Catching up to local time - a day in Vegas! Day 1.

What do you do in Vegas with kids?  Well, I have to admit this is not my kids 1st trip to the strip - 

We were here just 1 1/2 years ago for a long weekend (stayed at Mandalay Bay at The Hotel).  I would highly recommend that hotel for families with kids-  We had a 2-room suite and the hotel has a wave pool, a lazy river, and is attached to an aquarium.  We traveled to the Hoover Dam, visited Ethel M candy factory, and we took the kids to a Cirque du Soleil show - Due to the government shutdown, we missed the opportunity to visit Red Rock Canyon and Mead Lake.

Flash forward to March 2015 :

Day 1
Today, was for relaxing, taking it easy, and acclimating to Pacific Time Zone.   We slept in to about 8:30am local time (11:30 EST) and made our way down to brunch at Bouchon around 10:30am - the kids raved about the Raspberry Beignets.   (We stayed at the Venetian this trip.)

The restaurant sits adjacent to the Garden Pool - where we actually spent much of our afternoon.   Even in this adult laden fantasyland, the pool was populated with a decent number of kids.  

Venetian Lobby

This was a great way to start our trip.  The kids love cities - we were able to rest, play, and enjoy a relaxed day before our hiking / skiing adventure began...

All good road trips start with a little travel drama

This blog, along with many of my others are meant for 2 purposes - one, quite selfishly, is to offer a photo snapshot and record of my family's trips for us - now that I don't print pictures or keep scrapbooks, this blog has become my record of what we experienced so that my children will always have access to it; and two, I hope it gives readers an opportunity to get some ideas to plan their own experiences.  Traveling is an active form of learning and experiencing this wonderful planet for us, and I hope that it will give you some ideas to plan your own experiences.

Upon leaving our hometown and heading to the airport, I was glad that I left plenty of time...we hit two major traffic jams and arrived an hour later to the airport than was originally intended, only to find out our flight had been delayed by 2 1/2 hours -I can't complain though.  If it hadn't been delayed I would have been a panicked mess, yelling at my kids to hurry and run to try to make the flight.  With the delay, we were able to get our bags checked, get through security, and have a leisurely dinner. 

...having good, experienced travelers is priceless ✈️💺❤️. They took the delay in stride and sat right down to start a movie and read a newly acquired magazine after dinner. 

 

We arrived at our 1st destination - our actual starting point for this "road trip" at 3:00am...welcome to Las Vegas. 

Shredding and Skiing the slopes at Park City Utah (Day 6-8)

For this ski and snowboard loving family, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to finish up our week of hiking with a visit to Park City, Utah.  (Days 6, 7, and 8)

youtube - video link: Skiing and Boarding :)



Happy Travels!  

May you have one "heck" of a trip!

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