Anyway, let's start at the beginning. In May, Doug's parents came down for a visit, during which Doug and I ran away to Vegas for 3 days to have our yearly getaway. Why Vegas you ask? Most people (LDS people that is) find the culture crude and uncomfortable, which can be true depending on where you wander. But Doug and I have been several times now, and the city seems to have cleaned itself up over the past few years. There were hardly any people handing out flyers or other such things, you didn't see pictures all over the ground. The people who go there by and large are there for the drinking and gamboling, but there is a surprising amount of families with children there to see the sights and enjoy the cheap accommodations, which brings me to the main reason we went. Our hotel, which was off the strip and not a casino (no gamboling at all in it actually) was $89 a night, and included a kitchen and a hot breakfast. It was great.
Our first day we went to the outlet malls and shopped till we dropped! Well, not really, but we outfitted Doug for the summer with new clothes which he was in desperate need of. Then we grabbed a quick dinner at the Golden Nugget Casino on Fremont street so we could have the Fremont experience that seemed so popular. It was definitely an experience. Fremont street is old Vegas, complete with the iconic cowboy sign, tons and tons of neon, girls in "costume" for the dealers, show girls in the street, and LOUD music. It was pretty cool, but very overwhelming at the same time. I finally had to leave because it was becoming too much of a sensory overload.
The next day we drove out to Hoover Dam. It was so hot, an quite windy up on the dam, which made for quite the updraft, which was rather inconvenient since I had decided to be "smart" and beat the heat by wearing a light, flowy skirt. I had quite the time keeping myself modest, which was funny considering what most of the other girls we wearing. :) We decided to do the whole tour, which was SO worth the price. Doug and I found the whole experience fascinating, and being able to go through the whole dam was really really cool. I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever gone to the dam but not gone inside. Afterwards we walked out onto the new Millennial bridge, then headed back to Vegas to get ready for our fancy dinner date.
This is my picture of the dam from the inside. I stuck my phone out of the vent and very carefully took a picture, praying I would not drop it into the water below! Turned out pretty dang cool!
Doug and I inside the dam. The vent behind me is where I took the picture.
Here we are all snazzed up for the night. We decided to splurg one night on a really nice dinner, so we made reservations at a french restaurant called Alize. It was pretty snazzy. It was on the very top of the Palms Resort, so we had a lovely view of Las Vegas when the sun was setting and the lights all came on. I ordered the poached salmon with hollendaise sauce and white asparagus with a crab, mushroom and spinach crepe. It was amazing. The salmon was probably the best I've ever had, but that crepe blew my mind. I could have eaten 20 of those. Doug had a rack of lamb with apricot couscous. Sooooo good. It was funny though, because we're LDS and I was (am) pregnant, so when they asked me specifically if I wanted a cocktail or coffee, I almost felt bad because they were so solicitous and kind. The staff was wonderful. I felt like a real lady, having my chair pulled out, my napkin laid out for me, etc etc. It was fun for one night.After dinner, we went to the Bellagio and wandered around their hotel and in their gardens and such, then went out and enjoyed the fountains and shopping areas. The next morning we just lazed around for a while and packed up and went home. It was so funny coming home. Our kids were glad to see us, of course, but my father-in-law was perhaps the most glad. He gave me a big hug and told me "Thank you so much for coming back! Three kids is a lot harder than I remember!" That comment kind of made my day. :)
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