Memorial Day in Vegas anyone? The girls, Jenny, Aunt Mary, Ong Ngoai (Jenny’s dad) and Ba Ngoai (Jenny’s mom) headed to Vegas for a long weekend. The girls had a blast as we explored the more kid-friendly areas of Vegas while the rest of our family enjoyed the adult entertainment.

Here’s a list of few places we visited:

• Bellagio’s Conservatory & Botanical Gardens: Absolutely gorgeous gardens with tremendous variety. The garden combines beauty and whimsical design to create a great destination while in Vegas.
• Gondola Ride at the Venetian
: This is a must for kids and/or star-crossed lovers. For 15 minutes, the gondolier serenades his/her passengers with Italian songs and witty commentary. It’s a fun experience and our kids loved it.
• The Eiffel Tower Experience at Paris Las Vegas: There is no better way to see Vegas’ true scale and beauty than atop this 541 foot replica (the original is 1,063 feet). Its location on the strip allows perfect views from all angles.
• Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay: The girls loved this 1.3 million gallon aquarium with more than 2,000 animals from 100 different species including 15 species of sharks.
• Nobu: Delicious! We ate the Lobster appetizer, spicy seafood soup, field greens salads, a combination of sushi & sashimi platters and two house rolls. We’d definitely come back and they had no issue with us bring kid-food in from another restaurant.
• Central Michel Richard: A decent restaurant within Caesar’s Palace with a James Beard Award Winning chef. They have a good breakfast…
• Serendipity 3: It’s tough to beat a old-fashioned ice cream parlor. Our girls loved it and the food was tasty.
• Beijing Noodle No. 9: I found three reasons to eat at this restaurant: 1) tanks of live goldfish line the wall, 2) you can watch the chefs make the noodles and 3) the food is pretty tasty. We ordered the Braised pork belly, Xaio Long Bao soup dumplings, Seafood Wonton Cantonese Style, Beef with Hand Pull Noodle, X0 Hand Pull Noodle and the Sichuan Fish in Spicy Garlic Sauce.

Here are a few pictures from our visit: