For some reason, I don’t really like to write here about trips TS1 and I are going to take before they happen; maybe it’s just the paranoid in me. So now the truth can be revealed, laid bare for examination.
Right now, Vegas is in the grip of a cowboy invasion. That’s right, the town is infested with men wearing big white or black 10 gallon hats and ladies who think rhinestones are meant to be decorating every piece of clothing they own. And that’s cool even though it isn’t my taste. The last time I looked I wasn’t being paid for fashion opinions, much less held up as the second coming of Mr. Blackwell. For the last 20 years, the National Finals Rodeo has been the big event in Las Vegas in early December and let’s just say the fans attending wear shirts, jackets and hats proclaiming allegiance.
Then again, there’s always something big going on in that city. I remember one year, probably 1990, when I foolishly thought it would be cool to attend Comdex. Now Comdex used to be the biggest trade show in the United States, attracting over 200,000 people for a week in early November, until it crashed and burned a couple of years ago in the undertow from the Dotcom Crash.
Sheldon Adelson, he got out while the getting was good. The man made a pile of money as Comdex grew from a little get-together for PC and peripherals vendors into that huge event that made such a demand on the city that taxis and hookers from all over the western United States were brought in for the week and Las Vegas Boulevard was one long parking lot from 9 a.m. until midnight. Shel, though, he saw the big money coming all year round and so he tore down the Sands and its convention center, something he’d already bought off that one week show, and built an amazing showpiece on the ground.
The Venetian, which may or may not be the class of the Strip, you could argue the Bellagio tops it easily and I even heard one vote for Mandalay Bay, but to me this is just an immensely impressive resort. It’s huge, but so are a bunch of the other newer hotels and more are on the way, and the Bellagio probably has a similarly tasteful decor. But only the Venetian, of course, has the gondolas and only Adelson thought of going quite that far in bringing the real experience to Vegas (compared to, say, New York New York, Paris and the Luxor). Too bad the pricetag is in line with what I’ve said because it means that I’m not likely to have the chance to stay there any time soon.
We stayed at the Excalbur. Hey, times being what they are, we needed to get a very economical package if we were going to take the trip at all. Yes, it’s a budget hotel and the shower, dresser , room door and view could all use an upgrade and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re also on a budget but still want to be on the Strip. It wasn’t a terrible place, mind you, and for the most part you’re only in the room to sleep shower and maybe rest up from all the walking.
Walking is something you do a lot of in Vegas, especially if you’re not of a mind to sit at the table or machine and gamble for hours on end. Even though you need to take a cab if you’re going more than two hotels down the street–don’t ask about the vaunted Monorail that was supposed to break this absurd aspect of a street full of hotels–these hotels are simply huge. Places like the Ballagio, Caesars Palace and the Venetion can take eight or ten minutes just to walk past on the sidewalk and their insides even longer.
Excalibur, Luxor and Manadaly Bay are all owned by the same company (it also owns the Monte Carlo and Circus Circus) and these three are next to each other at one end of the Strip, and you can walk from the New York New York end of Excalibur all the way to the far side of Mandalay Bay without going outside but we’re talking about three miles, given all the odd twists, turns and escalators to be navigated. Though you will end at a nice place, an aquarium that apparently compares well to the one in Monterey, Of course then you have to walk back, though there is a tram that connects them as well but not at particularly convenient locations. What the hell, it was an interesting walk, lots to see, window shopping in the small shopping centers that every hotel in the city now seems to contain, restaurants of every price level and cuisine and not a bad way to spend a chunk of an afternoon walking off lunch.
We had thought of going downtown to Freemont Street Saturday night and seeing the medieval jousting dinner show Sunday but one turned out to be too complex without a taxi (a bus was recommended and that just didn’t work) and the other lacked both utensils and, well, an odor conducive to eating. So we hit the buffet at Harrah’s Saturday night and the Italian place, Regale, at our hotel Sunday.
I dropped my cell phone out of jacket pocket in the cab Saturday night while reaching into the pants pocket for cash. This is not uncommon in Vegas and so they have a nice lost and found office where you can often claim your stuff the next day. I got lucky, had an honest cabbie and so mine was there and after getting back my phone (from which no international calls seem to have been placed) we went over to the Venetian to check it out. Vivian even got paid $20 buck for a few minutes of time to do a market research survey on sink faucets and then we both watched a movie trailer (something really terrible looking, where Tommy Lee Jones tries to do comedy the way De Niro did recently but with nowhere near the same quality of material) and gave our opinions.
Flew back at dinner time tonight and except for a 30 minute delay because of light rain near SFO had no trouble at all. Maybe we just picked good times to fly but in neither instance did we have much of a line at all at the airport security checkpoints and with such a short trip no checked baggage to wait around for either.
Good trip, a fun place to spend a few days once every year or two. Nice to be home and sleeping, as soon as I finish this, in my own bed.
BillSaysThis 