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Why would you take your family to Las Vegas for Vacation (aka “Sin City”?) Because it’s fun! I like to have fun when on vacation! This time though wasn’t really for a vacation it was for a soccer tournament, the Mayor’s Cup where teams come from all over to compete! But it was a vacation for me.
The Mirage
My granddaughter Lexi, that was traveling with me, and I decided to stay at the Iconic Mirage. You know the one with the Volcano! My granddaughter Rylee, (the soccer player) and her family stayed with the soccer team.
The Mirage was great! Our premium queen room was nicely appointed, we had a view of the pools and when you looked to the left we had a view of Caesar’s Palace and the strip. The stripes you see of the strip above were actually a reflection of the window sheers in the background, they were behind me but showed up as a reflection.
The Mirage is a 4.5 star resort and casino . The erupting volcano is one of its trademarks, it only erupts 3-4 times a night. It starts at 7 pm and then erupts hourly on the hour until 11 pm on the weekends. I believe it stops at 10 pm during the week. I don’t get tired of watching it erupt and listening to the drums as the volcano comes to life!
We stayed for 4 days and packed a lot of fun into our 4 days along with soccer games on Saturday and Sunday.
Day 1. Most of our day was spent traveling, getting to Vegas, we had a stop in Santa Ana, just briefly, no plane change, but long enough to get off of the plane, have a restroom break, get some food, then it was back on the plane and on to Vegas. Once we arrived in Las Vegas, it took a little while to rent our car, then we met my daughter and family at the hotel they were staying at. It was a very nice day that Thursday, so they were already in the pool. We couldn’t check-in until after 3 pm at the Mirage. So we discussed where we wanted to eat that night and In ‘N’ Out Burger won. (We don’t have In ‘N’ Out Burgers in Colorado!) After dinner we met and walked the strip. Our first stopping place was the Waters of Bellagio! The Waters of Bellagio entertain everyone every 15 min at night, and every ½ hour during the day. They are free and I never get tired of watching them. They have a set of songs that rotate so you don’t hear the same song again for awhile. Then we went to check out Carlo’s Bakery across the street at the Palazzo! We chose a chocolate covered cheesecake, and shared. It was small but very rich and delicious! The girls got cupcakes!
Day 2. We were tired so we slept in a little. We grabbed drinks and sandwiches from the Starbucks located there in the Mirage, and then we were on our way down to the New York, New York to ride the Manhattan Express. In case you haven’t seen the Manhattan Express before it is a roller coaster high on the New York, New York doing loop de loops around the skyscrapers of New York, and at the last comes sweeping through the casino and up to a final stop. The roller coaster cars are made to look like yellow taxi cabs in New York! It really does shake you up quite a bit. Before you get to the roller coaster itself you have to put your cameras and purses and glasses in a locker. Therefore, I don’t have a good picture of the roller coaster. The pictures they took of us on it weren’t that good either. Price of the roller coaster ride is $17.00 for one ride, then after the first ride you can ride each time after that for $8.00. To get to the roller coaster, you go through a giant arcade, they have different package deals that sell for example, $50.00 you get 1 roller coaster ride, 300 tickets for the arcade a stuffed animal and a hot dog and drink. If we were staying at the New York, New York, the arcade deal was a good deal for the older kids and teenagers.
Apologize for the stock photo but it is better than the one I could get!
Oh the Candy Fun inside the Hershey Store!
The Blue Man Group
Later that night, Lexi and I went to the Luxor for the Blue Man Group! No words maybe, but they communicated so well with mime and music! It was a lot of fun and a great family show!
We were told to tie the white rolls of paper somewhere on our head and around our neck! 
Day 3. This was Saturday, it was a cold day, and of all days to pour down rain that is what it did for the first day of the soccer tournament. But the first game we had to go to wasn’t until 4:40 pm so we did a leisurely brunch there at the Cravings Buffet at the Mirage. The food was great, they have 11 international cooking stations. The breakfast was great, since we did brunch I sampled the Prime Rib and it just melted in your mouth.
Then we took our time to see what all was at the Mirage, we’d been rushing around so much we didn’t really have time to check out our own resort! We checked out the pool area which is beautiful, and probably would have taken a swim since it is heated and open year round, but it was too cold that day. I loved the Beatles store, since I have loved the Beatles since I was in 4th grade. They had all the Beatle album collections there, but I already have all of them. Between my husband and I, I believe we have all of their albums. I loved reminiscing.
The property all around the Mirage is just beautiful and tropical, I just love it. I wish my backyard could look like that.
The entertainment options at the Mirage are: Shin Lim: Limitless; The Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat; Terry Fator; and the Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil. All the tickets for the shows at the Mirage in our price range were already sold out. We even went down to the Discounted Ticket place by the Coca-Cola Store, and funny, the discounted tickets were more than at the Mirage. That is why we chose the Blue Man Group at the Luxor. I am glad we did, my granddaughter, Lexi had already seen the Beatles Love show, so neither of us had been to the Blue Man Group, so we made a very good choice.
Then it was off to the Kellogg Zaher Soccer Complex for the soccer games in the pouring rain. It takes about 30 min to go from the Mirage to the field and it poured down rain, making it kind of hard to see. But then, just before we got to the soccer field the rain stopped, you could see a patch of blue in the sky where the sun started shining through and a rainbow. So the girls played, the soccer field wasn’t too bad, they didn’t slip and slide too much and they tied both games.
We had dinner at a great little pizzeria named Sabatino’s Authentic NY Pizzeria on W. Cheyenne Ave. If you get a chance, try it, the food and service was great!
Day 4. We were almost late to the game on Sunday, we had to wait to see what time she played and then her mother sent us a text, and we only had 20 min to get to the field. We made it before half time though so we could still see them play. That was also Rylee’s 14th birthday, so we celebrated by doing what she wanted to do. We went back to In ‘N’ Out Burger for lunch and then went shopping at the Galleria Mall in Henderson. All in all, she had a very nice birthday!
Day 5. Time to go home. Darn! Time for some to go back to school and others to go back to work. Rylee’s parents had to be back home Monday so they could go to work, so Peyton and Rylee stayed with us and flew home with us on Monday. It was cheaper that way too. So, we had to be out of the hotel by 11:00 am which we made it, then it was off to IHOP for brunch! Our plane didn’t leave until 7:40pm that night so we still had the rest of the day to explore, and that we did!
First we found the Neon Boneyard, the place where all good Las Vegas Neon Signs go to retire, and then we drove out to the Hoover Dam. Then it was time to turn in the rental car and ride 2 shuttles back to the airport. We were tired but we had a great time!
Good bye Las Vegas for now, but we’ll be back next year for the Mayor’s Cup.
