Viva Las Vegas!

I just returned from Las Vegas and Lake Havasu. Keeno, his sister (Sam), his mother (Rita) and I left on Wednesday for his family reunion on his mother's side. We met up with with Keeno's aunt Mary (Mimi) and cousin-in-law, Janine, in Las Vegas and stayed with them most of the week. We stayed at Caesar's Palace Wednesday and Thursday. We ate expensive Japanese food in Caesar's Palace on Wednesday night, and I crashed around 8pm, which was 10pm central time, while the others played and explored the strip. Rita and Aunt Mimi saw Bette Midler at the Colliseum in Caesar's Palace, and I was secretly jealous.

I woke up 6am on Thursday morning while the others slept and went for an hour jalk around Caesar's Palace. I kid you not, it was absolutely magnificent minus the smoke in the casino. I peeked in some wedding chapels, stormed the stairs of the little outside island platforms they had everywhere with extraordinary marble-ish columns, explored around the Forum shopping center. Statue of the David that made my eyes bug out. Every designer name you can imagine...it was there and there were 3 levels of it with a grand opening that reminded me of Daddy Warbucks' house from the musical Annie. That afternoon we all went to an outlet mall off the strip, and I thought my sister, Megan, would have been in heaven since there was a True Religion outlet and a ton of designer clothing outlets. We came back to the strip and ate at an amazing hole in the wall family Italian restaurant called Batista's. If you ever get a chance, go! It was a phenomenon of its own. After dinner, Keeno and I saw the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor while Sam and Janine ventured out on New York, New York and Rita and Aunt Mimi explored Caesar's Palace. On our way to the exhibit (3 miles down the strip, thank you bad directions lady), we stopped in front of the Bellagio to pay tribute to the Ocean's Eleven cast. We saw a wonderful fountain show while Frank Sinatra played in the background. After we made the 3 mile jaunt to the Luxor, the Bodies exhibit was worth the rush. Every major system in the body (circulatory, muscular, respiratory, arterial, nervous, digestive, etc.) was preserved via a sillicon polymer serum, so every part was in tact and displayed clearly. I saw what a smoker's lung looked like and what a stroke victim's brain looked like. I was blown away and became slightly teary-eyed when I saw the stroke brain. There were 10 rooms to view everything. I thought the most interesting was the arterial system. Every capillary, blood vessel, artery was maintained and displayed as if in the living body. Truly an extraordinary show.

Friday we left for Lake Havasua City, which is absolutely gorgeous. I met most of Keeno's family on his mother's side Friday and Saturday. We stayed at a really cool hotel called "Heat" in Lake Havasu. We had a 2-bedroom 2-bath room with a huge balcony, full size kitchen with a living room, dining room, and washer and dryer and Rita and Aunt Mimi had the Inferno suite right off the water and across from the London bridge. Just a quick bit of trivia...Lake Havasu won the auction for the London Bridge when it came tumbling down back in the early 1900's and it is well-preserved from the mainland to the island where the Heat Hotel resides. Very cool and very cheap in the off-season. We met up with Keeno's family at his Aunt Marty's house in Lake Havasu City Thursday evening and played catch up. I met mostly everyone on his mother's side of the family minus a few cousins and was greeted with hugs from everyone. There's Gram, Terri, Mary (MiMi), Marty, Rita, Claire, Johnnie, and Joy (JoJo) of the Laws clan. His grandmother reminds of my own late grandmother in her frankness followed with a sweet comment or two. I played football with the chitlens in the amazing Arizona cool night air after dinner, and we left after a viewing some home videos of their late grandfather. Friday, I worked on school stuff in the morning and early afternoon. I wanted to play outside because it was so beautiful, but Sam and Janeen promised to send me pictures. So I went on with the school stuff. We had Thanksgiving on Saturday late afternoon with all of his family at his Aunt Terri's house. Yummay yummay! Overall, their family was really sweet and treated me like one of their own. It was a rare event to have all of the Laws family together with the grandmother like that, so I felt honored to take part.

We left for Las Vegas early Sunday morning to say farewell to Keeno's Aunt Mary and cousin Janine. After we dropped them off, we stayed at Planet Hollywood, played some penny slot machines, took a nap, and saw Penn and Teller in the evening. The show was really cool and reminded me of the magic show I saw at Branson a few years ago. I won $13.25 on the penny slots not knowing how, so I bailed after that.

Sadly, Keeno's mother became progressively ill on Sunday before we were set to leave on Monday. She ended up having to go to the hospital early Monday morning around 1 am or so. Turns out she had a lung infection and was sent hack to the hotel on Monday evening only to return Tuesday after a big scare at the airport for other complications. She's been in good hands in Las Vegas this week with Sam and the doctors, and they will be home on Sunday. We got in at around 3:30 or so on Monday. I was asleep by 7:30 and woke up at 7:30 for work. 6 of the 25 became ill following the reunion including Keeno. I'm doing just fine in that regard thankfully and hoping everyone gets well soon.