Roving Cooks

April 17: Desert Hot Springs, CA to Las Vegas, NV. 238 miles, 4.5 hours

April 17-24: Southeastern Las Vegas/Boulder City area

Starting a slow trek north towards Yellowstone in May, we drove through the Mojave National Preserve towards Las Vegas (new state)! We saw a lot of desert sand, some mountains, and more Joshua trees, as well as this patch where one side of the road looks like it suffered from fire and the other side is still lush.

Just before Nevada, we also passed by some really bright towers, which we discovered is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. This seems like a good place to go solar.

Sunday we went to the Hoover Dam, an excellent feat of civil engineering. We walked across the Dam, and then (after obligatory stop at the souvenir shop) went for the walk across the Memorial Bridge to get the birds’ eye view of the Dam. The bridge is surprisingly new (completed in 2010), and project manager Jackie was pleased to see both a GANTT chart of the project and a financial pie chart stating that it came in at the original projected budget.

We lunched next to Lake Mead, where hordes of people were dumping bags of popcorn into the water, and teams of fat fish and spoiled ducks vied for a bite. We ourselves indulged in some delightfully fried foods.

Our RV Park for the week was a pretty crowded parking lot, but cell service was good. The pool was clean, if rather chilly after 2 weeks in the hot spring-fed pool of Desert Hot Springs, CA. Taking after Aunt Christine, Grayson’s favorite daily activities are the pool and followed by a long hot shower!

I had not really thought about taking the kids into Vegas (the last time I was here was my 2013 bachelorette party); but on a friend’s recommendation of the Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage (thanks, Sara!), I did a bit more research and found a plethora of family friendly daytime activities.

Tuesday we headed to the Mirage, where the habitat opened at 10 (I’m not sure anything is actually open before then). After being politely asked to exit the “employees access only” lot that I blindly followed Google into, we happened (randomly) upon the RV/large vehicle lot where a kind security guard assured me that I could park. Pretty sure that I was unknowingly taking advantage of some mom/”who’s this lost lady in the big truck” sympathy. In any case, both kids (Grayson begrudgingly) consented to hold my hand as we wandered our way through the casino. Madelyn seemed a bit shell shocked by the lights, noises, and slots, and Grayson is already making plans to come back when he’s of age. The dolphin training show was fantastic; either because of time of day/year or COVID, it was not crowded and we were able to be quite close to some amazing water-ballers. The full experience was not long – about an hour -so we headed back to Big Red, had a snack, and drove over to the Bellagio where I rolled the dice on whether the kids would find a lobby flower exhibit tolerable or terrible. To my pleasant surprise, they loved it! It was also short – probably about 20 minutes – and beautiful in view and fragrance.

Wednesday we did laundry, scootered around the playground, made banana bread and played.

Thursday we did a BIG DAY. We started at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium. While small compared to Chicago’s Shedd, it was a perfect size and layout for smaller legs with an impressive array of cool, odd, and scary looking sea creatures. Also, it has one of those tunnels where the fish (and sharks) swim above your head while you walk through.

We continued our adventure day at the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. In full transparency, I booked our tickets for this as a shameless ploy to gain mama awesomeness points and boost my ego. This did, in fact, earn me 10 million mama points (points can be used only for personal ego boost, expire within 1 hour of awarding). And, it was pretty fun; I’d recommend to anyone who likes superhero movies. I was also glad to learn that if I ever need a Mama-double, I can reach out to Scarlett J/Black Widow (Madelyn showed Daddy this picture of “Grayson and Mama” when we got home).

I was ready to call the day at 3:00, after wandering over to and through the Venetian in search of food more substantial than bunny crackers, scarfing a food court cheese pizza (I also bought a salad…) and cheering Madelyn’s discovery of fries dipped in parmesan AND ketchup. So, I asked the kids if they wanted to 1) get ice cream and head home; 2) get ice cream and head to the fountain show; or 3) head to the fountain show and seek out ice cream near there. Option 2 was chosen, so on we went! Now on a mission, I asked for directions to the nearest exit to “the real outside” (which did involve going through the Palazzo area with the fake sky, completely tripping Grayson out) and savored our selections on some steps overlooking gondolas and large buildings.

We then drove back to the Bellagio in time for the 4:00 Fountain show set to Cher’s “Life after Love”. Short, sweet, free.

Friday we packed up to continue north; we’re ready for a bit more moisture in the air!