Las Vegas

A business trip to Las Vegas in July was my first time in that city, although not my first visit to the state of Nevada.  It was hot, of course, with temps in the 100s throughout the visit, but most of the strip is a series of well-air-conditioned hotel/casinos, so one can walk with relief always nearby.  An interesting innovation is that outdoor dining and drinking patios are often surrounded by waist-high railings with sprinklers attached.  They continuously spray a fine mist into the air to cool the patrons nearby.

It is a culture shock to walk down the Las Vegas strip and see things you would not see in any other major US city.  Walk-up bars, where you can take one "to go" -- I drank a beer on the sidewalk as I walked but I felt extremely self-conscious, as if someone would stop me at any second. 

Another rare sight were the men handing out flyers on the street corners, wearing T-shirts with the legends - "Girls sent to your room in 20 minutes" followed by the phone number.  Seriously.  This is commercialized in Vegas.

On the other hand, they are not shy about routing you through casinos to get anywhere else.  Overhead walkways are accessed by escalators or elevators, but those are inside the building on that corner, nine times out of ten, and to get to them, you have to walk through a casino.  When checking in to our hotel, we had to then haul our suitcases through about one-third of the casino in order to get to the guest elevators.  There was no other way to do it.

Did I gamble?  Yes, a bit,  although I am strictly a slot machine person.  I don't play table games - they are much too expensive for me.

The other attractions of Vegas, besides scenery, are shows.  The one I saw at my hotel was called Zarkana.  It was a Cirque du Soleil show which are very popular now, combining acting with acrobatics for an interesting show.  In Zarkana, one performeer was wired, at one point, to soar out over the first twenty rows of the audience.  It was definitely worth seeing, although again the experience is VERY EXPENSIVE to my little tightfisted mode of thinking (ranging from $170 to $108 depending upon location in the theatre).  But this was probably my only visit to Las Vegas and so I considered it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  And spent accordingly.

I wish I had had the time and means to have gotten out of town.  I saw desert and mountains during landing and takeoff at the airport.  I also realized that the Grand Canyon was not that far away, and if I had gotten a rental car, I would have enjoyed a day outside of the glitz and glitter.  Not this time, however.