My trip to the Long Island Game Farm by Eva C.

Yesterday, I went to the Long Island Game Farm Wildlife Park & Children’s Zoo in Manorville with my parents and brother. There, Gabe had a scheduled appointment with the capybaras. We fed the animals and pet them. Specifically, we fed the wallabies bread. There was also a nursery that we went to. At the nursery, we fed the baby goats (kids) milk. Then, we fed the capybaras lettuce. After the Long Island Game Farm, we went to a restaurant. We were supposed to go to Buttermilk’s Farmhouse in Patchogue, but there was a long line and we had nowhere to sit. So, we went to the Cheesecake Factory at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove and got lunch/dinner items, followed by Barnes and Noble in the same mall. Finally, we went home.

Las Vegas Trip Report by Joseph L.

During the week of December 28, 2025, I headed out on a family trip to Las Vegas to see my grandfather Ivan, who resides in a house on the Los Prados housing complex there. This is the first time that I had visited the city with my family since the death of his wife and my grandmother Marcia in late August 2023.

A lot of things have changed to both the house and the surrounding community since my last visit to the city in January 2024. The most obvious change happened to my grandfather’s house, which received a complete interior renovation with updated kitchen appliances, white painted walls, and a new eco friendly wood flooring system. Outside of the house, he received a Mazda convertible to replace the handicapped accessible van he used to transport my grandmother throughout most of her final two decades of her life. In the context of the community, the Mirage casino, which had opened in 1989, was closed for reconstruction and expansion in July 2024; the Hard Rock casino, complete with the new guitar-shaped hotel tower, is expected to open on the site of the Mirage in late 2027.

The trip got off to an inauspicious start when we had to change our flight ticket to avoid a snowstorm that affected the New York area on December 26. Due to the storm and mild illness in the family, we would fly out on the morning of December 28 instead of the evening of December 27 as planned. During the flight, our family experienced one of the most turbulent climbs on a normal revenue flight as it had to avoid another snowstorm that was affecting Minnesota, which is where my younger sister Anna was attending college. The flight became less bumpy after that climb and would eventually land in Las Vegas as planned.

For the first two nights of the trip we were treated to several dinners (at the South Point casino on Sunday and at his partner’s house on Monday) that would involve my grandpa celebrating his birthday. While my mother booked a room at Bellagio for the first four nights of the trip, my father and I decided to stay at my grandfather’s house for the first two nights so that we could visit Valley of Fire State Park on Tuesday. I would stay at the Bellagio on Tuesday and Wednesday, the latter of which was New Year’s Eve. On that day, Las Vegas set a daily rainfall record of 0.32 inches, bringing its total rainfall for 2025 to over 5.25 inches, which is about one inch above the area’s average yearly rainfall of 4 inches.

On a cloudy New Year’s Eve we had another family brunch. Although rain was in the forecast, the weather was dry during daytime hours, but as I was playing blackjack with my father at the Park MGM casino later that day, the rain started; it would continue to rain heavily in the hours leading up to midnight. As I looked out from the hotel room, I saw fireworks being launched from the Caesars Palace at the stroke of midnight Pacific Time to mark the start of 2026. Since I was able to watch the Times Square ball drop live on my phone three hours earlier while I was walking around the Aria casino, I got to celebrate the new year twice in one day. 

On Thursday, we checked out from Bellagio and went into the W hotel next to Mandalay Bay, which marked my first visit to Mandalay Bay as a hotel guest and my second visit since the October 2017 tragedy at the resort. In between we had a breakfast buffet at Bellagio that caused me to become too full to eat anything that day. The following day was highlighted by a visit to the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, where my grandmother’s grave is located. Along with Panaca, Boulder City is one of the two main towns in the state of Nevada that de jure prohibit any form of gambling. 

After an additional dinner with my grandfather on Friday night, I learned to play the craps game at the Excalibur casino with my father following an additional game of blackjack there. I would spend one more night at the W hotel before checking out on the morning of January 4. I would have one last dinner with my grandfather later that night before staying at his house for the final night of the trip; the flight coming back would take place in the late afternoon of January 5.

While there were some times that I felt stressed during this trip, I had a wonderful time visiting my grandfather in Las Vegas with my family. Although I do gamble when I am in Las Vegas, I do so conservatively; I have a stronger preference for blackjack and craps than slots or video poker machines, and I also tend to avoid slots as much as possible even if my mother drags me to one.

So with that being said, we wish everyone the best to come in 2026.

• Joseph A. Lambert, dated 01.05.2026

Travel & Reviews!

Matthew Travels to Wisconsin

I went to see it my sister Geordan in Wisconsin for parents weekend. I danced at the frat party
Saturday in Wisconsin with all of Geordan's friends and I had a great time in Wisconsin. I went
to dinners with my sister and my parents and I spent a lot of time in Geordan's apartment with
all of her friends and I went to the airport and my flight was on time and then it got canceled and
I had to go stay at a hotel for a night and I am coming home today instead .
The badgers won and they stormed the field but I was still at the frat party dancing

● Matthew Sparber

Anabela on the Move with her Family!