Vegas, Venetian and Kids

My Mom and I hit the road for Vegas with Lulu (2) and Westin (4) in tow last weekend. As we prepared to leave Salt Lake, all my fears began to overcome me about whether it was really a good idea to take two young kids to Vegas, especially since the weather seemed to be taking a turn for the worse. Our sunny vacation plans were suddenly coming to a halt and my anxiety was taking over. But, the excitement of getting away for a few days, the kids’ excitement to go somewhere new, and the allure of the Venetian, overcame me and to my incessant beckoning for the kids to sleep during more of the drive, we ended up leaving Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning as originally planned.

At about 7:30pm we hit the road – full bellies and a long day at school working in our favor. Although, I must admit, working all day to then hit the road driving for four hours to reach St. George was a double edged sword. While I was relieved to have the kids sleeping, I was a bit nervous about my tiredness taking over. Apparently, the long, dark road gives you no real inclination of speed (actually it really wouldn’t matter either way, as I looked down to see 105 a few minutes before and decided to slow down – it just sounds like a good excuse)… Flashing lights behind me and the sinking feeling that it’s too late to hit the brakes overcame me as I saw not one, but two sets of flashing lights come up behind me, and the conversation that T and I had before I left about him not wanting to get a phone call that he needed to come get his kids from the middle of nowhere and his wife was in jail and I mentally curse myself for not taking the radar detector… Yeah. Fun. The cops, of course, come up and smugly inform me that I was tagged at 89 by one of them and 90 by the other. Whew. Should I admit I was relieved at that point? Still. Their buttery sweetness of questions, “Where are you trying to get to in such a hurry? Blah, blah, blah…” sifted through my head as I couldn’t help but hope that they’d let me off. Oh wait. They ask for the license, registration, and insurance. Excuse my language, but shit. The insurance card is expired. Son of a bleep, bleep, bleep!!! He tells me he’ll start entering my info and for me to flash my lights once I find the right card. I look. My Mom looks. We look again. And again. Oh dear God please don’t give me two citations tonight. Of course, my Dad’s car is so clean the other card couldn’t possibly be in there, but we keep looking. And then try to text to see if someone can send us a picture. Lulu starts to wake up and cry. Westin semi wakes up and tries to figure out what’s going on. The cop walks back up, paperwork in hand. Ugh. He oh so sweetly informs me he’ll give me a verbal warning for the insurance card, but hands me the speeding ticket and explains what I need to do next, to watch my speed, you know, the whole shpeal. I’m really not listening. And then, we’re off again. And Lulu is asking to go pee. And I catch myself speeding again. How oh how am I supposed to get to St. George in one piece if I can’t JUST DRIVE? I finally figure out how to set the cruise control and lock it in 2, then 3 miles above the speed limit and try to get us there.

Well, somehow, we made it the rest of the way there without a second ticket (probably thanks to setting the cruise on – even though I was cursing how slow it felt). And, we didn’t have any potty accidents. Whew. So, we check in the room around 12:30 am and suddenly the kids are WIDE AWAKE. I mean, they want snacks, they want to play, jump on the bed, the whole bit. Surprisingly, I was still quite awake at that point too, but knew we should get some rest and not bother everyone else in the hotel, so we tried to let them get some wiggles out and snacks in, then back to bed. Who wants to sleep with Mimi?!?! Great. They both want to sleep with Mom (me). Oh well. We climb into bed and I’m snuggle attacked from both sides. Part of me loves it and part of me just wants a little room to spread out. I’m too tired to debate. We go to sleep.

Morning comes, and the kids ACTUALLY slept past 8:30! Wow. I think it was about 9:00 am. I’m restless, so Lulu and I get up and head to check out the breakfast buffet – of course, Mimi and Westin weren’t far behind! We get some food, and wow, this whole eating healthy thing really puts a damper on the hotel breakfast buffet idea – I look at everything and kind of cringe. Even the yogurt tastes wrong – really, high fructose corn syrup in something that’s supposed to be healthy? Yuck. The kids are more enamored by watching The Price is Right on the TV than eating their pancakes (what is it about that show that draws in generation after generation?), so we head back to the room and relax for a while before getting back on the road. After packing everything back up, we thought about checking things out in St. George for a little while before driving to Vegas, but when we walked outside the hotel – holy windstorm! No thanks. We’ll take our chances on the room not being ready. And, we’re off.

