Suzy's (not so) grand adventure

It's quite rare for my husband and me to leave home at the same time. Between all the dogs and the livestock, it's just too much trouble. Besides, I hate asking the house-sitter (pasture-sitter) to fool with the inside dogs since they're a little more "high maintenance" than the others. So... off went Mabel and Alice to the kennel. It was their second time to stay there and I think they handled it better than they did first time around.

Suzy had a different adventure. We took this as the prime opportunity to get her spayed and figured as active as she is it would be good to have her confined somewhere away from her sisters until the incision could heal a little. Her surgery was scheduled the morning we left town and of course I called from Vegas later that day to check on her. When we picked her up Sunday morning, she had already removed her own stitches saving us a trip back to the vet's later in the week. I should haved known if any dog would do that it would be her. She is SO naughty!! If anything, she seems to be worse than ever since we got back. She barks, growls, jumps up, climbs over the babygate, leaps unexpectedly into your lap wherever you're sitting, and worst of all....does not obey!! Doesn't she just exude naughtiness in these photos?? I've never had a dog that behaved like this. If I could find an obedience class anywhere around here I would sign up. One of us needs training!!

Wedding Bells

It's easy to get married in Las Vegas.   

Several weeks before our trip our older daughter received a ring from her significant other.  I suggested they get married while we were in Vegas and she told me they had already decided they would.  They had done a little research online and knew there were multiple options available... everything from wedding chapels in most of the major hotels to Elvis weddings not to mention countless other venues. 

I must say, they chose one of the more interesting options.  A drive-thru wedding!!  The whole family was picked up in a stretch limo at the hotel and transported to the drive-up window at the wedding chapel.  Vows were exchanged, everyone stepped out for pictures, then we were returned to the hotel.  Of course there is a lot more history to this story than I'm sharing here, but sometimes the less is better.  Let's just leave it at this:  The drive-thru wedding was a fun, memorable experience that I'm glad we all got to be a part of!  May they have a long, happy marriage! 

Viva Las Vegas!

I read somewhere recently what the percentage of revenue from gaming was in Las Vegas and it was much lower than I expected. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. There is a LOT more to do there than just gamble. In fact, there are far more things to do than can be squeezed into a four or five day vacation. Debby commented on a recent post that "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". While that might be true in some instances (and I'm certainly not telling all here), I don't mind sharing a few of the things we did.

I've visited Madame Tussuad's in Las Vegas, Amsterdam, and London. The Vegas MT is my favorite so I was glad we made it there on this trip. It was uncrowded enough that we had ample opportunity to snap pictures with all our favorite celebrities. I would post some of the photos here, but I'm not sure I could narrow down which ones to share.

We walked past the Lion Habitat at the MGM Grand just as they had two of them out on display. They looked too young to be the cub my younger kids had their picture made with on our last visit.

I love aquariums and Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay ranks right up there with the best of them. The first part of the aquarium is good, but the final room is the best part. You walk through a Plexiglas tube (surrounded by water) into the "shipwreck" where there is a spectacular display of predator fish swimming all around you! The aquarium also includes a fun "petting zoo" where you can touch little manta rays and horseshoe crabs.

It seemed like everywhere we looked on the strip we saw people carrying bright yellow M&M shopping bags. By the second day of our trip, so were we! M&M World is always packed with people. I remembered that from my last trip there. I also remembered the huge display of M&M dispensers where you can fill your own bags with every color M&M imaginable. I didn't see the coconut or pretzel varieties, but they had dark chocolate, peanut, almond, and peanut butter. Sold by the pound, it's amazing how quickly it adds up. I was proud of my restraint on this visit.

I think my very favorite Vegas attraction is the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. This was my fourth time to see it and I don't think it will ever grow old for me! Part of the novelty is digging in to a meal served without any utensils. There's jousting, knights at the round table, dancing maidens, good guys, bad guys, horses.... huzzah!!

Most hotels have an "in-house" show. The Monte Carlo hosts Lance Burton, Master Magician. We booked that for our last night and had great seats, Row D on the Main Floor.

Oh....and we went to see the flamingos at ... where else but the Flamingo Hilton!

Many things got left undone. They'll just have to wait for another trip to Vegas.

