It's Vegas, baby!

 In May 2016, Michele and I took our first trip to Las Vegas together. For a few days we meandered up and down the Fremont Street "experience" bouncing through levels of sobriety. Hand in hand, we took in the sights and sounds of a place much different from little old Pine City and worlds different from the village of Kivalina from which I had recently returned. Every few hundred feet, competing casinos popped up a stage and offered up a menagerie of both regular and exotic performers in an attempt to entice paying customers to stop into their establishment. Buskers sang, danced, spray painted and banged on buckets for your attention and change. General vagabonds in all stages of undress filled in the relatively few empty spaces in between. Needless to say, we saw a few things that trip that made us blush. Together we concluded that this was no place for a family vacation. 

Fast forward 5 years.....

Now we have teenagers - Junior High and High School - Driver's License - some new found freedoms - oh yeah, include an International Pandemic....

And what do you know? Let's take our babies to Vegas! 

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Here in this Blog there are a few entries that cataloged our bi-annual adventures to a couple of not-so local waterparks. The Tiki Tina in Duluth quickly became a family favorite and helped mark the passage of time. Fall and Spring trips were filled with water logged toddlers and take-out pizza. Afraid that we have outgrown the lazy river and the dumping of the giant tiki bucket, our Trip Planner decided that airfare and hotel costs to "Sin City" met our budget constraints. Mom threw out the idea and I bit. She took care of the rest. Parking. Plane tickets. Hotel Reservations. I highly recommend Mom's Travel Agency - she's got it all covered. An Easter Trip out West was in the making.

There were a couple of sanfus along the way. We tried a new parking garage and were swept directly to Sun Country Airlines without a hitch, happy to find the terminal less than busy and TSA checkpoints moving along swiftly. Our plan was to have a meal at the terminal. That was a bad plan. COVID restrictions have reduced the Humphrey Terminal to a shell of its formal self and our food options were reduced to a stingy vending machine that was taking money faster than the Vegas slots. Airline travel during this pandemic kept us masked up and and hopeful for a few winks of shut eye rather than anticipating any inflight meals, snacks or even a cold Coke. Nada. 

On final approach to McCarran Internation Airport, we were a bit famished but excited to see from the air, the hustle and bustle and glowing neon lights of the Vegas Strip. Our cabbie avoided the construction tangle of  Las Vegas Boulevard like the paid profession he is and earned a nice tip, delivering us to the Mirage with a smile. Again, Mom's Travel Agency came through by handling a seamless check-in process and in an instant we had gone from wrestling the vending machines in Minneapolis to contemplating our next meal two time zones away. Nearing midnight local time, we dropped our bags and headed off into the masses in search of much anticiapted family meal. Logan wasn't the only one that was H-Angry.

The pandemic has left it's mark all over the world. Vegas would be no different. Although there were plenty of masked tourists up and down the Strip, it became apparent that the casino doors were open but many restaurants were closed. Restricted hours and or full time shut downs had limited our choices for an evening meal as our family doubled back in search of something to fill our stomachs. Chipolte - NO. Denny's - SORRY. Not an eatery open in sight. The Kirby Krew wandered aimlessly about as local time now crept well past midnight. Finally we hit the Promenade - an old favorite sidestreet of mine and Michele's. Surely there would be a taco stand somewhere - NOPE. A bar burger? - NADA.... not even a lousy convenience store open to snag a bag of chips. And then we saw it..... a line pouring from In-N-Out Burger. Our need to feed was answered with this desert oasis and west coast staple of cheap burgers and handcut fries. Although our family trip to Sin City was off to a rough start, things would only get better from there! With food in our bellys, the weary travelers went to bed.

Our room accomadations were adequate. Our view of Trump Tower and the far off mountain ranges gave us reason to peek out the window every once in a while. The warm weather and the pool is what we were really after and Vegas delivered. Sunscreen and sunglasses. Lounge chairs and frosted drinks - both of the adult and kiddie versions. Swimsuits, sandals and sundresses. A good book followed by a better nap. This is really what we came for - time to sit and be together as a family. Sure, the sights and sounds of giant water fountains giving backdrop to crowded sidewalks and sidewalk hustlers were enough to keep things interesting. 

On Las Vegas Boulevard, Logan didn't refuse but politefully declined having his picture taken with the scantily clad locals even though his sister begged and even offered to pay for the Kodak Moment. Our boy got his first wiff of the Electric Lettuce this trip as well. Seems Nevada Law tolerates the use of marijuanna and at times it seemed just as many folks were "toking" advantage of that as were carrying around those giant sized tourist glasses filled and re-filled with intoxicating concoctions. When Logan saw the advertised asking prize for these frilly drinks, he began a game with Michele and kept a running tally of each person we passed sipping to their hearts content and pumping dollar bills back in to the US economy. Logan was mesmerized by the sheer numbers. 

