I started out yesterday pretty mellow. I actually took the time to hook up my tripod for my camera to stabilize enough to get a decent low-light shot and took some pictures of the inside of my hotel. Here's a shot from the balcony outside my room, looking across to the rooms on the far side of the pyramid:
Once we had all really got moving yesterday morning we went for a walk South on Las Vegas Blvd. It's not really The Strip beyond where we are, and it quickly turned in to smaller hotels and shopping centres, but we managed to get a bit of shopping done, had some lunch, and took a picture with a replica of the iconic "Welcome To Las Vegas" sign:
They've got the setup right in the middle of the road with its own little parking area, and a space where goofy tourists like myself can take a nice picture.
We ended up spending a fairly significant portion of the day walking around, and were pretty tired when we got back to our hotel. We just chilled out in the casino for what little remained of the afternoon before heading out for the real highlight of the day: Penn & Teller. We made our way to the Rio Hotel, had a little snack there since we didn't feel like dinner, and then took our seats for the show. We then promptly vacated our seats because they let the audience members play around up on stage with a couple props for the show. I thought that was pretty awesome to be allowed on stage. The whole time we were up there Penn was on a stand-up bass accompanying a pianist in a pre-show jazz act. It was pretty sweet.
What turned out to be even better was that my trip up on stage before the show turned out to be the first of two ventures up there, as early into the show Penn pulled me out of the audience to assist in the act. Obviously I was thrilled to be up there, and I wish I'd been able to get a picture of it. I still got a great souvenir, since the bit was about airline security, and they were promoting a metal card they sell with the American Bill of Rights printed on it. They are encouraging everyone to buy one and carry it through the metal detectors at airports. I was playing the role of TSA security in their show and had one of the metal-detecting wands to search Penn and Teller. When I found the card on Penn he let me keep it, and the guys even signed it for me after the show. As much as I appreciate and understand why they want people carrying these cards through the airport (the 4th amendment, detailing the right against unwarranted search and seizure is highlighted) I don't think I'll have mine on me when I go home tomorrow. I understand the principle, but have no intention of antagonizing foreign security personnel.
The rest of the show was phenomenal, and I was really happy that we had such great seats for it.
When we left the Rio we decided to catch a cab North up to Freemont St. There's a pedestrian shopping area on Freemont that is covered in a massive domed roof, and at night they use it to put on a terrific light show. It was hard to capture, but I did get some good photos of it:
It's hard to tell from this shot, but I'm actually looking up and that's all playing on the ceiling above me. It's a brief show, but very cool. If you're ever in Vegas you should check it out, but just remember that it only plays once an hour, on the hour, and probably only lasts about 10-15 minutes, so it's good to try to time your arrival about 5 minutes before the hour.
We were just a bit late for the 11:00 show due to the timing of when we got out of Penn & Teller's show, so we ended up catching the midnight light show. It was pretty late when we got in, which is why I didn't take the time to make a blog entry last night.
This morning we got up, had some breakfast and headed right for Dream Car Rentals to pick up the Mustang I'd booked for us:
Red. Yeah. Sweet.
I was thinking of something a little more exotic, but I had to get something that could accommodate three adults, which was limiting, and eventually decided that I couldn't argue with the cheap price of the Mustang. We opted to just have me drive, which turned out to be a really good thing since the car was a manual transmission, and I'm the only one of the three of us who could drive it anyway. That worked for me though since standard is a lot more fun!
We headed out to Red Rock Canyon and stopped at the first parking area to take some photos and go for a hike. It was a gorgeous hike, but we didn't get too far since all of us were feeling a bit tired of walking after spending the bulk of yesterday on our feet. Still, we got in a good hike and got some great photos. I'll just throw a few of them up here for your enjoyment:
That's actually looking back towards Vegas.
After that I was just driving through the park... probably a little quicker that is strictly allow if one were to take the posted speed limits too literally. I hate to be too literal in my interpretations of these things. Also, Mustang.
After I'd put a massive grin on my face and either terrified or nauseated my stalwart companions we headed back in to town for lunch. It occurred to us at this point that we hadn't really made any other plans for the rest of the day, and still had the car for the whole afternoon. We therefore made the last-minute decision to head out to the Hoover Dam, since it's less than an hour's drive, and it's a fairly significant monument in this region. The drive was smooth, and I'm glad we went out there since it was really cool to see the dam:
We had a pleasant drive back into town from there and got ourselves some dinner, and chilled out in the room for a bit. At around 8:00 we made our way over to the Bellagio Hotel to see the fountain show. The huge pool in front of the hotel erupts in an elaborate display of fountains every half an hour through the day, and once every 15 minutes after 8:00 p.m. It's supposed to much better at night, so we decided to wait until after 8:00 to see it. I imagine that it's pretty neat at any time of day, but the show at night really is spectacular. It was hard to capture a real sense of how cool it is, but I tried:
In case you were wondering, the Paris Hotel is across the street from the Bellagio. Fun fact.
We're back at The Luxor now, the guys are down at the slots while I'm writing this, and I'll probably go join them shortly. We'll just quietly wrap up our last evening here in that manner, and then it's back to Toronto tomorrow morning. We'll be flying out of here at 12:30 local time, and thanks to the time difference it will be about 7:30 p.m. in Toronto when we land. I'll try to make a quick post when I get in tomorrow to let you all know how I'm doing.
As for Vegas, it's been an absolute blast and I've had a great time here. I haven't quite wrapped things up here yet, but I think it's just about time to start looking forward to whatever comes next...
2 comments:
Sounds like you are having a great time. Was the Mustang a V6 or V8? It's cool that it was a manual although I would have never guessed it was available that way since the vast majority you see on the road are automatic.
Good plan on checking the bill of rights card, sure if we all did it something might change, in your case it would likely just get confiscated.
Lastly how did you get such an early flight home, my parents are looking at booking their flight later this year and it seems as the only choice for a return flight is late afternoon. The had the same arrangement last time and hated it, once checked out you are kinda stuck with your gear unable to do anything and you arrive home rather late.
You should also check the G36. Some cranky TSA agent could decide to confiscate that too.
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