Let's eat!

As you can imagine, Vegas has a zillion places to eat. Every hotel has multiple restaurants within it along with "food courts" featuring everything from Starbucks, to Haagen-Dazs, to McDonald's. Considering dining out is one of my family's favorite activities, we were all in hog heaven!

I know that Hard Rock Cafes are terribly commercialized, but I really think they're a fun place to eat. What a nice surprise to find out they'd opened a new location right across the strip from our hotel! We had often eaten at the old location, but the new one is lighter and roomier (but still loud!).

My son and I are both fans of the Food Network. When we found out that Bobby Flay had a Mesa Grill location at Caesar's Palace, we knew we had to eat there whether anyone else in the group wanted to join us or not. After some hesitation, everyone agreed to go and it ended up being one of our best dining experiences!! Definitely a place I would go again!

There were a couple of "Griswold" moments on our vacation. One involved the night we planned to eat at a Mexican restaurant we loved and would make a point to visit on each trip to LV. Turns out the hotel it was in has been torn down and is being rebuilt. So, despite the fact it still exists on a Google Map, it's not really there!! Hopefully when the new hotel is completed it will once again include the restaurant. So.... we detoured to Margaritaville at our older daughter's recommendation. Here's a photo of our granddaughter with a balloon ladybug they made for her there.

Our final night we had a show booked and didn't want to go far for dinner so we opted for the Outback Steakhouse right across the strip. Although there's an Outback about 70 miles from where we live, only three of our group had ever eaten at one. We all enjoyed our meal, but debated whether the bloomin' onion was better there or at a local eatery in our hometown.

Another place that we debated the merits of was The Cupcakery located in our hotel. I'll agree that it was totally overpriced, but the variety I ordered (the "Bugsy") was soooo moist and delicious!!

Next up..... some of the attractions and shows we enjoyed.

Vegas Vacation

No.....not with Clark Griswold and his family, but with my OWN family!!

I made my first visit to Las Vegas when I was in college, a long time ago. My husband and I took our first vacation there together the year after we married, returning annually each summer. Our last trip was about ten years ago when we took the younger two kids with us.

Due to a variety of reasons I won't go into here, our entire family has never taken a vacation anywhere together. A few years ago my husband made the promise that once our youngest was 21, he would take everyone to Las Vegas. The plotting and planning began in earnest several months ago. Work schedules had to be situated, flights booked, hotel reservations made, show tickets purchased, and most important-- a 21st birthday celebrated in June.

The seven of us left hot, humid south Arkansas last Tuesday morning and arrived in even hotter, but not as humid, Las Vegas mid-afternoon. The temperature while we were there ranged from 104 to 113! Humidity, though, never got above 29%. I know hot is hot, but I still say dry heat is easier to bear. Our humidity here rarely gets below 50% and is quite often 80 or 90% . Stifling!

Amazing how much has changed on the strip in the past 10 years! Hotels have been torn down and rebuilt, others gone forever. We've stayed several places in the past, some more than once, but tried a new one this trip: the Monte Carlo. It was centrally located for the things we wanted to do and turned out to be a good choice.

Overall it was a great trip and everyone had fun. I'll share more in the next few days.

I'm back!

...and I mean that literally, not just online.

As I stated in my last post, our Internet went out on Saturday afternoon a week ago. Most times that would only be a minor inconvenience. However, we were preparing to go on vacation last week and I needed to get online Monday. If any of you have ever flown on Southwest, you know how important it is to be online with your finger poised over "confirm" exactly 24 hours before your flight in order to get good boarding passes! Fortunately some friends volunteered their computer and printer and I got to enjoy a nice visit with them in the process.

I posted a couple of times last fall (here & here) about troubles with our Internet provider, so I wasn't optimistic about getting things fixed quickly. Surprisingly, we were able to get it repaired late Monday afternoon! Not enough time to schedule any posts for while I was away, but what a relief to know we would have Internet when we returned home!

Anyway..... we got home shortly after midnight last night (this morning) and I'm still plowing through "stuff". Playing catch-up is always the down-side to returning from vacation. The up-side is that I should have plenty of post material for awhile! I would love to sit here and catch up on all the blogs I follow, but chores are calling me.