Saturday, June 27, 2026
Okay, for anyone following along in real time, we’re almost done! Saturday was technically our last full day, though we had a very late (11:45 pm 🥴) flight on Sunday night, so Sunday was basically another full day, too.
But Saturday was our last full day at our Vegas hotel.
Started the morning off with pool time, as usual. We definitely settled into a “routine” during our time in Vegas! Haha. I loved this.
Fortunately we didn’t spend much of the rest of the day on our phones! Lol.
Also similar to other days, after getting ready, we headed out to explore.
Quick note on Vegas and duration: I feel like many people think Vegas is a place to only go for like, a weekend, max. And I can see that being true if someone is going all out on partying and gambling or something- probably a couple days would be all one could handle!
But there is actually SO much to see and do in Vegas, especially on a first trip (which it was for the boys). In my opinion, just exploring all the various hotels and casinos on the Strip takes up a LOT of time (and is really fun and interesting- the boys seemed to really enjoy all this “wandering”). There are unique things to see in each one, plus incredible malls/shops mixed in many.
There are dozens of shows to go to, millions of restaurants to check out, great pools (weather is perfect for pool time), luxury spas, nightclubs, day clubs, amazing shopping, and of course the option to hit up the casinos. There’s Fremont Street, too.
THEN there’s all the other stuff we didn’t even get to. The Mob Museum. The Neon museum. Thrill rides at the Stratosphere. The F1 Experience. The FRIENDs experience. The aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Just to name a few! There are tons of other cool experiences, museums, activities, etc.
Oh, and not to mention day trips! Red Rock Canyon is so close. Plus of course Hoover Dam (we did do this), among others.
All to say, there is a lot in Las Vegas that can easily fill many days, if desired. Also, it is much more kid friendly than many people think. We saw TONS of families with kids.
I personally adored the combo we did of Zion + Vegas- it felt like the ideal balance for me! The boys liked Zion a lot and thought it was really cool, but they loved Vegas. Both are already planning to go back at 21. 😉
Okay, digression over- back to recap.
For lunch, Ethan really wanted to get ramen from a place we’d been eyeing all week. Well, turns out the ramen place is near the taco place, so…. Ivan and I got more tacos!! hahaha.
In the bathroom near the taqueria: a shoe vending machine?! Apparently it sells little ballet flat shoes. I’d never seen this before, but it makes sense- some women were wearing very impractical shoes for all the extreme walking in Vegas. Ha.
We had one chunk left of the Strip that we hadn’t seen yet.
Outside the Venetian on the way by:
I wanted to take them in the Wynn because it’s just such a beautiful hotel!
LOVE the carousel and floral arrangements/garden. Beautiful!
The casino is gorgeous too.
Uh oh, we found one of my favorite Quick Hit machines!! Had to put a few bucks in…
We wandered through a few more places, eventually stopping for an ice cream cone at McDonald’s. We needed a heat break.
Ivan had run off separate from us to go buy Asher an original Ronaldo Portugal jersey, as a (very) early birthday present. Portugal played Saturday night and Asher likes Ronaldo a lot. It was a surprise, and he loved it!
He put it on right away. I captioned this photo “a household divided”. 😆
Finally, we walked way down to the old Circus Circus, a Vegas classic/original. Its heyday has passed, but just wanted to show it to the boys since it was one of the original greats.
It still had a lot of action today, actually! There are still free circus act shows and a huge arcade that was very busy with families.
The casino was all circus themed too.
We decided to take the bus back. It was a long walk to retrace our steps.
Caught the Deuce bus, then back to clean up for our evening plans.
We had tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show at 7 pm, but Portugal played at 4:30. The plan was to head down to the MGM Grand very early (where the show would be) to watch the game somewhere so we’d be close for the show after.
A quick search revealed a great sports bar called Tap right within the MGM Grand. Perfect.
Ready to go:
Took a taxi to the MGM Grand (technically walkable but far and we had already walked a TON).
Cute one of my parents:
Ready for the game! The World Cup definitely impacted many of our dining choices this week, but that’s okay. It was really fun.
Ivan took this funny one of me and my dad, apparently very invested in the game, too! Haha.
The timing was actually perfect. After the game ended (a fun/good game, but 0-0 draw), it was about time to head to Kà.
Ready for show!
The theater is amazing!!
I snagged a few pics but no way to really capture the essence of a Cirque du Soleil show. They’re very unique! I chose this one specifically due to the very powerful/warrior theme. Lots of drum beats and amazing visuals and of course their typical crazy stunts and moves.
The boys said they liked it a lot!! I think my parents are not as into Cirque du Soleil, but Ivan and I have seen several and always find them visually exhilarating and pretty astounding. The artists are SO talented!!
After the 7 pm show ended, we taxied to the High Roller (which is literally right behind our Hilton).
It’s one of those ginormous observation wheels. This one is actually taller than the London Eye. It’s the tallest one there is, apparently!
In the past I’ve always gone up to the top of the Stratosphere for a night view, but we decided to try this as it’s new since I was last in Vegas (like, 17 years ago!!).
Overall, not sure I’d totally recommend it. It was cool, and it’s a lot more convenient to get to vs the Stratosphere, but given its exact location, there are some hotels that kinda block some of the iconic views. Even with how tall it is. It just doesn’t give that complete of Strip views. It left me feeling a little “meh”.
It does give a great unobstructed look at the new Sphere!! Was fun to see it constantly changing. This place is truly awesome. If you get the chance to attend a concert or event here, do it!
Some views:
It was still fun to do! 🤷♀️
After, it was ~10:30 or so, and the boys headed back to hotel. The rest of us stopped for a beer/snack at the Yard House before indulging in some more casino time!
Omg, my mom, dad and I ended up in this crazy battle of chicken with the Rich Little Hens game. 😆 (You can accumulate “free games” but you don’t get them until you hit it right. I had worked it up to like 32 free games pending and we knew eventually the hen would “pop” and we’d get those free games (along with potential for some decent winnings)!!!! Hahaha. We ended up falling right into their trap lol and kept feeding it more money just “one more time”. 🤣 In the end, we definitely came out losing, though we cashed out on a bigger win that kinda sorta made it not so bad. Haha! (Don’t worry- this is all relative- we’re not talking crazy money. I am not positive but between Ivan and me (mostly me 😬), I’d say we maybe spent like, $200 or less (if that) total on casinos during the whole trip.)
The crazy part is that we got really into this and stayed in the casino until around 2 am! 🤪🤪 (The game kept going up… and then down… down.. down…. UP!!! Back down… etc. haha. It was actually very fun though!)
Definitely wayyyyyy past our bedtime, but it’s Vegas, and, YOLO. 🙂
Alright, one more day to go! Whew this has been such a fun trip!!!!
GRATEFUL KAE 