Megan is voracious consumer of short form media that glorifies the spectacle and extravagance of the strip. She also found us this great reference video.
Additionally the kids have never been to the West Coast or to a desert.
Therefore I switched focus from hot springs to Goodsprings and looked for good pricing, good weather and minimal school attendance impact.
We landed on Easter/Spring break.
The weather at this time of year averages in the 80’s and it’s a little off season for pricing and airline tickets (not yet impacted by the Iran situation) were pretty good.
I still hate flying but with the successes of Hawaii relatively fresh in my mind I think I did much better this trip.
So on Easter morning bright and early I found myself in my Easter dress handing out tiny chocolate bunnies on a 757 high above the earth.
It was a little bumpy leaving Dulles but things evened out and I watched the Keanu Reeves angel movie and my anti anxiety meds put me to sleep.
When we landed it was only 11 A.M. and we had an extra bit of scrambling around doing some last minute trip troubleshooting.
I’d gotten an email before we left that our rental car couldn’t be taken out of state. The only reason we needed a rental car was to go out of state.
When I called to clear it up they said I would have to come to the location and talk to someone in person. Otherwise I could only talk to the call center and they were powerless to negotiate. We therefore headed straight to the rental car shuttles despite not have the car reserved until Tuesday.
Lots of standing in line later, we learned that we could take the car out of state, as long as we signed a waiver and paid an extra 50 bucks.
We then called up the ride share apps and saw the first of a 100% advantage in price from Lyft, and headed to our first hotel of the trip.
Hotel number 1:The Luxor
The Luxor is very nearly at the bottom (southernmost) end of the strip. It is the 7th largest Pyramid in the world and has the largest (by volume) atrium in the world. It is a budget hotel and gets some internet hate for a variety of reasons but we enjoyed the kitsch and the scale.
Other than the hotel itself my particular delight of the day was the discovery of a Ri-Ra right between the Luxor and the Mandalay Bay.
We used to have a Ri-Ra back when the kids were toddlers. We loved it. We would go for brunch on Sundays if we were feeling adventurous. Ri-Ra is an Irish pub/restaurant and it has the best potato thing in the world (Boxtys) additionally they had live Irish trad music (a thing I adore). But they closed and we missed them (and still miss them).
As we wandered the mall ways suddenly there before us was a Ri-Ra. I may have shouted.
We made immediate plans to return the next morning to see if the Vegas Ri-Ra held up to the Bethesda Ri-Ra. We'd found one back in the day in Georgetown that absolutely did not hold up so I was a little worried.
We settled into our rooms and got some pizza. We ooo’d and ahhhh’d at the grand scale of the hotel and went to bed not long after sunset, tired and excited.
Day 2 - Monday
On Monday we woke up early (for Vegas time) and dedicated ourselves to exploration. Monday was a car free day so we wandered the strange liminal mall like spaces that connect most of the casinos. These hallways (mall ways?) provide easy indoor protection from the high temperatures and natural light of the real world. One vlogger I like said that it was the perfect It could be 2 AM or 2 PM feeling.
We spent the morning eating at Ri-Ra (which 100% held up)! I told our waitress as we were leaving about how we had lost ours and missed it, she asked if we were from Atlanta. We said Maryland and she said that she was from Atlanta and that they had lost theirs too. Then she recommended that we return Tuesday night for the Irish Trad music!
We were delighted by the Disneyesque cheesiness of everything. We found a dragon store in Excalibur and Meg found a store full of sequins and furs that she fell in love with.
We spent the rest of the day trying out the free tram and splashing around in the pool.
Day 3 - Tuesday
Tuesday was our first car day so we spent the morning puttering around in preparation for all the things we needed a car to do.
First on our list was a visit to the famous Welcome to Las Vegas Strip sign.
We took lots of goofy pics and began what was slated out to be our Fallout: New Vegas day.
Kiernan created for this trip some cosplay from the game, combining army surplus store finds with 3D prints. His cosplay very much took the form of this guy (a new republic soldier).
We drove along the route of the game visiting the Mojave, Sloan, Primm and especially the Pioneer Inn at Goodsprings.
We stopped at a crazy Terrible's gas station in Jean just before Goodsprings to get some White Castle sliders. This gas station had a UFO, a bigfoot, several small planes, motorcycles and off road vehicles and a random wall of guitars. Also lots of truck stop kitsch. It was great.
But it was not nearly as great as the Pioneer Inn. That place had a prospector statue whose sluice pan was filled with bottle caps (currency in the game) and really nice people in the inn plus an unexpectedly fun menu that included a ton of desserts and interesting cocktails.
Megan even had a Nuka'cola (a soda from the game) float.
We climbed the big hill behind the Inn and stood on the spawn point for the game.
When the game starts you have been shot up on this hill and for most of the time after that you have to determine who shot you and why.
Kiernan therefore lay on top of the hill as if shot and I got some picture to commemorate it.
After wandering the lands of the game for a few more hours we headed back to the strip and checked into our next hotel, The Bellagio.
After we checked in to the very crowded Luxury hotel we cleaned up and scooted off to Ri-Ra again for the Irish music.
When we got there and were seated under a tv with motorcycle racing (a personal favorite) and fed Boxtys and listened to a live band.
Oh man I was the happiest Missy you have seen.
After that we went back to the Bellagio and watched the fountains from our room until we fell to sleep.
The fountains were spectacular.
Day 4 - Wednesday
Very early Wednesday morning I woke up to use the bathroom. It was probably around 4 in the morning there (7 at home). When I flushed the toilet it made a very strange sound. When I turned on the sink no water came out. When I switched to the other vanity no water came out...
