We had never taken the kids to Vegas so we decided to splurge on the Mirage and go see what we could find to do. Turns out Vegas is not very fun for families, lol. I hear about people going to Vegas a lot it seems. And I think we would've had fun at the pool, except that they close the pool at 5pm. We didn't get there until 4. I guess they want you to go spend money at the casino's and other entertainment options in the evenings. But really, I think it's because there's not too many people using it then and they don't want to pay for the staff (they have staff manning the gate and handing out towels, etc.) And the pool didn't open until 10am, and we had to check out at 11. So basically the pool does not work for anyone only staying one night. Super lame especially since it was actually a bit warmer that day.
Walking the Strip is always an interesting experience. The kids saw a lot of people that were different than the kind of people they are used to. It was crowded, and nobody was wearing masks outside. We wanted to eat at Cheesecake Factory (Kylee really wanted to, I didn't care much) but we didn't want to waste our whole night waiting for a table. So I convinced the kids to eat across the street at McDonald's and Chipotle instead. Then we walked. Walking was great except that my foot was killing me. You see, I started to get some tendinitis over the winter between lifting and yoga and running. It was manageable for the most part, but my marathon training was getting to be more miles. While I was in Arizona I ran 20 miles (along the canal path which was pretty cool and only a little sketchy at one time) and my foot didn't hurt while I was running, at least not much. And I took ibuprofen. We even walked around the aquarium and stuff that day and I don't remember it hurting too much. But I didn't take ibuprofen on the Vegas day because we were just driving. So when we were walking, my foot started hurting so bad I was limping and had to rest and take my shoes off to give my feet a break (while the kids had a second burger because they were all hungry again). We walked over to watch the water show and get some ice cream and the kids were all bored and my foot was killing me so we were all happy to head back to the hotel. I was wearing my IFTR sweatshirt, which I love. But on the back it says, "sounds like a bad idea, I'm in". I realized the people of Vegas are going to think it's referring to much different bad ideas than it's intended to (hiking in the snow, running all night long, etc). Only one stranger started a conversation about it with me, but it made Ryan want to stay close to me instead of ditching me and Kaden (Kaden is always a little slower, especially when he's trying to eat ice cream). We made it in time to watch the fire show at the Mirage. Then we went back in and hung out. The kids were not impressed with the Strip, but they were also not impressed with the hotel at all. We didn't pay extra for the wifi, and my phone had almost no data service in the room. The fridge was full of junk they wanted us to buy so we could not use it for our own stuff. The pool hours were lame. And I was super annoyed that the gym didn't open until 9am. I guess nobody in Vegas wakes up early to work out? Again, they had employees there, not like a regular hotel gym. Of course this gym was huge, because the hotel had hundreds of rooms. We had to park far away too, especially because our car had a cargo storage bin on top and it wouldn't fit in the regular parking. Not to mention it takes forever just to walk through the hotel. Let's just say we aren't planning to go back anytime soon.
