Hey, you probably get this a lot, but does Ceasar really live here?

So 4AM came a lot sooner than we all anticipated from our hotel beds. Luckily we've run across a good handful of comfy mattresses throughout our adventure and I must say - that does make a difference. However, when you go from sleeping on trains to a hotel room, the expectations aren't too high in the first place. Regardless, this is the Tate Family Adventure and it wouldn't be one if we were in 5-star hotels and had room service and stuff.

Note: In response to all of the comments (ie - Jessica Strickler and a few others) that they wish for me to stop writing the blog and have more input from Kelsey and Momma Tate - please direct all those comments to their personal email accounts or phone numbers via text. I can't help it that the rest of my family is lazy when it comes to blogging and enjoy procrastinating - so for now I guess you're just stuck with me (apologies if necessary).

Anyways, back to the story - so we got a hotel shuttle out to the Seattle airport and boarded our plane to Vegas. I think all four of us got some shut eye on the plane though because Kelsey missed the complementary beverage cart and I got repeatedly woken up by a flight attendant telling me to turn off my Ipod and put my seat in the upright position as we were departing and landing. I guess I must have fallen back asleep in between every single announcement that was made. Yet, we arrived in Sin City by about 10am and picked up a rent-a-car to head onto the strip.

We were staying at a casino/resort/hotel called Circus Circus. If you've never been to Vegas before, all of the hotels and other places to stay seem to have a theme, and in our case it obviously is all circus-related (most are pretty self-explanatory). Therefore we had to bypass all the acrobats, slot machines, and other bars and restaurants as we went to check in for the day. We picked up lunch at a restaurant inside Circus Circus that had a rock 'n roll theme to it, which was neat because for instance all the decorations in the place were famous paintings but altered to be "rock 'n roll." An example of this was Grant Wood's well-known piece of artwork called "American Gothic" (the one with the famer holding a pitchfork with his wife next to him) but instead of a married couple the people were replaced with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from the rock band Kiss. Pretty amusing actually.

After lunch, we were all pretty exhausted from our travel and also lack of sleep, as noted before we've run ourselves down a bit. Therefore, we took a family break and a few of us went down to the pool to cool off in the 100+ degree weather and Kelsey even took a nap in the room for about an hour or so. We all had some time to recharge a bit before heading out later that evening to explore Las Vegas and all it had to offer.

We started our tour (led by Poppa Tate) at the Rio (the Brazilian themed resort) where we cashed in on their deluxe all-you-can-eat buffet. Everything from crab legs and sushi, to tacos, pizza, and gelato were on their menu and of course, as much as you wanted too. So naturally the Tate family definitely got our money's worth and had a nice large and lengthy meal. It was actually pretty nice to try some different foods that you wouldn't get every day as well, so the spread was worth it overall. After our late dinner, we decided to make our way back through the Rio and on the way watched some of their free show that goes on every hour or so. In the Rio they have a "show in the sky" where there are performers doing dance routines on a large center stage, but also on giant flying sets as well. For instance, one of the flying contraptions looked like an old-timey double-decker riverboat, except for the fact that it followed a track in the ceiling overtop the entire casino floor. So we stayed for a while to watch all the dancers, singers, and aerial performers before leaving the Rio and heading to the Vegas strip to check out the other attractions.

Dad took the family on a walking tour of the Vegas strip and casinos through the course of the evening. Since it was already about 9:30pm, we started a bit later than expected but Sin City doesn't seem to mind. People there are out in full force at all hours of the evening and even up until the early hours of the morning too - so we were just more tourists in a big mob of people. We parked our car at the Bellagio and strolled down the strip past it as the jumping fountains played Italian music and a light show went on. We got photos of all the flashing lights and some video of the sights and sounds of Vegas as it's brightly lit up at night and passed plenty of street performers and shows in the process. For instance, we went down to Treasure Island and got to see a full-size gun battle between two pirate ships right in front of us as we stood on the dock of their own harbor. It was massive and highly entertaining. We also saw a light/explosion show in front of the Mirage, as they have a full-size volcano that erupts every hour. All of these exhibits were free entertainment and draw enormous crowds. I thought it was great. Dad also took us through most of the casinos and other famous hotels. We toured the Venetian which has real gondolas just like in Venice that you can ride through the waterways, we saw Caesars' Palace which has a ceiling that looks like the sky outside and changes from night and day as time changes, and we walked through many more along the strip, but to be honest you can get lost in one let alone cover all the ground in each of these places in one night. So before we knew it, it was 2:30am in the morning and we had to get out of there and back to our hotel for the night. We hit the hay and decided to sleep in a little extra as tomorrow we were scheduled to travel into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and take a trip through the desert!

Catch ya on the flip side,

~Josh

PS: I'll do my best to convince the rest of the family to blog their thoughts. I promise I'm not censoring them, but keep up the feedback! :-)