I am still down in Utah (been here for a week now) but my family and made the drive down to Las Vegas last weekend. It was my first time there bringing my total number of US States I've been in up to 20 (I think). I wasn't sure what I would think of Vegas. Non of my family are gamblers, in I may be the only one who has ever set foot in a casino before (River Rock). Not knowing much about the place, we made reservations at a place about 10 minutes from the strip, The Boulder Inn Hotel and Casino.
This provided one of my first lessons in Vegas culture. I will begin by saying that the place was nice. The rooms was up-to-date, mostly clean and spacious, and the rates were good. Three things stood out to me about the place in general though. Firstly, it stank. Smoking was allowed throughout the gaming floor. Secondly, the place was filled with very gimmicky deals on food and what not. Lastly, nobody seemed to be having fun. After visiting the strip and walking around far too many places there I realized why the environment there was so different. See, the strip itself seems to attract more and more vacationers. The people come for the Vegas experience, gamble a bit but also shop and take in a show. Sure there are still some serious gamblers there, but it is much more vacation oriented. Once off the strip you get the old Grandma with here bucket of quarters whose sole purpose in being there is to try and beat the house... all day. Anyway, lesson learned.
The strip itself is amazing and I really enjoyed just walking around. If you've never been it is an experience. I have to be honest though, I don't know whether to applaud it as a remarkable achievement of capitalism, or condemn it for the many activities which go on there which I disagree with. Moral objections aside, it is still an amazing place to see and hag out at. Probably to me the most impressive place in terms of shock value was New York New York. I can't imagine how much it cost to recreate the New York skyline like that. Overall though I think the most breathtaking was the Luxor. What I didn't realize was that all the rooms face onto the outside of the pyramid, so when you are in the foyer, it is basically hollow. I found it awesome to look at.
While we were there we went and saw Phatom, which is a 95 minute Vegas version of The Phantom of the Opera. I have to say I was impressed. It's amazing what you can do when you have a theatre purposely built for one production. If you have a chance to see it is is visually stunning. Word is they spent $5 million on the chandelier alone which should give you some idea (it has four parts, 32 axis of rotation and each piece can be swung around the whole theatre).
In closing this was a great experience. For those wondering, I did spend $1 on a slot, but that was it. In fact the only reason I did was because my mom wanted to try one and had no change.
One last note, for those who don't think Vegas has something for everyone, I leave you with this picture. That's right, gambling on Beer Pong.
1 comment:
Beer pong! WHOA
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