The Nelsons: Las Vegas - Day 3 (June 17)

This morning we woke up refreshed after a much better night's sleep. We pulled out the Pack n' Play and froggie night light so Calvin would feel a bit more at home. I got the essentials of my work done late at night, and were finally ready to actually go see some of the city.

I had looked up some kid friendly activities to do in Vegas, and one thing I found was the gondola rides at the Venetian, so we headed over there. After parking and walking the entire length of the hotel twice and letting Calvin play in the big fountains outside, we finally found the boats. There was no line, so we decided to grab lunch first. We ate at Johnny Rocket and it was the worst hamburger I've ever paid $15 for. It had gobs and gobs of mayo and a tiny skinny patty. Blech. Andy liked his club sandwich though, and Calvin was beyond thrilled that I let french fries and root beer constitute as a well-rounded meal.

While we were walking through one of the casinos, I snapped a picture of Calvin at a slot machine. A scantily clad waitress freaked out that it was illegal for a child to be in there and they could get in serious trouble if I took a picture. I won't mention the casino's name so they don't get in trouble, but I will post my picture.

When we went back to the boats, there was, of course, a huge line. I tried to get tickets, but the boy was getting grumpy at that point and just wanted a nap. Instead, we just grabbed some gelato from the little Italian stand and headed out. Okay, so how is that stuff so heavenly? When I was in Italy with friends, we ate the stuff like 3 times a day. I think I gained 10lbs in a week, but it's so worth it. I always get Spumoni. I have no idea what it even is, but it always makes me happy. The gelato at the Venetian was no exception.

After naps at the hotel, we met back up with the group and had dinner at House of Blues. It was a fun restaurant because the food was wonderful, and Calvin loved playing with the New Orleans folk art chairs with their keys and locks jingling. The place had great art and loud music and was fun to visit.

After dinner Danny and Annette were kind enough to watch the boy while Andy and I went to see the Bodies Exhibit which I have wanted to see since it was in D.C., and then again in SLC, and then again in Tampa. It's an exhibit about the body, where everything in there is from real human bodies. There are full bodies and then dissected bodies, all of which have been amazingly preserved. It was really fascinating and I'm glad we finally went, but it was also somewhat disturbing. The disturbing parts were:

The body hair. Mustaches, eyebrows, shaved head hair. It was just weird when the bodies had been completely skinned, but they still had traces of hair.
The smell of the bodies if you got too close.
The belly buttons left with all of the surrounding skin removed.
The full body skin, reminiscent of the Silence of the Lambs skin suits.
The entire fetus room, but especially the conjoined twins. I honestly don't know how anyone could see how fully developed a baby is even after 45 days and end a pregnancy.
The smokers lung and drinkers liver.
A few other things that are inappropriate to mention.

Overall though, it was really intriguing and I would recommend it to anyone. Once we finished the exhibit, we met up with the group again and went to the old strip for a light show. There were lots of drunks doing funky dances, a creepy blond girl with ginormous eyes following Andy around staring at him, and a light show of Queen where are all of the old ladies stamped their feet and clapped along with We Will Rock You. We kept the boy out way too late, but otherwise it was a lot of fun. We got back to the hotel at about 1am. And that was our day. The End.

This was after my camera died and I had to buy a disposable one....