Month: September 2011

Heather and I had the opportunity to join a group of friends going to Las Vegas last week.

The trip started with this:

As large as the limo may look… it was cozy with 14 people in it! The driver also warned us that his AC had a tough time keeping up when the ambient temperature was at 110 degrees. Ignoring those details, it was a fun ride into town. We checked in, and had time to do a little walking around.

Did I mention the heat? I had sort of thought that perhaps you could walk the entire strip, but quickly realized that it would take days to cover that much ground. This is looking back after we thought we had walked for quite a while:

We were staying at Caesar’s Palace (more or less centered in that shot)

I guess I should clarify, from what I know the entire “strip” you hear about is only about five miles long. The problem is, at the point the picture above was taken, we had walked an extra few miles inside the two casinos on our way down the strip… and only half of that was spent lost 🙂

I have heard people say that casinos were like mazes before, but I figured it was an exaggeration…  it isn’t. We probably walked twice the necessary distance inside the casinos because we were lost.

After a long walk we met up with a few of Heather’s friends from college who were able to come down, and headed to dinner. Now, everything in Vegas seems to be something you have heard about before, the buffet being no exception. We discovered that the buffet wasn’t even kind of cheap. The quantity and quality of the food still lived up to the reputation I suppose but there was a little sticker-shock.

Day two: The group had a cabana at the pool reserved, so we spent a few hours lounged in the shade by the pool that morning. At this point we discovered what ended up being a universal truth for our Vegas trip: “if you want peace and quiet, go to your room” The pool came complete with a DJ, and her mission was apparently to keep the atmosphere lively. This clashed a little with the “sit in the shade and read” plan Heather and I had. Lucky for us we had an assignment! Go pick up the tickets the group would need for the shows Friday and Saturday night from the two box offices.

We thought it would be a great idea to move inside casinos as much as possible in order to avoid the heat. It only took us three hours to pickup the tickets (want to guess how many times we got lost?) At that point the pool was in the shade, so we spent another few hours there.  Later we got cleaned up and headed to our first show. It was an improv comedy show that we really enjoyed. My only observation is that you should avoid sitting in the front row at that kind of event. We were lucky enough to be a few rows back, and were happy to simply observe the show and not participate in it.

That night we discovered that our peace and quiet rule only applies to your room in as much as your neighbors have the same plan… but after a brief 3AM conversation things calmed down 🙂

The next day we got up early and headed down to the pickup point for the bus trip out to the Hover Dam. We arrived at the stop almost an hour early (our track record to this point led us to believe we might need that much time just to find the pickup point). We were pleasantly surprised to find that the strip is nearly cool and peaceful that early in the morning. Not deserted by any means, but far more open. We spent a few minutes walking up to the outdoor displays in front of a nearby casino, and just enjoying the relative calm.

The bus ride out to the dam took roughly an hour, during which our tour guide provided a non-stop stream of facts and anecdotes about Vegas, the dam, and regional history. A few highlights: The valley gets only four inches of rain per year, and 19 of the 25 largest hotels in the world are in Vegas.

Hoover Dam is really impressive. It is difficult to grasp the scale of the dam, let alone try to convey it here. I was kind of in awe while we were there.

All I can really say is that you should go see it if you are in the neighborhood.

There is also a bridge that just opened up this year:

The scale involved in both projects is overwhelming.

That night we attended our second show, a Circ De Soleil production “The O Show” at Bellagio. Again, I really don’t have the vocabulary to do what we saw justice. I don’t think I have ever spent so much time tensed up and gasping in amazement. The show was just incredible.

The next morning we had most of the day before our flight, and the plan was to go to church, eat a leisurely lunch and then head to the airport. The actual service wasn’t really worth noting here, except I have to point out that apparently nothing can be built in Vegas without having a certain style applied to it.

I know this is getting long, but before I close out the post I wanted to throw out a few more notes that didn’t fit in the quick narrative of our trip:

No mater how much you spend on tile, marble, sculpture and state-of-the-art architecture… a room full of slot machines is still a room full of slot machines

Speaking of slot machines, I ended up with a few dollars worth of quarters in my pocket for most of the trip, and might have dropped one into a slot machine… but they don’t take coins! They have a dollar feeder and a receipt printer as their only input and output. I witnessed a receipt being printed, and there is a speaker down in the coin tray playing a sound like the tray is filling with coins… but the user just ended up with a slip of paper when it was all said and done.

My final thought is this:

Heather and I are really glad we went, and enjoyed the trip. That being said, it felt like a place you go to see once.

-Jordan