S2: E13 Vegas Vacation with the Family Featuring Mac from Circus Circus

Were you briefed at all?

No.

All right, so it's Dad Podcast, so Dad's listening. Oh yeah, that's pretty much right.

That was the briefing he got.

So, um, that's the intended audience and the whole premise of this particular podcast. I wanted to be geared towards, um, essentially what can a dad do to take a Vegas vacation and do it in a family-friendly way. Season 2, Episode 13. Welcome to Interviews with Dads, 100% Dad Podcast. Uh, we find ourselves in Las Vegas in about early June. Uh, we had some family and friends flying in, and they're, they're party people, and they like Vegas, and that was the nearest big city, so that's where we ended up staying. Uh, it would not have been my first choice, uh, with 3 little kids in tow and, and promoting a family brand. So we wanted to take on the challenge of can you do Vegas in a family-friendly way? I had my first Vegas experience a couple years ago at a trade show, and my, my first opinion was no, no, there's, there's too many drugs, there's too much prostitution, there's too many naked bodies, there's too many just bat crap crazy people on the Strip. And then all the signs and advertisements and posters and business promotions— I just did not think it was an appropriate place to bring kids. Now fast forward a couple years and we're there, and so 100% dad on a family brand, uh, is taking his 3 young kids to Vegas. And we kind of made it our, our goal to see, can Vegas be done family-friendly, or how do we go about doing Vegas in a family-friendly way? But we stayed in 2 places, Thousand Trails and the Circus Circus RV Park. Circus Circus RV Park has one huge advantage, is it is the only RV park on the Strip, which is a huge advantage. So we actually ended up staying in 3 places. We had the Thousand Trails one, we had the Circus Circus one. Both of them were basically just parking lots for RVs. The ACs just could not cut down the heat. It was just unbearably hot. I think we were at 114, 112 or something like that on the highs for the days. And that is just— guys, it's brutally hot. And in RVs, you can knock down about 20 degrees off the outside temperature. And so that is still brutally hot when it's 95 degrees inside your RV. So we ended up staying or having a room at the Hilton Grand Vacations next door to the Circus Circus as well. And so that was our— between the three of them, that's where we, we spent most of our time. Then of course going out and exploring. I reached out to Circus Circus and Stephanie, Emma, and Mac were, were very kind and very nice to, uh, to host us and have us there to record a podcast. And Mac is a father that works there and You know, the following podcast is going to be an interview with Mac, who's lived in Vegas his whole life and has 3 kids now. And we're going to get his take and his hot tips on what a dad— on, on A, raising a family in Vegas, and then if you're going to be on the Strip for Vegas, on some where to go, what to do, and how to avoid the craziness. And at the end of our podcast here, I'm gonna go a little bit more in depth of our experiences in Vegas, where we went, what we did, and, uh, what was a good route for a dad to take kids and maybe what they should avoid. With no further ado, Mac, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about, uh, who you are.

My name is Macario Osuna. It's kind of a difficult thing to pronounce. Macario.

Macario.

Yeah, that's why everyone calls me Mac. Okay, so, um, I'm 34 years old. I've been married for 5 years. Okay. I've been in Las Vegas pretty much all my life. My family and I moved from Los Angeles when I was about, I don't know, 4 or 5 years old.

Okay.

We left Los Angeles during a really tough time in LA. We kind of came out here to seek a somewhat better future from LA as the '90s were a tough time to be over there. And yeah, I've been here almost all my life. I went to school in Henderson. I grew up in Henderson, which is pretty much right next to Vegas. It's about like a 25-minute drive.

It's like part of the city?

No, it's a whole different city, but you'd be— you wouldn't know it if you're driving between the two.

There's no big gap of desert between the two?

No, maybe some parts of it, but no, for the most part you can't really tell.

Okay. How many kids?

I have two kids. I have a 3-year-old son who's about to be 4 and a daughter who just turned 2.

Okay.

Were you leaving one out?

Well, I— so my wife is currently pregnant. She is due any minute now.

Any minute, so we're hoping we don't get the Bieber page.

Yeah, well—

What does that date mean?

Yeah, we got family home, so even if it happened, we'd be okay.

Okay.

I got the in-laws staying with us.

Uh, and so, uh, uh, where are you working currently?

I work at, um, Circus Circus, and, um, I— my occupation is I work in workforce management. Like I said, it's just a fancy word for scheduling.

Okay.

Um, I've been here now for about 3 years. I am the manager of the workforce management department.

Okay, so making sure everyone is in the places they need to be, doing the things that need to be done. Exactly. At the right time. Yes. Yeah. Like now on a busy holiday weekend.

It is, yeah.

Everything's flowing right. Right. How long you been here at Circus Circus?

Roughly about 3 years.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so graduated or went to grade school here, graduated high school here?

