We’ve officially decided: we are not city people. Give us towns, countryside, and the occasional village pub over flashing lights and neon signs any day. But some cities you just have to see once, and Las Vegas is one of them. Since we were heading west for a National Park adventure, we figured, why not start our trip with a single night in Sin City before disappearing into the wilderness?
To make it fun (and fair), we told the tweens to research Vegas and give us their one must-do activity. We promised to try to check off each wish:
- Quinn: Visit Café Lola
- Daniel: Swim in the hotel pool
- Reese: See a show
- Madison: Walk the Strip
- Adam: Visit the Sugar Factory
The adults snuck in a couple of our own: a trip to the Hoover Dam, and, if Jon had his way, a visit to “Dig This Vegas,” a heavy equipment playground for grown-ups. Unfortunately for him, democracy prevailed and he was outvoted.
Originally, we’d booked to stay at The Flamingo, but Ally (a Vegas veteran) vetoed that instantly and switched us to The Palazzo. She was right. When we wandered through The Flamingo later, it looked tired, and the famous flamingos were… well… a bit whiffy.
Pink Milkshakes and Low Water Levels
After an early flight, Mandy and Patrick’s family breezed through the rental car pickup and headed for a grocery shop to prep for the road trip. Ally’s crew wasn’t so lucky, 90 minutes later, they finally escaped the rental car purgatory and headed straight for our first tween wish: Café Lola.
Think gorgeous pink décor, delicious food, and milkshakes topped with donuts. In other words, Quinn’s dream and a sugar high just waiting to happen.
Next up: the Hoover Dam. Just 30 minutes from the Strip, it’s an engineering marvel, even more striking with the water levels so low. We walked from Nevada to Arizona across the dam wall, peering nervously over the railings (some of us more nervously than others). Built in the 1930s during the Great Depression, the dam stands 221 meters tall, taller than the Washington Monument back home, and its base is wider than two football fields end to end. It forms Lake Mead, which supplies water as far away as San Diego. Definitely worth the detour.
Lights, Feathers, and… a Dominatrix?
Back on the Strip, we cleaned up, swapped sneakers for something slightly less dusty, and set off to tick off three more list items before our evening show: walking the Strip, seeing America’s Got Talent, and hopefully squeezing in a Sugar Factory stop.
Within minutes, we’d had our first true Vegas encounter: a man vomiting enthusiastically into a trash can. Welcome to Vegas! From there, we passed showgirls in feathers and pasties, bridal parties, bachelor parties, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the smelly flamingos, the canals of the Venetian, and the Bellagio fountains. Somewhere along the way, to Quinn’s horror and Jon’s complete shock, Jon got spanked by a passing dominatrix.
We power-walked past the Sugar Factory (sorry, Adam) to make it to the theatre just in time. Sandwiches inhaled in under two minutes, we settled in for 75 minutes of magicians, acrobats, and everything in between at America’s Got Talent Presents: Superstars Live.
The Final Tally
By the time the show ended, we were all done walking. We grabbed taxis back to The Palazzo, pausing only to watch the Bellagio fountain show, which was just as iconic as promised.
Here’s how we did:
- Quinn: Café Lola ✅ A sugar-infused success
- Daniel: Swim in the hotel pool ❌ The pool will have to wait
- Reese: See a show ✅ 75 minutes of entertainment gold
- Madison: Walk the Strip ✅ Wide-eyed wonder achieved
- Adam: Visit the Sugar Factory ❌ We were already on a sugar high
Las Vegas was exactly what we expected: bright, loud, chaotic, and an absolute sensory overload. We had fun. We laughed a lot. We made memories. And we’ve decided it’s a “one and done” for us.
Next stop: wide open spaces and a lot fewer dominatrix sightings.
Go Together Life 
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