When we got to the hotel we quickly got ourselves checked in and then decided to have some lunch at this restaurant down the street called La Magnique. I didn’t know too much about it, but when I am in a new city (or at least a city that I don’t go to very often), I loved to try out all of the amazing new cuisine in the area.
“That looks great,” Libby said when our food finally arrived.
The place was packed and without any reservations we’d had to wait almost twenty minutes to get a table, on top of this our server was swamped so our service was less than optimal, even by lunch standards. Yet, I was about having fun this first day in Vegas. I didn’t have any meetings until tomorrow, so we decided to spend the Sunday doing some sightseeing and just see what we did happen to find to amuse ourselves.
And I had to admit the Hawaiian Chicken dish I ordered did look splendid.
“Would you like to try some?” I asked Libby.
“I might in a bit,” she said.
Toby occasionally picked at his food, but mostly he played quietly at the table with a few of his little action figures.
“Have you heard anything?” Libby asked.
I knew immediately what she meant and I was almost annoyed that she decided to mention it right now. It had been nice not even thinking about the problems that were plaguing the two of us. I’d been able to keep it all out of my mind the past few days, ever since the night we made love, and I was beginning to think that “no news is good news” about the whole thing.
But I should have heard something if there was something good to report.
“No,” I said. “It’s only been a few days. Sometimes these things take some time.”
“I know,” she said. “I just want it to be over so badly. I want to go back to my normal life again.”
I nodded, but I didn’t dare point out that her normal life hadn’t included me before, at least not in the capacity it did right now. Would that change? I laughed at myself for being silly, but there was some value in the concern. I knew that.
“Stop worrying about it,” I said. “Worrying never does anything but cause you undue stress and heartache. You should be focused on where you want to go today. We are in one of the most beautiful places in the country. The weather is pleasant, and money is no object. We can go and do whatever you would like.”
“I want to see the Criss Angel Magic Show,” Toby said.
I smiled. That actually did sound like a lot of fun.
“I know,” Libby said. “I’m trying to keep it off my mind, but as soon as I think it’s gone—it shows up again and it makes me feel guilty for not thinking about it for a bit.”
We finished our dinner and then brainstormed a few places to visit. The first stop was the Hoover Dam. I’d heard it was breathtaking but it was beyond compare when I first laid eyes on it. Toby couldn’t stop jumping up and down with excitement. The engineering of it, the architecture—it was just too perfect.
It was the same type of feeling I’d had when I first saw the Grand Canyon. To just know that something that beautiful in the world actually existed and you could go and see it, that was something that made you appreciate every single day that you got to live your life.
After the Hoover Dam, we went to The Venetian Hotel and took a few rides around the complex. It is a perfect replica of Venice, Italy and I had a blast explaining to Toby about how in Venice there weren’t roads, instead they had canals and used canoes to get around in them.
And of course Toby loved the shopping arcade inside the hotel.
After this we went over to see the scale model of the Eiffel Tower. Stretching forty-six stories above the streets below we were able to observe most of the city from the observation deck above. It made me a little bit nervous that Toby was being so rambunctious up there, but I let him do his thing and have fun with it.
I often wondered why we didn’t do more things like this together, just the two of us. It was something that I said I would always get around to when I found a spot cleared up in my work schedule, yet I didn’t. I tried to blame it on work, but deep down I think I knew the reason. It would make me feel just too damn lonely. Being on a family vacation with my son, but it wasn’t a family anymore, was it? Many would disagree with me and I even knew that I was wrong to feel this way, and there was no way that I could make Toby understand, but that was also an excuse I used to not even try or to have that discussion. When he got older it would be unavoidable, but like other things in my life I thought I would just cross that bridge when I came to it.