Las Vegas, August 2024
The obvious question, of course, is: why would you go to Las Vegas in August?
Last January Jourdan and I and a group of our friends attended a trivia night fundraiser for the Zonta Club of Billings, an organization whose mission is to build a better world for women and girls. We were pretty sure heading into the event that we’d be in contention to win, but it very quickly became obvious that we would end the night solidly in the middle. At any rate, the event also included a silent auction in which Jourdan and I bid on a 3 night stay in Lake Tahoe, thinking we’d go on a kid-free long weekend. We “won”, and in looking at the trip it was actually good for any of the hotels within the network, and logistically it ended up making the most sense to go to Las Vegas, and take the kids. And, I already had the week before school starts as vacation so we decided to go then. Even though it meant going to the desert in August.
Saturday morning August 24 we packed up the car and started the drive, with a planned stop for the night in Salt Lake City. (As a side note, this was my third trip to Salt Lake City this calendar year which is a lot of trips there.)
Open road, here we come!
On our way out of Salt Lake Sunday morning, we stopped by East High which is the school from High School Musical. Russell and I had gone there earlier in the year as he accompanied me on one of my previous trips, but the other two hadn’t been there. We took an obligatory jumping in the air picture and then hit the road for Las Vegas. The drive from Salt Lake to Las Vegas is beautiful.
We arrived in Las Vegas Sunday afternoon and checked into the hotel. Weeks ago I had requested a room upgrade to a suite as a surprise for the family. When I checked in, they told me they had a room for me but it had only one bed, which isn’t really enough for us. (They thought there were only 4 of us, because 5 is too many for the room, but even so one bed is not enough for 4 people.). So he offered a further upgrade to a room with a view of the Bellagio fountain, and a rollaway bed. Sold. The room was larger than any apartment I ever rented in my apartment-dwelling days, with a huge living room that included a hanging lounge chair and a couch. And as promised, a view of the fountains which were so fun to watch.
The hanging lounge chair
View from the hotel room
That night we had tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show O, which was incredible. It was a mix of synchronized swimming and acrobatics and we all loved it.
After the show we walked on The Strip a bit and then went back to the room to go to bed. At some point before the trip, Jourdan had apparently told Julia that Las Vegas has a lot of strippers, which I learned when I mentioned to her that there would be a lot of something (I don’t remember what) there and she said “There’s also a lot of strippers there.” As we were walking on The Strip that night she said “We haven’t seen any strippers.” I said “Well they can’t take off their clothes walking down the street.” She said “Wait, that’s what strippers do?”
Beautiful flowers in the Bellagio
The next day we went to Omega Mart at Area 15, on the recommendation of friends. At the beginning it was a whole lot of “What is going on?” But ultimately was entertaining as we followed clues to help solve a mystery and infiltrate an evil corporation (no spoilers).
We then went back to the hotel before the night’s show: Cirque du Soleil’s One based on the music of Michael Jackson. (Side note: my feelings about Michael Jackson are complicated. We now know problematic things about his behaviors that we -- or at least I -- didn’t know when I was growing up and first hearing his music. So his music is nostalgic and let’s be honest, good, and I haven’t figured out what to do with new information about him. I don’t often listen to his music at home and in fact will skip a song if it comes on. But we still went to the show.) It was different than O, but still very good, especially the number they did to Thriller. One of the ushers told us they had just added two new songs to the show that week so we felt lucky to be there when we were.
Fun fact: One of my Salt Lake trips this year was to see a New Kids on the Block concert, during which Donnie came into the audience near where I was sitting, but not near enough for me to take a picture. So obviously I had to take this picture with "him" (and his brothers) when I saw him at Wahlburgers.
The next day (Tuesday) was our pool day. We had rented a cabana and hung out poolside for several hours, then in the afternoon went to a comedy magic show. The comedy was corny with more sexual innuendo than I would have thought would be in a 3 pm show, but the magic was impressive and we all enjoyed it. After the show, we had dinner and then went to Top Golf. None of us had been to one before and Julia and Owen had never golfed before period, but it was very fun.
Wednesday we planned to drive the entire way home in one day, because the kids had school open houses on Thursday. I had done the Billings-to-Las-Vegas drive in one day once before, on a road trip my friend Aubree and I took together right after we graduated college. This time I didn't have to drive at all and it was much more pleasant. 😀
If you’re wondering whether we participated in Vegas activities like gambling, fear not. Jourdan and I are HUGE gamblers and I am of course a huge risk taker in general. When we pulled into town, Jourdan said his gambling limit was $300 and I think he actually gambled $60 on sports bets and lost it all. For my part, I lost $1 on slot machines but won $17 on video blackjack (I played 3 $5 hands; got blackjack the first hand, beat the dealer the second, and then got another blackjack the third hand so clearly felt it was time to quit).
Oh, and one unexpected but wonderful thing that happened — the kids were so grossed out by the smell of smoke in the casinos that they will at least think twice before trying smoking, if not stay away forever.
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