Yeah, I went to, pretty much I've been here for all my schooling. I did elementary, middle school, high school, my bachelor's degree got here.

So, okay, what college is here?

Um, I went to a college in, uh, in Henderson called Nevada State College. Okay, yeah, cool.

Uh, and then have you worked— so we're obviously on the Strip, the Circus Circus. Have you worked on the Strip your, your whole career? Uh, is this new?

Pretty much, yeah. Okay, it's— I've pretty much been on the Strip my entire life. So, um, I actually studied workforce management in 2016 at Bellagio. Okay. Um, and I, I was a, a specialist, and I got promoted to come here at Circus Circus. At the time, we were still part of MGM. I got promoted to be a supervisor of workforce management, and then I, I just got promoted about a year and a half ago to be manager.

Oh, fun.

Yeah.

So you said used to be part of MGM. Has ownership changed?

Yes. Uh, Mr. Ruffin does. Ruffin, the part of Treasure Island.

The owner of Treasure Island Bowl. So what was it like growing up here, like middle school, high school? I mean, you're in— I guess it's a different era of Vegas, maybe.

Yeah, a little bit.

Because when I think of Vegas, my first time coming to Vegas, I expected, um, like National Lampoon, Chevy Chase Vegas. Yeah, it was like $3.99 buffets. And then we get here, and our very first night I booked a, um, a reservation at some French guy's restaurant. And yes, Robuchon. And it's like $1,000 a plate. I was like, ah, yeah, that hurts. We did not pay $1,000 a plate. I think I turned ghost white when I opened the menu. I was expecting like Ruth Chris pricing or something. But, uh, but yeah, I think we tripled our expected food budget there. So Vegas was a lot, um, a lot different than I expected. Yeah. Uh, so I assume, well, like, was that the Vegas you knew growing up?

No. Okay.

No. Tell me about the Vegas you know.

So I'll start in middle school. I think, I mean, just middle school and high school, I think it was pretty much very traditional, how you'd expect it across the country. We hardly made our way to the Strip growing up. You would just kind of go see Las Vegas, Las Vegas when it was family in town and they wanted to do the whole touristy thing.

And you mean the Strip?

The Strip, yes, or Fremont, right? Either or, but most of the time, uh, I think we could come to the Strip, uh, 3 times a year.

Okay.

Something like that.

Yeah.

So really, if you live in Vegas, you kind of stay away from that section.

Pretty much.

Yeah. Okay.

Was there reasons behind that? Is this too touristy? Too crowded?

Yeah, a little bit of that. Um, not to mention that almost all my family at the time worked at the Strip. Um, so I, Like my dad, for example, he worked, he opened the Luxor in 1991, I believe, 1991, 1992. He's still there to this day. And I just don't think he ever wanted to go back. Sure. He gets off of work, he just wants to hang out with the family. He doesn't want to go back to the Strip.

Okay. Yeah. So has your perception of the city changed at all with having a family?

Yes and no. I still feel like it's a really good city to raise kids in. Yes, 'cause there's these vices that I know about that the town has that are just far too easy to get into, but at the same time, I feel like just being a strong family unit will help me with my kids and make sure they don't get involved in all the wrong things. But I have a feeling that my kids will be very similar to me growing up. They'll go to the Strip maybe twice a year. To look at stuff.

Because there's a lot of cool stuff to look at on the Strip.

Yeah, there is. There is. And Fremont.

If you were giving counsel to a dad that's coming in from across the country, say, St. Augustine, Florida, they're coming all the way across. Like, what were some— what would be some, like, things you just got to see that are just— that are really cool to Vegas, that are family-friendly, that are just applicable to family life?

Maybe, um, I'm really big into hiking, so you definitely have to check out Red Rock Canyon.

Okay. Um, how far is that from Vegas?

Uh, but I don't know, a good 20, 25 minutes, right? Okay. Maybe good, yeah, 30, 35 minutes.

But you drive a lot faster on these desert roads.

Yeah.

Um, so there's a lot of outdoorsy stuff to do here as well. Um, Hoover Dam, you can't pass the Hoover Dam and you have to see it.

Okay. Um, it's closed right now.

Well, I You could walk on it and the bridge over it is open.

So worth going. Yeah, the tour's being closed.

Yeah, it's still worth going. I think what's just closed is like the, um, the actual tour guides and stuff, and maybe some of the stores there, but you don't even need to go in those.

Which we were just— so I was just looking at a little pamphlet that was at our campground and, uh, it's 8 years old plus for the tours, which I don't know why, but I guess that might be a more in-depth tour. But yeah, it said ages 8 and up. So, you know, as a father with kids younger than 8, that could be problematic to have to leave one behind at the top of the poop chute.

I've taken my kids there several times.

You did the tours?

