What Happens in Vegas...

...Stays in Vegas.

Just kidding. We didn't do anything that would fit their new slogan. We did have a wonderful time, though.

Las Vegas is definitely not for everyone. Pretty much anyone over the age of 21 can carve out a good time there. You have to know where to go and what to avoid that doesn't fit your character and taste.

I arrived to the longest and fastest moving taxi line that I'd ever seen. Friday evening in the Las Vegas airport is crazy. The other times that we have been we rented a car. This is the first time that I took a taxi from the airport. The line looked very similar to an amusement park line for the best ride in the park, except it moved along pretty well. It only took about 15 minutes to get a cab with about 250 people ahead of me.

Saturday morning I hooked up with a distant cousin, Betty Jo, for breakfast. Let's see if I can get this right. My great-grandfather and her grandfather were brothers. She and her husband live in Las Vegas and my grandmother gave me her numbers and encouraged me to call. We had a great time at breakfast and followed that up with some shopping.

We had such a good time, Clif and I met up with her and her husband that evening for some fun and dinner. It is so much fun to visit a place with locals, especially Las Vegas. They knew all of the ins and outs and places to avoid. I wish we had been able to spend more time with them, but we had tickets to a show.

The show. Wow! If you ever get the chance, go see Danny Gans. He puts Rich Little to shame. He is more than just and impressionist. He has a gift for comedy and a vocal range like you wouldn't believe. He can change voices in a split second. One second he's Kermit and the next second he is Dean Martin. Check out some audio and video here.

My favorite part of the show was his "Twelve Months of Christmas." He sings the song as 12 different people including Larry the Cable Guy, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Paul Lynde, Wayne Newton, and so on.

The finally is a hilarious Elvis impersonation which included the lines, "Let me introduce myself. I'm the former father-in-law of Michael Jackson. Hey, you'd come back too if he married your daughter."

He's also an all around good guy. The proceeds from his merchandise go to Las Vegas charities and he has a recorded some music in the contemporary christian genre.

After the show, we walked 2-3 miles down the strip to check out the goings on. We are officially old foggies. Our heads turned at all of the tattoos and piercings and crazy hair and boxer shorts hanging out of pants, etc. To each his own. But, we felt old.

The most disturbing thing was the number of children out at 11:30 pm. I'm not talking pre-teens and teens. These kids were under 8 years old. Most of them were passed out in strollers or on mommy or daddy's shoulders. We saw one group put two toddlers in a taxi with no car seat.

Las Vegas is not a place for kids that young. Clif and I had several discussions about whether any age under 21 was appropriate to expose kids to "sin city". There's a reason Las Vegas went away from their "bring the family" advertising to "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" slogans. There are a handful of things that kids can do, but you wouldn't be able to shelter them from all of the questionable activities.

My only complaint about the weekend goes to AirTran. If anyone out there has any connections to AirTran, please let them know that their baggage handling at ATL leaves much to be desired. Our flight to Las Vegas was direct. Our flight home was routed through Flint, MI. The flight from MI to Atlanta was 1 hour, 36 minutes. The wait for our luggage was 1 hour, 36 minutes (give or take a few minutes).

That's just ridiculous. About 25% of the bags arrived on belt 3 in a timely manner and the other 75% had to be hunted down in the bowels of the secret baggage system of Atlanta-Hartsfield airport. They sent them up on belt 6. Oh yeah, one guy found his bag on belt 5 after 1 hour.

This isn't a lone occurrence. Clif is always later getting home from and AirTran flight vs. the competition. What's that sentence you spew at touchdown? "We realize you have a choice in air travel...." Clif is ready to change his choice when he has to check bags. You'll be receiving an official complaint soon.

Thanks again to Fabthemayor. She survived the weekend and even took all 4 kids to Sunday School and Church this morning. That's impressive.