For Veterans Day weekend, my husband and I headed to Vegas. It was a combination of birthday/holiday/bachelorette weekend all rolled into one. We were looking forward to getting out of town and spending time together. But once we arrived on this fifth or sixth trip to sin city, we found ourselves wondering if we really still liked Vegas.

One of the things that was always fun to see in Vegas was the over the top themed hotels. But Las Vegas is changing and hotels like the Luxor, New York, New York, or Treasure Island are older. And over the top and opulent becomes tacky and grotesque over time instead of classy. Especially in a smoky, flashy casino. Vegas just doesn’t age well.

But it’s not all terrible. What do you do in the desert if you don’t gamble a ton and you want to avoid the flashy Vegas? You hike Red Rock National park.

Red rock was free on Saturday because of the holiday. But it was also crowded. It was a beautiful sunny day and not hot. We hiked at the third stop along the scenic loop which was short but moderate. You can get the map at the entrance and choose the hike that works for you.

Some other things we did included Indian food at the Royal Indian Bistro, free Veteran’s breakfast buffet at the Paris hotel and casino, and discounted tickets to the worst Vegas show I have ever seen, WOW. Our Indian food was good. But eating in hotel casinos are expensive and sometimes not worth it. But we enjoyed our dinner and the service. WOW was like a wannabe Cirque du Soleil show that was incredibly sexist and cheesy.

For the bachelorette shenanigans, we dressed up, dined sashes and went out for dinner, a show and dancing. We had a great meal at Wolfgang Puck’s Cucina. The bride to be enjoyed everyone congratulating wishing her well. And I went to bed at a very late 3:30 in the morning.

We had a good time celebrating the upcoming wedding. Vegas is still a good place for that.