The View
From our room the first night. No flash to reflect in the glass means it's a little blurry.
The Bellagio's fountains from our room. For this show they used opera. There's actually a fountain show schedule.
Three Ages of Vegas: New Vegas
Las Vegas Boulevard, aka: The Strip, runs roughly north - south with the newer casinos at the south end of the strip. Every casino has a theme. The Luxor's is Egyptian.
The Venetian is modeled on Venice, Italy, complete with gondaliers,
Rococco ceiling,
and living statues in the Venetian style.
Caeser's Palace, meanwhile, is known for its Forum Shops and styling along the mythology of Ancient Rome. Including three very impressive fountains.
Fountain of the Gods
Fountain of Bacchus
Fountain of Atlantis, including sunken buildings and a huge tank filled with exotic fish.
If Mickey Mouse gambled, it would be at the Excalibur, which aimed for the King Arthur theme and hit the Magic Kingdom instead.
Would Louie B. Mayer be pleased or scared by the casino and hotel that bears the name of his company? I don't know, but the lion is impressive (even if it isn't made out of gold).
Not only does New York, NY have a roller coaster (moderately good, not worth $12.50 a ride though), it also has a giant slot machine that needed service while we were there. Again, no flash = slightly blurry. Hey, I wasn't that drunk!
Treasure Island went with the pirate theme. There are two more ships just a little ways up the block in a big lagoon in front of the hotel.
The Bellagio's fountains are just as impressive from the street as they are from the 24th floor, more so, in fact, given the noise all that rushing water makes.
Three Ages of Vegas: Old Vegas
Despite looking like our vision of the future 40 years ago, I suspect this sign is much newer than that. This mall also represents, roughly, the half-way point of the strip and the dividing line between "new" Vegas and the Vegas of Frank, Sammy, and Dino. Visible in the background, the New Frontier and the Stratosphere. To give this some perspective, the Stratosphere, that big needle in the background, is about 1.5 miles from where this photo was taken.
The Riviera: It's full of stars!
The Stardust is legendary, but we skipped the show.
This just amuses me because it looks like french fries...yeah, OK, I was hungry.
Hunter Thompson was right*, and this is one scary clown, particularly at night.
Three Ages of Vegas: Original Vegas
To tame it a little, Freemont Street has been covered with a canopy that doubles as an LCD screen for a scheduled light show. Freemont street is lined with all the classic signs of original Las Vegas.
Recognize this guy? He's been in more than a dozen movies.
Casinos had a theme even in the old days. This is Fitzgeralds. I suspect there's a lot of green in the house staff's uniforms.
Binion's Horsehoe is one of the original joints.
The 4 Queens is another.
Next door to the more famous Glitter Gulch (right photo), the goose looks more like she laid rocks than golden eggs. Despite advertising world-class topless dancers I'm reliably informed that the women are neither.
The plaque in front of this sign indicates that it is the oldest surviving sign in Las Vegas and dates from the early 1900s. The building to the right is Neonopolis, the neon museum.
"The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich. The ground floor is full of gambling tables, like all the other casinos . . . but the place is about four stories high, in the style of a circus tent, and all manner of strange County-Fair/Polish Carnival madness is going on up in this space." — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971.