Las Vegas

For a city I once could only take for a day and a half I sure have a different attitude about Las Vegas. 

Our kids have been on spring break since last Friday and we had no plans to do anything.  Looking out at all of the snow I was becoming more and more antsy to get them some sun and warmth.  A good dose of vitamin D was just the answer.  Jack had unburied the camper and hauled the bikes out of our shed.  Except, Hannah still doesn't have a bike.  We gave it away last year before we left for Costa Rica because she had outgrown it.  I kept thinking of where we were going to go camping and even though it sounded great I knew it would be cold in the morning and night and I really didn't want to put on my down jacket, not even once.  Plus, Jack mentioned, casually, that the heater wasn't working in the camper.  I don't think so. 
I got on the computer and started looking for cheap hotel rooms in Las Vegas.  There were many.  Now, I had to convince Jack and the girls that the Bussys needed a good road trip.  I had stashed most of my cash tip money from the winter so I could justify the cost.  Which was not much considering I booked a hotel for 2 nights at $34.00/night for the 4 of us.  I sold my trip to the family, not easily mind you, but it sold.  We loaded the car at 8p.m. Monday night and drove.  Jack didn't want to drive the whole way on Tuesday so we drove to Grand Junction and got a good nights sleep. 
The next day we made it to Las Vegas and it was 77 degrees when we arrived. 
After spending a few hours on the computer at home looking for a place to stay I booked a room at a hotel downtown.  I figured we had never explored the downtown area.  Plus, I splurged and booked us a room on the strip for our last night.  I knew we could only handle the strip for so long. 
We found our hotel, The California, which was in a great location a block off of Fremont street.  We checked into our clean, non-smoking room and I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't smell like rank smoke, the hotel was clean, the room was big and bright and nice and the beds were wonderful.  So far so good. After getting off on the 13th floor I had my doubts.  I'm not kidding.  We were on the 13th floor.  Superstitious??  Not really. 
We decided to find the pool and get on our suits and lounge.  After all, we came here for the sun and warmth.  It was now 80 degrees after all.  The pool was a disappointment though.  It was ice cold and small but we enjoyed the pool  anyway and of course, the girls went swimming regardless of the temp.  It was nice. 
We went back to the room and got ready to explore.  I had done some research on the downtown area and I liked the thought of the Fremont Street Experience.  Not knowing exactly what that was we would soon find out. We walked the block to the pedestrian mall and it was all action.  Not many people but for us coming straight from Montezuma, the lights, shops, casino's, it was action.  We walked up and down and found a restaurant that was serving 2 for one dinners and decided on that for dinner.  We were still a couple of hours from dinner time so back to the room for a bit.  We all chilled and explored our hotel and found shops and the arcade and the 9 different restaurants and we were getting the lay of the land.   We were now ready for dinner and walked back to Fremont Street and things had changed.  It was happening.  There were people everywhere and street shows anywhere you looked and it was going on.  We were the rubber neck family and loving it.  We ate dinner and as we were walking back it was 3 minutes to 8 and Jack got a feeling something was going to happen.  Hundreds of people were standing, no one was walking anymore and all of a sudden  all of the casinos turned off their lights and the music started playing.  Coming out of the speakers throughout the mall was Don McLeans, American Pie.  It was in sync to the video that ran the entire distance of Fremont Street and the video was showing above our heads.  It was incredible.  If you have never seen this, go downtown and experience that.  It was so cool and I couldn't get over the fact that we were watching this amazing show.  We were just in awe over this.  Everyone was.
The Bussys were warm and happy.