While Findlay was flooding, my husband and I were in Las Vegas, traipsing up and down the Strip in 100 plus degree heat as smoke from California forest fires hazed the sky and locals talked about a water shortage. It was the opposite of weather extremes, and not without frustration halfway through the trip, watching helplessly as Findlay's woes were profiled on national news - something a newspaper reporter doesn't like to experience, nor does someone who knows her friends and co-workers are dealing with the damage while she's stuck in the desert.
And so, uncertain if my car had floated away, there was nothing to do but go forth in the wild neon yonder, spend our hard-earned cash and try to have a little fun while celebrating our 1-year anniversary a week early (we got married at the Flamingo last year). Which we did because it is, after all, Vegas.
Some people come to Bugsy's town to try to win it big, and we certainly did as such - try that is. We never win it big, or even little. In fact, we always lose. Blackjack is our main vice and the casinos that scooped up our dinero this year included the Flamingo where we stayed again, Casino Royale, Slots 'A Fun, Sahara ($3 tables!) the Orleans and the Golden Nugget. Yikes...
The Nugget is located in old Vegas on Fremont Street. We highly recommend you visit that impressively refurbished hotel if you get a chance, and browse the others in the area. Here's what Fremont Street looks like:
Gambling wasn't actually tops on our list of activities, however. We ate at at several tasty places that I'll go into more detail about in my food blog. One night, we dressed up and went to a "fancy" dinner at a swanky Italian place in the Wynn. I can now honestly say that a red dress does attract attention, even in Vegas. Thanks Calvin Klein!
The trip wasn't devoid of other cultural experiences either. We visited the Atomic Testing Museum just off the strip on East Flamingo Road.
It offers an extensive history of nuclear testing in the United States. Did you know the Nevada Testing Site, located outside of the city, conducted above-ground nuclear tests until 1992? The $10 admission is worth it, thanks to lots of interactive features, tons of memorabilia, interesting photographs and, of course, the many historical lessons offered, not to mention learned. It certainly doesn't shy away from the controversy surrounding nuclear weapons, their use, distruction and lasting affects. Issues from the nuclear protest movement to radiation affects to how testing is now conducted on a much smaller scale are covered. It even simulates what a nuclear explosion looked and sounded like to observors sitting miles away. Cool. I bought a mushroom cloud mousepad for work.
We also visited the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian. A $15 admission got us access to 37 "modern masters" from the Guggenheim collection. I had no idea that Pablo Picasso's 'Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit' from 1931 was so... kinky.
And we had to visit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, where plenty of hilarious picture opportunities abound. There's Al Roker interviewing me about my visit to the Flamingo's "european style" pool. Interestingly enough, it cost us substantially more to see wax celebrities than it did priceless works of art. Go figure.
Also highlighting our week was seeing George Carlin perform at the Orleans. Still raunchy as all get out, Carlin noted that he just turned 70, which explains why he seems to be winding down a little. His stand-up was still appropriately peppered with profanity and he insulted probably every person on the planet with some new material he was trying out on us, but he didn't seem to have that punch that he used to. Ah well, he's still awesome.
So we obviously packed quite a bit into this trip. Last year was spent doing more gawking and watching free stuff like the pirate routine at Treasure Island, so we tried to save up in order to experience some different things this year and I think we accomplished that.
- By Joy Brown, Courier staff writer
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