Las Vegas Trip - Day 1 (Monday, January 6, 2003)
- The Las Vegas Strip -
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| Gondola in the Grand Canal of The Venetian. (Las Vegas, Nevada) |
With a full tank of gas, Joy and I headed out from Whittier mid-morning. Traffic stayed smooth, but high winds had me holding the steering wheel tightly with both hands. I had an easier drive after Cajon Pass, but the wind still felt strong when I got out of my car in Baker for a break and when I refueled my car in Primm.
We arrived in Las Vegas too early to check into our reserved room, so we decided to see some sights, first going to the Desert Passage Mall of Aladdin Resort & Casino. Inside, we found upscale shops under a ceiling painted like a lightly clouded sky. At one section of the mall, we witnessed a little show of thunder, with "rain" falling down into a pool from the sky ceiling. We also saw part of an acrobat show somewhere else inside as well a a mermaid cow fountain. The fountain turned out to be part of an art display known as "Cows On Parade," which I had seen before in Chicago.
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| The Battle of Buccaneer Bay. (Las Vegas, Nevada) |
We left with Joy having bought film and clothes and made our next stop at Paris Las Vegas to see what the building looked like inside. Outside, we took a good look at the Eiffel Tower replica, then headed to Bellagio across the street to take a look inside. Joy wanted to see a beautiful botanical conservatory she had seen on a previous trip, but we only found a construction scene tearing down holiday decorations.
For lunch, we drove downtown and found a place called Neonopolis with a pathetic food court on the second floor. Instead of settling for that, we ate at Jillian's of Las Vegas on the first floor, and watched CNN Headline News on big screens as we ate. A short drive after that, we arrived at the Stratosphere, where we checked into our hotel room on the nineteenth floor. It had a decent view of downtown and the mountains beyond.
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| A tank at Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay. (Las Vegas, Nevada) |
We visited the Grand Canal Shops of The Venetian next, where we watched people float in gondolas while the rower sang. In a few places, we saw people, sometimes completely in white, standing still, pretending to be statues. We exited to a lovely sunset and walked over to Treasure Island to wait for a free show known as the "Battle of Buccaneer Bay." It started after dark, and we got treated to pyrotechnics and explosions as the "pirates" of the ship Hispaniola battled the HMS Britannia. The HMS Britannia sank in defeat (then rose again to British patriotic music, as it reset for the next show).
With the show over, we drove over to park at the MGM Grand Hotel/Casino, which we walked through to visit the M&M Store and the Coca-Cola Store next door. We didn't find too much of interest in either multi-level shop. Across, the street, we briefly explored Monte Carlo Resort & Casino before heading to New York-New York to walk around the shopping area there that resembled New York neighborhoods.
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| Air Play in the casino of Tropicana. (Las Vegas, Nevada) |
With smoke from cigarettes bothering Joy, we went back outside and took the free tram from Excalibur Hotel & Casino to Mandalay Bay. After finding a water fountain to drink, we paid for admission and entered Shark Reef. While listening to audio guides, we walked into an area designed to look like a sunken temple and saw interesting creatures such as golden crocodiles, water monitors, piranhas, sharks, jellyfish, moray eels, rays and colorful fish. The last room resembled being inside a sunken ship surrounded by impressive sharks. The place also had two huge turtles, but we didn't see them because they were sleeping.
We left Mandalay Bay by an indoor walkway that led us into Luxor Las Vegas. After we found out how expensive tickets cost for Blue Man Group, we didn't buy any and continued through an indoor walkway to Excalibur. From there, we went on an outdoor pedestrian bridge then into Tropicana Resort & Casino, where we arrived in time to see an acrobatic show above the casino slots called "Air Play." Tired and hungry, we then headed back to the Stratosphere, where we ordered food to go at the Crazy Armadillo Oyster Bar. We ate in our room, showered and slept.
Contact me if you have any questions or comments about this trip.
| Document last modified January 06, 2009. Copyright © 1995-2009 Andrew Sawadisavi. All rights reserved. |
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