Daphne and I haven't been to Las Vegas in over a decade, and we both agreed that the city seemed cleaner. I was pleased to see that the guys standing on every corner handing out "adult advertising" were all but gone. They have been replaced with guys in superhero costumes and women dressed up like chorus girls asking for a $20 tip when you take a picture with them. The scantingly-dressed cocktail waitresses handing out free drinks to players were also gone. The casinos we walked through were much quieter, and families walking around with young kids were not out of the ordinary.
We chose to stay at the MGM hotel because their pool area has a lazy river. We could also get two beds instead of only one. We didn't know it at the time, but the MGM is the largest hotel in Vegas. That might explain why the check-in on Sunday afternoon was such a zoo. The lines were longer than anything we saw at the airports. Daphne skipped the hour wait by using the unweildly MGM app to print room keys at a kiosk... she's my hero.
We researched family-friendly shows and chose to see the magician Shim Lim on Sunday night. We had watched Shim Lim win America's Got Talent (twice) and fool Penn and Teller (twice) on TV, so we were excited to see him in person.
You can't take pics during the performance. But here's our view of the stage.
Then we discovered that we were in the wrong section. I thought the correct ticket holders were more self-righteous than understanding. We apologized and moved to the correct section of the theater and sat in much better seats. Take
that, Karen.
There was an audience participation trick that was pretty cool, but I won't spoil it for anyone.
Mind reader Colin Cloud, another AGT act, was also performing in the show, and to be honest, Char enjoyed him as much or more than Mr. Lim.
We all had fun, but the painfully bright lights flashing at the end of the show put the BMG slightly below Shim Lim and Colin Cloud on Char's ranking.
We didn't need tickets to see the show that Daphne most wanted to share with Charlotte. Seeing the Fountains of Bellagio for the first time is one of Daphne's favorite memories from our honeymoon. Char was dubious, but when the fountains exploded to life during Lee Greenwood's "
God Bless the USA", Char was very impressed. During our three days in Vegas, we watched the fountains perform five times. If it had been cooler in Nevada, we would have seen more than that.
You can plan out a vacation all you want, but it's usually the fun surprises that make the best memories. I had not heard of Shake Shack, but it looked like a safe bet when were searching for something to eat after getting into our room at the MGM.
It was a mid-afternoon on Sunday after spending a long morning at the Grand Canyon, and we were all a bit hangry. But, dang did these burgers, fries, and chicken nuggets taste good. I thought that might just have been our hunger, but we went back on Monday afternoon and the meal was just as good.
The closest Shake Shack to us is in the Mall of America, so if we get there this fall, you know where you will find us. Char will now be comparing every shake she has against the high bar set by the Shack.
Another surprise drove under us as we crossed a walkway from one side of the strip to the other. We saw a truck sporting the ads for this show:
FYI: "Potted"
Potted Potter was the show Daphne was most excited about when we were brainstorming this trip, but the show was closed at that time. She was really bummed about that. When Daph saw that the show was back in action, so was she. Daphne booked tickets for Tuesday at 8 PM when we got back in our hotel room. We didn't tell Charlotte until the day of the show.
Our last day in Vegas was
literary our busiest. We spent over four hours at the pools and lazy river, and then checked out
The Hunger Games: The Exhibition at our hotel.
Down with President Snow!
You can sit in his chair, though.
They also have interactive trivia. Just jump on the circle with the right answer.
Char wasn't too impressed with the authentic costumes and props from the movies, but she sure got into the shooting range. After a week at the "Archers and Arrows" Girl Scouts camp, she was ready to hit the stationary, moving, and disappearing targets. We all agreed. This was the best part of the exhibit.
Then we were off to Bally's to see the Potted Potter show. We were early enough to have dinner at Buca Di Beppo. We had our wedding rehearsal dinner at Buca, but that Des Moines location closed years ago. It was fun to revisit.
The Potted show is just two actors, a few stage props, and simple costumes changes (think: hats). It took a couple of minutes for the audience to understand what kind of a show we were in for. After that, the Potter show was great! The two actors did a great job on mixing lines of dialog with improv. The theater was tiny for Vegas standards. There wasn't a bad seat to be had. I wondered if this is what off-Broadway would be like, and it turns out this show had played there.
We ended up in the front row, and one of the guys kept telling Charlotte she had to play keeper in the upcoming quidditch match. The 70-minute show flew by, and the jokes came at us so fast and so often we struggled to remember them later. On the way home each of us repeated lines from parts of the show the others had forgotten. I especially enjoyed the self-deprecating humor.
At end, the actors ran back onto the stage for a final round of applause. One had three stuffed animal owls that he threw out into the audience. He tossed the last "Hedwig" to Char. Had he known her love of stuffed animals, he would have understood that he had created her favorite moment of the summer. She just beamed.
Random Vegas pics:
Turns out that the only gamble we took was actually just going to Las Vegas.
I like to watch local news when we travel. It solidifies the fact we aren't at home. But it was a bit disconcerting to watch the reports about major US cities like Chicago warning citizens to not travel to Las Vegas. We had booked this trip at the end of June when the COVID numbers were really low. Had we planned to take our trip much later, we might have had to cancelled it.
Daphne and I did our best to keep Charlotte safe. We all masked indoors and did our best to keep Char out of long lines and tight places. Still, we worried if we were doing the right things in the wrong place.
Man, we can't wait for a vaccine that's approved for children under 12.
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