We started the month of November at full tilt by going to a parking lot carnival. Maya was invited by a couple friends, and Ian had a friend tag along too. I forget how absolutely soaked our kids have been in thrill ride experiences till I am around kids who haven’t. Both Ian’s friend and one of Maya’s friends were looking a little wobbly after riding some of the rides.

Maya had a very musical couple of days on the following weekend, which were unfortunately preceded by a week of intense Maya stress. She had done well enough in district band auditions to advance to regionals, and that competition was Saturday morning. She was a giant ball of nerves. I have no doubt she did a great job, but unfortunately didn’t place high enough in this audition to move on.

That afternoon, she had her first performance with the Austin Soundwaves youth orchestra. They had been rehearsing once a week for seven weeks by this point, and especially given that fact, they did a great job. Maya is the only oboe in the orchestra, and is always proud when she’s called on to help with tuning.

Then Sunday afternoon, despite us suggesting she not sign up this time, she participated in a piano recital. Even though she wasn’t quite as well-practiced as she normally would be, she still pulled off a very good performance. I think I can safely say, as Maya enjoyed a post-recital ice cream, that most of what she felt at that moment was relief that it was all over for a little while.

The next weekend, we got to watch Ian perform at the farmers market he and his teacher Chris perform at once a month. He did a great job, as always, and it seems like he just keeps getting more and more comfortable with performing.

Ian had been asking for ramen, and while I suspect this is not exactly what he had in mind, the Sunday following his farmers market concert, we went to Ramen del Barrio. I cannot recommend this place enough. My mole tsukemen was amazing, even as leftovers later in the week.

Maya’s birthday was drawing ever nearer, and I had been bugging her about what kind of cake she wanted – flavor, decorations, anything. She provided me absolutely no direction at all. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, when left to my own devices, I get creative.

I tried to make a “marbled” cake this year. Batter in a handful of colors is blobbed into pan, swirled a little, and then baked. I’m not sure I did a great job, but it looked good anyway. The best thing through was the decoration. Maya celebrated her 13th birthday this year, so we did a 6+7 cake.

The six-seven phenomenon, while inscrutable, seemingly sourceless, and maybe a hair annoying has torn through the fabric of school-age society. I think the teachers who are leaning into it have the right idea. The places that have chosen to ban it are making it so much more attractive to the brain-rot crowd. Plus, as these sorts of phenomena go, it seems so harmless.

Anyway, Maya didn’t see it coming, and was left speechless when her cake was presented to her, which is a rarity for her.

We did cake and presents a couple days ahead of her birthday so she could enjoy her birthday dinner on the actual day. We went to Juliet Italian Kitchen, and it was perfect for Maya. She got a big plate of pasta and tiramisu for dessert, which I suspect is her favorite.

Ian had been accepted into the Junior Music Maestros, an after school musical group, and his rehearsal frequency had been picking up throughout the week. At last, on the 20th, we got to see him perform.

This year, they put on a musical called The Claw. The idea is that a bunch of toys live in a non-functioning claw machine in an arcade. One day, it starts working again! One toy is excited for her chance to escape and see the world, another isn’t quite ready yet, but wants to make her friend happy.

Ian was part of the “turtle chorus” (think unbranded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). They had some fun songs, but he had no speaking lines, which I think disappointed him a little. The blow was softened by the fact that he got to play guitar for one of the songs (the Pizza Lullaby).

The show was genuinely funny, and despite the fact that some poor kid vomited what had to be two stomach’s worth of stuff on the floor behind us, we really enjoyed it. I think even Ian would tell you he had a good time.

I hate to get bored, so (like a fool), I planned a trip for our Thanksgiving break. We bought plane tickets for times that wouldn’t require the kids to miss any school, which meant leaving late on a Friday night.

Right away, as Woods vacations are wont to do, things started to go awry. We made it past government shutdowns which were impacting staffing for both national parks and TSA. Death Valley had had the wettest fall on record, which led to wide-spread flooding and road closures. Luckily, at least some of the roads had re-opened by the time our Thanksgiving trip rolled around. In the end, it was the airline (or maybe air traffic control, who knows) that got us.

Our flight (thankfully direct) was supposed to leave Austin at 9:45p, but we got notice that morning that it was delayed by about an hour an a half. It shifted around throughout the day, but ultimately we left around 11 o’clock at night for our three hour flight west. Thanks to timezone magic (Vegas is in the Pacific time zone), it was just shy of midnight when we landed. We even had to wait for someone who had a medical emergency to deplane first.