It seemed at first that Michele and Emma too had their own little game. I swear there was a concerted attempt to visit every Starbucks in Nevada. If so, those two were well on their way to achieving their goals. The thought of $5 dollar hippie tea and late night, frothy, coffee is lost on me but it kept my two lovely, leggy blondes happy and that makes me happy. On the Strip, tucked away at a mall....it didn't matter, if it said Starbucks, Michele and Emma were staying hydrated.

Poolside, we manipulated the mask mandate in our favor by learning how to play the game of "actively eating or drinking". We even learned that a completely empty container used as a decoy was enough to keep the COVID police off our case. Every once in a while, we took a dip in the cool waters of the Mirage Pool, reapplied sunscreen and went back to work - not really doing anything.  Logan retired back to the hotel room periodically, more so when he just needed a break from people and needed time to veg out and play on his phone. Michele and I gambled a couple of times. Never intent on tossing money down the drain but interested enough to have some time together playing the Willy Wonka slots. Vegas did to us what Vegas does....it made us forget about routines and timelines. We ate when we were hungry; went to bed when we were tired. 

One night we enjoyed a family meal of deep dish Chicago Style pizza - another time we grabbed a seat at a sports bar in the Mirage. We people watched up and down the Strip. Took in the sites of the Bellagio and the high end shops at Ceasar's Palace. We got treats at Buddy's Bakery and wandered through the Venetian. Logan and Emma enjoyed seeing things they had only ever whitnessed before in the classic movies like "Hangover" and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop". Admittedly, at times our adventure was loud and flamboyant. It is Vegas! But more often than not, things were more PG-13 than "hide your kids" R-rated. As worried as I had been about a family trip to the "Sin City", things went off without a hitch... well....except for that one time....

Let me paint one more quick picture for you... by Vegas standards, it's early evening. At least the Sun has set. So it must have been more like 10 or 11:00 p.m. Logan has long since run out of gas and tucked in to finish his evening with ESPN Sportscenter and TikTok. Michele and I were not quite yet ready to wind down for the night so we gambled a few bucks here and there. I mean, we had gone through the effort of cleaning up and putting on some nice clothes...so, we dedcided to carry into the night. Somewhere in between offensively watered down Captain Morgan and Cokes, Michele got a text from our dear sweet daughter asking if she could join us. We agreed and in short order, our baby girl joined us for a quick jaunt on the railway tram to Treasure Island.... if you're still with me on this wandering essay, you know what happened next.

Yes, Emma asked for Starbucks.

But that's not where the intrigue lies....it was just another late night frothy, overpriced drink to make my lovely daughter feel appreciated. She earned it. So, onward we went. In vacations past, Treasure Island has coughed up a few winning hands for Michele and I on the slot machines. It feels generally less crowded and we usually end up there once or twice to try our luck. With our underaged daughter in tow, we had to make accomodations in order to gamble. Emma agreed to take a seat nearby and proceeded to scroll through her phone like every teenaged girl in the country would do. Michele and I set up shop on a slot machine a short distance away and began clicking away credits and dollars. 

It wasn't long before Miss Emma was approached by a suitor. Through some scruffy facial hair, the young gentleman appeared to be in his mid to late 20's. In his defense, it must have taken some courage to walk past a beautiful girl two or three times before actually addressing her with your best COVID pick up line. He greeted her with the usual and then quickly asked if she was upset. Apparently he was going to offer comfort and perhaps her facemask covered the fact that Emma was quite the opposite of upset. She was having a great time. Some short lived small talk insued when the courter pressed on. He asked her what brought her in "to town". You know, Vegas being the best place for blossoming long term relationships and all...

Emma replied, "My parents. My Parents brought me to town. I'm here with my parents." At which time she pointed out Michele and I about 25 yards away. Me smiling and waving. My lovely wife looking the part of a beautiful teenage girl herself. The would be Casanova immediately began to back pedal; clasped his hands together, perhaps in prayer...and bade my little Princess goodnight. No harm. No foul. but it sure made for a good laugh. We surmised that Emma was a sitting duck without her trusty baby brother by her side. We advised her that if she wished to avoid such uncomfortable encounters in the near future, she should stick to having Logan at her side.

Until next time, Vegas....