Las Vegas, NV

We hadn't planned on coming through Vegas this soon in the trip, but we needed a place with a good internet connection so we could figure out what was happening at Yosemite and make alternate plans. We met a retired school teacher from Chattanooga while we were in Moab who gave rave reviews of the Oasis RV Resort in Las Vegas so we made reservations to stop there for one day and two nights. The park was fantastic, but it was hot, hot hot there! The kids stayed in the pool, and Eva and I stayed in the camper in the daytime.

I had mixed feelings about taking my family to Las Vegas at all. On one hand, you want to be able to say that you've been, and given the extreme makeover that Vegas has undertaken over the last twenty years, there are some interesting things to see (the volcano at the Mirage, the dancing pools at Bellagio, New York, New York, Paris, etc,).

The highlight of the visit for me was a trip to a BassPro Shop, and also a large Fry's Electronics store. (we had Fry's stores when I lived in Silicon Valley... it's a nerds paradise).

We love Cirque du Soleil and they have several shows that you can only see in Vegas. So we bought tickets to see “O” at the Bellagio. It was fantastic. If you've never been to a Cirque Do Soliel show you should do this at least once in your lifetime.

Getting to and from the show unfortunately means walking the Las Vegas strip. At this point I'd like to say how proud I am of Hannah and Kendall. It didn't take them any time at all to figure out what Las Vegas is really all about (gambling and sex). Both of them were really appalled by what they saw just walking down the street.

The reality of Vegas is quite different from the image that they like to portray to the world. They've put a fresh coat of paint on the town, but the underpinnings are still the same. This is not a place that you would want to go for a family vacation (although I understand that the city has been marketing itself as exactly that to the people in LA).

The city's new slogan is “What goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas”. I would say it differently; “If you knew what goes on in Vegas, you'd stay out of Vegas”.

In any case, we went to the show, enjoyed it, and got out of town the next morning. We reshuffled our itinerary to take us to Sequoia National Park first, to give firefighters a few more days to get the fire at Yosemite under control (and for the smoke to clear).

There's a good chance that we'll have to come back through Vegas on our way back from California but we'll only stay for one night, and we'll avoid the strip.