Viva Las Vegas
I've managed to get my Las Vegas gallery up on Flickr with only a delay of a week and a bit, which is pretty good for me. I usually delay and drag and get distracted with posting them, and my new SD600 isn't helping much, as I'm taking significantly more postworthy photos, even on days when I'm not doing anything special. It's a great camera though, and I'm extremely happy with it. Anyway, on to Las Vegas.
We left Salt Lake City on a Sunday evening, with Clair at the wheel, and we managed to get to Vegas in less that six hours, which is pretty good time. We arrived after midnight, and immediately checked in to the Luxor, the black glass pyramid at the south of the strip. That night, we wandered around some of the other southern casinos such as Excalibur, the MGM Grand and New York New York, before tiredness and back pain overcame me. Cam and Clair stayed out a little while longer to gamble, but luck wasn't with them. Or at least, it was at first, and then it wasn't.
The next day we hammered the Luxor buffet, wandered, and wandered some more. We saw the MGM lion show, the Bellagio fountain show, and drooled over the amazing chocolate waterfall in the Bellagio chocolate shop. We wandered north, stopping at Caeser's Palace and The Venetian, and saw the volcano erupt at The Mirage along the way. We were all set up to see the Treasure Island pirate show, but it was cancelled due to high winds. Cam and I crashed out pretty soon after, but Clair snuck out with Cam's wallet to do a little more gambling on the five dollar tables. Cam had to hit the ATM first thing the next morning, so I don't think luck was with her that night, either.
The next day we saw an Imax movie, wandered a bit more, and drove downtown, to have a quick look at the old Las Vegas, around Fremont Street. It felt pretty dingy after the hyper-neon glam of the strip, but the old casinos like Four Queens and the Golden Nugget had a certain charm. After that, we packed up and headed on our way back to Salt Lake City.
It was a whirlwind low-budget tour, but good fun. Most of our time was spent simply walking around and looking at things, which was a cheap form of entertainment. We toyed with the idea of seeing a show, but since tickets to everything seemed to cost upwards of $70, we decided to skip it. I'd seen the excellent Blue Man Group last time I was in Vegas, so I didn't mind too much this time around. One thing I noticed that was different to the last time I'd visited Vegas was the large number of "burlesque" shows on offer, particularly at the big casinos. Vegas has always had strip clubs, but these seemed squarely targeted at the corporate market, with lots of hairspray, choreography and classy outfits. Tickets to Luxor's Fantasy show always looks better on the corporate gold card than a night at The Titty Twister, after all.