Well major juxtaposition going from the natural splendor of Yosemite National Park to the neon man made wonder that is Vegas. I still found it amazing but in a completely different way, in a why, just ‘why would this be necessary?’ kind of way. We arrived in the dark morning hours again and from the bus station could see the massive lit up signs of the strip hotels. Of course without seeing them up close we judged the distance poorly and decided to walk there. This resulted in some more trudging until we finally scampered inside Treasure Island lobby to drop our packs off. Immediately walking through the forest of illuminated dinging slot machines and with the dank sweet smell of smoke and vanilla air freshener (which clearly does not freshen the air at all) combined with the blank faces of the individuals playing were quite a contrast to the happy active wonder of a national park. I have to say walking through the throngs of people gambling I rarely saw any outburst of excitement leading me to believe that these people must all be losing quite a lot, these games are far too complicated to be fun or everyone has been playing so long they are desensitized to the enjoyment. This sounds overly negative and critical however what I mean is it’s very hard to enjoy vicarious gambling when you don’t understand if people have won anything. This is because we certainly did not participate ourselves in the gambling scene of Vegas.
What did this leave for us to do? Well setting up in Denny’s for their full breakfast and pancakes with an outlook over Mirage’s tropical artificial waterfalls and dolphin statues, we researched the interesting points along the various monstrous hotels of the strip then head off wandering and wondering. We went into Caesar’s Palace to find the black friday sales still in effect in the indoor shopping streets. I must point out the similarities between Vegas hotels and a costume party. The conviction to stick with the various themes of each hotel is amazing. Caesars from the outside has the amazing columns of Rome including bronze statues of the emperor himself in the drive and even a Coliseum parking lot. Inside fallen column seating and amphora rubbish bins add to the atmosphere of an italian theme. We found the aquarium which housed various fish, rays and even a lonely shark. Mildly depressing to watch the poor shark swim continuously between the two ends of the tank we were even more sympathetic to the marine life when we stayed to watch the fountain show attached to same tank. This animatronic performance of water fountain and pyrotechnics displaying a mythical fall of Atlantis boomed throughout the room and must terrify the fish daily.
We left this shopping mall thinking it was unique to Caesar’s only to find that each hotel seemed to contain a staples of the same high end stores selling the most expensive of every product. This of course means we were not nearly tempted to buy anything, although I have no idea where I’d put hundred of thousands of dollars worth of crystallized geod a meter tall. It really wouldn’t go with any of my decor! We kept wandering down past the High Roller ferris wheel and the Bellagio’s famous dancing fountain. We walked past the extreme of capitalism with the m&m and coke store both with immense versions of their products built into the architecture. Further walking brought us past Paris and the miniature Eiffel Tower as well as New York, New York where the skyline of the big apple was built to be the shape of the hotel along with the statue of liberty and brooklyn bridge to complete the effect. Next to this stood Excalibur castle and Luxor’s unique pyramid shape to mimic the splendor of the Egyptian pharaohs. We entered MGM instead in search of the interior botanical gardens which apparently reside inside however with little signage we ended up near the pool area which also housed tv city. With sore feet and little sleep we accepted to take part in a research showing of a new show and provide feedback. Feeling like I have a vast opinion of tv in general I was glad to finally have a controlled environment to give my feedback. We ended up watching a cop drama though which I don’t think either of us was interested in so they received disappointing ratings from us. We then headed back to the hotel to check in and finally commit to a much needed nap and enjoy the brilliance of a warm shower which had returned to our lives! With plans to catch some zs then take up several of the discount offers we had received in our travels during the day we completely failed to do this and passed out exhausted in the room.
Due to the room tripling in price for the next day we moved on from the strip to head to accommodation in original downtown Las Vegas. We meandered through the Venetian indoor canals with matching singing gondola rides to fit the occasion and caught an uber from Mirage and enjoyed the pyrotechnic display of a faux volcanic eruption from their lobby.
I must add the admiration I had for the simple and reasonable accommodation we stayed in while in downtown Vegas. From the garish hotels of the new we very much enjoyed the small apartment type of the Downtowner Motel. We played a few card games of our own in the room and then were within easy walking distance to Fremont street party life. The street is enclosed in a massive curved LED screen ceiling which matched the glittery lights of the casinos along the way. We enjoyed the several stages of live music the first of which was country so made Lauren very happy. Then in a stroke of luck I enjoyed the last stage’s lineup and shook it off, clapped along because I was happy, remembered dancing in September and let that groove get me to move (shame on anyone who fails to recognise these lyrical allusions). We bought two of the largest drinks of beer and slushied long island ice tea (so cold I couldn’t drink it without getting a brain freeze every few slips). Then we finally succumbed to the short lived excitement of playing a slot machine. At first double checking that no one had accidentally left credit in one of the machines and being entirely sure that we were attracting the attention of the pit manager and security. Did find 9 cents though so paid off! We found the perfect machine which was FRIENDS themed and we bet the massive quantity of a single dollar!! Lauren missing the first spin and the second giving out little prize money and by little I mean zilch. We decided to invest our money in a more profitable way and bought some burgers and took them back to the room to watch with FRIENDS on netflix instead to wrap up the night.
Early in the morning we were picked up for our bus trip to the seventh natural wonder of the world. However we did return to Vegas afterwards that same night in order to fly out to Austin, Texas! Yeehaw!
Roaming Wild. 