Leaving Las Vegas

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July 21, 2010
On our drive to Vegas, we stopped by Joshua Tree National Park. That place is just weird. The rocks are weirdly shaped, the trees are weirdly shaped and the place is desolate. So much of this country is desolate, it is rather unbelievable. Joshua Tree was cool in a sense that it was interesting to look at. It wasn’t cool in a temperature sense at all. In fact, it was so hot, I wouldn’t even let my mom out of the car to take pictures. She had to do it through the windshield so none of the air conditioning left the car. The place was a desert, with weird rocks and weird trees, I wouldn’t go back, but I’m glad I saw it. The coolest part was that I got to see San Andreas Fault.

Currently, I am at the Las Vegas Hilton. It is definitely an upgrade from our Jolly Roger hotel in L.A. This hotel is like a mini cruise ship. Or maybe cruise ships are suppose to be like Vegas, I’m not sure. Anyway, it has everything! Spa, restaurants, pools, casinos, club, theater, shops, it is crazy. Apparently, all hotels in Vegas have everything, as I have found out. So today it was a cool 114 degrees here and I had decided that I will not sightsee when it is that hot. What I will do is lay out at the pool. So that is what I did all afternoon. It is kind of nice to lay out in a place where when you go swimming you instantly dry off and you aren’t sitting in a soaking wet bathing suit all day long. You know how what I’m talking about. After the pool, I took a nap, then once the sun set, I was going out on the strip.

Now here is a brief recap of my gambling endeavors from last night. Last night, when I arrived in Vegas I was pretty tired. I decided to stay at the Hilton, we did Benihana for dinner, then played a little blackjack. I started with $100, and quit when I had $180 after leaving the dealer a $15 tip. Not bad at all! This morning I bought a coffee and an egg sandwhich, which cost me $10. The food in Vegas is ridiculously expensive. I can’t believe they get away with charging what they do for food! San Fransisco restaurants were cheaper. So after that I was down to $70. So armed with $70 to gamble with, I ventured off to Harrahs. I had heard that playing blackjack at Harrahs was fun, and let me tell you it is! They play really fun dance music, the dealers are cute girls that dance while they deal, or at least move around a little bit. Needless to say, it is not uptight there! Everyone yells and screams, and you get a fist pump from the dealer if you get a blackjack. It’s just fun. There are also $5 tables there, so your money goes along way. I actually played for about 3 hours on two separate occasions and managed to only lose my $70. Needless to say, I played tons of blackjack and ended up not spending one cent of my own money, oh and of course I got lots of free drinks!

I saw the shops at the Venetian, Ceasar, etc. I’m not sure how many Dior, Cartier, and Loubotin stores you need, but there is one in just about all the big hotels. How can it be profitable for them? Are that many people winning in Vegas? The Venetian was gorgeous as was Ceasars. My favorite was the Bellagio. I loved the gardens and the water show was pretty cool. Way cooler than the volcano show at the Mirage. It was strange seeing fake everything, especially since I have been travelling to some naturally beautiful places; beauty that these places spend millions to try and recreate. Don’t get me wrong, it is definitely cool to see the gorgeous waterfalls at the Wynn, and seeing the Eiffle tower was about as impressive as seeing the real Eiffle tower, but its just something about how it is all so fake. Vegas is all just one big show. But it is one big show, that is a hell of a lot of fun!

Tomorrow, I am off to the Grand Canyon, maybe they can make a Vegas Casino about that.

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Photos

San Andreas Fault
San Andreas Fault in the middle ground