When we finally got onto our plane and got seated, a very excited lady was whooping and hollering about her trip to ~Las Vegas~. We’re thinking she probably wiled away the flight delay at the bar. We overheard that she was a middle school teacher, so for sure she had earned her cocktails and her vacation excitement, but I don’t think the tired and delayed travelers around her were really feeling it. (I missed it, but Sean was sitting closer to her and reports that later on in the flight, she politely hurled and then passed out. I genuinely hope that the rest of her trip was fun.)

The kids worked out pretty quickly that Las Vegas was a different kind of town. For one, we could see the strip glowing in all its casino-ed glory as we came in for a landing. For another, we exited the jetway and were immediately presented with blinking clusters of slot machines. It was bonkers.

We took a slooooow shuttle to our rental car place, and then made directly for the hotel so we could catch a night’s sleep before we got the heck out of town.

The next morning, we allowed ourselves to sleep till 8, since we had arrived so, so late. We had a very mediocre hotel breakfast, repacked what little we had unpacked, and then headed toward Joshua Tree National Park. Figuring that Las Vegas may be the most civilization we’d see for a while, we loaded up on drinks and snacks before hitting the road. This turned out to be a good impulse.

Our mapping apps offered us both a nice, mostly interstate highway route and a more remote route, that we weren’t a hundred percent sure was all paved. After some dickering over our options, we, we chose the road less traveled, and it led us through the Mojave National Preserve. Interestingly, this would also have been the faster route too, had we not found so many interesting things to stop and check out.

For one, the preserve was beautiful. We hadn’t yet made it to either national park, so the long stretches of rocky desert and cactus and Joshua trees were fresh and new to us. Also, it turns out all that remote living must do something to a creative person’s brain, because we saw some wacky stuff.

We came across big marble statues of Chinese lions sitting in a field of nothing against a backdrop of mountains in the distance. These are mythical protectors, guarding against evil. On the way there, we passed by the female pretty fast and by the time our brains processed that that was interesting and stop-worthy, we were far away. Then the male lion presented itself and so we stopped. (We visited the female guardian on the way back up later in the week.)

Maya had told us all about the two lions when we visited the Chinatown part of Honolulu a couple summers ago, at the time having just learned about them in her 5th grade Chinese lessons. She reminded us again this year. The male lion was holding a ball, and the female one was holding a cub. These two are referred to as the “Amboy lions” because they’re in Amboy, California. As I understand it, they appeared sometime in 2013 and no one knows who made them. I want to know how they got them there. They’re large and appear to be made of solid stone.

A bit later on, we found ourselves at “the end of the world.” Installed in 2022, this particular art installation has seen better days. Still it was an unexpected sight as we were zipping along the highway.

We eventually rolled into the city of Twentynine Palms, CA, which would be our home base for exploring Joshua Tree National Park. The first order of business was finding lunch. We stopped in at a fun little place called Grnd Sqrl and enjoyed a couple of interesting local beers and some solid food. The kids kept ordering stuff, appetizers, lunch, dessert, and we didn’t have the presence of mind to stop them, so it was getting late when we finally left.

One of the visitor’s centers for the national park was right there in Twentynine Palms, so we payed our entrance fee and picked up a map and got some truly excellent and helpful information from one of the park rangers there.

We did a quick check of when the sun would set and were astonished to find that sunset time was around 4:30! We wouldn’t have time to get anywhere in time to watch sunset, so instead we drove into the park for a ways and checked out the Skull Rock area. Skull Rock, so named because it resembles a giant skull, is right along the road and immensely popular. The rock was absolutely overrun with people, but we spent a good amount of time clambering around on the boulders and cliffs beyond. Ian was in love. That kid really enjoys climbing, and the rocks here are pretty grippy, so he could get himself into all kinds of trouble climbing up and up and up with entirely too much confidence.

We drove on a little further admiring the giant Joshua trees and wishing we had more time. When it got to be too dark to really see anything, we headed back into town to check into our hotel. We were all still a little worn out from our long travel day the day before, so we hit the easy button on dinner and just walked across the street to a California fast food chain called Del Taco. Maya and Ian loved it. Searching out Del Taco locations became something of a theme for them on this vacation, so delighted were they with the food. And for fast food, it honestly wasn’t too bad.

The next morning, we were up and out the door by 5:45 so we could try to catch the sunrise at the Cholla Cactus Garden. Joshua Tree National Park is interesting in that is covers portions of both the higher-elevation, cooler Mojave Desert in the west and the lower-elevation, warmer Colorado Desert in the east. We spent our entire time in the northwest portion of the park, but our foray down to the Cholla Cactus Garden is in the Pinto Basin part of the park which is definitely part of the Colorado Desert. (The park’s namesake Joshua trees thrive in the Mojave Desert, while cacti prefer the hotter, drier Colorado.)

