S's sister and her husband (B & W for the purposes of this blog) gave us the most awesome Christmas present this last year: they gave us tickets to go see The Blue Man Group at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas and they, in turn, would watch the kids for us. B & W moved down there last year for W's work and this was the first time that we were able to go visit them.
Before I continue with our trip, I need to give a little of my opinion on Las Vegas. When I was a kid we went down there a lot. It was never for my parents to gamble or anything: it was just a close-by great little getaway. I grew up exploring a lot of Las Vegas that was off The Strip. We loved going to Red Rock Canyon and Lake Mead. Of course we would spend a day on The Strip, but it was never more than a day. Then after S and I got married we took a few fun trips down there: again it was close-by and relatively inexpensive. Our last trip we took, however, was with some friends and while I love our friends, the majority of this trip was spent inside casinos and it totally turned me off from wanting to go back anytime soon. I just couldn't get away from the noise and cigarette smoke and it just wasn't the kind of trip I was used to. Anyway, while I was super excited to see The Blue Man Group, I wasn't particularly excited about spending a lot of time downtown. I have to say that this quick 3-day adventure of ours was probably one of the best (if not the best) time I've had in Las Vegas. Here's why...
The drive down worried me because Boy was getting over roseola and he had been miserable the days prior. I didn't particularly want to spend 6+ hours in the car with them. Thank goodness for modern technology and the movie Frozen. Between our infrequent WiFi connection and the latter movie loaded on our iPad, we somehow survived the journey. W & B took us to this most awesome barbecue place for dinner. I would have never even known it was there--it was so off the beaten path. But I guess that's the advantage of staying with locals! The kids were so exhausted when we got back that they needed no encouragement to go to bed.
The next day we wanted to take Bean and Boy to do some fun things on the strip. It became apparent that Bean was going to have to narrow down her choices (traveling with kids takes much longer--and though we were early-ish risers, nothing in Vegas opens much before noon.)
First of all we went to the M&M factory. It's one of my favorite things on The Strip. Bean and Boy loved all of the little attractions--and the chocolate! We bought $18 worth of M&Ms and the kids ate it to their hearts' content. They still have that little 3D movie on the 3rd floor. Bean said it was a little scary. I think Boy hated it. But it was his first movie experience (and 3D nonetheless) so I think he did pretty good.
Bean chose to go on the enormous new Ferris Wheel called High Roller over going to Circus Circus. (I was kind of glad!) When we found out how ridiculously expensive it was ($25 per person) we decided that I would go on it alone with the kids (who were, fortunately, both free.) I would definitely do it for $25/family...but not $50!
I wish you could have felt the excitement of these two! They kept shouting and running around, which was awesome and totally acceptable because we had the entire cabin to ourselves. They kept shouting 'DADDY!!' over and over in hopes that S would be able to hear them from down below!
The view was remarkable. This Ferris Wheel (or Observation Wheel as they call it) claims to be the tallest in the world. It looks big from the ground, but I don't think you can fully grasp just how big it is until you are suddenly higher than most of the hotels on The Strip.
After the High Roller we head back to B & W's place for lunch and to put Boy down for a nap (any questions I had about whether this kid was ready to give up his nap were answered on this trip.) S took Bean swimming and I relaxed.
That evening S and I headed out for a night on the town while B & W played 'coolest Aunt and Uncle ever.' Seriously. Their evening consisted of pizza, gong to a park, and eating ice cream. Best night ever in my kids' eyes!
S and I went to an Italian restaurant off the strip. It was pretty small, and apparently they highly encourage reservations because we kept being referred to as 'party of 2, no reservations.' I therefore didn't understand why we ended up getting the best table in the whole restaurant. The food was really good (like authentic Italian, not The Spaghetti Factory Italian) but my favorite part was when the pianist got up for awhile to mingle with all of the diners. He was so nice and as soon as he found out we had kids he started telling us about his twins and 4-month old baby. It's amazing how much just having children can bond total strangers together.
After dinner we headed to The Strip. Our first stop was the newly opened Hershey's World. It was right across from M&M world and was on our list of attractions to see with the kids that morning, but we didn't have time. I am kind of glad, too, because S and I unapologetically stocked up on Hershey Kisses (they have an entire wall of 'fill it yourself' chocolate like M&M world does) and shared the most decadent chocolate cookie I think I've ever had. They had all sorts of attractions built out of chocolate, but my favorite thing was the upper level which had all the other kinds of Hershey produced candy. I can still smell the wall of Bubble-Yum! And if I had the money (and the means to carry them around all night) I would have bought one of each of the Jolly Rancher scented candles. Seriously.
This trip got me excited for our upcoming trip to Chicago. I LOVE big cities, especially at night! This whole city section of the Strip (the Aria and Mandarin) was completely new and I thought it was beautiful!
Our favorite place to visit is still the Bellagio. With as many times as we've been there I have never caught one of their fountain shows at night. We only had to wait 10 minutes or so and we had a really good spot to watch it from. I would argue that, these too, are much better at night!
A view of The Strip (and the High Roller wheel) was amazing from the Bellagio.
Another one of my favorite things to see are the gardens at the Bellagio. Chinese New Year was just a few days after our vacation so everything was decked out to celebrate the year of the Ram. It was breathtaking (and, again, maybe even a little more so at night!)
The highlight (and reason) for our trip was to see The Blue Man Group. I LOVE this show! If you remember, a few years ago S bought me tickets to go see them when their tour hit Salt Lake City. It was the same show we saw a few years ago. This concert was much smaller in scale and a few things were updated technology-wise, but I loved it! I was first in line to meet a Blue Man when they came out after the concert.
We went to the newly opened Shake Shack and split a delicious strawberry custard shake. It was kind of sad to see the night come to an end! The next morning we woke up and headed home. The kids were tired but I think they had a good time and considering that Boy hadn't been feeling good he did REALLY good on the drive there and back. My only regret was that we weren't able to spend a lot of time with B & W because the only time we could go was while they were working. But this gives us even more of a reason to go do a repeat trip!
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