Vegas Day 2

In the morning, you were up and ready to go quite early.

From Las Vegas Min...

Today was all going to be about swimming, and running around, and seeing pirate ships and canals and roller coasters and lions. You were ready to go, and go big.

We did the pool thing. You did your water wings thing. We splashed around in the kid pool, we did laps on the Lazy River, and we played in the sand. At one point the water wings became more like boots.

And then you decided to crash one of the rental bungalows, pretending to be all rock star and stuff. You had no qualms whatsoever about owning that chaise.

We went back to the room, cleaned up, and went to the Venetian. There you saw the canal and the gondoliers and their gondolas for the first time, you were excited. Of course you were excited, you thought they were pirate ships. And you asked if the gondoliers were all pirates. You betcha Tiny, they are all pirates. And we're going to take a ride on a pirate ship!!

So we got on a gondola - I mean pirate ship, and the gondolier - I mean pirate, chatted us up for a while, and we took a ride down the canal. He sang a few songs - I mean Sea Chanteys, and you thought it was quite exciting.

In addition to the 'Spitting Lions' on the side of the canal, you were most excited about looking out through your, um, telescope.

As could be predicted, you were pretty excited about fountains, just not outdoor fountains made out of a lake. Which you're still talking about, by the way. So besides gigantic lake-fountains (which we clearly don't like), Vegas is full of more chill indoor water fountains, falls, ponds, moats, and various other water features (which we do like). So you were pretty jazzed about that, and hit mom and I up for coins to throw into them. Mom worked hard all day getting you pennies, but pennies are hard to come by in Vegas, so you threw a lot of nickels and even some dimes into the fountains - we thought it seemed fitting being Vegas and all.

After we took the gondola I mean pirate ship ride, we went to see an actual (in the Vegas sense of the word) real-life pirate ship! Two of them, in fact, in front of Treasure Island. This is you and me in front of the one on the corner.

But a little further towards their front door - by the Margarita Bar/Starbucks - sits a pirate ship that Daddy had his picture taken alone in front of. Not sure why...

Just inside the door we found a pirate shop we were sure we were going to find you something special. But we actually found it after wandering around a bit further into the heart of the casino. Your very own pirate telescope!!

What a fun time, and you were quite overloaded for the day - a classic Vegas experience! By the time we got back to our place you were pretty amped up. So while mom got you some warm milk from one of the ubiquitous Starbucks, I took you to find a large quiet place to burn off some of that juice. We found this nice hill for you to climb, spin around, and run down. You seemed to think this was the highlight of the day.

That was a pretty nice mini-vacation, and I'm glad you and your mom got to come to Vegas with me before we head back to the Midwest. I don't know when my next conference thing is, and that's kind of a good thing at this point. I've been all over the place, and it is nice to think about spending a few weeks at home! Tomorrow we're going to the Maker's Faire, which is a big Bay Area DIY (that's Do It Yourself) fest including a lego jeep, a puzzle making thing, robots that shoot fire, power tool races... It should be pretty cool.