The drive to Vegas was pretty uneventful. Lulu slept most of the way and Westin was forced to check out the Grand Canyon as we turned off the computer and experienced the amazing views  and gigantic tumbleweeds – I think he was quite bored actually, but I was again taken aback, as I am every time I pass through the grandiose canyon, by the scenery and wonderment of how it formed the way that it did? Was it earthquakes? Lakes? Rivers? All of the above? Anyway, as we approached Las Vegas the kids’ excitement set in, as they asked where it was? And when we pulled into town, Westin tried to comprehend Las Vegas as an entire city not just one place. Then, the approach to the hotel. The Venetian. Is. Beautiful. We chose to valet the car and just for a moment, I felt rich and famous as the valet opened my door. Then, we tried to help unload and reality came into play. The Audi was stuffed full of toys, bags, food, crap… Traveling with two young kids by car is not quite so glamorous. Oh well. By some sort of luck, they actually let us check in early so we were able to get into our room with no wait. We walked through the giant hallway with the elaborate paintings on the ceilings and then through the casino full of bright, flashing lights and the sounds of voices and games to get to our room and the kids’ eyes were wide with astonishment, awe, wonder… When we got to our room, it was my Mom and I whose eyes lit up with childish glee at the beautiful room we scored for such an amazing deal. It really was, quite elaborate and stunning. If you ever have the chance to stay in a suite at the Venetian – do it! The fluffy down comforters, modern décor, giant bathroom – even Westin’s eyes lit up at the gloriousness of it all. And, then, of course, it took all of two seconds to be overcome by the reality of kids and all of our things as the kids decided it was time to jump on the beds! But wow. Just wow   

Once we were all settled in to the room, it was time to eat! We decided to try out the Grand Lux at the Venetian and unfortunately, I would NOT recommend it, unless of course, you don’t mind waiting for an hour and a half to be served Chili’s/Applebee’s type food, and wait for 20 + minutes to pay for your check once you choke the food down, then go for it. The service started out great, they gave out cute little art things for the kids to play with, but we waited, and waited, and waited for our food after ordering off of the gargantuan menu. Which, probably would have been fine, the kids did pretty well, but we were starving and hoping for some good food. When they brought out the kids’ grilled cheese and fries, and the basket of bread we requested since our food was still not ready, it was the beginning of our disappointment in the quality of the highly acclaimed mostly, supposedly organic, food. The fries were pretty cold, the grilled cheese was lack-luster, and the bread basket was so-so. When our food came out, my Mom’s sandwich was like a glorified fast food version of a pita sandwich and my beet salad came with wilted iceberg lettuce – surprisingly, the beets were amazing. Needless to say, we didn’t bother with dessert. Oh well.

After lunch, it was time to do what the kids had been asking for for months – SWIMMING!!! We decided to check out the pool before getting dressed since when we pulled into town it was pretty chilly and windy. The 4^th level pool was beautiful and tastefully adorned, however, the wind was freezing! We were already cold BEFORE putting on our bathing suits and although there were people laying around the pool (most of them wrapped up in towels), not one person was actually IN the huge, gorgeous pool. Of course, Westin and Lulu didn’t care and they were raring to go, but the water was NOT warm enough for me to brave that battle. So, we walked around some more. Thankfully, we found another one of the Venetian’s much smaller pool areas on the 10^th level that was more protected by buildings and had much warmer waters! So, swimming it was. Thank God. The kids were happy and we were as satisfied as could be considering the cold weather.