Cholla cacti are sometimes known as “teddy bear cactus” for the almost fuzz-like appearance of their spines. Sometimes, they’re known as “jumping cactus” for their paddles’ propensity to break off and become lodged in the boots, sleeves, etc of incautious hikers. The sunrise as it peeks over the mountains in the east, backlights the spine layer of the cholla cacti, giving them the appearance of glowing.

After finishing at Cholla, we went to hike the trail to Arch Rock and Heart Rock. These were fun destinations in and of themselves, but getting to clamber around on the boulders again was very happy-making for Ian.

It was around 9 or so when we finished there, and we were all getting hungry, so we headed back into town for breakfast at Benny’s. The Benny’s location was, we’re pretty sure, a minimally re-skinned Denny’s, but the food was excellent and we all had a very nice and filling breakfast.

Upon returning to the park, we were presented with a line of cars at the entrance. Whoops. This is where we discovered that we maybe should have packed along some food and just stayed in the park all day.

We drove to our next intended hiking destination – Barker Dam – only to discover the lot was completely full. We back-tracked to the Hidden Valley trail and circled the lot probably a half dozen times, always watching someone else get the spots that opened up. In frustration, we went back to Barker Dam, where the lot structure was a little more equitable, having more of a one-out, one-in set up. It wasn’t long before a spot opened up, and we were at last heading in for a hike.

The Barker Dam hike offers some interesting variety. There are Joshua trees and boulder piles of course, but there are also petroglyphs made by Native Americans as much as 2000 years ago, and a now-abandoned dam that was built to support a short-lived cattle ranch in the 1900s. The dam still helps water to collect, providing a drinking source for desert fauna.

It was a nice, if very popular, hike and Sean and Ian indulged in some more rock climbing, while Maya and I sat in the shade and chit-chatted and ate some snacks.

We next stopped to try out the Hall of Horrors area of the park. This part of the park is supposed to have a couple of cool slot canyons to explore. Unfortunately, even though we covered a lot of ground, we never managed to find them. I was going to rewatch a video explaining the route, but of course there was no cell signal at all, so we chalked it up as a nice hike even without slot canyons.

It was getting on toward sunset at this point, so we drove out to Keys View to give ourselves enough time to find parking and to poke around the area a little before the sun fully set. We have there a little after 3 for a 4:30 sunset and this proved to be a wise choice (file that under “fool me once”). We snagged one of the last parking spots and not long after, a huge line began to extend from the lot.

I was excited about Keys View because if conditions were right, we’d get to see the San Andreas fault. Alas, conditions were not right. The whole of the valley was filled with a fluffy layer of cloud. We even saw a widening and flattening of the cloud layer that we suspect was the beginnings of the Salton Sea to the southeast, but we couldn’t quite be sure of what we were seeing, so thick was the cloud cover.

Maya was funny. She and Ian were bored, so they climbed up a mountainside path and then Maya parked herself on a rock to write music in her notebook while Ian tropsied around doing who knows what – hopefully respecting the fragile desert landscape and not putting himself in too much danger.

And watching the sun setting behind the mountains is nice and all, but at this location, you’re facing west into that setting sun, so it was tough to photograph. Sean did his best though and either way, it was beautiful. Even all the mist and cloud cover are lovely in their way – it’s just not what we wanted to see in that moment. As per usual, nature doesn’t care what you want. Nature’s gonna nature – you just have to decide how you’re gonna feel about it. The moment the sun dropped behind the mountains, the temperature dropped noticeably, so mostly how we felt about it was kinda cold and ready to load up and hit the road.

Maya and Ian had put up with a lot of hiking and had to wait through both sunrise and sunset photography excursions, so we acquiesced to their request for Del Taco again for dinner. We had had a long day that started early, so it wasn’t long after dinner that we went to bed.

The following morning, we decided that we’d had our fill of Joshua Tree National Park, and chose to gas up the car and head toward Death Valley right away instead of going back in. We retraced our steps a little ways and managed to get the female Amboy lion. We stopped in Baker, CA, alleged home of the world’s largest thermometer, for yet another visit to Del Taco for lunch.

We rolled up to the Furnace Creek visitor’s center around 2 in the afternoon, and boy was it a different experience from the Twentynine Palms visitor center for Joshua Tree had been. It was crazy busy. We managed to grab one of the last parking spots and walked in to find we were waiting in a big line to pay for our entrance fee, collect a map, and get some advice on which roads were open and what hikes and things were still doable (since the floods had damaged so many roads).

