11. Anaheim to Las Vegas, 24 October 24

We got away at a fairly good time, deciding to stick everything in the car and figure it out later!

I drove out of LA and to our first stop, Calico ghost town. This was a bit more recreation than I was expecting but still a bit of fun. The kids and Kieran thought it was boring, as the activities were closed up. 

We kept on towards Las Vegas. The scenery was spectacular in it's own way. Lots of Joshua trees, yucca plants and yellow tufted grass, with mountains ringing the horizon. 

As we neared Las Vegas we noticed a big increase in billboards. These were prepared along the route the entire way, but very intense around the city, mainly advertising lawyers and law services, even as specific as speciality in motor bike accidents. We also saw more signs of the impending election, which I actually expected to be more visible. Unfortunately Trump outnumbered Harris greatly. 

We checked in then dropped the kids off to a childcare centre I'd researched so we going to go the It escape room. 

We had to change our time slot, as we were running a bit late, but thankfully it all worked ok. The venue has done a great job of setting the scene from the moment you get there, with nothing in the external site that advertises it as being the escape room, but rather it is dressed as Derry. 

We joined a group of three girls who were great. They were more into the haunted house part of the experience rather than the escape room aspect, and spent a lot of time clutching each other and squealing. It made it quite fun and easy to get into the horror theme. 

The room is not like a haunted house than escape room, with each area having special effects and actors. The actors guided us through the rooms to make sure we stayed on track and if we took too long they essentially gave us the way through. Kieran and I tried not to hog the puzzles, but the other group weren't as big into it and we didn't get through fast enough to save the missing child, but we did have loads of fun. We both screamed and ran and jumped. It was extremely fun. 

After the escape room there is an arcade area where we played some games, took silly photos and got to see the Derry museum, which was actual props from the film on loan to the escape room. Even the doors were the real doors from the movie. The lady working the desk let us go behind the rope to get a photo with them. It was very neat.

On the drive back to get the kids I took a wrong turn and ended up going down the strip. This turned out to be a lot of fun, as we got to see all the different casinos and neon signs. We suspect you have to agree to use neon flashing signs if you have a place on the strip, as even the chemists and Maccas had them. 

Another fun moment while at the lights, the driver of the car next to us waved so I waved back to him and his passenger. He said something and smiled then said "pull over baby, let's do a double date". I laughed and shook my head no, but it was a fun moment, I won't lie. 

We ended the night at Jack in the Box and Kieran figured out where the soda water was on the comprehensive soda machines they have here. They do free coffee in heaps of places and free coffee and soda refills. I managed to accidentally get the smallest straw I've ever seen in a drink station, which Kieran thought was hilarious.