Leaving Las Vegas

Sorry so late today...

A few images from my quick three days in Las Vegas as a first-timer to the city:

Here's the pirate show from our hotel/casino, Treasure Island. The show was slutty pirates vs. Chippendale pirates full of double entendres. This was supposed to be the "family show" in these parts, and now that I think about it, it might've been.



For some reason, this particular sign seemed like redundancy to me. I mean, isn't this pretty much the rule in the United States?



We went exploring while the girls were at work and here are the landmarks we all have heard of. What I noticed was that every hotel had a theme (which was given full throttle attention in every detail), a show to attract folks, a star-quality attraction, and of course, a casino. All the casinos are pretty much the same, too. Same machines, same sounds, same stale cigarette smell, same lighting. Same people, really...

...Bellagio...



...Planet Hollywood and the Mirage (which was my favorite one we wandered around in--but we didn't do much time in the Bellagio)...



...and Caesar's Palace.



I was fascinated by the architecture of hotels, man. Every single thing is designed to get you in, keep you in, and have you stay and spend money. Casinos especially were confusingly spaced and no seats anywhere except machines & tables. My favorite game was roulette. Least favorite: Slot machines.



Early on I was up $20, as evidenced here. Then the next day I lost that $20 and an additional $15. Then, the next day I was up $35 so I broke even while I was there.



I loved that the elevator never said "lobby." Always "casino."



The view from our host's room. Ours wasn't much different, but there's was 14 floors above ours:



I didn't know they had these in Nevada! Good...but, with all due respect to my friends from California, it doesn't live up to the hype, man. Kind of like Krispe Kreme's to folks not from the South:



I guess you know you're in Las Vegas when there's an Elvis silhouette greeting you at the men's room:



Not even kidding: This was my very first ad I saw once we got into the airport. It made me think this place is really different than pretty much every other American city when this is the stuff that greets you:



My overall review of Las Vegas: Thumbs up. I mean, it was fun, and I bet it's good in small doses. About the time I was leaving I was thinking that I was just starting to figure it all out...and there's a lot of shows I would've liked to have seen, too. And, considering I broke even (my smokin' hot shutterbug trophy wife lost a bit more, but not as much as we thought we might view of "entertainment expenses--so all the good).