Our "Staycation"

We got back into town from Oregon on August 14. Garry had reserved a room for us at the Gold Coast for Aug. 16-18. It was a local special where you buy two nights, get one free. Garry had heard that their pool was in the top 10 pools of Las Vegas and the price was right, so why not. Garry and I checked in Sunday night and spent the night. He went into work for a few hours Monday morning (his work was 10 min. away instead of his usual 35 min. commute), then we went and picked up the kids. They loved our room. It was really big and really clean and looked like they'd just renovated or something. Being as it is an older casino, on Freemont street, I had low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. After chillin in the room for awhile, they of course, wanted to hit the pool. The pool is basically just a round shaped pool with a few water falls surrounding it, but they have a giant fish tank in the middle of the pool. In the tank we counted 5 different species of sharks and a couple other "schools" of fish. You can swim around the pool and watch the fish. BUT... there is a huge water slide that takes you right through the tank in a clear tube and so the fish are swimming around, under and over you as you slide through. Tanner refused to go through it (apparently one of his top 10 fears is sharks), but Taz and Cynjyn LOVED it.

We literally just sat in the pool watching the sharks for about 2 hours. We were finally freezing and forced ourselves to get out and warm up.

This shark...

...is going right over Taz (the blurry kid in the tube) as he slides under him. Taz was thrilled!

Cynjyn was a little scared at first. This is her first time down the tube and she said she closed her eyes as she came to the clear part because she didn't want to see what she was sliding through. But by the end of the day, she was waving to us as she slid through those sharks!

Taz came out the first time with this huge smile...no fear from him!

Who knew we were such pool loungers? Taz had just got his phone for his birthday, so he spent his whole down time texting Josh and Ella and taking pictures of the sharks and sending it to them. Garry read, Tanner slept and Cynjyn enjoyed basking in the sun in a robe at first to warm up! I just layed there and people watched.
Our room only had a king size bed and kids don't sleep free, but we snuck the kids in Monday night and brought two air mattresses for them to sleep on. In the evening, we went to Freemont street and enjoyed the light show, ate at Fitzgeralds, and played Villiage Idiot all night in the room until bedtime! It was a fun Staycation!!