Las Vegas

When we went home to Utah for Grandma BerDella's funeral we flew into Las Vegas. Brian and I hadn't been there since before we were married, so at least 10 years. We both have good memories of going there while we were younger. Outside the casinos there are all sorts of "shows" or "attractions" to draw you in. The Mirage has a volcano that is really cool to see with huge bursts of fire shooting into the sky. Treasure Island has two huge pirate ships with a cool show where the actors fight each other, shoot cannons, guys walk the plank and fall into a lake or so we thought. I guess there is something to the new slogans they are advertising. Let's just say there has been a shift from "Family Friendly Vegas" I knew as a kid to the old Vegas we see in the movies. The new slogan "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" was definately fitting for this show. It was basically a strip tease show out in the open air for everyone to see. I was so glad that Ben was only four and didn't understand the provokative dancing. He just wanted to know when they were going to have the pirates fight. I was totally horrified. We won't be seeing that show again. We asked a few people how far the Belagio was and they told us it was only two casinos down the strip. We figured we could walk. Our mistake. True, it was only two casinos away, but one of those casinos was Caesar's Palace. That casino alone was almost a mile long, I swear. It went on and on and on. I was still totally recovering from my surgery and I had to sit down and rest a few times because we had to carry Ben, Maddie and Jacob. It was rough going, but seriously worth it. That light and water fountain show is amazing! It is calm and quiet and powerful in a wild and crazy city. I loved it. We graduated from the University of Utah and my own department did the design for it. I heard it touted as a thing of great pride my entire time in Mechanical Engineering but hadn't seen it until this trip. It really was amazing and I'm glad we walked down to it.