I've never done the tours. I've never done the tours, but the tours are cool. I'm actually lying to you. I did it in elementary school, but that was a long, long time ago, so I'm sure it's changed. But you could honestly just take your family there. You don't need the tours. Florida dive. Okay.

Yeah. And so what do you do when you get there? Did you just look, walk over the dam? Can you walk over the dam? Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and they built a bridge over it and it's, it's so high. I can't, if you're afraid of heights, it's going to drive you crazy. You just have to go. I can't even put it into words.

Okay. Well, we'll put that back on our list. I think we were thinking about skipping it because—

no, don't skip it.

We thought it was more closed. We weren't sure if there was much to do. No, no, no. It's not fun to pull into a parking lot with the gate closed and you just have to turn around and go back.

It won't be closed. I was there like a month ago.

Okay.

Yeah, some family came in from California.

So cool. But if you're afraid of heights, you have to conquer those fears.

You have to definitely conquer.

I am not afraid of heights. I am afraid of long falls with sudden stops. I have jumped out of a plane.

Okay.

And we've been like Grand Canyon. We've done so many, uh, I don't know if you've ever been to Zion. You've been to Zion?

Yes.

Have you done Angels Landing?

Uh, no.

The hike where everyone dies? Yeah.

Yeah, everyone does.

Yeah. So we just did that one a few weeks ago.

Where'd you skydive?

And that was fun. I skydived in Pennsylvania. That was for like my 18th birthday. My sister said, you turn 18, we got to go. So we ended up going to some like Amish town in Pennsylvania because they had never lost a skydiver. Yeah, that was fun. Actually, I would do that again. I was a little petrified getting out of the plane, but once you land, it's super fun because it's a nice soft landing. Yeah, like I said, it's the long falls with sudden stops that are the problem. It's not the long falls gliding down. It's actually quite enjoyable, especially once you're out of the plane because you can't— there's nothing you can do, so you might as well enjoy the view on the way down. We mentioned Red Rock and the Hoover Dam. What else we got?

If you have kids, there's no better spot than Circus Circus.

I was about to say, you better.

Yeah, yeah, this is a really good place for small kids like mine. My, my 3-year-old and my 2-year-old. Okay. A lot of, a lot of things revolve around them here, and it's just a lot of little kid games. They go, they go crazy when they bring them here.

So what kind of things are they— are their eyes being pulled towards? What makes it fun for kids?

Midway, for example, there's so many games, so many like carnival-like games. Okay. Um, and that's the stuff they want. They just want to win that, that stuffed animals. That's what's up.

So we're talking like arcade? Yeah, type stuff.

Yeah. Okay.

And that's called Midway?

Yes. Okay.

I saw something, one of the signs said something like Adventure Dome.

Yeah, the Adventure Dome is, it's a little bit for older kids. We got a few roller coasters, or two roller coasters in there. There are some, there's a lot of, a good amount of rides for smaller kids too, but the Midway is, I think, 5 years old and below. Okay.

Yeah. So Midway for the youngers. Yeah, Adventure Dome's what, teenagers? Yeah. Okay.

Or if you got a really brave toddler. Okay. Yes.

Well, I guess there's probably size restraints.

There is.

Yeah. Okay. Um, how many roller coasters do y'all have?

Uh, there's just two in the A-Dome. Okay. And then there's other, other type of rides.

You say just two like other hotels have more than—

Well, good point. Yeah, there— yeah, two, two really fun roller coasters.

Okay. Is this indoor or outdoor?

Indoor.

Okay, that's pretty cool. Yeah, the Adventure Dome, um, Gifted has 2 roller coasters, is that it?

No, there's, uh, so for the bigger rides there's a few more. Okay, um, a few more, right? I wouldn't even know how to describe them.

Uh, thrill rides.

Yeah, they're— yeah, there's thrill rides. Uh, and, uh, like I was saying, the— some of the kiddie rides, they're expanding, we're expanding on that as well. Okay, so there's some, uh, there's some go-karts that we're putting in and, uh, teacups stuff like that.

So like go-kart track? Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, I assume there's a water feature in Circus Circus.

There's a water feature in Circus Circus.

So you've got some pools? Yeah, you've got some slides for kids? Yes. Okay. They have like those kid pools with like the, I don't know, different fountains and things like that?

Uh, yeah, they got that big bucket thing that fills up. Of course it spills over.

Yeah, yeah, that is a world of terror for a 4-year-old. Yes, it is. So you're local, you know the area. So like, are there some shows that are better for families than others? It's hard to tell. Like, even like, I'm starting to look into this stuff and I'm like, you just don't know once you get in there what the visuals are going to be and what the language is going to be like and what the content's going to be like. I mean, you know, it's magic or, you know, it's comedy or, you know, it's dancing, but you don't quite, you know, some of them are more obvious than others.

