Viva Las Vegas

As we were driving from Zion to Anaheim we realized we would be driving right through the heart of Las Vegas. And you cannot, I mean simply canNOT, drive through Vegas and not stop. So, we explained to the kids that they were about to enter a whole new world, one that is not completely appropriate to kids! We made them promise to stay close by us, we parked by the Excalibur and started our tour....


This is walking from the bridge at Excalibur over to New York, New York. MGM Grand is across the street from New York, New York.

Interesting little fact...Jimmy and I took a week vacation when we were 3 months pregnant with Kaylee to Las Vegas and stayed at the New York, New York. It was really neat to be back there with three kiddos now.

Statue of Liberty made out of jelly beans...sooo cool!

Harley Davidson Cafe.



One thing I remember most about our trip 12 years ago was the tour at the Coca Cola factory. Well, they stopped giving tours 10 years ago but they still do the taste tests. They give you 16 different flavors of pop that are popular around the world and put them on a numbered tray. The numbers correspond to a list of countries and flavor of pop. The kids LOVED the taste test...even the disgusting ones (the one from Italy was voted unanimously as the worst of all!). It was definitely the highlight of the afternoon.


Right next door to Coca Cola is the M&M store....I'm talking 4 stories of M&M bliss!




We stopped and ate back at New York, New York and then Jim and I took turns doing a little gambling. Jimmy headed out with $21 and was back in less than 5 minutes completely broke. Ummm...what was THAT?? I decided to go out and play $5. I tripled it to $15 and then we headed back onto the road.

This is what happens to my conservative James after being exposed to Sin City for a few hours!!


All in all, it was a fun stop for the whole family. The boys were very interested in the cards with naked woman that were laying all over the streets. They got to see some women wearing a little less than what would be appropriate on the beach. And they saw some billboard signs that were nothing like the ones back home!

More than anything it was a nice break in the middle of our 6 hour drive to Cali!