We had learned our lesson regarding the very early sunsets already, and so we drove directly to our sunset location – Zabriskie Point. The great thing about arriving a bit early was that we had some time to hike a little bit in this very otherworldly landscape.

The multi-hued mountains in this area in particular are almost completely devoid of vegetation and have been left deeply ridged by erosion. I learned just now that those colors come courtesy of mineral deposits – iron, manganese, and mica. It was gorgeous, if a little hot, to walk around for a while into the badlands part of the park.

We again found ourselves facing westward into the setting sun, so for the most part, our photos capture the deepening of the colors and shadows in the surrounding mountains.

There was absolutely zero cell phone coverage where we were, so we drove back toward the visitors center to sponge their WiFi so we could pull down instructions to our VRBO in Beatty. Truth told, in this case, we could probably have just used a map and been perfectly fine. There aren’t *that* many roads to bother with. Still, Death Valley National Park is massive, and while Beatty is right near the border, it still took us probably 45 minutes or so to get there from the visitors center.

Beatty is just over the border in Nevada, and so, at the kids’ request, we found ourselves at a Denny’s inside a casino for dinner that night. It was fine – about what you’d expect – but we were reminded that being amidst all that cigarette smoke is unpleasant, especially for Maya. With dinner settled, we headed back to our “home” to knock out some laundry and rest up for another early morning.

We woke up at 4:30 that morning to make the long drive from Beatty to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes to watch sunrise. There isn’t a trail as such at this part of the park. You just strike out from the parking lot into the giant sand dunes and try to stay oriented with the mountains all around you.

I think normally when conditions are drier, the wind sweeps the footprints away from the dunes overnight. Since it had been raining so much, the sand was actually kind of wet. Probably this meant that it was easier for us to climb the dunes than it might normally be, but it also meant there was lots of evidence of other humans.

Still, it was incredible to see. Mountains to the north provide the material to erode and blow into dunes. Mountains to the south provide the barrier to keep the dunes hanging out in this one place. The sunrise cast wonderful golden light. We saw the mountains pinking up around us and the deep shadows of the gently rolling dunes becoming more distinct as the part in daylight brightened. We spent a long time climbing around, taking photos.

The kids for their part did their best to slide down the dunes, but it was just too wet. They may or may not have drawn inappropriate things in the sand. We made them erase everything we knew about. Probably the wind would have eventually taken care of it.

We had wandered out further than we realized, so it took a while to walk back to the car. I don’t think it was even 8:00 by the time we left, but the golden light was already gone by then. By then we were all hungry anyway, so we headed to the nearby Stovepipe Wells Village part of the park to get breakfast at the Toll Road Restaurant.

It took us a bit to find the restaurant, but once we did, the kids were delighted to discover that it was a buffet. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was actually a really good breakfast. We all could load up sufficiently for all the hiking we still had ahead of us.

We went first to try out the Mosaic Canyon hike. This one had us kind of backtracking past Mesquite Flat again, so it made sense to get it out of the way first. There is a 2-ish mile gravel road to get back to the start of the hike, which we were assured should be fine in a regular car. It was on the hairy edge of fine. That road was rough!

The hike itself is actually pretty long, but my interest was to get to hike through the narrows part of the trail, so we didn’t need to walk the whole way. Mosaic Canyon is so named because in and amongst the smooth dolomite, there are bands and outcroppings made up of small rocks held together by a sort of natural cement, forming what can be poetically referred to as a mosaic. The dolomite parts of the hike were indeed very, very smooth, and we had to be careful when there was any kind of water.

Following this, we headed generally toward Badwater Basin with a couple stops en route. We stopped first at Harmony Borax Works. Everyone thinks about the California gold rush, but borax mining and refining were central to the good fortunes in the area for a period of time. The Harmony Borax works, at its height produced 3 tons a day. The operation only ran for five years, from 1883 to 1888.

The borax was pulled by “twenty-mule teams” and we got to see one of the twenty-mule team wagons. How does a twenty-mule team function? I found this article informative.

While Artist’s Drive / Artist’s Palette was en route, thanks to the ongoing flooding, the road remained closed during our entire visit and has been more closed than open ever since we left. The colors in the rocks that we enjoyed so much at Zabriskie Point are supposed to be even richer and more varied along this drive.

Even along the drive though, the mountainsides were showing off their varied colors, especially later on once the sun started to drop in the sky. It may not have been Artist’s Palette, but it was spectacular nonetheless.

Our next stop was at the Natural Bridge trail. This is a relatively short hike along a canyon bottom. The natural bridge in question is about 35-feet up. Sean and Ian hung around this area and did some climbing. Maya hung out and kept an eye on them. I wandered back a little further to see some “dry waterfalls.” It was all kind of peaceful with the canyon walls towering above.

