Las Vegas - We first arrive and I immediately realize how much I hate big cities and all their traffic and fancy hotels. We arrived at the Mandalay Bay and I was not about to valet park...I mean I can park my own car thank you very much. Plus I am too cheap to pay someone and the whole tipping thing is awkward..like do you make it obvious or do you slip it in the hand secretly and then how much do you tip?..it's all so lame and weird. I can also carry my own luggage. I mean I can see the point of needing help if you had a ton of bags..but it was just the 2 of us. We only had one bag. So we self-parked and pulled our luggage clear through the casino and finally made it to our rooms, barely escaping the immediate sensory overload of smoke, noise, scantily clad waitress' and people starring at us like we were soooo outta place..which we sooooo were.
Well we finally made it to our room and I could have cared less if we left it again..aside from the fact that the only food we had was a fully stocked fridge, full of alcohol and drinks I've never heard of that cost millions of dollars. So off we went to find some dinner...and I was not gonna pay $16 for a hamburger even if it was by Wolfgang Puck...so off to the car we went and found PF Changs (which btw has an entire gluten-free menu..hooray!) Then we headed back to the hotel to watch The Lion King (I highly recommend this show...it was amazing and Nate and I thought we would sneak up to better seats but alas on a Wednesday, it was sold out..who knew?) The next day was filled with sleeping in (at least for Nate) granola bars for breakfast, a long hot bath and then we headed out. Nothing special..but we found Subway across the street..hooray for $5 footlongs (ok so I had to cheat a bit with the whole GF...I would have starved otherwise) Then that night we went to the Criss Angel show "Believe" which I was sadly disappointed in..still a good show and I can't figure out his tricks but I wouldn't recommend it..sorry Criss. We were in bed that night at 9 pm.
We did try to gamble, but lets just start off by saying we are seriously newbies in this dept. We walked around with our roll of quarters, only to find that all the machines only accept bills. So I headed to the Cashiers desk to get some bills...a whole 10 of them..the guy next to me was getting hundreds..like about 50 of them. I'm not kidding...I felt pretty lame. ..actually way lame. So we headed out with our 10 dollars. Mostly we just don't know anything about gambling..the tables are too intimidating and start at $10 and games on the machines are all so confusing. In the end, we lost the 10 bucks and went on our way. We were fish out of water in the worst way. I even had 2 free drink tickets and I was too chicken to ask if i could get a virgin pina colada..ended up giving them to two lone strangers walking by.
Then next day we checked out and headed for St. George for 2 days of the Parade of Homes. This was much more in my comfort zone..at last a place I was familiar with..and people who were friendly and smiling. Ahhhh! So in the end, this should tell you that I am completely a creature of habit..a small-town girl who likes her small town and her small town peeps. I like the familiar and my little bubble. And it was a good adventure and we had a great time and everyone needs a break now and again...we haven't had time with just the 2 of us for years. It was heaven...no whining, fighting, complaining, hitting, yelling, wiping butts, giving baths, changing clothes..just the 2 of us. Although we were only gone 4 days, we missed the kids like crazy...right up until we got home last night and the tattle-telling, whiny voices showed up and then I thought to myself..."why did I want to hurry and get home?" Kids..can't live with 'em..can't live without 'em.