But, um, I, I wouldn't really say a lot of the shows in Las Vegas are kid-friendly. Okay, maybe some of the Cirque du Soleil acts that are scattered throughout the Strip.

That's circus type stuff. That's where they do all the jumps and— yeah, all the crazy stuff, right? Yeah, I would think kids would be into that.

Uh, I guess. I mean, maybe if you like—

you're also coming from like a 2-year-old, 4-year-old angle.

Yeah, so we also got to think 17. Fair enough.

Anything to avoid as a father bringing his family to Vegas?

Being out too late.

Okay.

Uh, on the Strip in particular, even Fremont. Uh, it's fun if you're just with friends, but with kids, just the crowds, a little bit of roughhousing, you know, it gets a little bit later. Um, just a lot of drunk people. And, uh, it's okay if you're just with friends or your wife, but with kids it's kind of rough.

Sure.

Yeah. I mean, we, we certainly experienced that. There's a lot of, um, unique, interesting, maybe even classified as weird personalities that show up towards the darker hours. The one thing I mean that everyone knows about is the passing out of cards, which I mean obviously you don't take one as a, as a, of course, as a father, or you know, let your kids take one. But I just remember walking and then we were walking by and I just saw kids staring at the floor because everyone just tosses them straight down.

Yeah.

So of course, you know, That's probably those kids' first exposure to stuff. Right.

Yeah. And it doesn't help that they can just, like you said, they can look down and they're all there. And it's not like it's just a few of them. It's literally for like the next mile. It's just littered on the ground. Yeah.

So Strip's good to walk. So fun to walk because, you know, there's something like just the lights are just— yeah, they're pretty cool. Of course, those are better seen in the dark, the fountains and things like that. Yeah. Let's jump back to Circus Circus. Midway, the arcade, or is there more to Midway than just the arcade?

Um, that's where the circus act is, 3-hour and the half-hour. Okay, so, um, you get a free show. Um, it's really fun for the kids.

It's just kind of— it's happening all the time and people just walk in? Just no ticket system? Okay.

Yeah.

And how long does that show last?

Uh, 15 minutes, roughly.

Same, same show, or is it a rotation?

Rotation. Midway, with that show, I've— my parents were bringing me here when I was like 5, 6 years old, and it's pretty much been— I, as a kid, we'd always come to Circus Circus because it's pretty much the only property that was kid-friendly, and I never thought I'd end up working here. So it's really cool that I'm here and seeing Midway and Adventure Dome. It's exactly how I remember it as a kid, so I have a lot of really cool memories growing grown up with this place. Oh, fun. And Midway, every time I'm there, it just brings me back to my childhood. My parents bring me here to hang out with my brother.

It's a lot of nostalgia.

A lot, yeah.

That's good.

I can tell you this much, the kids are never going to want to leave here.

That's good.

They're just going to want to spend all their time in Midway and Adventure Dome. That's so much fun.

That's fun. Yeah. Well, you see, now I'm looking forward to experiencing it.

Yeah. If you've never been to Adventure Dome, you're gonna have a blast.

Off Circus Circus, because you're going to be prejudiced there a little bit, uh, because it's such a great place. And you obviously work here, you provide for your living, you bring your kids here, you have a good time. When you're coming to Vegas on vacation, we're going to try and avoid the Strip when it's dark. Yes, because it just gets different. And not only the Strip, but Fremont as well. Fremont. And Fremont, I spent like a couple hours there. Okay, uh, it was because my wife wife had to show me, like, this is more what you were thinking Vegas was. Because when we got to— we stayed at the Bellagio, but like on the down hours where it was not popular, the minimum hand of blackjack was like $50 a hand. I was like, I was just expecting different, nothing different. Like, that was minimum on the slow times. Like, that was even busy times or, you know, the, the bigger tables. And so Fremont, we found like the $5 a hand places.

Yeah.

I want to know what it's like here.

What do you mean?

I guess the table rate, like, is there like a $50 a hand minimum here?

Oh, okay. Um, it changes. Most of the times we're hovering like $10, $15.

So that makes more sense for me from like a family perspective because A, you get to play a little bit longer. Yeah. And B, you're not, you know, risking your family's house.

Yeah, exactly. I don't really gamble much myself, but the times that I am here with my kids, It's just a little bit nice knowing that the money I do have to spend for fun can last that much longer.

I'm not a huge fan of gambling in the sense that I've just heard a lot of stories from my position of it ruining families. Yes. Where the dad's got an addiction or the mom's got an addiction and it just— they're hiding it, they're overspending, they're, you know, taking tax returns and gambling them away and then they have nothing. And that stuff is A, stupid, and B, dangerous.

Yeah.

