On the Strip

Day 2 (Friday, May 20)

Slipping on pornography is an extremely odd experience.  It was also something I got rather used to during my two days in Las Vegas.  The ground of the strip is festooned with the calling-cards of various escort agencies, strip clubs, and other mildly legal ventures.  Though I never fell over, stepping on one and sliding fractions of an inch was the sort of thing that was JUST disorienting enough to send a cold rush of adrenaline up my spine.  What was really odd was when it happened for the umpteenth time, and I was already relatively used to it.  Las Vegas is desensitizing like that, it seems.

We traveled on foot to see Circus Circus, and (ostensibly) find 99c Foot-Long Hotdogs at Slots o’ Fun.  We then discovered that Slots o’ Fun, while in need of various other renovations, was in the process of replacing its own hot-dog stand with a Nathans, and thus the deal was void.

Since we were nearby and it was free, we watched an act at Circus Circus.  The performers, a group of acrobats (supposedly from Kenya) were very talented, but the leopard-print costumes seemed a bit of an unfortunate choice, and left some uncomfortable implications hanging in the air.

We decided not to venture any further down the Strip in this direction, since things seemed to be getting increasingly run-down and, more importantly, far apart.  We switched directions to check out some of the stuff we hadn't seen yet.

We visited the Mirage, which had a great aesthetic, including a fish tank behind the check-in counter.  Unfortunately, if you weren’t actually waiting to check in, it was kind of hard to see well.

We also visited a classic car showroom at the Imperial Palace (hidden within their parking structure).  They had quite an impressive set of cars, actually, from military vehicles to classic cars to racecars.

After a short rest and some episodes of Wakfu, we headed out for dinner, and decided to go for the low-hanging fruit of another cheap meal at Caesar’s food court.  We then meandered down past the Bellagio, catching a fountain show (set surprisingly well to Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon) on the way.  I had expected them to use a song with more percussion, and take advantage of that to shoot off huge plumes of water, but the show was well choreographed, taking advantage of the fluidity of their medium to match the relatively mellow song.

After that, we meandered through the Excalibur, the Luxor, the Mandalay Bay, and then finally through the MGM Grand, where we took a shot at some penny slots that actually allowed a single cent bet (there are not many of these - most require bets of 40 cents, despite being "penny slots."  Clever girl...).  Sadly, as I suspected might be the case, the servers put the penny-slot players rather low on their list of people to keep inebriated, so we didn't manage to score any free drinks this way.  At this point, my feet were hurting a bit (read: I need to get out for more long walks), so we stopped for a drink and a seat.

Eventually, we made our way back to the Flamingo, and turned in for the evening (after a few more episodes of Wakfu).

-Stormshrug