As I sit on the plane waiting to leave sin city, I have to
say I wasn't impressed but I’m glad to have experienced Vegas firsthand. That’s right, I’m nearly forty-five and a
half and I’d never been to Vegas until earlier this week. I mean seriously, even my mother has been to Vegas! But now I get it. There’s a reason the saying what happens in Vegas
stays in Vegas exists and to my way of thinking, it can't be good. So here it is, the non-gamblers view of Vegas...
The goal of Vegas is to swallow you whole. Before you Vegas lovers attack me for making
such a comment, yes--it dawns on me that Vegas is like Disneyland, you don't go
there to stay. Yet it also dawns on me
that the gaming industry spends billions of dollars a year trying to keep
patrons in its establishments. Like
those of us just trying to find the five star restaurants amidst the maze of
nicotine saturated, caffeine lit hallways.
While I appreciate the challenge of trying to be on time for a
reservation in your labyrinth, maybe you could work on improving air quality
and not try tricking me into believing it's always the middle of the afternoon
when I'm inside your walls. Call me
crazy but I like a window or two here and there and I appreciate the difference
between 3am and 3pm.
There’s more to Vegas than the strip, but you've got to be
willing to rent a car and go get it.
Given the family and I made our way to sin city via a road trip that
started in salt lake, we were rolling fat, which is to say we had a tricked out
GMC Yukon with Texas license plates and you know what they say about Texas,
right? Yeah, don't mess with it. With 80 mph speed limits for most of the
trip, we were on the fast track and by the time we got to Vegas, people were gladly
moving out of our way. Having wheels
allowed the boys to drive exotic cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and us to
visit Pawn Stars. It made breakfast at
the city's oldest restaurant, the peppermill, possible and it even created time
for a bit of back to school shopping.
And I got my picture. You know
the one...
The learning opportunity for the kiddo was huge. While I can't be certain what Vegas looks
like to a fourteen-year-old boy, I have a pretty good idea. Nearly everywhere we looked we saw opulence
and excess and addiction and despair, which created some of the most colorful
and engaging conversations we've had with our son this summer. We talked about the various ways the house
creates a psychological advantage over its guests and how the house is
positioned to win. At one point during
dinner when parts of an earlier conversation sank in, the kiddo looked at the
hubster and said, "you know, you're totally right. Even if you did win it big, you'd be hard
pressed to get out of this building without spending it all." We talked about the seeming advantages and
downsides of free money and free alcohol and 24/7 entertainment and topless
bars and prostitution and living a life without boundaries. We Googled Steve Wynn so we could learn about
Mr. Vegas and laughed when we realized the happiest people we saw the entire
time we were on the strip were the cabbies we met when hopping venues.
Vegas was far from a bucket list item for me and while I
have zero plans to go back, I can honestly say I'm grateful we spent a day in
sin city. It's our job to show the kiddo
the world and it's my hope that learning took place on both sides of the fence
for him. We even came away from Vegas
with a new saying: just because
everything is possible doesn't mean it's a good idea.
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