I like gambling in the form of its entertainment. Yeah. You know, you'll go down to Disneyland or Disney World and you'll, you know, budget $3,000, $4,000, spend it there, have fun. You never got it back. You were never gonna win anything. You were never gonna double it or triple it. You just spent it to have fun with your family. Exactly. And so I think as long as the mentality, it's always been my perspective, As long as you have that mentality where you're willing to set aside a bunch of money, and when it's all gone, it's all gone. The house took it, doesn't matter, but you had fun, you played the games. It's an arcade in a sense. And if you win, great. Yeah, but if you don't, like, you're not depressed. You didn't risk anything, right? You didn't hurt your family. Big distinction, I guess, between, you know, what some people consider gambling and what others consider it. And just as a father and a family man, like, you have to do that. What's fun to do? Like, are there any cool museums? Are there any entertainment options that you're looking forward to taking your kids or think would be cool?

Bowling, take the kids to different arcades that are scattered throughout town. We take them, because my kids are so small, we'll take them to a lot of indoor playgrounds. There's a lot of them out here.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Okay.

So that's kind of what they're into at the moment, so that's what I'm into at the moment as well.

Any of the museums?

Discovery Children's Museum.

This is just looking at the, you you know, the tourist little brochure things. Yeah. Um, so it looked like there was a couple car museums, like a Hollywood one, like cars they used in movies, um, the hot rod one.

There's a pinball museum. I haven't been to that either. It's not that far from here. Pinball museum across from Mandalay Bay.

There was a mob museum, I think.

Yes, I've been there.

Is that cool?

Yeah, it's very cool.

So is that something where, like, is it too gruesome for kids, or like or is that kind of like an educational experience?

It's a little bit of both. Teenager age, they'd be more interested, but anything other than that, I think kids would just be bored. Okay. But if you're really into that kind of, like for example, myself, I really love mob movies, so I knew a lot about it going in, and the museum is just a lot of Vegas history of what happened in those days. Okay. Real people that existed in Vegas. Did things, did those crimes back then.

You know, well, because this whole, the whole industry here was built on the mob, wasn't it?

Yeah, I gotta be careful. I don't want my kneecaps broken on the way home today, you know.

We're just repeating, we're just repeating what we saw in the museum. Okay, the kneecap museum, guys.

Um, yeah, the museum is really cool. Uh, a lot, a lot of fun history with, with the city that happened, uh, yeah, 19 Interesting. 1950s, '60s.

Hot tips from locals that know the area on how to do all those entertainment things. You know, when you have a family of 5, 6, 7, and it's $100 a ticket, you know, that'll, that'll add up real quick. $700 a pop. So are there tips and tricks to finding better deals on those things, or is that just what you have to pay?

Vegas slows down during the winter months. So if you're going to catch a show and you want to do things on the cheaper side, it'll definitely be in that timeframe.

Okay.

So anything after August slows down just a bit.

Okay. Yeah. They drop ticket prices or there's more of a negotiation at that point?

Uh, they drop ticket prices. Yeah.

I would think Vegas would be busier in the winter. Uh, it's going to be like 106 tomorrow.

It just does not seem fun. No, it's definitely not fun.

I don't think summer would be the low. Winter would be the fall?

No, everyone's here on summer break, or just like a school break.

I mean, cool parties.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, this is the busiest time we have. Part I forgot to mention about Las Vegas, how easy it is to get around other cities. Like, growing up as well, we constantly visited Los Angeles. That's where I'm originally from, and it's a 4-hour drive, so we would do beach days all the time. So yeah, I know that's outside of Las Vegas, but it's— Las Vegas is in a really convenient spot, interstate. There's so— there's access to so much.

Okay.

Grand Canyon, obviously, you know.

How far is Grand Canyon?

2 hours roughly.

Oh really?

That's close.

And you mentioned Red Rock. Another one, I don't know if you guys know about this, because we just came from there and I'm slightly sad we left. 4 hours north of here. Do you know what that national park is?

Great Basin?

Yeah. Have you ever been?

Have you been there?

No, it's on my list.

Oh my gosh, it looks awesome. It's amazing. Yeah. Uh, and we had no idea it existed either. We were actually scheduled to come from Moab to here, then we found out about that one, so we kind of detoured. Um, so we spent 3 days up there. And yeah, the elevation— we were camping at 8,000, we hiked up to like 12,000. But yeah, they— so they have glaciers up there. Like, we were hiking through snow, like at one At one point, one of my kids fell through, went, you know, chest deep in the snow. We were waking up every morning, like, to 50 degrees, and the highs were in the low 70s. This was 2 days ago. Or, yeah, yesterday when we woke up, it was 55 when we woke up, then we drove down here to 100. But they have, in the actual park, in the mountain range, the oldest living things on Earth. They're bristlecone trees.

Yeah, it's like our state tree.

