Family Travel

Roaming Las Vegas With Kids

By 9:45 am, my kids question the meaning of life in the heat

First Night

My family recently traveled to Las Vegas. I’m not interested in gambling, although I made my 8-year-old pack extra quarters for slot machines. I promised I’d pay her back.

We came to Las Vegas for a mandatory orientation for an eight-day raft trip down the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.

The first night we ate pizza and wandered around the strip admiring the bright lights.

“We’re not in Alaska anymore, girls!” I chirped. We explored hotel fountains, found a giant Ferris wheel, and gawked at the bright lights

There was even a full moon vying for prominence in the neon skyline.

The last two years have been hard and unpredictable for everyone I know, so my heart was filled with extra gratitude for the opportunity to fiddle fart around a big city with no big agenda, just for the giggles and awe of it.

Pool Closure

I figured we would spend most of the following day at the hotel pool, only it was closed for renovations.

After breakfast, we went on another family walk, and the kids began moaning about the 88 degree heat. So we returned to the hotel, and I sent them away to read books. While they were distracted, I looked up what the local Parks and Rec offers.

On family vacations, I have often sought community facilities for inexpensive opportunities for play. My kids have enjoyed library story times, public swimming pools, toddler play groups, and even art classes offered by community rec programs in places we have traveled.

Yes — even Las Vegas with a reputation as “Sin City” has a Parks and Rec department. You know what I found?! Water slides!

I have wanted to take my kids on water slides since forever. There’s a couple of indoor ones in Alaska, but they’re just not the same as outdoor water slides.

So for $2/kid and $3/adult and an Uber ride, we had our day planned.

Water Park Fun

An affordable water park filled with families and a few vacationers was the perfect way to fill our day.

The scene reminded me of the apartment pools I grew up playing in — only with much more sophisticated play toys than we ever had. We never lived in fancy apartments, we lived in working-class places, and families would gather at the pool because it was free, the temp was pushing past three-digits, and somehow community was made.

My kids didn’t make any fast friends, but it was hard not to get caught up in the frivolity and joy of the scene. Their legs grew tired climbing the stairs to the top of the slides, and we played pool games in the kiddie area with toys that rained water on us.

Besides my husband earning a sunburn because the lifeguards refused his cotton t-shirt in their pool, the day was pretty grand.

Last Night Before the River

We had dinner at a brewery and attended the orientation meeting at 8:00 pm. Sardined in a tiny room mostly filled with doctors and highly accomplished individuals, I felt out of place.

I also wondered who in the room had COVID-19, but trusted our face masks and focused on the main takeaway: we had to be on the bus at 4:00 am with everything for the trip stuffed in four dry bags, one for each member of the family. These waterproof bags would hold all of our necessities, like clothes and toiletries.

By 9:00 pm, the contents of our suitcases strewn across the hotel room floor, I felt like crying. Everything had been so organized before we left home, but as we sorted what to put in our dry bags from what to leave at the hotel in our luggage, I became overwhelmed.

It’s not like we would be able to pull over at a Walmart if we forgot sunscreen.

We finally collapsed around 11:00 pm for a four-hour nap.

As I closed my eyes, I realized I had never found a slot machine.

All well. There are bigger things awaiting.

Thanks to Amanda Laughtland for giving me a light nudge to post about our trip. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll post more about our month-long travels.

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