Viva Las Vegas!
Finally, an excuse to use that as a post title!
So, here I am in Vegas with little money. It makes me really wish I had a lot of money. A lot of someone else's money, that I had been given permission to spend. Like, a sugar Daddy or something.
If America is a land of excesses, no place is more excessive than Las Vegas. It rises out of the desert like an oasis, but this time I had my nose in a book so I didn't notice. Everything here is over the top! We spent the first night wandering around the Strip, where all the casinos are located. We saw the MGM Grand, which has a lion enclosure WITHIN the casino (get it, the logo of MGM is a lion!). We saw Tropicana, which didn't have anyone in a coconut bra, before wandering over the road to Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and New York New York. The last three are themed, obviosuly. Excalibur is supposedly medieval/Arthurian but we didn't really see much except maybe a few suits of armour. No one wandering around in medieval costume, or any real attempt to make the place look like a castle. The outside is all turrets and battlements, and looks more like a Disney castle. 4/10
Luxor was quite impressive - it's the one with the huge pyramid and the sphinx out front. The casino is actually located inside the pyramid, and there's all sorts of eqyptian-style wall decorations and columns (think hieroglypghs). In the middle is a giant obelisk. We gave it a 8/10.
New York New York was pretty fantastic! The outside is a replica of the Manhatten skyline, basically cramming as many famous New York buildings and monuments in as possible. The Statue of Liberty is right next to the Empire State Building, but it looks pretty good in general. Inside they've recreated some 'typical' old New York streets, complete with cobblestones and fire escapes. The 'buildings' are all shops, of course, but the facades look pretty cool. WE saw that in quite a few places actually - this 'indoor street' look, where the ceiling is the sky and the shop fronts are building fronts. We gave it a 9/10 - it lost points for not having any actors pretending to be New Yorkers. It did have an Irish pub though...
So, we're staying with a relative, whom we only just met for the first time. He's our great-uncle, as in our Dad's uncle, but he apparently has a 3 year old daughter! Craziness! He picked us up, and while he was driving the girl was actually trying to climb over him. At one point he was driving with the girl in his lap and talking on the cellphone! She's the cutest little thing though - looks a lot like my little sister at that age.
After we looked at all the casinos we headed to one of those famous Las Vegas buffets - all you can eat for $10. Unfortunately I had a stomach ache, so I wasn't really up to eating much. Also, the food wasn't that good.
Today we might check out this Wild West town nearby and pick up tickets for a show tonight - we're thinking Cirque du Soleil :)
Unfortunately, I don't have much money left by this stage of the trip :( I'll have to budget carefully, or probably just dip in to my non-holiday allocated funds.
So, here I am in Vegas with little money. It makes me really wish I had a lot of money. A lot of someone else's money, that I had been given permission to spend. Like, a sugar Daddy or something.
If America is a land of excesses, no place is more excessive than Las Vegas. It rises out of the desert like an oasis, but this time I had my nose in a book so I didn't notice. Everything here is over the top! We spent the first night wandering around the Strip, where all the casinos are located. We saw the MGM Grand, which has a lion enclosure WITHIN the casino (get it, the logo of MGM is a lion!). We saw Tropicana, which didn't have anyone in a coconut bra, before wandering over the road to Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and New York New York. The last three are themed, obviosuly. Excalibur is supposedly medieval/Arthurian but we didn't really see much except maybe a few suits of armour. No one wandering around in medieval costume, or any real attempt to make the place look like a castle. The outside is all turrets and battlements, and looks more like a Disney castle. 4/10
Luxor was quite impressive - it's the one with the huge pyramid and the sphinx out front. The casino is actually located inside the pyramid, and there's all sorts of eqyptian-style wall decorations and columns (think hieroglypghs). In the middle is a giant obelisk. We gave it a 8/10.
New York New York was pretty fantastic! The outside is a replica of the Manhatten skyline, basically cramming as many famous New York buildings and monuments in as possible. The Statue of Liberty is right next to the Empire State Building, but it looks pretty good in general. Inside they've recreated some 'typical' old New York streets, complete with cobblestones and fire escapes. The 'buildings' are all shops, of course, but the facades look pretty cool. WE saw that in quite a few places actually - this 'indoor street' look, where the ceiling is the sky and the shop fronts are building fronts. We gave it a 9/10 - it lost points for not having any actors pretending to be New Yorkers. It did have an Irish pub though...
So, we're staying with a relative, whom we only just met for the first time. He's our great-uncle, as in our Dad's uncle, but he apparently has a 3 year old daughter! Craziness! He picked us up, and while he was driving the girl was actually trying to climb over him. At one point he was driving with the girl in his lap and talking on the cellphone! She's the cutest little thing though - looks a lot like my little sister at that age.
After we looked at all the casinos we headed to one of those famous Las Vegas buffets - all you can eat for $10. Unfortunately I had a stomach ache, so I wasn't really up to eating much. Also, the food wasn't that good.
Today we might check out this Wild West town nearby and pick up tickets for a show tonight - we're thinking Cirque du Soleil :)
Unfortunately, I don't have much money left by this stage of the trip :( I'll have to budget carefully, or probably just dip in to my non-holiday allocated funds.