I got my phone and tried the automated desk and it asked me if I wanted housekeeping. I asked for maintenance. The automation asked if I wanted a real person. Yes, yes I did want a real person.
Meanwhile David got up and discovered the same thing that I had. He just straight up called the front desk.
We were both told that there was a busted pipe and that several floors were without water. That the water should be on again by 5.
For a family of 4, whose bladders were on east coast time and who were sharing one bathroom, that was not a great experience.
I found the Bellagio to be too 'for the gram' and too crowded, but the lack of water and the lack of care from the staff about it (not even an "I'm sorry about your bathroom situation.") made me happy to leave even if the other hotels we stayed at were budget level.
It was beautiful in many parts but I have no desire to go back there again.
So we walked Megan through the beautiful parts, checked out, and headed out to a coffee shop that my friend Krishna recommended.
The shop is called Vesta Coffee Roasters and we went over to the location closets to Red Rock Canyon.
After some wonderful breakfast and great coffee (thanks Krishna!) we drove on up the road and every mile was more beautiful than the last. I was so excited to hike in the Calico hills.
Then we got to the entrance of the scenic loop and visitor center road to discovered that there is no admittance without a timed entry ticket.
I was so upset.
We had no signal to get a timed entry ticket up there and when we got back down out of the canyons it turned out that there were no timed tickets to be had at all for the day.
So we turned around and headed towards the Hoover Dam (by way of Costco for pizza/hotdog/gas).
I was silent and grumpy for the first 20 minutes of that drive but started getting excited again as we approached Lake Mead.
Lake Mead is pretty but the Hoover Dam is even better.
It was super hot out. We went for the free parking on the AZ side and walked back and forth over the dam. We ate a Costco picnic and took pictures and drank all the water.
I loved the art deco statues particularly.
I had a fun moment in the middle of the dam with one foot in each time zone and was captivated by the nuclear era glowing green tiles of the bathrooms.
After we were done we drove back to the Strip to check into our final hotel, The Strat.
This is the most budget of the budget hotels but they are in the middle of a remodel and I found our rooms to be fine and the pool to be very good, plus we went to the Top of the world restaurant.
That was a fantastic experience.
The elevator up goes 21 mph. This is apparently enough to get me woozy. The structure is the tallest in Vegas and the view is majestic.
In the pictures you will see that when we first sat down for dinner we were facing the sun and Megan's eyes turned the wildest color. The kids got steak at a fancy spinning steakhouse and loved it.
We went to sleep tired from all the hiking around but full of delicious food and comfortable.
Day 5 - Thursday
I got up very early in the morning again and decided to use my time wisely. Thursday was our last day with the car so I got onto Recreation.gov and got some timed entry tickets for Red Rock while there were plenty to be had.
By the time everyone was up I was raring to go. This time we tried another good new coffee shop on the way to Red Rock, this one called Mothership coffee.
Then we drove up and got in through the ticket check. We stopped at the visitor center for water and maps and a bathroom break. There was an adorable bat in the women's room and half the people were freaking out and half the people there were cooing over it.
When you see a slightly blurry picture in the Thursday photos that's the bat.
We picked a few trails to try out based on distance and rock types and added a very easy-to-get-to Petroglyph wall to our itinerary and headed out on the scenic loop.
It was gorgeous.
I think given my druthers I would stay up there at Red Rock for a few weeks to hike and ride all over that park.
We saw beautiful and ancient things. I identified about 20 new species on my Seek app and we overheated a bit.
Then we headed to the car place to drop off our SUV.
The rest of the day was a whirlwind. we went to the Horseshoe to try their Twilight Zone minigolf. It was dark and cool and maybe a bit too loud but fantastic. Kiernan won and David and I tied. We never tie this was a major problem for our long running minigolf bet.
Usually I bet him a cheesecake that I will win but we don’t know what to do with a tie. I am still stumped about that outcome.
David and the kids had a reservation at Gordon Ramsey's Hells Kitchen for dinner and I had a Vegan Taco place I wanted to try out so we went back to the Strat to cool off and clean up before heading back out for dinner. Kiernan had a heat induced migraine and took all the meds.
The kids had steak at the Top of the World the night before so Megan repeated her order, New York Strip steak, to run a comparison (it was a toss up). David and Kiernan got the Beef Wellington to see how the signature dish held up (it was quite good) and they all split a sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
Kiernan makes a mean sticky toffee pudding and we were all curious about how the celebrity chef version would compare.
They all agreed that his is better in flavor but that the Ramsey version is better in texture.
He was chuffed.
Meanwhile I toured around Ceases Palace, I loved it! Then I went to find Tacotarian, which I also loved.
We met up after dinner and compared notes and moseyed further up the strip to check out the Venetian and its indoor canals.
We saw some great theming there but Kiernan was feeling less and less well so we grabbed a Lyft back to the Strat and called it a night.
Day 6 and 7 - Friday and home
Our flight out was midday Friday but we didn't do much other than pack up and try to get to the airport a little early. Its a good thing we did too because the TSA lines were nuts and then our gate got changed and even once we were boarded the we had to go back to the departure gate to check a maintenance issue. By the time we got onto the runway we were 12thin line for take off and windy conditions had set in just in time for a bumpy first bit.
Woof!
We lost time getting home and moving back to Easter Standard Time and that plus the delay had us searching the long term parking lot at nearly 10pm but we made it.
I booked us a Friday departure partly to save money on the ticket and partially to give us some good recovery time after the trip.
We needed it!
The next morning we piled up laundry and got groceries and spent the rest of the day moving from couch to hammock to kitchen to hammock.
All trips should end with some recovery time built in.
It was just right and great to be home.
Everyone had a great time and everyone left with a list of things to be done on our next trip to Vegas.
