Tag Archives: las vegas

Land of the free (to drink)

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img_0606Sightseeing in Las Vegas is one of the very few things you can do there without spending money, so we spent an entire day walking up and down the strip. Highlights:

  • Booze Walks: Everyone walks around with booze. Why? Because they can.
  • Escalator Overload: The urban planning in Vegas has one mission: to get you into casinos without your explicit consent. Every sidewalk/walkway ferries you indoors, sometimes even before you know it. You can’t even cross the street normally here, you have to go up and over, on walkways that lead directly into casinos. It’s like being in Disneyland, only everyone has giant margaritas.
  • Vegas has the Cleanest, Most Available Washrooms in America. It was like a dream come true.
  • It Takes All Kinds: From fat people on Segways to chain-smoking grannies, Vegas is probably one of the best people-watching destinations on the planet.
  • Photo Gallery HERE.

Travel note: Getting here is cheap. Rooms here are cheap. Doing ANYTHING here is very, very expensive. E.g.: Starbuck’s Americano: $3.60, bottle of Bud: $7, Muffin $3.50, roller coaster ride: $14, gambling: sneaks up on you; Criss Angel/Cirque: $150 or more.

Va-Va-Vegas

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532507727_2782e2523eAs a freelance writer, trade shows aren’t really a de rigueur part of my lifestyle, but this year, I decided to pony up and make the trip to the Snowsports Industries of America (SIA) show in Las Vegas. Since so much of my freelance income comes from snowsports, it seemed like a sound investment, so here I am. We’ve only been here for about 12 hours and the show hasn’t started yet, but my observations on Vegas thus far are:

  1. The “strip” is REALLY close to the airport. It’s kind of alarming. You land on the tarmac and blammo! There’s the MGM Grand.
  2. You see Vegas so much on TV, etc, that it’s both awe-inspiring and completely familiar at the same time. A very strange combination. Like seeing Pierce Brosnon on the street in New York…. you know him but you don’t. (True story. He rudely shoulder-checked my b/f at an intersection. We let him go with a light warning.)
  3. Casinos are weird. They’re giant, well-lit conference rooms sprinkled with games with names like “Wild Cougar” and waitresses in skanky outfits. And they’re exactly the same at 12:20 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., just with different densities of people and varying levels of sobriety.
  4. The Mandalay Bay casino, where we are staying, is enormous. It has its own shark tank exhibit. Look for an eye-witness account of that baby later.
  5. Carrot Top is EVERYWHERE. Gross.

-KB

PHOTO: Rojer, Flickr Creative Commons