Vive Las Vegas

Last weekend Will and I and the kids went down to Las Vegas for the Highland Games. I've always wanted to go to Vegas and I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity for a trip down there.

We rode in the motorhome with Will's parents. I wish I could say that our drive down was fine, but it was anything but. Somewhere in no-man's-land between Idaho and Utah, we witnessed a one car crash. A pick up truck suddenly flipped and rolled into the median. We immediately stopped and Will ran over to the crumpled up vehicle while his dad called 911. No one at the time was sure what had happened, but Will said that one of the tires had its tread blown off so we think that's what caused the accident. There were four people in the car, a husband and wife and an older girl and boy. The two girls walked away unharmed. One of the guys was being choked by his seat belt so Will had peel the door off and cut him out of it. He died five minutes later. The other guy was badly crushed and he had been scalped so no one held out much hope for him. And there was nothing they could do. We were so far out that there was no ambulance nearby and it took a half hour just for a cop to show up at the scene. By the time we left, about an hour after the crash happened, Life Flight still hadn't shown up yet. A couple of days later, Will was reading the police report and apparently there was another cop on his way to the accident when his car flipped over. He was unharmed.

But, wait. It doesn't stop there. A couple of hours later we were the victims of road rage. We had stopped to get gas and when we were pulling out of the service station a man in a pick up truck, who was at a stop sign and saw us coming, proceeded to speed up anyway and then honked his horn at us for pulling out. He got angry, turned into the suicide lane to try to pass us and cut us off. Well, he missed and ended up hitting us instead. He jumped out of his vehicle and proceeded to yell profanities at Will and his dad. The guy called the cops and we had to wait for them to show up. When the cops finally came, he told them that we cut him off and he had to swerve to miss us. He also said that Will threatened him. This is where karma comes in. When the guy honked his horn at us, he caused someone at the gas station to look up and see what was happening. He stayed as a witness for us and told the cops that it was his fault, not ours. When the police were telling him this and that if he had to swerve to miss us, he was driving too fast and it was still his fault, he started yelling at them. Anyway, we lost another hour because of him. We drove late into the night and didn't get as far as we had hoped.

It was a long drive down so we amused ourselves by eating pretzels from between our toes.

We stayed at the campground behind Circus Circus. It was one of the first hotels to cater to families. We took the kids there the first night. There was a big area with lots of carnival games that the kids could play.

Enjoying $5 slushies while waiting for the next act to start in the indoor circus area.

We watched two acts at the circus. One was a couple who performed illusions and then this acrobat.

I saw these shoes in the window of a really cool shoe store inside Circus Circus. I tried to convince Will to get a pair, but he said that he couldn't wear them without getting a pimp suit too.

The Strip. It didn't disappoint.

A bad picture of the Trump Tower.

I had such a great time walking the strip. And it wasn't just the lights and the enormity of the buildings that gave me goosebumps. It was also all the people and cars and the honking of horns. Even though I love my big backyard and having chickens and seeing the sheep out in the back fields, it all reminded me that I'm a city girl at heart.

The Highland Games were held in a park that was filled with peacocks. They roamed all over and were quite used to people. They are so beautiful and the loud cry they kept making brought back childhood memories of Stanley Park and the peacocks that wandered freely there too.

Who knew that peacocks could climb so high up in the trees?

This one wandered into our booth while we were packing up. He was particularly interested in the shiny clothing racks we had.

This albino peacock, while not as colourful, was still beautiful.