Finding child-friendly activities in Las Vegas can be a challenge. Luckily my Dad's occupation (tour bus driver) gives him some ideas when he takes local students on class-trips. Mind you, my Dad rarely goes INTO the attractions that he drives to... do you ever remember seeing the guy who drove the bus in the museum? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, so my Dad has truly an "outsider's" perspective of these places. Sometimes that is not a bad thing. Let's take Bonnie Springs, Old Nevada in Red Rock Canyon. We pulled up to this place and hopefully the picture accurately shows that this place is off the beaten path, WAY OFF. It looks a little run down, but hey its supposed to be a Western town, not downtown Tokyo. (Do any of you remember Wild West City?) So we buy our tickets and the lady cheerily says "There's gonna be a shootin' and a hangin' in about five minutes!" Well, sign me up. We head over to the area that the cheery lady directed us to and we proceed to watch one of the worst displays of "acting" I have ever seen. Even the kids didn't buy it. The best part was when the show was over, the sheriff's gun accidentally went off when he was putting it in his holster and he yelped like a school girl. THAT I wish I had on video.
After the show we headed over to the petting zoo. My Dad hangs back, 1) because he is wise and 2) to have a smoke away from Hannah (which I TOTALLY appreciate). Anyway, we get into this caged maze, is the best way I can describe it. There were rows upon uneven rows of small mismatched homemade cages everywhere. The path between the cages was fairly narrow and turned and twisted all around. Everything was on a gradual incline and there were large rocks/boulders everywhere. The best part, since so far all of the animals you have seen are in cages, you think "Oh I get it, it's not really a petting zoo". But then you'd be strolling past a sleeping Bobcat's cage when suddenly around the next corner there was a pig, a pretty big pig just hanging out... NOT in a cage. Then you would see a couple of goats in a cage and another one outside of the cage. In total there was a llama, pig, donkey, rooster, goat and a couple of peacocks outside of their cages. It just made me wonder what these animals did or did not do to get out. Do they take shifts? Which ones are hungry? How sharp are a llama's teeth? Will this donkey kick me? How far to the nearest hospital? Do they have slot machines at the hospital? Ahhh, all the questions that run through your mind when faced with an unusual situation.
Oh and let me not forget the awesome white deer that was all the way in the back of the maze (just beyond the "DO NOT ENTER" sign). He was really cool, but thankfully he was also INSIDE his cage. Luckily, we got through the maze and went off with Grandpa to feed the chubby ducks and swans and bother the sleeping turtles. Hannah absolutely loved it, the Bonnie Springs freaked her parents out just a little bit.
:)
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