Day 78: Las Vegas, NV

We are on vacation in Vegas! We slept in this morning and had breakfast at an Irish Pub before heading to the pool.

After swimming for a few hours, we surprised the boys with an extra special buffet lunch at Excalibur. They absolutely love buffets and were so excited. Our favourite foods were the chicken tinga (Krystal), sushi rolls (Seamus), bread pudding (Liam), chocolate soft serve (Alistair), and kielbasa sausage (Ian).

We then headed to the Thunderland Theatre at Excalibur to attend our first show in Vegas. We attended a matinee performance of the MacKing comedy and magic show. It was hilarious and the magic tricks were exceptionally well executed. We loved the magic rope tricks, the disappearing/appearing signed card trick and the camping shadow puppet trick. Seamus was chosen as a volunteer to go on stage. He helped the magician with an impossible trick making coins appear inside a mineral water bottle. It was amazing and Seamus was a hilarious magician’s assistant. The magician showed him a bottle of PEAR brandy and asked what whole fruit he saw in the bottle - clearly a pear - Seamus suggested it was a potato. We nearly died laughing. Seamus held the empty glass bottle, the magician tapped it, and ta-da the coins appeared inside the bottle. Pure magic. Everyone, including Seamus, was astounded.

After the show we headed downstairs to try out the arcade. With so many options it was almost impossible for the boys to decide what games to try. Seamus was a master at the whack-a-clown. And Alistair was a pretty good motorcycle rider (Daddy helped a tiny bit with steering). The points cards got accidentally swapped so Alistair got all Seamus’ points which caused a bit of drama but everyone eventually recovered.

After some quiet time watching TV until the sun went down (this allowed us to both beat the heat and see the lights), we walked along the north side of the strip. We visited the Cosmopolitan, the Bellagio, and Caesar’s Palace. We caught the Bellagio’s fountain show set to the soundtrack of Pink Panther. Caesar’s Palace was hopping. The card tables were full and the casino was working at full capacity. The Fountain of the Gods in the Forum at Caesar’s Palace was beautiful to see but Ali was getting tired and on the decline. The walk and tram back to Mandalay Bay was uneventful, though we did briefly watch the Dueling Pianos play Summer Lovin’ and Bohemian Rhapsody at New York New York on the way home. We also got to see the spotlight shine up from the apex of Luxor. The boys crashed immediately upon climbing into bed. It sure was an exciting day in Las Vegas!