Friday, we let the kids choose where to go, and with that, we ventured out to Circus Circus. Although you would expect somewhere that’s seemingly centered around the kids to be very kid-friendly for access, it really isn’t the easiest place to figure out. So, those with kids – I’ll give you a hint that they don’t make clear. If you want to get to the older area, where all of the arcade and fair type games, as well as the Circus acts are, go through the casino and if you have a stroller or wheelchair, find the circular ramp next to Rockin Ritas (or something like that), and that will lead you up to this area. Although old, and kind of dingy, the kids had fun and the games are pretty cheap, plus for free Circus acts/entertainment you can’t beat it. BUT if you’re looking for the rides, this is NOT where you’ll find them. Those are over in the Adventuredome, which is in a COMPLETELY different area of the hotel. To get to the Adventuredome, you’ll go through the main check in area and follow the signs up the escalator OR with a stroller/wheel chair, take the guest elevators to the second level. There are only about three rides that kids under 33” can ride, and if they’re taller than 33” they’ll need a ticket/pass (both Lulu and Westin were taller) and still cannot go on all of the rides – depending on their height, several rides will require a paying adult to ride with them. Helpful hint: look for coupons before you go and you can save some money on the passes! The Adventuredome was much cleaner and nicer than the old Circus, Circus area, but the prices and limitations reflect that.

Pizza, pizza, pizza – we LOVE pizza. Which means, of course, we had to go out for pizza! We went to Grimaldi’s in Palazzo and it was DELICIOUS! If you like thin crust pizza, you HAVE to try it – hands down, best I’ve ever had. Plus, they brought out pizza dough for the kids to play with, so they had a lot of fun waiting for their food and the service was excellent. HIGHLY recommend!

Margaritaville – great atmosphere, fun for the kids, but food was horrid. Westin is all about pirates, so he was enamored by the pirates walking around on their stilts making balloons, and he wasn’t opposed to the Margarita dancer either 😉 If you’re going for the environment, you’ll love it. But, in my opinion, if you like good food, go here for the drinks and show and pick somewhere else to eat!

As far as other things to do and see in Vegas with the kids, there’s lots. Obviously we went beyond these few stops, but they were our highlights. Oh, and I almost missed having a surprise lunch with Jaymi and Cori who happened to be in Vegas at the same time – so fun! There’s still a ton more that we could have seen and done. It’s just that, it was perfect as it was. My suggestion to traveling with young kids? Don’t make plans. Create options and go with the flow – let them help dictate/choose the activities so that if there’s something you really want to do there’s no fuss and they still feel in control. Bring lots of your own food and snacks so that you don’t have to eat out for every meal, saving money and creating a much more relaxing environment so they’re not stuck waiting for food when they’re not used to doing that at home – having breakfast in the room was awesome, the kids got their cereal, I got my smoothees and Mom went down and got her coffee and we were all set each day! Bring strollers if they’re small enough to ride in them if you’re going somewhere you’ll be walking a ton (Vegas is not very stroller/wheelchair friendly, but you figure it out and it’s so worth it). And, most importantly, If they’re tired, let them sleep, you’ll be thankful that you did! I planned for the worst and we honestly had very few battles and the trip was much better than I could have imagined!

The drive home? Well, that was long and arduous. Especially trying not to speed. The kids were tired Sunday morning after the long weekend, activities and being woken up to see the volcano erupt at the Mirage (worth every second)! They started the day out full on arguing about everything and I was tired. Thankful for my Shaklee Stress Relief or I’m not sure if I could have kept calm and collected, as I too, was feeling burned out. We made it to St. George for lunch without too many problems – even with a movie that decided to stop working on the way. After St. George, it was A LONG DRIVE HOME. Seriously, about every 20 minutes, one or both of the kids started crying that they needed to go to the bathroom. We made an extra four bathroom stops and both Mom and I were over it. But, we made it home in one piece. No tickets, no breakdowns, no potty accidents, and no blow ups. It did serve as a reminder of why it’s best to drive at night with kids though. All in all, we had a great time! And, although I had my doubts and hesitations, Vegas and the Venetian were a blast for a family vacation!