visiting vegas

June 10, early morning:  we had started driving cross-country, and our first night was spent in Las Vegas at a hotel the size of a small city.  New York is celebrated in song as the city that never sleeps.  But Vegas could just as easily be described that way.  Passing through the casino at 7:00 AM when I headed out to find a cup of tea, I witnessed holdouts at slot machines, smoking their cigarettes, hoping for one big strike.  They might have been there all night.  Such a sad sight. 

My daughter, her sons and I arrived the night before, stopping in Vegas in time to beat the desert heat in the hotel’s lazy river.  My idea was to go with the water’s flow.  But Campbell and Warren loved the challenge of pushing back against the current, and so I tried to stay with them.  It was a workout.  Eventually they tired, and some kind people gave us their tubes.  As they explained, they were leaving the next morning and couldn’t take them home, so they wanted to see some other kids enjoy them.  We, in turn, left them behind for another couple of kids to use.

In addition to the lazy river, the highlight of our brief Vegas stay was the M&M store.  We walked through every floor, amazed at all the colors of M&Ms that we had never seen before.  The boys were dazzled by the lights on the Vegas Strip, though they were confused about why Las Vegas had a Statue of Liberty, an Eiffel Tower, a medieval castle and a pyramid and Sphinx.  I’m afraid my feeble explanations were wholly inadequate.  I, myself, understand less about Vegas every time I visit. It’s not my favorite stop, so I was happy to move on the next morning.  I told Meredith there are worse things than raising kids who don’t like to walk through casinos. 

We were all happy to be leaving Las Vegas.  On to Utah!

Love, Liz