We only stayed in Las Vegas for a few days. We had a large and lovely three bedroom unit with a huge balcony overlooking the pools. This was the twins’ adventure and they love to swim. So, this was a good place to spend time with grandchildren; while their parents went to try their luck at the casino. I have been to Vegas probably too many times. I no longer get excited about playing Black Jack. Though I have never lost money (gambling in Vegas at least), I value the time with family more than time spent at the table. However, it is a convenient place to fly into; and that made Las Vegas ideal for this six-year-old adventure—as a midway point to meet with the two people who were left behind when we started the road trip.
The twins’ older sister has a photo of her with dad petting a dolphin when she was almost two. The twins thought they wanted to have the same experience, so we went expecting to repeat it for them. The problem was that in the roughly four years since then, it had gotten about four times as expensive. Thankfully, when posed with the question, “Would you rather pet a dolphin for a few seconds or buy a fluffy stuffed toy dolphin that you can keep?” they went with the much cheaper offer. They seemed happy to see the dolphins (and the tigers) in their enclosures. I am not so sure the happiness was reciprocated by the animals. It did remind me of a trip with my wife to a remote beach in Egypt years ago. We swam with a wild dolphin named Holly, who was known to regularly frequent the waters off the beach. Recently, I looked her up and found two scientific papers that mention her. The articles are thought-provoking; which is certainly a goal of this website. There are probably more, but you can read the literature by clicking here for the one available through the NOAA site, or by clicking here to get to the one found on the website, Frontiers in Veterinary Science. You can use them to educate yourself and help form your own opinion on the topic if you wish..
My wife and I had hoped to make it to a few more attractions with the grandchildren, including the Bellagio Fountain Show, and maybe a Hoover Dam tour; but it didn’t happen this time. I hope there is still water in Lake Mead the next time we make it this way. The lake level is currently at an all time low since the dam was completed and allowed to fill. The last time it was full was 1983. Some scientists say it will probably never fill again. This has a lot of people worried. I may be asking myself, why Vegas? again someday–who knows when.
On our next leg, we headed to Utah to see the Big 5.