How we spent our April vacations

Last week, Ryan and I jetted off to Las Vegas, leaving the kids with my parents.

The trip started with packing up and heading to Brampton on Saturday evening where we all spent the night so that on Sunday morning, Ryan and I could easily sneak out while the kids slept to catch our 8:30 a.m. flight. Luckily, it was a direct flight; so with the three-hour time change, we touched down in Vegas just before 10 a.m. local time and were in our hotel room by 11 a.m.

We were able to get a fantastic deal and therefore were staying at The Venetian -- a five-star resort hotel on The Strip. Let me tell you, this place was unbelieveable! All rooms there are suites, and our 'basic' suite was 650-square feet, had three LCD TVs, a king size bed, a sunken living room and a bathroom almost the size of Alex's room. We definitely lived in luxury for the four nights we were there.

So, that afternoon, we grabbed a beer to go (because you can drink while walking along The Strip) and headed out to wander around. It was a beautiful day and we just kind of wandered for awhile before heading back, gambling for awhile and then sitting down for dinner. We ended up heading back to the room early that night -- there was a time change after all, and we had been up since 6 a.m. Toronto time.

On the Monday, we were a little more rested and after breakfast, sat down and played some blackjack. We did this one morning on our last trip too, and there's something really fun about playing cards and drinking before 11 a.m. It's even more fun when you're winning, which we were at the time.

The afternoon was spent shopping and wandering around from hotel to hotel -- again, enjoying the beautiful day. That evening, we went for a nice dinner in one of the restaurants at our hotel and then we had tickets to the late show of Blue Man Group. I didn't know what to expect, but it was really good and really entertaining.

On Tuesday morning, we got up early, rented a car and drove out of town to Red Rock Canyon for a day of sightseeing and hiking. You'd never know you were just a few miles outside of Vegas when you're here. It was fun -- even if we did get a little lost while hiking.

From there, we drove to Fremont Street -- downtown Vegas, where all the older Casinos are. About 10 years ago, Fremont Street was transformed to be completely enclosed by an LCD screen and every evening there are these very weird (but kind of cool) light and music shows. We hung out there for a few hours and then had dinner at one of the diners in an old casino.

On Wednesday, we again took advantage of being able to drink while walking on The Strip and had a couple of beers while we wandered from casino to casino and pretty much just enjoyed the sunshine. That night, we saw Ka -- a Cirque du Soleil show. And wow, was it ever incredible!

And then, just because we could, and because we were leaving the next morning, we stayed up playing cards until 2 a.m.

We didn't gamble much while we were there -- and in fact, managed to not lose any money, coming out a whole $18 ahead of where we started.
We flew home on Thursday morning -- and with the time change, the stopover in Chicago and picking up the kids in Brampton, it was midnight before we got home.

The kids, as I understand it, had a great time with grandma and granddad. But I think they did tire their grandparents out just a little! And, while we were enjoying hot and sunny weather (20C to 27C every day), they were doing this:
Now it's back to reality for everyone.