Greetings From Vegas

(Posting for Friday, June 20th)

We had a quiet and restful night at our hotel in Cedar City. It wasn’t as nice as the Hampton we stumbled upon in Layton, UT, but we made the best of it. After a hearty breakfast, everyone showered and we worked through the packing and repacking ritual. We were on the road to Las Vegas shortly before noon.

The drive through southern Utah, a part of Arizona and northern Nevada was beautiful. Hot and dry, but beautiful. We made a stop in St. George, UT, to grab some lunch at Outback. The kids inhaled their steak and baked potatoes. I think they were excited to see something other than sandwiches and fast food.

After 22 days and 4300 miles, the Gray clan rolled into greater Las Vegas late Friday afternoon. We got stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes north of downtown Vegas for a car fire on the interstate. The temp was about 114 degrees – maybe the car spontaneously combusted…

After working our way through traffic, we found our way to Mandalay Bay and got checked in around 5pm. The kids had a blast on the drive into Vegas checking out all of the sights. I think it was a bit of sensory overload. We settled into our room on the 32nd floor overlooking the pool. The kids are loving the room – lots of space, comfy beds, flatscreen TV’s in both the main living area and the bathroom. The hotel is full of activity this weekend. On Saturday night, there’s an outdoor concert around the pool by Gnarls Barkley, and there’s also a Bud Light sponsored Rock Paper Scissors tournament going on as well. I have to admit that one sleepless night I actually saw one of these tournaments on EPSN2 early in the morning. There’s no skill involved – hard to believe they can have a real tournament. It’s been funny seeing all of the college age kids roaming the hotel wearing their VIP passes from the Rock Paper Scissors tournament…

Once our luggage finally made it upstairs, we all threw on bathing suits and some sunscreen and headed down to the pools. Mandalay Bay has an 11 acre pool area including a lazy river, wave pool, sandy beach, several other pools plus a number of VIP areas and cabanas. We hit the lazy river first (the best I’ve ever enjoyed) and floated for what seemed like forever. Then we worked our way to the wave pool, then another pool, before heading back upstairs when the pools closed.

The kids decided to keep their bathing suits on and soak in the tub in our bathroom – while watching Nickelodeon on the flat screen TV in the bathroom. The kids are definitely living like rock stars. After their soak, we headed downstairs and had some great Chinese food for dinner. The kids decided to be brace and try some fried calamari in addition to their usual shrimp, pork, rice and noodle favorites. The loved the calamari! It’s good to see them branching out and trying new things.

After wrapping up dinner (everyone was stuffed), we decided to take a stroll down the strip to let the kids take in the sights. Luckily, the sun was down and is was a bit cooler – maybe 95 degrees. We made our way down to the Bellagio, and let them enjoy the fountains out front. We then worked our way back towards our hotel, with a stop along the way at the M&M store. Again, the kids are really living like rock stars. We were a little iffy about making a stop in Vegas with the kids, but they’ve really done great, taking in the sights, asking lots of questions, maybe learning a thing or two about life.

Everyone is wiped out and the feather bed is calling, so that’s all for now.

The Grays