Las Vegas

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If New York is the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas is the city that has insomnia because it's drunk 6 Red Bulls and a couple of Five Hour Energy shots.

My first impressions of Vegas were "too loud, too garish and too crowded." Granted, after spending 2 weeks in some beautiful countryside I might have found any city off-putting, but somehow I don't think that I will ever like Vegas. Walking through the various casinos, all I wanted to do was get out again. Get away from the flashing lights and the too loud music. And walking along the strip I was reminded how wonderful it had been being with a small group of people who respected each other and didn't walk in front of each other when someone was taking a picture.

We had a nice little farewell dinner in one of the "ballrooms" at Treasure Island. After dinner, I called Linda (one of the ladies who had been on our tour through SLC) and arranged for us to meet up on Thursday. Then we watched the show at Treasure Island, Sirens of the TI. Some of the lighting was cool, and the water effects were nice, but the dancing wenches in skimpy costumes were not to my taste.

Went to see the Blue Man Group Tuesday night. I'd seen them in NY, in a tiny theater, so it was fun to see them in a bigger venue with a big back up band.

Wednesday I took a stroll on the strip. Started at Treasure Island, took the tram from there to the Mirage and made it all the way to New York/New York before turning back. The model of the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge are kind of amusing to me. Had lunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe and then went into the Bellagio to see the conservatory and got out of there in time to watch their water show. Really impressive!

Wednesday night I went to Terry Fator's show at the Mirage. He's the ventriloquist/impressionist who won America's Got Talent a few years ago. He is absolutely incredible. I mean, really, singing Etta James without moving his mouth? He does an audience participation where he brings up an audience member and dresses them up as Dolly Parton and does a duet by himself. The guy he picked that night really got into it and it was really great. The one disappointment was that I didn't take my camera with me because you usually can't take pictures at shows, but this one allowed it.

Thursday morning, Linda picked me up and we drove to the Hoover Dam. Well, actually we drove past the dam into Arizona and had to backtrack over the bridge. We stopped off near the bridge and then walked along it for pictures of the bridge. Then we parked near the Dam and walked across it for pictures of the bridge.

For lunch we drove to Boulder City and ate at an outside cafe. The weather was gorgeous and we had fun tossing scraps to the grackles under the cars. Next stop was Fremont Street where we played video poker for a bit then watched people ziplining above Fremont Street. After that, we were driving along Las Vegas Blvd and as I went to ask Linda about the Pawn Stars' shop, she pointed it out to me. We stopped there and went in. It wasn't as big as it looks on TV but it was fun to look around it. And Linda bought me a t-shirt there.

The one thing I never did was explore the Strip at night. I was just too tired in the evenings to go out. And I didn't really want to deal with crowds again.

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Comments

[Haviva]

What can I say?
Dear Mindy, What can I say? It doesn't sound like you would want to do Vegas again. What a shame. Did you check out the shopping area at Ceasar's? Or the gondola ride between the Venetian and the Palazzo? It is not New York, but it is fun. The night is just lit up nicely, so you probably didn't miss much. I guess, if you don't gamble . . . . Although, there are a lot of shows . . . . Maybe we will get you back there someday -- when we can do it together. Enjoy!