Las Vegas

Friday after our various work was finished, we looked into going to a show.  I filtered my search by "family friendly" because ick. We'd heard good things about Donny and Marie's show.  We found discounted tickets.  We almost pulled the trigger, but it turns out we are both as tight fisted as each other.  We couldn't do it.  Sure, it was probably a great show, but was it $163 great?  Probably not.

It's nice to be compatible with your husband on such things.  There are other things we'd rather spend our $163 on.

We looked into going to a movie but there was nothing there that grabbed our attention either.  We're kind of picky about what movies we'll actually see in a theater (see tight fisted, above).

We decided to go exploring.  We saw the water show at the Bellagio, which was impressive.  We wandered through the Hershey's store and the Swatch store.  (I loved the Swatch store because of the nostalgia!  I loved my Swatch watches back in the day even though I couldn't really tell time on them.)

I texted this to Mark from the Hershey's store (although we both knew I wasn't seriously going to buy him any.)

That kid loves chocolate though.

We walked into the Coca-cola store and almost bought about 30 things, but didn't and we went to the M&M store which was pretty awesome, but again, we didn't buy anything.

We'd had about enough of the strip and its offerings and for sure didn't want to be there after dark.  Also, when you're a mom and have a definite mom look about you, no one hands you any of the repellent things they are trying to hand out on the Las Vegas strip.  I would just give them a look, by which I meant to say, "Do you want me to tell your mother?" and people sort of gave me a wide berth.

We happily left the strip and went for a drive.  We ventured into downtown Las Vegas which we'd never seen before.  It reminded us of Palm Desert (if Palm Desert had casinos) and was an interesting place--much more like the rest of the Nevada casinos I've been to.  Less over the top opulent and more Nevada casino.  I don't know how to describe it.

Anyway.

From there we went to the Las Vegas temple.  What a difference!  I loved it.  We walked around the grounds and felt peace and I decided maybe I did think it was possible to enjoy living in Las Vegas.  The plants and flowers were beautiful and it felt like a calm oasis.

We went to dinner after that and I loved observing the teenaged waiters and waitresses who spoke perfect English with no hint of an accent but then slid easily into perfect Spanish depending on the customers.  Bilingual kids impress me.

Saturday we went to the masters' graduation for WGU.  I maybe cried a little.  One of the speakers was a graduate who came to the U.S. illegally as a child.  In first grade she cried every day because she couldn't understand but her teachers patiently and kindly helped her and soon she learned English.  She wanted to be a teacher but because of her illegal status, she couldn't.  She finally was able to get citizenship and attend WGU while working.  Now her dream of teaching is realized.

I really like that Adam works there and that he is doing his little bit to help change lives.

After that we went to Boulder City, but not Hoover Dam, which is probably something few people do.  What can I say?  We're mavericks.  We ate lunch at a little kitschy restaurant that was good and then poked around the town a bit.  High on my list was to visit Goatfeathers and let me say.  It did not disappoint.

This is one of the ladies working at the store and yes, it was a little alarming when she was carrying around a gun and another guy that worked there told her it had been loaded for 6 months and she almost dropped it.

Adam surreptitiously took a picture because what else are you going to do under those circumstances?

We went to another antique shop and drove around the town and looked at the sights.  It was fun.

After we had exhausted all the Boulder City things to do, we returned to Las Vegas and Adam went to the afternoon undergraduate graduation and I read my book.

(It's a good book.)

When he was done we didn't feel like facing the strip again so we went to the Bass Pro Shop.  I mean, why not?  We are neither hunters nor fishers and I hate camping.  What's not to love?

I told Adam we had to buy one thing.  Hah!  We bought three.  (Also, Adam investigated the pontoon boats which was not what I had in mind when I said we had to buy one thing.) We texted pictures to our kids (which they didn't find as funny as we did.)

We went to Von's to buy dinner stuff and felt Safeway nostalgia because Von's and Safeway are the same.  That basil, pesto, sun-dried tomato pasta salad could change the world.

It was a relaxing enjoyable time, just the two of us, doing nothing significant.  It was the kind of vacation you return home from ready to conquer life.  (Which is a good thing because by life I mean laundry pile.)