First off, I'm apologizing in advance....my next few vacation posts will probably be very wordy and include LOTS of photo's. If you're on dial-up this might not be a good thing for you.
Sooooo... the Jantzi's went to Vegas for about 3 days. We were at the Nascar race and at Greg & Terri's wedding. (Keith and Greg work together.) Our flight from Vancouver (Friday, Feb 29) took 3 hours. The plane was PACKED and everyone was in a fine mood! At one point I leaned over and said to Keith "just listen...." and we both started laughing because it was soooooooo loud. Everyone was very chatty and upbeat. Probably because they still had all their $$$ burning holes in their pockets. (In comparison - our return flight home was the exact opposite. Extreme quiet. Everyone seemed to have a glazed/dazed look on their face. No one was talking. We found the differance pretty funny!)
It was so nice to arrive to SUNSHINE and hot weather. We were pretty impressed with how the McCarren airport handles such large amounts of people all day/night long. Once we got off our plane, we followed the baggage signs which actually took us to a train. We hopped on the train for a bit and that took us to another building where our luggage was. After we got our luggage, we had to hop on a bus to get to the Car Rental Centre. All the car rentals are at this same location so there is no confusion as to which bus you have to get on. While Keith was standing in line getting our rental car, Max and I were sitting in this lounge area with all the luggage and doing some "people watching". A group of young guys (probably all in their mid 20's to early 30's) sat down beside us. They were all wearing the same golf-style shirts and were busy talking away. I didn't say anything to Max but it didn't take long for Max to clue in that they were a "pit crew" for one of the NASCAR racing teams. He whispered pretty loudly to me "Mom! They are Nascar guys! I was listening to them!" That helped to get him in the racing mood.
It was just a short drive (in a rental car that smelled like Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion...mmmmmmm! Put me in vacation mode for sure!) to our hotel - the Excalibur. It looks like a castle and the whole theme of it is medieval. It's one of the older hotels on the strip I think, but it was very reasonably priced and "child-friendly"...as much as a Vegas hotel can be I suppose. The lower level has a huge "car-cade" (as Max calls it - he means arcade) for kids. Max loved to go down there and play air hockey and play motorcycle racing games with his daddy as well as playing games to try and win teddybears. It's a good thing he has his daddy helping him (I'm no help when it comes to games like that)...he ended up coming home with about 5 stuffed animals and 3 flags and a hotwheels car. And of course he loves ALL of the stuffies and doesn't want to give any of them up. His room is almost overflowing them them by now.
To be honest, I didn't really get to see that much of Vegas. Most of our time (during the day) was spent at the racetrack and/or getting ready for the wedding. Evenings were not really an option to go out and about checking out all the hotels. We made sure that once it was about 6:30 - 7:00pm, we had eaten dinner and had Max back in our hotel room. The atmosphere changes dramatically at night and just wasn't something we wanted him exposed to. Before we left on Monday morning, we got up early and walked around and checked out some of the hotels (Luxor, New York, New York, MGM Grand) and they were pretty cool. We had breakfast at The Rainforest Cafe in the MGM. We've actually never been to a Rainforest Cafe so we figured this would be a good time to experience it. It was a hit with Max and I have to say that our food was awesome. I've heard that sometimes the food there is iffy, especially for what they charge. Our breakfast was awesome - tasty and lots of it. I had oatmeal with lots of brown sugar and raisins. And fresh fruit - strawberries, oranges and pineapples. And I think toast too. I could only eat about half of it - so yummy! I haven't had baked oatmeal in years. Mmmmm! Max had french toast with banana's and strawberries - he loved it as you can tell by the picture of him posing with it. After we were finished eating, we went to check out the lions. They have a huge lion habitat in the MGM and apparently during the day they have trainers working with them and you can hear them roaring and growling all over the casino floor. Unfortunately, we were there too early in the morning (at 8:00am) - the lions only come out at 10:00am. As we were walking away, Max was kind of mumbling to himself over and over. So we stopped and asked him what he was saying. And he said "Long ago there were bad guys and they throwed Daniel in the Lions Den!" We were totally amazed that he connected that Bible Story to the Lions Habitat at the MGM Grand (of all places!) and the lions weren't even out. So we stopped and went back to the lion habitat area and talked a little bit more with him about the Bible Story. I wish we could have stayed until the lions came out but that would have not been for another few hours. We did take a photo of Max and Keith in front of the gate and he seemed content with that. Aren't children like little sponges? They soak up sooooo much. I had just told him the story about Daniel and the Lions Den about a week earlier during lunch one day.
Greg & Terri's wedding was beautiful. It was held at a wedding reception type place (about 15 minutes away from the strip) on the evening of Saturday, March 1. The wedding ceremony was outdoors and the dinner & reception was held indoors. Max fell asleep in the car on our way to the wedding. He slept during the entire ceremony and a good portion of the meal. He did manage to wake up and eat a few bites towards the end of the night. It actually was probably easier for us that he slept most of the time - then we didn't have to worry that he was acting up and behaving himself. A few minutes after he woke up, he was busy looking around at the reception hall and he whispered to me "This is a REALLY NICE house! We are special guests, aren't we?!" So cute! Our table was alot of fun too - we were sitting with the NAC gang and another couple from Thunder Bay - they were friends of the bride. We had alot of fun chatting back and forth and no one was lost for words all night long. I've included some photo's from the wedding - the lighting was very low so my photo's didn't turn out the best. The very last photo is of the groom with the NAC guys (and Max) who were at the wedding.
Overall, I can't say that I really have a desire to go back to Vegas...not that I really ever had a burning desire to go there in the first place. I've been there. Seen it. And it was pretty much what I expected. I had done my homework/research online ahead of time so that I would know what to expect/be well prepared since we were bringing a 4 year old along with us. The valet parking at our hotel was something we could definately get used to. Let's just say that we enjoyed that service immensely! Found it interesting that all the hotels had escalators and moving sidewalks to bring the people INTO their buildings and casino's. But not to take them out. Definately was not used to people smoking everywhere and anywhere. So glad for the smoking regulations we enjoy here in Canada. Talk about price-gouging - we found everything on the strip very expensive. At Starbucks in our hotel, two grande coffees, a yogurt and a cookie came to $15. Give me a break! It should have cost half that. But we can't go without our Starbucks coffee now, can we?! LOL! We loved the brilliant blue sky. It was such a beautiful contrast against the reddish brown hills/mountains/cliffs in the distance. Max kept saying "This is Lightning McQueen Country!" He was right - it looked just like the movie.
My next post will be all about the Nascar portion of our time in Vegas. I've got lots of photo's and it deserves its own special post. I'm sure my sweet hubby and son would agree! Goodnight for now.
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