Family Vacation In Las Vegas

My dad, Sister, and I planned a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my Grandma's 75th Birthday, from the 16th through the 23rd of August. The three of them arrived in Vegas on the 16th and I joined them later on Tuesday the 18th.


On Wednesday, we went for a day trip to see the Grand Canyon! And along the way we crossed the Hoover Dam... I had never seen either one before in person, and both were great! The Hoover Dam is such a wonderful asset, not to mention it is just a beautiful thing! It is so wonderful how we are able to harvest all of that energy through it.
Then the Grand Canyon is just that.. Grand! I was so amazed by how big it is, even though I have seen pictures and videos of it, it is a whole other story to see it for yourself! All of the colors and the way it is shaped, it is just unbelievable. What a wonderful day.



Thursday, Jess and I went to Circus Circus to do all the rides in the Adventure-dome, and it was fun! Then, as our hotel was on the opposite side of the strip, we decided to walk the strip. Of course being in Las Vegas in August meant that it was a lovely 108 degrees... yikes! Good thing you can have any beverage you want on the strip... so my fabulous sister and I walked and drank our way down the strip--to stay cool of course!

When we got back home, it was my turn to make dinner, I made chicken carbonara. Then after dinner we went to Harrah's to see their "Show in the Sky" where they have floats attached to this track on the ceiling, it was very cool.

Friday was our free day... not free as in we had no plans, but free as in Vegas has a handful of really fun activities free of charge, so we filled the day with a few of them. We started out by viewing the models of the new hotels and condo's they are building. The Bellagio has a studio with models of the finished product, architecture is something that I have always been intrigued by, and I drug the rest of the group along to see it. Then while we were at the Bellagio, we went to see their botanical gardens. They were very cool, they did not cover a huge area, but they were by far huge! They had huge blown glass flowers throughout the garden, as well as big insects made of flowers, and a ferris wheel that had used flowers planted in the seats. It was awesome.
After that we ventured over to Caesar's Palace to see the Live Statues, which was neat, but I imagine that if you were a young child you might be a little frightened. While we were waiting for the show to start we saw a sign offering a free tour of their aquarium systems in the basement so we went on that too. We learned all sorts of things about different fish, felt some things in a touch tank, saw the salt water filtration system, and I even earned a Girl Scout patch (I'm a lifetime member). After that we went back to the hotel and my dad made dinner then dropped Jess and I off to see the Chippendale's show...


Saturday was our free day, as in we didn't plan to do anything during the day so we stayed home and played games and just did family stuff... then in the evening for my grandma's birthday we went to Excalibur to see the Tournament of The Kings. We ate with our hands and "Hazzah"ed as our king jousted and was involved in all of the merriment. it was very fun, and we made our grandma wear festive head ware with Jess and I.


Finally Sunday, Grandma went to the airport to fly back to Montana, while Jessica, Dad and I had the rest of the day still. So we cleaned up the Hotel room, packed up, and went to a brunch buffet, then played some penny slots (I won $85 on a penny slot after borrowing $5 from Jessica.. then I payed her $10 back), after that Jessica and I played Roulet (how do you spell that?) and I won something like $75.. so for all of that gambling I didn't do in Vegas, I took home a pretty penny.


It was a great vacation with the family, I had some good quality time with Jessica, sense I rarely get to have that. My grandma had a happy 75th! And my dad survived to tell about it :) It was so nice to have this fun trip!