Viva Las Vegas! — part 2

No trip to Vegas is complete without visiting "the Strip," with its mega-hotels and casinos with familiar names like Ceasar's Palace and the Luxor.

I fell in love with the Paris. It was huge! like an indoor city. A half-size replica of the Eiffel tower stands with two of its feet angling dramatically through the casino.

Hallways beyond the gambling turned into city streets with shops, restaurants, nostalgic facades, and even a blue sky painted on the ceiling.




When I saw La Creperie, I was about to bust with happy nostalgia. You see, I actually went to Paris when I was 15, many years ago. My fondest memories of the trip include street vendors making and selling crepes from their carts, even at midnight on Montmartre.

I ordered, and enjoyed a lovely lunch.

Then I rode to the top of the tower, which is 550 feet tall. Hotels reflected the bright sunshine. I could see the Strip and the rest of the city until it stopped, giving way to desert and mountains. We had to peer through a protective fence with occasional holes for camera shots.

I thought that would be the "height" of my day. But after dark, we went to the Stratosphere!

Vegas at night is a different kind of beautiful from the day, with lights everywhere. At 1,149 feet high (we were on the 108th floor), the views are stunning.

The protective fence was beneath us, with only a railing in front of us, so we had a much clearer view than I'd had earlier in the day.

We could make out our own hotel from nearby landmarks, though I couldn't quite get my camera to focus on the distant letters.





I rested on Sunday.

After attending mass at the historic Saint Joan of Arc church, I rested from travel, rested from walking all over the city, and rested my wallet from so much spending, except for a couple of meals in the hotel complex.

I journaled about the trip so far, read, and availed myself of free movies in the air-conditioned hotel room.

Photo used by permission

Monday morning brought the reason for our trip: my niece's wedding. We rode around (and around) in a limousine as tunes like "Going to the Chapel" played through the speakers.

Christina and Darren were married with tears and laughter — by Elvis!

This photo just captures it.

Congratulations, Christina and Darren!

Vegas, Baby! — part 1

When the weather was still cold in North Carolina, we flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for my niece's wedding.

We stayed at the Downtown Grand, which was lovely, except that nothing in Vegas is the quoted price. They hit us with significant extra fees before allowing us into our prepaid-online rooms.

Restaurants are expensive, with a mixed-drink around $14. We really liked the Triple George, where we ate and relaxed out on the sidewalk several nights.

Culture shock continued as we ventured beyond the casino-filled lobby and our hotel block. Apparently Vegas laws don't require clothing. At least, not on Freemont Street.

The Downtown pedestrian area was an overwhelming sample of "Sin City," full of lights, casinos, restaurants, and ... strange folk. An overhead light show plays every night, punctuated by screaming zipliners.



Beggars abound. So do artists – both the visual arts and the musical kind – and costumed people posing for photo ops. I liked many of them, from Darth Vader to Bumble Bee (the transformer) to David Bowie.

"Downtown" is the original heart of Vegas, whereas "the Strip" is the newer area filled with mega-hotel-casinos like the Luxor and Ceasar's Palace. We walked all around Downtown, visiting the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop where the reality show Pawn Stars is filmed.

We took a bus tour to the Hoover Dam. Our driver told us how the mafia started Vegas. As law enforcement cracked down and things got too hot for the mob in Chicago and New York, they moved to this desert area where gambling and prostitution were legal. There's a Mob Museum Downtown, but I didn't visit it.

We went down into the dam and power plant. It's amazing how power (and water) for the entire area is still supplied by state-of-the-art 1930s technology. Public areas are decorated with Art Deco carvings and signs.

The dam and newer bridge were very similar to the one I visited last year at Glen Canyon.

Next time: from the depths of the dam to the heights of the towers.