Downtown

Usually when you say "downtown" you're referring to a city center, and in the case of Vegas I'm betting most people think of the Strip as the city center. But here in Vegas, the Strip and Downtown are two separate things. Downtown is the original town sight, and was the primary gambling district before the Strip. IT's still the central business district. It is North of the Strip (basically starting around the Strat) and includes the Freemont Street Experience, the Arts District, The Mob Museum, the Neon Boneyard, the Container Park, the Old Mormon Fort, and more. We don't spend a lot of time at either the Strip or Downtown, but we've definitely spent less time Downtown. Well, three of our Whitby neices came for a visit, and I decided to go explore the area with them just a little. We went to the Container Park and Freemont Street, and just walked around a bit. It's very colorful.

Then we went to a (then) new restaurant on the Strip, Ole Red (Blake Shelton's restaurant). The live entertainment was great, and the food was good....with one exception - A spicy chicken sandwich (that is no longer on the menu, by the way). Let me just start by saying, we had done nothing to deserve that kind of assault on our bodies. The "spicy" added zero to the flavor of the chicken, and tasted very chemically. And when I say that it came out as spicy as it went in, just know that I was very glad we split that sandwich four ways because we would have actually died if we'd eaten any more of it.

Finally, Tessa insisted on marking the occasion with some dental bling. I didn't even know tooth gems were a thing. Have I finally become old and out of the loop? Anyway, I had a great time with my nieces, and promise not to try and kill them the next time they visit.

Oops, I Did it Again

I did not realize that I was an entire YEAR behind in updating my blog. That seems insane to me. Insane. So here is me, trying to catch up for a whole year. For Labor Day 2024 we had our, now annual, get together at my Dad and Lynn's house in Southern Utah. This year we had good weather, instead of the rain from the previous year, so we got to float the Virgin River, which is really the highlight of the trip for everyone. Sunburns were acquired (when are we going to learn to reapply?!). We went to Zion's, where I saw the cutest, fattest squirrel that I definitely wanted to hold, but didn't. It was pretty crowded, but not enough to dampen our spirits. We hopped on the bus and went to The Riverside Walk, where we had a nice stroll to the beginning of The Narrows. We did plenty of swimming at Dad's house, played an epic game of Phase 10 (I don't remember who won). And finally, we went Jeeping to Toquerville Falls and played in the waterfall. We loved this so much that we figured the next time we should come prepared to spend a good chunk of the day there. Even Dad and Lynn came with us on the bumpy Jeep ride, and stuck their feeet in the river while relaxing in some camping chairs that a nice family let them borrow. I think they had fun, but I think it was a one and done for Lynn. It was such a great weekend, and reinforced how much of a fun tradition this is becoming for our family, and I can't wait to go again this year