Day 1 -What happens in Vegas should Stay in Vegas!

We started our road trip Saturday morning with a brand new car thanks to the Toyota not passing inspection and deciding that it wasn't worth putting money into a car that has over 200,000 miles on it. We found the portable DVD player at the last moment and hooked it up, but later remembered that Adelle gets car sick, so it was on sparingly. Violet did pretty well driving and we made it into Las Vegas in the late afternoon.

We stayed at the Best Western Mardi Gras instead of directly on the strip. We got a killer deal; the best rate of the whole trip and the room was pretty nice! Wes and the girls had never had a chance to visit the strip so we thought we would venture out for a little while to see the sights.

We decided to drive instead of taking the hotel shuttle so we could come and go as we pleased. The "sights" began early. Lydia spotted a vehicle that was advertising for female escorts. She was shocked to see the girl wearing next to nothing. Adelle was mesmerized by some girls partying in a SUV with their mega drinks. We all caught ourselves staring which encouraged them to liven things up even more. I asked Adelle to stop staring and she said "I can't resist".

It took us a little while to figure out where to park, but we ended up making it to the the mega MGM parking garage. We started our innocent walking adventure. I assumed we needed to go through the casino to make it to the actual strip. We found ourselves in a large lobby and took some pictures in front of the lion statue.

From there we headed through the casino section. It was a Saturday night and perhaps that should have kept us away. Things were wild, from girls in skimpy bikinis, and men in next to nothing showing practically everything (including some pink tight shorts). We felt so out of place with our little family. We knew though we were invading on their territory. We ended up walking quite aways into the hotel until we realized we'd gone the wrong way and sure enough we had to skirt the casino floor again which this time gave us a view of more party people including an inflatable female doll. At least she was wearing a shirt. Lydia was clinging onto me with all her might and looked so uncomfortable.

When we finally made it to the strip we took more pictures, this time in front of the giant, gold lion in front of the MGM. We then made our way further down the strip to be greeted by characters ranging from Michael Jackson, a smoking Jack Sparrow, a shady Hello Kitty and a Disney Character that looking a little off. Adelle seemed thrilled but I kept her walking and advised her she would get to meet a lot of characters in the park.

We tried the M&M store but with our stroller it was somewhat difficult and we decided not to hit more floors of the store. Instead we headed across the street to see New York, New York. On the bridge we met quite a few homeless folks and their signs, including one that was doing "alcohol research". We headed into the shopping area of New York, New York to be greeted by more party people yelling, whooping and flinging their drinks around.

We quickly made our way back to our car and heaved a sigh of relief. Lydia said Vegas was completely awful and she never, ever wants to see it again. She appeared to still be in shock from the sights, which mostly had been missed by Adelle. With Lydia being almost 11 she was much more aware. I have been to Vegas before and have seen it's better sides. The only thing I can figure is that we hit it at it's bewitching time on a Saturday night.

We snuggled down in our room and listened to the monorail zooming by and the party continuing on. I was more than content to leave it behind to head to Disneyland the next day :)