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Published: August 28th 2010
The Bellagio
Fountain show every night, every ten minutes. Set to classical music. Cheesy but spectacular. We approached Vegas along The Strip, stunned by the scale of it all, dumbfounded by the sheer, relentless, wonderful tackiness of it all. Pyramids, castles and the Eiffel Tower rolled past our windows as we drove through the desert to our hotel, The Stratosphere. Although not quite as tasteless as others, and a little worse off for it, it was still a great find by Barney. It has a huge tower from where you get awesome views of The Strip, a casino downstairs of course, and rides including a bungee for drunk punters.
What struck me was the dedication of the white trash who littered the gambling floor at all hours of the day. Before we'd even had our cornflakes people were out rolling dice and betting their kidneys for another chance at making it BIG. It was a smoky sight to behold.
We spent our weekend drinking and gambling, with Barney and I getting involved in some high-powered poker. We played at Bill's, a brilliantly aged casino with an end-of-the-line feel and syrupy $1 Margeritas on tap. This was the only place we found with limit tables and a reasonable minimum bet, which works well as you still
get free drinks and a seedy atmosphere. When we weren't frittering our money away we spent our time wandering among the gaudy splendour of the town, visiting the vast casinos, each of which is the size of a large shopping mall. And even harder to navigate. Intentionally, there are no 'exit' signs so that you get lost and have to revert to spending more money.
Leaving Vegas, after a never-ending champagne brunch, Em and I took a detour along Route 66 before arriving back at Barney's in LA. Over the next few days we hung out licking our Vegas wounds and visiting some famous LA sights, like Santa Monica beach, Beverly Hills and Sunset Boulevard. Much of downtown was a bit underwhelming, having been oversold by generations of savvy Hollywood suits. But we still had lots of fun before flying East to Boston.
The NBA Finals were on at the time, with the LA Lakers playing the Boston Celtics. This is a classic rivalry in the States, with LA traditionally being seen as the superstar side and the Celtics the working class opposition. We got right into it in Boston, especially as the Lakers were in town. Everywhere
the city was wrapped in 'Beat LA' posters, leaving you in no doubt about the bias and hatred. The perfect sporting cocktail.
Boston was very different, with a distinctly English flavour, and it's personality appealed much more to us. But we were only there for a day before we had to leave on a Greyhound for Canada.
Here we spent two and a half months, so I have plenty to tell and plenty of family photos for which I'm sure to get in trouble. That's all for the States. Sorry to rush but the Canada posts beckon and will be up soon. Until then...
Love you,
Bye!
x
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bluebird
Susan
Hi, we're taking a trip to Sin City in the spring as well. Tacky as it all sounds, it sounds like a blast. Our main goal of the trip is to visit the Grand Canyon, but you can't go to the southwest without doing Vegas right.