Yeah, thousands of years old. They live up to be like 5,000 years old. So you're talking trees that were like predate Jesus, that were old when Jesus was around. So that was really cool. I had to save one of my kids, kind of slid down the ice, uh, the trail got a little tricky in the snow. I like jumped in like a snow leopard to go after him. It was— my wife thought it was hilarious, and my son found it less So that was actually kind of a gem. I just— and I did not know Nevada looked like that up there. It's, it's, it really caught me off guard.

Part of Nevada we need to visit more. Wouldn't you agree, Ellen, as a local? I know.

Yeah, yeah, you gotta go up there.

Yeah, it took us 4 hours in an RV. You rent one of those Ferraris or something you can do around here, probably get there in 20 minutes. So is there lots of alien stuff? We had to skip Roswell because Roswell's like shut down. We missed all our alien exploration. Yeah. Do they have that in Vegas with Area 51, or no?

Um, the town that's located there, I believe it's Rachel, Nevada, right?

It's all—

it's a tourist trap. You can buy a bunch of alien stuff.

If you had to recommend 5 things to do when you're in Vegas, and we're already, you know, the family is committed to staying at Circus Circus, so they're going to be here, they're going to do Midway, Adventure Dome, the pools, the restaurants here. If there are 5 other things you had to recommend, get off property, do these 5 things for a family of all ages, a 4-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 13-year-old, what would you recommend?

If you've checked out Circus Circus and you've maxed out here, then I think one of the most iconic things in Las Vegas is definitely the fountains. Around the Bellagio? Yes, yeah. The whole family can enjoy that. It's just super cool at night. Nighttime as well. I know I just said don't go out at night with the kids, but if you're gonna blindfold them on the way— yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, so the fountains are definitely a must. Um, I think Fremont Street is another really fun experience as well. Okay. Um, uh, just a lot of cool stuff to look at down there, a lot of good restaurants.

Okay.

Um, so what makes Fremont Street fun for a kid? That's a very good question. Well, so that they— the playground, it, it's like this giant tree They got a huge slide that I think is probably more for adults than kids, but I've seen kids get on it.

So yeah, uh, so Container Park in Fremont. What else in Fremont? Um, it's just like a lot to look at and like, yeah, and just the Fremont Street Experience with the, uh, with the canopy. So what, just like a string of lights that like are synchronized?

No, no, it's like a giant canopy, uh It goes over the whole street.

It's like a light screen and they do like some music, like they do a lot of like Vegas artists like Imagine Dragons, The Killers, The Themes. Yeah, it was just like a big whole production. It's massive. You just kind of stand under it like, yeah, what's going on?

Top 2 bands of all time in my eyes, uh, Imagine Dragons, Twenty One Pilots. And they're both— the reason I think that they're both Their lyrics are always clean and their music is good. And so you can listen to the entire album and kids like it and you don't have to worry about the language or content of the songs.

In case you're wondering.

Just raise your kids on Imagine Dragons.

Yeah, I was saying the Blasé Phones, Fremont.

Those two.

You definitely have to check out the Hoover Dam, like I said. Red Rock Canyon is a lot of fun, lots and lots of good hiking.

Do they have like a scenic drive there? Yes. Or is it all hiking?

It's about 13 miles.

So like even now when it's 106, we can stay in the AC truck and just kind of explore it.

Exactly. The fifth thing to do in Vegas then would be to, to watch a show. And, uh, I mean, there's so many good shows out there, it depends on what you're into, but, uh, Miss Mystère is the original Cirque du Soleil show. I personally have never seen it, but I've heard really good things about it.

Okay.

I've seen a few Cirque du Soleil shows, but not Mystère.

So you got baseball, and those are probably pretty fun games. Yeah. Because usually the minor leagues are— Yeah. Entertaining in general, plus you're in an entertainment town. Yeah. All right, and then the Golden Knights, Vegas Golden Knights.

Yeah.

The season's wrapping up now in June, right? So that's early summer, late. Of course, winter, spring, whatever you call it. All right, so any other sports here? So you got baseball, football, no basketball, I assume.

You have WNBA.

Do you really?

So girl dads.

Okay, WNBA plays here, and NFL now. NFL.

Let's not forget my favorite, fight nights. Um, those are big out here.

Oh yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah, so does MMA fight in Vegas?

Yes.

Does that— I would assume like that's probably the bigger draw, right?—

right now.

Uh, yeah, is Mayweather fighting—

he's fighting somebody's, uh, one of the YouTubers. Uh, yeah, I don't know if that's— I think it's in Florida actually. They're doing it in Florida.

Yeah, I know the MMA got mad at everyone and opened up. They started doing everything, I think, in Orlando. Uh, because they bought an island or rented an island or something. Yeah, ESPN made a whole Fiasco. I know they got mad at a lot of states. Okay, so a lot of fights here. Now, are there any, like, so getting into that stuff, I assume that stuff sells out like that.

Yeah.

