Hey! Another Vegas Post

Sunday night was our first night in Las Vegas (by the time we landed, got our baggage and rental car is was around midnight) and we stuck around the condo complex. We did venture next door to the the South Point casino. It was a huge casino, looked brand new, and was literally right next door to the Grandview. We found a $5 blackjack table and sat down. We had a plan, I was directed to sit between Jim and Bob so that they could coach me on how to play. This was mainly for my protection, to prevent me from doing something stupid (like hitting on 16 with the deal showing 15) and getting beat up by another patron at the table. I followed their instructions and promptly lost $40. No big deal though, that's small potatoes. By the time we called it a night I was so tired that I literally could not add the cards in my head - we had been up for 24 hours at that point.

South Point casino. Jim's condo is about 10 ft to the left of the picture's edge.
The entire first night and into the next morning, the only thing Jim and Bob talked about was this magical place called "The Strip." Since I have never been to Las Vegas before, their descriptions sure made it sound magical - an adult version of Disney World. I couldn't wait to go! I wanted to see it all, do it all, and experience as much as I could in 5 days.

"Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada." Well thanks for having me!
We decided that the week's plan would be to casino hop. There were so many, and each one was amazing in its own right, that we would try to hit some of the high points of each one. Driving down Las Vegas Blvd (aka The Strip) was pretty cool. The Strip starts with Mandalay Bay (pictured above with gold windows) and goes for over 4 miles ending at the Stratosphere. Monday, one of the first casinos we went in was HOOTERS! I was very excited about the prospects of a Hooters casino, but by the end of the week came to the realization that it was probably one of the least risque we went to - surprising I know! Example: the South Point casino cocktail waitresses wore butt thongs and quite a few Strip casinos has "Pleasure Pits" - consisting of dance stages complete with a stripper pole (or 3!) and bikini- or lingerie-clad dancing young women - all surrounded by blackjack tables.

Hooters yes, but alas the owls where better at some other casinos.
I failed to mention that we went to the Tropicana before Hooters. What was the most exciting thing going on at the Tropicana? I'm glad you asked -- Well, we valeted our car there for the day and when we went back to pick it up at the end of the night (~2am) the valet guy was sound asleep in his booth. We politely knocked on the glass, he flung his head up in a "nope, I wasn't sleeping" motion with such speed that he pounded it on a nearby shelf. I'm surprised that he didn't knock himself out. Ladies and gentlemen, the Tropicana...

On Monday we primarily stayed at the south end of the strip. Some of the bigger casinos on the south end are Mandalay Bay, Luxor, MGM Grand, New York New York, and Excalibur. The MGM Grand had an awesome 6 story tall bronze lion statue that served at the architectural focal point of the street intersection. I took a half dozen pictures of it throughout the week - no lie - as I am very partial to lions.

The biggest and coolest lion I've ever seen.

Here's a shot of Jim, Bob, and I in the MGM Grand lobby. Note the Coronas and my lack of sleeves. -Corona: Bob, in his ever expanding and infinite wisdom, discovered on his last trip to Vegas that while you do get free booze while gambling, most beers are brought in smallish plastic cups. To circumvent this, ask for a Corona! Not only do you not have to deal with plastic cup taste (reminds me of college), but you get more beer on a volume basis!
-Lack of sleeves: Shirt sleeves were not required in any of the casinos and it was 99 degrees outside, therefore it seemed like I wore sleeveless shirts all week -- seemed like it to Jim and Bob at least, who picked on me nonstop for it. Lack of sleeves will also cause some difficulties for us later in the week, but that blog post is still to come....

The Excalibur was a really cool casino so see during the day, but at night it was simply amazing. The exterior of the building resembled King Aurthur's castle and the medieval motif ran throughout the interior as well. The best part about the Excalibur was that Jim and I bet, at the sports book, on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 over the Washington Capitals. The Excalibur had the line as Pens+2. Sure enough Pittsburgh lost by 1 goal thus covering the spread and we won!! Too bad we only bet $20 (and won $37).

Of all the casinos on the Strip, I thought New York New York was the coolest looking by far. The facade include the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building, the "harbour" had a replica Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, and even the sidewalk was crafted to look like the Brooklyn Bridge. NY NY had "make your reservation here Dan" written all over it. The gaming floor piped in Rock n Roll music, there was a huge ESPN Zone, their featured nightclub was Coyote Ugly (if you only click one link from this post, click that one), and there was the really cool Nine Fine Irishmen. NY NY had the aura of Party 24/7 and honestly, isn't that what Vegas is supposed to be all about??

New York in Las Vegas?!?! Holy Moly!

The final casino we went t0 on the south end of the strip was the Luxor. The Luxor is designed to emulate ancient Egypt. The main casino/hotel building is a huge pyramid and the surrounding grounds are graced with the Sphinx, tons of hieroglyphics, an obelisk, multiple Osiris statues, etc... The interior of the Luxor was really cool, especially for an engineer. The inclined exterior walls of the great pyramid structurally incorporated the hotel rooms. This resulted in the entire interior volume of the pyramid being one huge open space. Granted, this space was broken into gaming floors, bars, restaurants, theaters, and shops, but all one had to do was look up to to get a perspective of how large this pyramid actually was.

The four inclined columns were Inclinators - thinks elevators that move slantways - that serviced the hotel rooms on each face of the pyramid.
Buildings inside of buildings at the Luxor.

Another reason the Luxor was so awesome was because that is where I saw my first ever Las Vegas show! We found a place next to the M&M store that sold half price show tickets for that night's show. I immediately recommended that we buy tickets for Fantasy, which bills itself as "The strip's most seductive topless show." This was MAN WEEK need I remind you... The suggestion was unanimously approved, the tickets were purchased, and to Fantasy we went. Now I know what you're thinking, it was probably just some stupid guy-oriented boobie show. Nope! First off, half of the crowd was women (I was surprised at that). The show consisted of more than just boobs, there was also singing, dancing, good music, crowd participation, and a standup comedy segment. It was a great show and I can honestly say that I would have enjoyed it even if there weren't boobs, although that would have jeopardized the integrity of MAN WEEK---

Two last pictures for you.

Las Vegas is a mecca of advertising (Bob was in his glory - he works in the marketing/advertising industry), and even the side of the Luxor wasn't immune to an ad.

An enormous plug for the upcoming Transformers sequel.
Supposedly there are two man made objects that can be seen from space, the first being the Great Wall of China, and the second is the 1 billion-candle-power light at the apex of the Luxor.

Can you imagine the electric bill for a 1 billion-candle-power light?