And finally, the thing we thought we may not even get to see since the road had been closed until right before our trip – Badwater Basin! This is the lowest point in the contiguous United States at 282 feet below sea level. When you’re out on the boardwalk from the parking area, you can look way up at the cliff behind you and see a sign marking where sea level is. It’s a weird feeling.

Because there had been so much rain, we didn’t get to walk out onto the salt flats much. Instead, we got to witness Lake Manly in all its still, reflective glory. That water doesn’t flow anywhere, so it will be there until it evaporates. Seeing as more rain has hit the area since even since we’ve visited, it doesn’t seem like that will happen too soon. Then again, with summer highs hitting 120 degrees and more, maybe it won’t take long at all once it warms up.

I was curious so I looked it up – the salt in the salt flats is mostly the expected sodium chloride, however it’s mixed with calcite, gypsum, and borax. Don’t lick the salt!

We stopped by the Furnace Creek Visitors center to buy some sandwiches so we could stave off dinner for a bit and not miss our last sunset in the parks. Then we drove out to Dante’s Peak. We went from 282 feet below sea level to around 5500 feet above. Between the elevation change and the setting sun, it was brisk! Sean and I layered up and hung out to watch all the pretty, pretty. The kids didn’t even try. They bailed and went to hang out in the car, away from the wind.

They say that from Dante’s Peak on a clear day you can see both the lowest point in the contiguous US (Badwater Basin) and the highest (Mount Whitney). We definitely saw snow-capped peaks from where we were, but it wasn’t clear enough for us to have seen Mount Whitney. It was cold and we were again facing into the setting sun, but it was a lovely way to close out our Death Valley visit.

We made the long drive back to Beatty after this. There are a handful of local restaurants in the area, but this kids wanted Subway. They had been pretty good sports about all the hiking and weird meal times, so we gave in. I wasn’t paying perfect attention to their order, though it seemed like they were definitely running their sandwich maker around a little. They wound up eating bacon and pepperoni sandwiches, and I didn’t even care. The Subway was inside a giant candy shop – the Death Valley Nut and Candy Company – so we let everyone buy a bag of candy too (though I bought a bag savory trail mix instead – it was excellent).

We spent the rest of our evening doing laundry and generally relaxing. Even though Death Valley National Park is renowned for its dark, dark skies, we just couldn’t muster the energy to head back into the park.

The next morning, we got up and finished packing and headed out to Gemma’s Cafe for breakfast. I had some really excellent enchiladas and the fresh fruit they served alongside was actually good. Hooray!

We headed out to nearby Rhyolite to see the ghost town ruins there. Its story is not unique. Gold was found. A boom ensued. Its financial peak was probably around 1907. The population had swollen to around 5000. In a one-two punch, the market took a hit and the ore quality at the mine went downhill, and by 1920, the town was all but empty.

I don’t have a lot of ghost town experience, but enough structure was intact that you could kind of imagine how it might once have been. We saw a bank and a schoolhouse. We saw a typical miner’s residence. We learned about the red light district.

My favorite thing though may have been the old rail station. With its big Joshua Tree out front, you could just imagine an old west altercation getting ready to happen, drawling dialogue, gunfight, and all. It was very cinematic.

Under the “weird” category was the Tom Kelly Bottle House. Wood was scarce in the desert and glass bottles, apparently, were not. The bottles were used as bricks of a sort and mortared together. Apparently, he paid the local kids ten cents for a wheelbarrow load of bottles (about $3 today).

On our way out of the ghost town, we stopped at an open air art exhibit that we had noticed on the way in. The Goldwell Open Air Museum does nothing to dissuade me from believing that all that remoteness or the infernal heat of the desert does something to a creative person’s brain. The art at this museum is absolutely not boring (though we still couldn’t get the kids to get out of the car and check it out).

Set back against a hill is “The Pink Lady” by Dr Hugo Heyeman. She is a sort of pixelated nude. I had been teasing the kids that she was a Minecraft lady, since she was so blocky. But actually, the sculpture was made in 1991, far before Minecraft existed.

Their version of The Last Supper (1984 – Albert Szulalski) is abstract and oddly haunting. There are houses that appear to be sinking into the earth. There’s a “Keep Going” (2023 Michelle Graves) sign whose letters only look correct if you read the shadow they cast. There’s a stone spiral that apparently has been created by museum visitors over the years.

