As much fun as we were having at Tahiti Village we decided to venture out a little bit. Of course we had to stop at Trader Joe's and stock up on the best dried fruit available. Seriously. My favorites are the dried baby pineapple, freeze dried mangoes, and dried montmorency cherries. Lots of other good stuff there too.
We had to go to Caesar's Palace as that's a staple in my memories of Las Vegas as a kid. We spent some time walking around the huge aquarium and the moving statues. The kids were a bit afraid of the show with the fire but after the fact they said they liked it.
We were there around lunchtime and I saw that Spago actually had kids' menus. I was quite astonished that a Wolfgang Puck restaurant inside Caesar's Palace would have these. So we went there for lunch.
It was really good. I can't remember exactly what I had but I know it was a halibut that was cooked perfectly and absolutely delicious. I don't remember what Brodie had but he really liked it as well. We were looking over the kids menu trying to decide and our waiter (who was the best waiter we've ever had) let us know that the kids pizza was actually larger than the adults. And the pizza meal was only like $6. So we ordered one pizza for the three kids to share. It came out shaped like Mickey Mouse so each girl ate an ear and Spencer ate the head and between the three of them they still didn't finish it all. I was really impressed.
From Caesar's we walked over to the Bellagio to see the gardens and fountains. I love walking through the gardens. Then we went outside and waited for the next fountain show. By then Clara had fallen asleep in the stroller but Tessa and Spencer were in awe as the fountains jumped and danced to the music. The kids also thought it was amusing to see some of their favorite characters like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse hanging out. Luckily they didn't recognize the large bottles of booze next to these characters slumped on the sidewalk.
Since we were right across from the Flamingo we decided to go see the flamingo habitat. Won't do that again. Wow, the street in front of the Flamingo was the most heavily littered with inappropriate pictures of all Las Vegas we walked through. And the flamingo habitat wasn't as cool as I remember. Tracy Aviary is better.
We also visited the M&M World. The kids wanted pictures by all the M&Ms and were amazed at the wall of M&Ms. We let them each choose out a relatively inexpensive souvenir and a container of M&Ms.
On a different day we stopped off at another Las Vegas standout in my memory. Circus Circus. This hotel is so dirty and run down but I remember it before all the other hotels popped up. And I used to think the circus acts were so cool. Since my kids have never been to an actual circus this is what they think a circus is. And it's free so we went. We were there for a trapeze performance. Then we spent $10 on games to let each of the bigger kids win a cheap stuffed animal that they loved.
Then we went to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. This is one of the few Las Vegas attractions I had never been to before so I was pretty excited. We paid way too much money in my opinion but I guess that's Vegas. It was cool, just over-priced. And the fact that it was over 100 degrees outside in April didn't make being outside that much more enjoyable. We were able to get up close to the dolphin pool. At first the dolphins were just swimming around so we sat and watched them. Then we went to the underground viewing and got to see them swim around. It was the closest I've been to dolphins and they were really sweet to watch. Then the trainers came and did a few tricks with them.
In the secret garden we saw a really beautiful white lion, some white tigers, and some other wild cats. That's all there was though. And in the heat we didn't want to sit around.
Then we stopped at a shopping area right by our hotel where there was a kids playground. There was a little kids' maze that was short enough I could see the kids' heads, a playground with a slide and some ride on toys, a little building/village, and a splash pad that was turned off since we had stopped for dinner first and apparently the splashpad isn't on in the evenings despite the heat. The kids did have fun running around before turning in for the night.
Overall it was a fun trip and I think next time we go to Vegas we will just stay at Tahiti Village the entire time. Especially since by then there will finally be a Trader Joe's in Salt Lake!
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