Viva Las Vegas

For our anniversary, the kids went to Nanny’s house and we went to Vegas. Mike has been a few times both on business and pleasure (Nick’s bachelor party). However, I had never been and he told me it was a sight to behold. I found that he was absolutely right (surprise, surprise). A sight to behold it was.

We got there Friday night fairly late, and checked into the hotel (way off-strip). Then Mike decided to take me to Freemont Street (downtown/old Vegas) via Las Vegas Blvd (the Strip). I found myself speechless, believe it or not, as we drove down Las Vegas Blvd and I took in the spectacle of it all. The neon lights, the gaudy monstrosities that are the hotels, the glow of electric sex gleaming everywhere. (What 2 movies did I just quote?)

We made it to Freemont Street and just walked up and down and actually did sit down at a Black-Jack table for 5 minutes and dropped $60 – the only money we spent gambling the entire time we were there. Mostly I just continued my gawking at and taking pictures of all the lights (as I mentally planned out a scrapbook page about them).

Saturday morning we drove down to Hoover Dam and took a tour which was very interesting. I have to admit I didn't think that visitng a dam was going to be very exciting. However, it was a lot more impressive and pretty than I expected. I'd be interested to go back once they have the new bridge built (in 2010 they're anticipating).

Then that afternoon we went back to the Strip (which looks very different by day) and just walked through some of the bigger hotels and casinos (Paris, Bellagio, New York). We kept trying to ride the roller-coaster at New York - New York, but the wind was so wicked that it wasn’t running all day. We finally left to go back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at about 6 pm.

Feeling like we were in college or DINKs again, we made 9:30 pm dinner reservations at Mario Batali’s restaurant at the Venetian. As we were on our way there, I heard the wonderful screams of people enjoying a roller-coaster and sure enough, it was finally running. We had a wonderful dinner then sprinted back across town to make the last run of the night on the Manhattan Express roller coaster (it was straight-up midnight).

So that’s how we said “Happy Anniversary” to one another… a roller-coaster ride. Pretty appropriate for 12 years of marriage, don’t you think? If you’re married, you know what I mean. It can be a roller-coaster of ups, downs, twists, turns, and sometimes you do feel like you’re doing a barrel roll. And, unfortunately, like this particular ride, sometimes in marriage, we get a little beat up emotionally (both of us have bruises on our shoulders from the harness). But in the end, for us anyways, in spite of all of that, we still have a great time.

So, my thoughts on Vegas... “Wow.” That’s about all I can say, is “Wow.” That and hedonism. Although I knew it, I didn’t really have a correct vision of how much that town is really just all about money and sex – what ever feels good, do it. To see it up close and personal is really eye-opening to the state of our society and what we find to be acceptable. I’m not anywhere near as naive as I was in college, but I still find my self amazed at some of the things people do.

For instance…

• Men and women standing on the sidewalks along the Strip handing out fliers for hookers and wearing t-shirts that read, “Girls – Direct to you in 20 minutes.”


• The Adult Movie Awards are going to be there next week. (I didn’t realize there was such a thing.)


• Most ads overtly used sex in some way to sell their product or show. Especially at the Paris hotel and casino. It was really overt there.


• Although people say gambling is just entertainment for them (just like going to a movie), we saw very few people sitting at the tables that looked like they were having any fun at all. And most of the people at the slot machines looked bored to tears.


• They don’t just have billboards and signs out front… most casinos have the huge megatron screen things. And many of them, at one point or another, have seductive and almost lude images of women taking off their clothes.

Mike and I had many conversations about things we saw and experienced. Here is one of our conclusions…

Although we think it is never an acceptable place to take children (even teens), as Mike and I discussed it, we decided that it is something any parent of small children should see and experience. We need to have it shoved in our faces like that to remind us to be vigilant about being the filters for our children. To be sure to teach them the correct views of money and sex – that neither is the way to happiness and both are to be treated carefully, not with wanton disregard. To pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal wisdom to them so that they can see something like that for what it is.

Please don’t misunderstand me.

We really had a good time just spending time together. We did a lot of people watching and just walking around looking at the different shops (I saw some really beautiful Jimmy Choos that were on sale for only $275 – just once I’d like to be able to afford that). It was fun to take it all in. The roller-coaster was fun (the one thing I really wanted to do) even though I had to ride it in my cocktail dress from dinner and it did beat us up a bit. The fountain at the Bellagio is beautiful, even though the one show we were able to stand and watch in its entirety was a Celine Dion song (seriously?). Dinner was very good. We didn’t have a whole lot of time, and there were other things I would have loved to do or see. But overall, we really had a great time just doing our own thing.

By the way, the kids had a great time at Nanny’s house, too. So much that Nathan spent the entire hour after they got home and nanny left until he went to bed crying, “Nanny, come back!” It was so pathetic. What kind of Nanny crack does she give them?