Looking back

Vegas is squarely in the rear-view mirror with all it's bling and high concentration of international douchebaggery.

I knew it was full of bling going in -- that's the point of Vegas; everything is bigger, brighter and bolder than everywhere else -- but the douchebaggery? that was, well, more pronounced than I was expecting. For example, I didn't expect to walk out of the Miracle Mile stores at 6 pm and have to dodge vomiting partiers on The Strip.

But that wasn't the most surprising thing. What surprised me the most, was the pervasive cigarette smoke. I always thought the clean-air bylaws here in BC were a bit over-protective but going to Vegas was like stepping back in time. I do remember walking behind people smoking in the mall or sitting in a restaurant next to a smoker -- my Dad smokes, so I was raised around it but clearly my nose and lungs had completely forgotten the experiences. For Kiddo, it was a completely new and unpleasant experience.

With all that aside, there were some highlights: the monorail announcements are actually quite funny; the food in the MGM Grand restaurants was good -- even the ridiculous room service ($8 for two scrambled eggs and $6 for one slice of french toast) tasted good; and seeing the reality of what, for me, was basically a film set was worth doing.*

The above photo was, I think, one of Kiddo's highlights -- the Volcano dessert at the Rainforest Cafe. It was the same price as our entree, I think, and I would suspect about three thousand calories. Split three ways we still couldn't finish it, but she was very happy to dig into it.

So basically, we have crossed Vegas off our list of places to go and likely won't revisit unless we are drawn there by a convention -- and then we would go child-free.


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*Funny thing. Having watched hundreds of hours of CSI, I kept looking at every corner of of the city as a potential crime scene. Being the pessimist I am I do that regardless of my location but in Vegas it was that much more conscious.