Yesterday we began our annual summer holiday – 12 days in Nevada, Arizona and Utah. It’s the first time west of the Mississippi for the kids, and their first time on JetBlue (they loved the movies on demand and access to live TV, and the fact that Logan terminal C had banners of all the Boston championships).

One hour in Vegas and Big D was commenting on all the smells — the airport, the taxi, the hotel. A medley of cigarette smoke, cigars, cleaning supplies and also forced sweet fragrances to mask the ugly. Miss M commented on the pervasiveness of alcohol and the crowds of people. People walking out of hotel elevators with beers in hand, stands which look like they sell kids slushees but they are really frozen alcoholic drink dispensers — people everywhere drinking.

We intended to stay at Mandalay Bay but they upgraded to the new Delano hotel — all suites which meant more space, two bathrooms and a view of the city sprawl, mountains in the distance, and new stadium being built for the LA Raiders.

The next morning, Paul headed to his conference and we hit Mandalay Bay’s wave pool and lazy river. It reached 102 today, but it was tolerable, especially in the early afternoon when there were clouds and a lot of wind. Seating poolside with an umbrella is only available for an additional $150/day so without shade I wasn’t sure how long we’d last! After 7 hours of swimming the kids were done and we called it a day!