. Apparently they were flying on some kind of dragon in a magic land. It was a great start to the day, which I think helped to also stage the mood for the day. We then carried on to check out the outsides of a few more hotels before reaching M&M World.
Now, who wouldn't love M&M world? It's full of every color variation of M&M you can think of, a rainbow of merchandise and a free 3D movie to enjoy! Another big hit with these two. We then went along the strip to look at the outsides of the different hotels before deciding to go inside the Venetian to grab our buy one, get one free gelato! Creme brulee gelato?!?!? Yes, please!!
We then decided on the spur of the moment to splurge on one of their famous indoor gondola rides. What a cool experience! I never did get to go on one in the real Venice, so it was really neat to share this first time experience with the kiddos as we were guided through the beautiful hotel interior reflecting the best of outdoor Venice while being sung to by the gondolier. He had us at Bella Notte (Lady and the Tramp). It was also perfect timing, as our feet were starting to hurt from all the walking.
From there, it was a few more free shows and hotels to check out before deciding to grab a monorail to spare our feet a bit and get us to Circus, Circus for what I expected to be a fun adventure and great buffet. Holy hell, was I wrong! Not only did it feel like I stepped off the monorail into a seedy part of the strip, but the rundown hotel and lower than sub-par food we ate was beyond disappointing. We all agreed there'd be no need to revisit there ever again! Lesson learned, as I navigated through the dark with tired kids and aching feet to get us back to our car on the complete opposite end of the strip.
It took us quite a while to get there, but we were washed with relief the second we were able to sit into the "luxury" of soft car seats. Ahhhh....and then finally back to our hotel to crash for the night. But even though the end of the night was a bit rough, the rest of the day was wonderful, and we all enjoyed our little taste of Vegas. The rest of the trip was focused on the competition, which was actually a nice experience itself. It was special to watch all of these kids who worked so very hard bring their acts to life, and to earn recognition for their talents.
It ended up being a very long, LONG, tiring weekend, juggling two kids with diverse interests, figuring out how to do makeup and costumes for competition, waiting until ungodly hours for an award ceremony to end, and fighting back against the burning sensation of smoke caught within my contacts. Since I was in a casino, I did get to gamble a little, in between getting yelled at by security because I kept trying to sneak in games with the kid next to me (oops haha), and ended losing it all anyway to some greedy Oompa Loompas who couldn't give me just one more bonus round. I know as they took my last cent they were singing a song about me in there...
But, it was also a very rewarding experience, seeing the pure joy of my daughter and her friends doing what they love. And we did enjoy a "buffet redemption" at the hotel itself, which made my son happy--that, and the fact that he was able to stay up in the room watching a full game of basketball without me or his sister forcing him to turn it off for once. With successful performances under our belt, and an enjoyable weekend in a new place for the kids (one that was a bucket list place to visit for my son!), we ended our journey with a stop at their favorite rest-stop restaurant, Cracker Barrel, before getting home at a decent hour to snuggle in to our own warm, smoke-free beds.
It's a place we will definitely visit again together, as there is more to explore (like a Hershey World store and night shows), more buffets to taste, and more slot machines to sneak away to play on. Who knew Las Vegas could be a paradise for all ages?
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