No viva las vegas

Our eyes were tired from all of the Utah beauty, but when we pressed on to Las Vegas our eye's exhaustion turned to pain from all of the ugly. I suppose it was pretty warm, but I still see no excuse for the multitude of overweight women wearing crop tops and shorts that more closely resembled underwear. 

Though I have read about and seen in movies the glitz and glam that is Las Vegas, I was in no way expecting to see the excessive splattering of fake gold and glitter, and enormous buildings and breasts that we witnessed immediately after entering through the pearly gates of the city of sin. 

small small jackie in a big big world

The fountain show at the Bellagio

(it was pretty cool)

Jack had intended on gambling while we were there. He had twenty dollars and wanted to spend it playing black jack. We entered the Bellagio and discovered that to even get on a table it was ten dollars and then you had to bet and all of that stuff that is involved with gambling, so he decided it wasn't worth it. Then we tried to play on one of the machines, and we couldn't figure it out. It wasn't meant to be. 

We decided we hated this city. Then we left. 

I napped (the ugly proved to be more exhausting than the beautiful) and Jack drove us to Laughlin, Nevada where my great aunt and uncle lived. 

Aunt Frances and Uncle Tony (rumored to have family members in the Mafia) are wonderful Jesus lovin' gamblin' folks. They took us to a delicious steak house located inside a casino (Jack ate tacos), and in our dinner conversation the fact that I had never gambled came up. Uncle Tony was appalled and as soon as we finished eating, we marched up to the video poker machines and I lost 15 dollars of Uncle Tony's money. I felt like a big ole family disappointment. Tony, however, won $150 in a quarter of the time it took me to lose 15. 

It was so very nice to spend time with them and to hear stories about my family, but we had to get back on the road. This time we were headed to the city of angels to see my mother's brothers and sisters.