Nothing fancy on the hotel front Friday night; we just pricelined a Hyatt Place near the Hard Rock Casino knowing that we’d be arriving late and wanting to do nothing but sleep (after stopping and having a late night Roberto’s run. Roberto’s in Vegas is no longer Roberto’s….it’s Don Tortaco’s).
This picture serves as a good enough introduction to the biggest hesitation about taking the boys to Vegas; the semi-naked women…the little cards offered as you walk by.
This is a nightclub outside of New York New York; Cpher told us to look up and check this out. We had briefed the boys before the trip that, well, there would be a lot of scantily clad women on posters and while we all could see them we didn’t have to pay too much attention to them or make a big deal about them. And for the most part, the boys were pretty good about this; I think once early on the eyes were lingering on the cards that laid on the crowd, but, a word or two of reminder and that was the end of that.
The boys actually got a pretty big kick out of the ‘flickers’; their name for the people passing out the cards. And I’ll give full credit, they certainly never offered the cards to the boys or to us when we were with the boys. For the rest of the trip, anytime we were walking or driving along the Strip, the boys were pointing out the ‘flickers’ to us.
Matthew and Kevin did the roller coaster at NYNY…..it was ok, Matthew was happy enough with it; Kevin a little bored, but, it takes a big thrill to impress Kevin nowadays (this last sentence is defined as ‘foreshadowing’).
After NYNY we crossed the street and picked up some spur-of-the-moment half price tickets to Viva Elvis and then wandered into MGM to see the lions. This is fric and frac waiting for the lions to come out.
This is the lioness eating a rawhide bone that’s bigger, but similar, to the ones we give Wiley and Holly on a regular basis. I’m betting that she is as protective as Wiley is when these appear….
And when the other lion came a calling, it was pretty clear that this was not sharing time…..
Having a drink at the waterfall…..
In the afternoon we headed out to our stop for this evening; Red Rocks Casino out on western edge of town. After checking in, we decided to head out to Red Rocks Canyon to see the sights.
One of the concerns about heading here, and to the Grand Canyon later, is that our boys don’t seem to have many moments where they consider that what they might be doing is dangerous. And common sense, especially around rock climbing activities, is definitely turned to ‘off’. And our trip here wasn’t their finest moment; a lot of three boys in three different directions, and not a lot of common sense about how to approach the area. In the end it was a good thing that we had this experience before heading to the Grand Canyon; it gave Mom and Dad a chance to have a very serious conversation with the boys
We did get a few good pictures here though….
Kevin presented his own problems here; he wanted to go where he could go….and into areas that were more difficult for the smaller Fric and Frac to access. A big argument about the unfairness of it all at the end of the stop, but, grudging agreement to limit his explorations in the future and be a good big brother…..
They had to climb up on to this rock to get this photo
I really liked this formation…..if you look at the top here you can see……
where Matthew stood while I took this picture from down below
We hiked down, and then up and around….this is looking east from about the farthest point we made it too on the trail
Panorama 1
Kevin had to help Fric and Frac get over there
Panorama 2
A rock formation from the other end of the 13-mile loop through the canyon…….
And this is the curtain before the beginning of Viva Elvis, the Cirque show playing at Aria. Everyone enjoyed it BUT it’s not your typical Cirque show; the acrobatics are diminished (the boys thought the best part was where they were on the trampolines) and the dancing is emphasized. Mom and Dad liked the Beatles show better, but, we had a lot of fun here as well…..