So it's, are there any like hot tips for a local that kind of knows the system a little bit on how to, uh, just get there first, wake up early and get there first? Well, I assume they sell online.

Oh yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. Um, uh, just open it up, open up your computer.

Okay.

Be on Ticketmaster at 6:00 AM when they release. Okay.

Yeah.

Um, that's not a great hot tip.

No, it's not.

It's not.

Uh, uh, I'm a, I'm a big fight fan and to watch the weigh-ins, um, if they're bigger names, you don't, you can't buy the tickets for the weigh-ins. So you literally have to get there first.

Oh, so you just stand in line? Yeah. Interesting. And you do that?

Yeah, I used to do it in my single days. So we'd get there at 5, 6 in the morning at times to get a chance to watch the fighters weigh in.

Interesting. Yeah. How long do you have to stand there?

Uh, hour or two sometimes.

Oh, that's not bad.

No, no, no, not crazy bad. Okay. Most of the time it's like limited capacity, so they can only give so many amount of tickets.

It's just first come, first serve. Exactly. Yeah.

And just a lot of fun.

So you don't pay for those?

You just walk in? No, no. Most of the times you don't pay for them.

Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about fights. And then usually when there's a new— because you have a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders.

Yeah.

Oakland Raiders.

Is it Las Vegas Raiders or Vegas Raiders?

It should be the Las Vegas Oakland Raiders. That's what it should be. Las Vegas Raiders, I guess, would be the name.

All right. So usually with this new stadium, there's a whole whole bunch of concerts and things that are slated for these new stadiums, a lot of just stuff happening because they're looking to monetize. But you guys already have all that stuff, so is that happening there, or?

So it hasn't really had its chance to shine. So as to what's coming to it, I mean, I imagine there's a lot of cool stuff coming to it.

Okay.

A hot tip for seeing the stadium: UNLV is going to play their college football games there, so if you want to go but not pay Raiders Prices. UNLV football.

Interesting.

Sure. So there's a hidden— a friend flew out from LA to meet us there, and there's a— it was hidden to me, maybe not hidden to you guys— in the Cosmopolitan, a pizza place. Yeah, I don't know, that was, that was cool.

Uh, what's that called again? Pizza?

Secret Pizza.

Secret Pizza. Literally just called Secret Pizza.

It doesn't really have a name, but that's kind of what the name has turned into.

For some reason, I thought there was a number in the name, like when it first opened.

I'm pretty sure there was a number. So food we covered.

Yeah.

Any other hot tips for food besides Ramsay?

A lot of our bars have really good food.

Uh, okay.

Yeah, I— again, you'll be sitting down, even if it's something— wings or some specialty burger they're serving— I find that the food is always really good out here.

Okay. And so like these bars, like craft-style menu.

Sort of, yeah, you can say that.

Okay, interesting. Is there anywhere off Strip, any, I don't know, maybe favorite of yours where you would tell someone to get off Strip and go?

Ooh, get off Strip and go. Oh, I don't know.

We have, before you get to Fremont Street, it's like between the Strip and Fremont, there's the Arts District. It's like very new and upcoming and they're putting some amazing restaurants down there. Esther's Kitchen is my favorite.

Okay, so is that considered downtown?

It's considered the Arts District.

Okay, so you said downtown at some point. I didn't know if there was a downtown Vegas or if we're in downtown Vegas.

Uh, I guess it depends on who you ask, right?

Downtown means the skyscrapers to me, usually, right?

Downtown to us is Fremont.

It's Fremont Street.

Okay, so Old Vegas is, you know, other people call it Old Vegas.

Okay.

And then the Strip is the Strip. Yeah.

The water parks, the two water parks that we have here, again, it's just more of a local thing. They're very small, but they're way off the Strip.

Okay.

Uh, but if you came to Vegas and you had kids, it's probably something you want to check out.

Okay.

There's just really so much to do, and it depends what your goal is here.

Sure.

Um, you can literally find So many things to do.

So it can be a family-friendly vacation experience as long as you're conscious and put the effort into making it that way. Exactly. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you. Um, any last-second plugs for Circus Circus?

So, okay, um, so again, with, uh, with Circus Circus, um, lots of fun stuff to do here. Midway, we opened up a small little piece, uh, it's part of Midway, it's called Midway Land, uh, just an extension of the arcade games. It's gonna have a bar inside of it so mom and dad can relax a little bit while kids are just having fun. The Adventure Dome is just a blast. You really have to, especially you that you've never seen it, you really have to walk in and just check it out. It's huge. The steakhouse is just so good. You definitely have to check it out, and I really mean it. I've eaten steak all over town. This place is one of the best. We have an exciting food court coming in with lots more food options for the whole family. That'll be done July.

So we came here just in time to miss it.

Just in time to miss it. Yeah.

All right, so July, new food court's coming, and then you also had mentioned you got some new stuff coming, uh, go-karts, uh, yes, uh, yeah.