When planning the trip, I had read that Beatty has a population of feral burros. We hadn’t seen any thus far, but as we had seen very few other critters, I wasn’t all that surprised I guess. Here at the art museum, we heard them braying before we saw them. Sean spotted them way off in the distance along the hillside. We watched them for a while as they ambled down the hill and made their way closer. There was a baby amongst them (a burrito?) and against the backdrop of mountains and the foreground of odd art, it was nice to be still and drink it in.

Finally it was time to drive up to sin city so we could get ourselves checked in with plenty of time to get to our first reservation. It was a shorter drive from Death Valley to Las Vegas than it had been from Vegas to Joshua Tree National Park. Once in town, we had a quick fast food lunch and then headed to our hotel to check in.

Park MGM is unique in that it is a non-smoking facility. That’s right, even in the casino portion, no smoking is allowed. We initially made that choice in deference to Maya’s fire and smoke aversion, but I’ll be honest, it was nice to hang out in a relatively clean smelling room while we were there.

We didn’t linger long before heading out to our first destination for the evening, The Neon Museum. We had booked a 5pm reservation, figuring we’d get to see the signage both in lingering daylight and in darkness, but given how early the sun set, it was full-on dark by the time we got there.

The Neon Museum may have been my favorite thing we did while in Las Vegas. Signs in various states of repair were either glowing in restored bulbs and neon or floodlit, so you could see them anyway. Friendly and very informative docents were parked around the property to share as much information as you’re willing to stand and listen to about their exhibits.

After we made probably a good three laps around all the neon and visited the gift shop and collected our souvenir photos, it was time for dinner. I wanted to visit the Container Park mostly to see the wacky praying mantis who shoots fire out of his antennae, but also I figured it would be a fun place to find dinner. And it was! The kids had poke bowls and Sean and I shared a pizza from Mob Pie and we sat outside and ate. Ian played in the playground (Maya was too old!). On our way in, we got to watch the praying mantis dance and shoot fire, and while Maya was not enthused, the rest of us thought it was fun.

Next we headed over to Freemont Street, for our dose of what used to be old Las Vegas. We walked up and down the street, heads swiveling, trying to take it all in. Ninety feet above is a canopy of LED lights, “literally the largest canopy LED screen in the world.” There are 16.4 million pixels and 49.3 million LED lamps stretching a full 1,375 feet overhead. Add to the mayhem that there are people up there zip lining from either direction. We watched the 8p Katy Perry rendition of the Viva Vision show, and for my part, I very much prefer to watch the fun designs splash across the screen.

Then on ground level, classic Vegas reigned supreme with bright lights flashing and neon cowboys saying howdy. Of course, Freemont Street is pretty “colorful” in the character department too. There were scantily clad women and (less frequently) men ready to take their photo with you. Buskers were busy dancing, performing magic, and making spray paint art in hopes of separating passers-by from their dollars. T-shirts were on sale with all manner of NSFW slogans. The kids roundly scolded us for bringing them there.

They forgave us though, because toward the end of our trip, we noticed Pink Box doughnuts and grabbed a bunch of those so we’d have breakfast the next morning (I had the “John Lemon”).

We had doughnuts and leftover pizza and were ready to ditch the car, so we drove back to the hotel to regroup. Since it was still pretty early, the intention had been to the walk up to the Bellagio to watch the fountains for a little while before heading back and crashing. As it happens, we do-daddled around for so long, that my heart wasn’t really in it by the time we finally left.

On the walk there, which wasn’t long by Vegas standards, we noticed things looked radically different from when we were last there, which admittedly was over 20 years ago. Big banks of LEDs accosted you at every turn, even on passing vehicles, blowing out your pupils and making it tough to see. There was so much more shopping than I remember there being before. And there was weird infrastructure all over the place, leftover from the Formula 1 race that had just happened the week before. Fine, fine, no problem. We figured it out and got to where we needed to go. And all the new (to us) casinos provided some pretty interesting architecture to ogle.

When we finally got to Bellagio, we were dismayed to discover that we would not, in fact, get to go to part of the sidewalk directly centered with the casino and its glorious fountain show. Formula 1 struck again. Apparently for the race, they install a big ugly structure right in front of the fountain. The lucky folks sitting there, when not staring at the race on one side could turn around and stare at the fountains on the other side. Apparently these seats go for something like $9,000 a pop, the gulf between the haves and the have nots, ever widening.

What we could see of the fountains was very pretty, and we could have tried walking around a little more toward the hotel side of the fountains for a better view, but by then we were tired of walking and fighting crowds and were maybe a little disenchanted, so we walked back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep instead.

