Sunday, February 28, 2010

Back From Las Vegas!

We had a great trip to Las Vegas this weekend. First and foremost, we attended a lovely wedding Saturday evening. The occasion was also a wonderful opportunity for me to see Las Vegas for the first time since childhood.

We stayed in a very nice hotel near UNLV:


It was a gaming-free hotel, which was a relief after spending hours walking up and down the Strip.

Las Vegas has a fascinating skyline which makes it a lot of fun for shutterbugs such as myself, and there were many interesting things to see and do. This was NASCAR weekend in Las Vegas so the streets were filled with racing fans in colorful NASCAR gear. I very much enjoyed seeing many things "in person" which I'd heard about for years; the Bellagio Water Fountains, in particular, more than met expectations.

Below, the New York New York hotel and casino, complete with indoor-outdoor roller coaster:


Although we found plenty to enjoy, I'm not likely to return to Las Vegas without a good reason. The "sin city" aspects are quite oppressive. It's impossible to walk up and down Las Vegas Boulevard without the dregs of humanity invading one's personal space hawking their "business cards"; the sound they make fanning their cards to get your attention grows downright creepy after a while. The Las Vegas business community and local government apparently have no desire to do anything about cleaning this up.

When one adds to this the ground everywhere littered with more "business cards," the racy advertising plastered all over town (including mobile ads being driven up and down the Strip!), and the ever-present fumes of smoke and alcohol -- well, that's just not my personal idea of a good time, nor is it particularly family-friendly.

That said, I'm glad we went and we made many good memories; and I've got a camera filled with photos of all the interesting and colorful sights!

Below, the full moon next to the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas:


I'm looking forward to sharing more photos of Las Vegas in future posts.

Previously: Weekend Fun: Road Trip!

Updates: Las Vegas: M&M's and Coca-Cola Stores; Las Vegas: Bellagio Water Fountains and More; Las Vegas: Resorts and Roads; Las Vegas: More Resorts.

2 Comments:

Blogger Tom said...

Welcome back! So nice to hear that all went well. I've never been to LV. That roller coaster sounds pretty cool. Did you go to the "M & M" museum?

4:31 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

Thanks so much, Tom! My husband was on the coaster once when he had to be in Vegas on business -- he said it was fun but your head really gets bounced from side to side against the head restraints. Not as smooth as he'd have liked. It was pretty neat to see it go by inside the resort!

We did indeed visit M&M's World. We picked up a new gumdrop machine style M&MS dispenser to replace one we had for years which broke.

Best wishes,
Laura

5:30 PM  

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