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Flamingo, Las Vegas
Our room on the 24th floor of the Flamingo was clean, comfortable and pink. The walls in the bathroom were garish fuchsia and white. We had two TVs in our room: one inside the bathroom mirror and a large flat-panel set in the bedroom. We had a shower but no bathtub in the room, which meant we couldn’t give Tiggy a bath. It’s annoying that the hotel charged us a $90 child fee without offering any additional accommodations for kids. We had a great view of the strip: from our window, we could see the pool and fountains in front of the Bellagio and Ceasar’s Palace. The bed was surprisingly comfortable.
The Flamingo is one of the older hotels on the strip, and while not as modern or luxurious as some of the newer resorts, it’s functional, and the central location puts a lot of the resort hotels on the strip within walking distance.
The Monorail stops at the Flamingo, but we could get most places on foot. Plus judging from the feedback we received, the city’s monorail seemed to be down on its luck, following a streak of accidents and mechanical problems. We didn’t consider taking it, but it was nice to know we had the option.
Las Vegas Culinary Experience
Our friends highly recommended the breakfast buffet at Paris, Las Vegas. It was a fine a culinary experience as can be expected in a buffet setting. Fresh fruit, yogurt, crepes made to order are served up in a buffet modeled after an outdoor village market. The boulangerie offers fresh bread and croissants, and there are supposed to be different counters representing different culinary regions of France.
One evening, our friend, Denise, who lives in the town of Henderson, just outside Las Vegas, suggested dinner at the Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay, where you can order just about any burger. The menu items included the foie gras burger ($60), the Kobe beef burger, salmon and turkey burgers. Another good dining experience in Vegas.
Las Vegas to Seattle
Our US Airways flight from Las Vegas landed on time in Seattle, without incident. The most interesting thing I discovered in the Sky Mall catalogue was the bronze Yeti garden sculpture. I guess it’s the other-worldly experience of being 30,000 feet above ground that makes people want to own a replica of the mythical Bigfoot striding confidently into the wild.
Weekend in Las Vegas
With the lingering stench stale cigarette smoke, the crowed sidewalks and the ubiquitous flyers for call girls/showgirls, Las Vegas doesn’t top most people’s lists of family vacation spots. Indeed, I borrowed a book from the Redmond library on family fun in Vegas, in which the writer droned on about the threat of "Africanized" killer bees in the valley and other useless advice that vacationing families should heed. If that book got published, then the pickings must be slim for kids in Vegas, I remember thinking. What’s more, Mark and Ayuko mentioned that their hotel room overlooked a European-style swimming pool with an age requirement and a sign reminding patrons of the "no photography" policy.
To be sure, there are far better choices for family fun, but we found plenty to do to keep Tiggy entertained during our recent getaway. From the giant aquarium in the Mirage, to the gondolas inside the Venetian, the resort hotels kept us entertained for hours. Tiggy was mesmerized by the gondolas floating down the Grand Canal inside Venice. He also gave coins to a human statue, and danced along to accordion music. He was so excited about giving coins to the living statue that he started handing her the dollar bills that previous travelers had left at her feet. That almost amused me as much as the look of terror on his little face when he realized that the statue/performer was a real person.
Outside the resorts, our two-year-old was amused by the pink Flamingos and other exotic birds in the Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat – a pheasant walked up to us during breakfast – and he watched in awe as the fountains soared in front of the Bellagio Hotel. Each water and light show is choreographed to different pieces of music, with the fountain soaring up several feet hundred feet out of the pool of water. I too was blown away by the dancing fountains. Although everything is contrived, calculated and controlled, the combination of natural elements moved me. That experience alone made the trip worthwhile.
Tiggy also loved the replica of the Eiffel Tower and all the places to sit inside the resorts hotels. He kept hopping from bench to bench to try out the seating arrangements and to admire different water fountains.
Our hotel room at the Flamingo was calm, clean and quiet, which made naptime easy in a cacophonic city.
New York Fitness Buffet
Kids Can Sleep Anywhere
Whenever I switch beds, I find it hard to wind down at night, and I’m often awake for hours my first night away from home.
Tiggy, on the other hand, can fall asleep just about anywhere. Here he is napping on Ayuko’s shoulder on our hike down from the Lower Emerald Pool Trail in Zion National Park in Utah.
Safety First? Try Rudeness
Before crossing NE 85th/16th Ave intersection, I waited for the little pedestrian stick figure to start striding confidently inside his little yellow box. When he made his appearance, I started a brisk walk across the intersection.
At the same time, a driver started turning left onto 160th. She slammed on the brakes, bringing her minivan to a halt some two feet away from me. She winds down her window to apologize: "I can’t see you wearing all black!"She comes breezing through the intersection, was probably using her cell phone and eating a sandwich, put my life in jeopardy, and all this is my fault for crossing the intersection when and where I’m supposed to?
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