The next morning, actual Thanksgiving Day, we were going to get to do something I had been looking forward to since I started planning the trip. We were going to see a show at The Sphere. The Sphere is, actually, a giant sphere – or at least a partial one, standing 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide (the largest spherical building in the world) and coated in LEDs (it’s “exosphere” features 580,000 square feet of LEDs). Anyone in the right spot in Las Vegas can admire the exterior, and while it’s visible during the day, it’s particularly stunning at night.

Inside, the “media plane” is 160,000 square feet, 20 times larger than an IMAX. There are 167,000 programmable speakers that can be fine-tuned so that each seat will have sounds fine-timed for the individual patron’s experience. The seats feature haptics that can be employed for even more immersion.

We chose to take an Uber to the Sphere that morning, and even our driver had a tough time navigating with all the blocked lanes and weird infrastructure left over from the F1 race.

We were there to see The Sphere’s version of Wizard of Oz, but I thought there were supposed to be unique interactive exhibits even before we went into the main auditorium. Apparently those exhibits are no more. There were some neat visual effects (giant crystal ball, holographic screen) and a few small photo ops. For the most part though, after spending a little time looking around, we bought some overpriced snacks and found our seats.

The Wizard of Oz as done at the Sphere is amazing though. Seats jolt and vibrate in conjunction with the action in the film. Practical effects (wind, fire, flying monkeys) augment all the digital finesse. And the huge display and targeted sounds are truly fantastic. My favorite thing by far was the tornado scene. Air swirled around you with paper leaves caught in the breeze, your seat buzzed, and the audio was intense. At one point we were swooped into the eye of the tornado. The effect was enhanced by the haptics and audio shifting from quiet to loud and Dorothy took us into and out of the house.

Apples fell from the ceiling when the trees pelted our adventurers for trying to steal apples, “snow” sprinkled down when they were in the poppy fields, and animatronic monkeys swooped through the Sphere as the wicked witch urged them to fly. I feel that it was overpriced for what it was, but I don’t regret seeing the show. I think all four Woodses were suitably delighted with the experience.

I had read that a good way to watch the Sphere from the outside was to hang out on the elevated walkway between the Venetian and Wynn casinos. This was indeed a good spot, but even as bright as it was during the day, we knew we’d have to come see it again after dark.

We made our way over to the Venetian for our late Thanksgiving lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Canonita. Even walking through the Venetian was a pretty wild experience. Years ago, pre-kids, Sean and I spent time in Venice, and even as manufactured as it was, it definitely sent me right back to our time in Italy. The ceiling is painted to look like a blue daylight sky, replete with puffy white clouds and uplighting from the “buildings” along the canals, yes canals complete with gondolas, that ran throughout.

Many casinos’ restaurants feature huge buffets to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I did consider booking one of those instead, but the impression I was left with is that the crowds at such an event can be terrible, and that the food wasn’t necessarily what one might desire. For that reason, we just booked a normal table at a restaurant that featured a Thanksgiving menu, but didn’t do a big buffet.

We were promptly seated “outside” at Canonita. It wasn’t long at all before our friendly server supplied the grown ups with cocktails and the kids with sodas. Sean and I mostly stuck with things from their Thanksgiving menu, but the kids did their own thing, Ian enjoying some kind of braised bone in short rib and Maya absolutely devouring a seafood stew. Our “traditional” food had a lovely Yucatecan flair with poblanos in the mashed potatoes and crunchy pepitas dotting our cornbread. It was a delightful and relaxing feast, all the way around.

Somehow our kids had room for dessert, so I took Ian for candy and Sean took Maya for gelato afterward.

After that, it was time for some Las Vegas strip sight seeing, as weird as that sounds. We walked first to the Flamingo casino to see their free Flamingo Wildlife Habitat. They care for a flock of gorgeous Chilean flamingos there. Additionally, there are a variety of ducks and lots of koi. We saw lots of pretty little hummingbirds visiting their feeders as well. It was a relaxing little escape from the crowded sidewalks and casinos.

Next we headed to Caesar’s Palace to check out the Fall of Atlantis free show. I am constantly surprised at how difficult it can be to locate specific things within a casino. Objectively, I understand that they’re designed to keep you in, to make it hard to leave. We walked for quite a ways before we finally found that blessed show.

The Fall of Atlantis attraction originally opened in 1997, and it is showing its age. That said, for a little slice of weird Vegas nostalgia, the price can’t be beat. Plus the aquarium in the same area is actually pretty fantastic.

Before we headed back toward our hotel, we walked back up to watch the Sphere in the dark. Sure, everything they displayed was ultimately an advertisement for something, but this part of the Sphere can be enjoyed by anyone for free and it was absolutely mesmerizing to watch.