Thanks for having me on, it was a lot of fun.

Congrats on your, uh, upcoming new baby. I don't know how to phrase that. Yeah, you have— you haven't had it yet. Yeah, so it's not a full congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah, but soon today.

Thank you.

Good luck. Big thanks to Mac for being on the podcast. Uh, the female voice you heard, our first female voice on the podcast ever, was, uh, that was Emma. She was sitting in the room with us. I couldn't edit all of her comments out. We were kind of just chatting the entire, uh, the entire time, so I couldn't quite get her voice out of all of it. So we— so I did leave some of it in. So if a few of you were listening and wondering, you know, whose voice keeps popping up. That was Emma. Overall, Vegas was good. It went better than I thought it would go. It was a slightly post-COVID experience, so there were still a lot of social distancing, and I think there were still a lot of activities, probably like the escorts and things like that, that were not allowed. You know, some things were still limited capacity, some shows were still not open, so it wasn't quite as crazy as it normally is. So that was a big benefit for the timing of being there, although in June it was incredibly hot during a heat wave. But, you know, we spent a lot of our time in the pool at the Hilton because kids love pools and it was hot. We did a lot of walking around, just sightseeing. Didn't get to stay on the Strip too long just because it was so hot, but a lot of walking in the big nice hotels. The kids were actually really impressed with the Bellagio and Luxor, New York MGM Grand, Venetian, Wynn, all those awesome hotels. Some of them have the painted ceilings that look like the sky, some of them have canals in them, there's just amazing architecture to admire, there's beautiful stores, there's really cool installations. There's great food everywhere, you know. And then at night when it starts to get a little darker, all the lights are lighting everything up. The fountains in the Bellagio were really cool. We did run into a few crazy people. We were kind of heading back when it got a little bit darker. They do have a tram system we ended up utilizing towards the end, and that was helpful to get from, you know, where Circus Circus is all the way to the other end of the Strip without having to walk in the heat with that many kids. Plus, it was just a long distance to begin with. We made it to the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam was a sight to be seen. It really was cool. We never made it over to Red Rock. We kind of made a decision as a family that it just wasn't worth the drive to us. We've done a ton of hiking. We weren't gonna hike in this heat anyway. We've seen a lot of red rocks recently, and we've seen a lot of canyons, so We, at that moment, we just didn't feel like it was worth the, the time and effort to go out there. But it's still a beautiful place. We do like red rock canyons. We've seen quite a few on this trip. Circumstances just dictated that we weren't willing to head out there. We saw David Copperfield. David Copperfield's show was, was really cool. The kids were blown away by it. We were in a COVID world, so to prevent people from getting COVID, they were not selling tickets in odd numbers because, as everyone knows, it's a dangerous, dangerous method. So we had the option to get 4 tickets or 6 tickets to Copperfield. It was leave a kid home or buy an extra seat. So we did end up buying an extra seat, uh, that way no one got COVID. Uh, Copperfield show was really, really good. And overall, you know, Vegas can certainly be done. Um, the Circus Circus Hotel entertained the boys a lot. We did the, uh, the Adventure Dome They did Midway. We never made it over to their pool because we spent time in the other pool. The kids had a blast. I prefer a different type of hotel, which is my personal brand of opinion, but they were sold out. I mean, they were packed. It's a very popular place. Kids had a blast. There were a lot of families there having a good time. It's aged a little bit and they're doing some remodeling and stuff. Certain sections, and I think that's a continual process as you heard them talk about. The smell of cigarette smoke was a little, little thick for my preference, but that's any of the older, any of the older casinos and hotels in Vegas. So is it possible to have a family-friendly vacation in Vegas? Yeah, absolutely, it's definitely possible. Would it be my first choice? Still would not be my first choice. It's, it's one of the entertainment capitals of the world. There are definitely cool things to do there, but you know, you have to be on your A-game as far as what you're prepared to expose your kids to, because there's a lot of, you know, sex stores, there's a lot of strip clubs, there's a lot of just, you know, scantily clad ladies and guys around, there's a lot of drug exposure, you know, there's a lot of vices and traps. So, so something you just have to make your own decision as a family. What do you want to expose your kids to? What are you comfortable with? And and take some real tactical steps to stay off the Strip at night and kind of, kind of protect and guide them as best possible. And that just might be waiting, you know. If we hadn't been on tour, we would not have made Vegas a destination. We just, like I said, the circumstances lined up. That was the nearest big airport, and you're meeting family. And by no means did we have to go up and down the Strip, or did we have to see the Bellagio fountains when it got dark. You know, we certainly could have stayed in a hotel, you know, at the water playgrounds and things like that. So it can definitely be done. That's what I got. This is Townsend Russell, 100% Dad. Thanks for tuning in.