We arrived in Vegas around 4pm on Tuesday. It was a beautiful drive from The Grand Canyon. We picked up our rental car, which took much longer than normal. The rental guy wanted to chat about The Edwards, southern cooking and cruises instead of just getting us our car. We also needed to get the oil changed in the RV so I set up a place to drop it off to be serviced while we were in Vegas. This worked out well because we did not have to figure out where to store the RV while we stayed at our resort for two days. The RV dealer service guy and I were on a first name basis. :) He stayed on the phone with me as we travelled from the car rental to the dealer. I was driving the RV through the streets of Vegas. Matt said I only almost hit one car. :) Actually, it is pretty easy to drive and the car almost ran into me...I really did not see it at all. Of course, when we got the call about the RV, they said we also needed a fuel filter. Here we are, rented RV, across the country, could we really say no?? So, $243.00 later, we have oil, new filters and LP gas.
We made the switch from the RV to the rental car pretty quickly. We had TONS of clothes to wash so it was great timing for a resort stay. When we arrived at the resort, we all took showers...it was so nice to take a shower in a real bathroom!! I think I took the longest shower ever!! We got ready and hit Las Vegas Blvd. We rented a 300 so it was hard to see out the windows since they are so short. Luckily we have a convertible in LA!! We drove down the strip trying to point out everything to the kids as we went along. Poor things, they could not turn their heads fast enough. One of Megan's friends used to live in Vegas so we asked him to recommend a good restaurant for dinner. We went to Maggianio's and it was PERFECT Italian. Everything was delicious and we were sooo full that we did not even eat everything. We spent some time walking around the hotels and waited for the 10pm Treasure Island show. We were walking zombies by then. Of course, being a Vegas show, it was all about female and male pirates, half dressed, battling each other. We were on the female side...which was great for the guys, but Meg and I would have preferred to be on the male side of the show. :) Megan was not impressed with the butts and boobs at all. I don't think we will ever have to worry about her running off to Vegas to work. Brett and Zach on the other hand......just kidding. We went back to the resort and crashed. Luckily we had a two bedroom condo, so we not only had enough beds for everyone, but we also had two washers and dryers. Yes, I planned that...and we needed it. We put in loads and took out loads every time we entered and exited the room. Now that we just hit the California border, it is nice to know we have clean clothes. Wait, I am getting ahead of myself...must be my ADD kicking in.
We slept in on Wednesday morning. We got up, took more showers, (we all loved the showers) and headed back out to the strip. We did a lot of walking and it was HOT....when I say hot, I mean 110 degrees. We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible but it did not help much. We were one big sweaty mess. The children were not as impressed with the glitz of the hotels and casino's as Matt and I were. So we did not walk through all of the hotels. The kids also got tired of all the photo opportunities. When I post the pictures, you will notice the smiles fading as the day went on. We walked through the MGM to see the sights, including the baby tiger cubs and then we decided it was time for lunch. We drove over to the Bellagio for their buffet. The food was ok. The kids were impressed with the wide range of foods available. Brett liked the pizza, Zach ate a little of everything and Megan ate more strawberries than anything else. We had a great conversation about General Custer. Zach asked what flan was. Matt tried to explain and said it was like a custard. Then Matt said, "Like Colonel Custard", I said, "that's Colonel Mustard" and the kids just started laughing...we giggled for about 3 minutes at the turn this conversation had taken. We were talking about Clue, the game. Matt was talking about General Custer. The people in the next booth even got in on the laugh. We are are a loud family...but we have fun, so who cares!! Megan is a people watcher too. She could not get over the couple two booths away from us. She said that every time he would get up to get food, she would sit down. And when he got back, she would get up. We decided they did not really like each other that much!
We did lots of walking in the hot sun after lunch. The kids rode the roller coaster in New York, New York. That put a smile on their faces. We checked out the new hotel at the new City Center, Aria. We visited the Coke and M&M stores too. Megan was dying to try the new pretzel m&M's so she bought some. They were gross. As we were walking down the street, the annoying naked girl card flickers (if you have been to Vegas, you know what I am talking about) were everywhere. As we walked by one of them, he started to hand one to the kids...before I even realized it, "don't you dare" came out of my mouth. He apologized quickly as he was on the receiving end of my "teacher" stare.
We made our way to the end of the strip to the Stratosphere. This is the one thing the kids had one their MUST DO list. There are three rides on the top of the Stratosphere. We rode the elevator to the top and the kids spend about 2 hours riding rides waaay up in the air. One was like a drop zone, the other shot them out over the side of the building and the third was a spinning seat over the city. I will be sure to post some pictures on Facebook later. We witnessed a couple getting married up there as well, with the strip far below behind the ceremony. Megan sat next to an Australian on one of the rides and she kept going on and on about his accent. Matt and I had a drink while the kids were riding and we just enjoyed the scenery. There were some interesting sights, let me tell ya!! I love to people watch! Zach bought his first purchase of the trip...a t-shirt that explained all three rides. We gave each of the kids money for the trip. Megan is almost out of money and we are not even a week in. Brett bought a M&M t-shirt on the strip today as well. The boys gave up on the rides before Megan did. On the way down 108 floors in the elevator, we met Kay, from Kentucky. She was the friendly elevator operator. She told us jokes and made us scream, "I love Vegas" when we got to the bottom. She was having a blast in her retirement, let me just say that. We stopped at McDonalds for a quick snack since we did not eat dinner. I know, we broke the rule again!! The kids wanted sweet tea and we were excited when it was on the menu. BUT, mcchicken sandwiches were not. Then we found out they were all our of sweet tea. We had some upset kiddos. We headed back to the resort for a swim. We were very tired and our feet hurt. Actually, we all had an ailment of some sort. I ended up with a black and blue toe from trying to get out of the RV shower the other day. Megan has a bump on the top of her foot from cheerleading. Brett and Matt's heals hurt and Zach was just tired. We went down to the pool for a quick swim before bed..of course, after we unloaded and reloaded the washer/dryers again.
We got up to the alarm at 7am, took more showers...we are CLEAN, that is for sure! (I am kinda dreading the fact that we will not have a nice big shower for the next week or so) We loaded up the car with all of our clean clothes and headed to pick up the RV. Then we dropped off the rental car and headed our of Vegas to California. I was so excited when we got gas at a 7eleven. They are doing a FarmVille promotion where you can get free stuff with the codes on the cups and other products you buy!! I am so excited, it is the little things! :) We were not on the road long when we saw the Welcome to California sign. We all cheered as we crossed the border!! We made it across the country!! Now, we have to make it back!
Now we will be in California until Sunday. We are planning a trip to the beach this afternoon, Disney tomorrow, Hollywood on Saturday and brunch on Sunday before heading out. Stay tuned.....