Finally, we headed over to Bellagio again to see its famous Conservatory in all of its holiday glory. Each season, the Conservatory gets a complete transformation. When we were there, it was decked out for the holidays. Currently, it’s been redone to represent lunar new year.

When we visited, on Thanksgiving day, the crowds were almost intolerable. The decorations were amazing and I was glad to have seen then, but I was equally happy when we decided to leave. We did take the time to walk past the World’s largest chocolate fountain at the Bellagio Patisserie.

It is a 27-foot tall tower that moves something like two thousand pounds of liquid chocolate. According to Atlas Obscura, in 2019 a 30-foot tall chocolate fountain was unveiled in a Lindt store in Zurich.

Everyone’s dogs were barking at this point, so we were all happy to take the free tram from Bellagio to Park MGM. We went down to the Eataly market within Park MGM for dinner. Each of us could choose the particular food we felt like eating and enjoy it in a lovely smoke-free environment.

On our last day in the area, we decided to try to see Hoover Dam, so the kids could take the “dam tour.” We had a quick snacky breakfast and packed sufficiently for the airport later in the day. We thought we might stop by the famous Fabulous Las Vegas sign on our way out, but there was a massive line and we decided it was ultimately not worth it to us.

We drove the roughly 45 minutes to Hoover Dam, got inside, and bought tickets for the power plant tour. We sat and watched an informative video where Ian learned that workers made about $4 a day. Ian wanted to know if that was good or bad. During the desperation of the Depression, it probably seemed like good money, but Ian and I looked it up. Four dollars in 1928 is worth about $75 today. That would have been for twelve hours of hard, dangerous labor, so no, it probably wasn’t strictly a fair wage.

After our video, we waited in line for the elevator that would have taken us down to see the power plant. After a fair amount of waiting with nothing happening, they finally told us all that the elevator had stopped working. We had a plane to catch later, so we got a refund for our tour tickets and went outside to walk around on the dam some.

The kids got to stand one in Nevada and one in Arizona, which had the added fun of being in two different time zones. The dam was huge and epic and even though I’d seen it before, I was just as amazed to see it a second time. On our way out, we stopped by the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge for excellent views back toward the dam.

We had just enough time to sneak in one more quick lunch at Del Taco on our way to the airport, get our rental car turned in, and get to our flight. In fact, we were cutting it a little close. We accidentally drove to the airport before remembering that that is not where we picked our car up. After turning our car in and taking our slooow shuttle back, we didn’t have much time at all. We were happy to see that the security line wasn’t too long.

As we were just going through the security checkpoint, removing coats and unpacking electronics and whatnot to go through the scanners, when Ian started to panic. He had left his iPad in the rental car. Even though I asked him to verify he had everything before we got out. Even though I routinely ask them to put things back in their bags after they use them. Even so, he had left it. We think he tucked away to keep it out of sight during one of our stops and then accidentally hid it from himself.

Our flight would be leaving soon, so we finished going through security and Sean tried to call the rental car agency. He had a lost property ticket opened in no time, but no matter what button he pushed, he couldn’t talk to an actual person.

Our flight boarded, and we vowed to pick up the fight once we were back in Austin. We made it back to home, tired and worried about Ian’s iPad, but otherwise, none the worse for wear.

The next morning, Sean again tried to deal with Ian’s iPad, again calling and being shutnted over and over to instructions inviting him to open a ticket for the lost property. He tried to use Apple “Find My” to locate Ian’s iPad, but it wasn’t working from his phone. Finally on Sunday, Sean noticed that the iPhone we let Ian use as a wifi device was able to locate Ian’s iPad. There it sat in the rental car center. Well, at least it hadn’t yet gone out with another rental.

Sean didn’t get to talk to a human till Monday. Every time he tried to choose options for lost and found, he got sent to the national folks. On Monday, he selected options that sent him to customer service instead. After some back and forth, they located the iPad, verified that it was truly ours, and shipped it back to us. It was at our expense, but that was far less than a new iPad would have been. The kids had just gotten those iPads last Christmas, so they were very new. (Ironically, we had gotten them nicer models since they had shown how responsible they were with the old ones.) Whew!

Sunday, the last day of November, we went to Papa Noel and picked up our Christmas tree. Our goal for this day was simply to get the tree home and mounted in a tree stand. We got very lucky this year. We found a wonderfully full tree in our preferred height. It was so full, the guys at Papa Noel had a little trouble getting it wrapped in netting for mounting on the car. We were just able to get it through the front door with the netting on. We’ll have to see how the heck we’re gonna get it out of the house (yeah, we haven’t taken it down yet).

And then things got really busy. December. Oof. Thank goodness, we had our traveling break, or it might have been a rough one to get through.