I just thought I'd come back to this.. Did read through everyone's suggestions, and.. Vegas won this year. I was able to get a great deal on airfare and hotel.. We stayed at the Excalibur.. Certainly not top of the line for Vegas, but.. We were comfortable, room was clean.. All I could ask for.
We went July 19th to the 24th.. Flew out of Atlanta to save a few extra bucks (I'm in Upstate SC, so.. couple hours drive.. He lives north of Birmingham, so, it worked out to have his parents meet us on the return and him go home from there). Anyway.. Thought i'd give a synopsis of what we were able to do..
We flew out on Southwest.. My first time flying them, so, I was nervous.. I missed the check in at 24 hours by about an hour and a half.. Wound up with B58 and 59 for boarding, but luckily got seats together. A 10pm flight.. We got into Vegas about 11pm local time.. Cab to hotel.. Explored inside the hotel a little that first night.. For those worried about the casinos.. I think every casino requires you to walk through to get to the rooms.. Only 1 issue.. We went to Binions(?) to get the 'million dollar photo' and they wouldn't let him do it..
Day 2.. I got up early and explored around the hotel a bit.. Went and had the buffet at Excalibur.. Not recommended. Called Battlefield Vegas and had them come pick us up at the hotel in a Humvee..
Shoot a full-auto machine gun in Las Vegas at Battlefield Vegas!.. Bought him the Black Ops Gamer Experience and let him add on 50 rounds with a PKM. That.. Was a home run. He loved that. Got back to the hotel and walked up the road to Coca Cola World, M&M's World and the Hershey store. Rested up a bit and went up to see the Volcano at the Mirage and the fountains at the Bellagio.. Oh, and I put $20 on the Redskins in the Super Bowl, $20 on the Wizards for the NBA Title and $20 on the Capitals for the Stanley Cup.. Yeah, I wasted $60, but that was the extent of my gambling. Oh.. Coke store.. Within 5 minutes of getting in, we found a Coke bottle with his name on it. Literally.. He has been looking for one for a year and couldn't find it.
Day 3.. Didn't really have anything planned for this day.. so, wondering through the hotel in the morning... I passed the Avis counter.. Figured.. Hey.. You all have anything available for the day? They had one car.. I thought.. Well.. We can go out to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.. What's the car? A 2015 Corvette Stingray for $100/day.. Oh, what the hell.. "Do you want insurance"... Umm.. YEAH!.. So, I rented that, went back up to the room and told him I had rented a crappy little car to get us out to the Dam and Canyon.. Walked into the garage and told him to find parking spot #8. He did a quadruple take.. I folded myself up into that car, and off we went.. Hoover Dam.. Meh.. It was OK, but that's about all. To the Grand Canyon.. And.. He refused to go to the edge.. I was shocked that you can go right to the edge.. Anyone ever feels like offing themselves.. Hey.. Perfect place.. You'll have a minute or two to consider whether you made a mistake on the way down, but.. nothing gonna stop you from doing it... This.. Ok, Native Americans can kiss my ass. They want to say we stole their land.. That's fine, but they're making up for it. $70 to go out on the skywalk. Oh, excuse me, $20 for the skywalk, but you have to buy the $50 tour to be able to buy the skywalk pass. And, no cameras.. "We don't want someone dropping a camera and damaging the skywalk".. Bullcrap.. You want to sell the $50 picture package on the skywalk.. Listen, it was beautiful, but.. Far, far too expensive.
Day 3.. We were planning on doing the Pawn Stars/Tanked/Counting Cars/American Restoration tour, but.. Heard some really bad things about it.. we puttered around during the day and had tickets for Jeff Dunham that night.. Went to that show.. Which was excellent.. I've seen Dunham on tour before, and we were telling him the jokes.. It was bad.. But the show in Vegas was really good.. I caught a cannon-fired Peanut and gave it to him.. Seriously, we were 5th row back, and were in the middle of a large group or several smaller groups (No pun intended) of little people. I felt a little guilty since I was, at 5'10", by far the tallest person around where it was fired, but.. Not guilty enough to give the cannon-fodder to someone else.
Day 4.. I discovered the Duece (This I should have found earlier) and I couldn't talk him into jumping off the Stratosphere.. But, we went up to the Gold and Silver Pawn shop.. He got a silver "Old Man" coin.. Continued on up to Fremont Street, where his eyes got as big as saucers when there was a woman standing there in pasties and a g-string.. I couldn't talk him into taking a picture with her.. I was going to send that one right to his mother. We did the zipline over Fremont Street.. Had lunch at the Heart Attack Grill, where our waitress was a little person.. Maybe i'm sheltered or something, but i've never seen so many little people.. Watched a few of the street performers (Including one great magician) and headed back to the hotel to get ready and go to the Criss Angel show. I picked that show because Penn and Teller were not in town. Just my luck on that.. went in not expecting alot, but.. That was a really good show.
Day 5 we had a 2pm flight.. So, had breakfast.. Went by a few shops to pick up some souvenirs.. Off to the airport and the flight home.
All in all.. For those who didn't think Vegas could work with kids.. It can. There were some things that he couldn't do.. We thought about seeing Carrot Top, but that's an 18+ show. He played around in the Fun Dungeon at the Excalibur, which is a large arcade. And, where else would he get to fire automatic weapons?
I think the total trip cost was probably around $2500.. So, not bad. I will say.. If you're a "Coke" person.. Bring your own. I hear another person say "Is Pepsi OK?" I'm going to strangle them.
Next summer.. It depends on alot of things. The initial plan is that his parents and brother (Who will be 11, and is starting to feel left out) will come along and we'll do a week in DC. He's been before, but none of the others have. But.. If something turns around and it's just the two of us.. Some of you all have sold me on Williamsburg as a possibility. I had considered it before, but.. Was worried about there being enough to do there. I'll look into San Diego as well.. The downside of that is the travel time out there. The 4 hour non-stop to Vegas and back was rough on him.
The Disney Cruise idea.. Appreciate that, but I looked at the cost.. Basically $2500/person for a 4 day cruise.. WOW.. Don't know about that. Plus, he doesn't have a passport (neither do I for that matter) and.. I had thought about a cruise before.. But.. His mother would probably certainly kill me for that, because she's said he's not allowed to go on a cruise before she does.. I should say here.. I'm not cheap, well, yes I am.. But I demand value for my dollar.. And.. Someone will have to convince me how there's value there, when the same basic cruise on another line is about one fifth the cost.
Another thought I have.. It wouldn't be far for him.. But.. Spacecamp has been a thought. I waffle on that one. He enjoys the science and hands on.. So, it's a possibility. Camping.. Is not my thing. I don't see the attraction to sleeping outside.. Though.. A Dude Ranch in Wyoming or similar has crossed my mind. We've both done horseback riding before and enjoy it. Don't know how we'd do with days of it, though.
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