What happens in Vegas ...!

So this week we had a little jaunt to Las Vegas for a few days to make the most of family time before school starts for Ethan next week (for which I think he is more than ready now!).  Besides, the Ballagio were doing a '3 nights for the price of 2' offer, so quite frankly it would have been rude not to.

Although it is just under five hours from here, it is a very straight forward and easy drive with long straight roads and beautiful scenery.  We drove by majestic mountains, the Joshua Tree National Forest (didn't realise it was an actual tree and not just the title of a U2 album) and once again, witnessed stunning Arizona skies with some of the loveliest cloud formations I have ever seen.  I think I could take a photo every day of the year and I would have 365 different skies ... hmmm, I can sense another photo album coming on ... #project365

Joshua Trees

The Bellagio was indeed lovely and lived up to our expectations in every way. You couldn't help but be impressed by the Murano glass ceiling decorations and the fabulous conservatory (although I had to agree somewhat with Youngest who exclaimed "OMG ... I've wandered into a Disney movie!")

"Under the Sea ... "

The beautiful colored glass ceiling at the Bellagio

If truth be known, this was also a bit of an exploratory trip prior to numerous friends' visits over the coming months who all seem to want to visit Vegas while they are here (can't think why?!) to see how easy it would be to include some 'adult time' at the casino, whilst feeling comfortable that we could leave the 'tweens' in the room and weren't too far away to be back in a few minutes if there was a problem.  (Some of the hotels are so huge that you would have to walk miles from the bedrooms before you reached the casino and I didn't feel comfortable with that).  The Bellagio fitted the bill perfectly in this respect.  Not so huge that everything was miles away, but big enough to allow the variety and freedom we wanted.  It transpired that this worked really well at the Ballagio - Ethan couldn't wait to get rid of us for a few hours each evening and was quite happy munching his way through snacks and sodas, chatting to his new American friends via the wonders of social media (mostly girls I have to say!) and watching Netflix ... thank God for Wifi!  Before we went anywhere though, I was obsessed with going through fire drill scenarios and making sure he knew what to do should the alarm go off when we weren't there. 

"Now, are you sure you'll be alright if we go downstairs for a couple of hours?"

"Well, I was perfectly fine until you started going on about being burnt alive in my bed ..."

As for Mr B and I, we were like a couple of naughty teenagers who had managed to give their teacher the slip for a couple of hours on a school trip and we had a hoot!  We had allocated ourselves a small amount each evening to play with and stuck mostly to the slot machines to make sure we got the most out of our evening (otherwise I think we would have been back in the room within half an hour) and of course took full advantage of the free cocktails offered at regular intervals!

We really should have had L plates, as neither of us really knew what we were doing and muddled our way along, somehow managing to win enough to top up our pot each time ensuring enough funds to last the evening.

Mr B with his girly cocktail!

During the daytime we enjoyed visiting some of the other hotels on the strip, marvelling at the sheer size of some, and the grandeur of others, and trying to navigate our way inside as much as possible,  venturing outside only when absolutely necessary as it was still hotter than hell.  Las Vegas is also a great place to indulge in our other favorite pastime - people watching - and we certainly saw some sights ... memorably a very large lady in yellow hot pants and matching crop top, prompting Ethan to remark "What's she come as ... Sponge Bob?"  :D 

All in all though a fun few days together and a successful fact finding mission - I have a feeling we could be visiting a few more times over the next year or so!

Hope you all had a good week too and those in the UK are enjoying some sunny weather too.

Thanks for dropping by,

TTFN

x