08 Apr Viva Las Vegas…

On my to-do list, written many months ago and shockingly little-fulfilled, ‘Las Vegas’ is number [ ]. To this day I can’t remember why I put it on my list of things to do while I was living in San Francisco, I can’t remember it ever really appealing to me as a destination. I suppose I thought it such a spectacle that it was something worth seeing at least once, if given the opportunity. Well, that opportunity arose this past weekend.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Las Vegas. I mean, let’s not joke around, it was one of the strangest places I’ve ever been to. But it was fun. And there was lot more going on than I expected, even if you exclude the spectacle of the casinos. The only way I’ve been able to describe it has been ‘bizarre, but fun’.
There are several reasons why I feel justified calling Vegas ‘bizarre’. The first is the wild amount of money that I could see being passed around, appearing and reappearing and being gambled faster than I can turn oxygen into carbon dioxide. I’m not going to tell you that I went to Vegas and didn’t gamble. Of course that’s not true! But I didn’t lose a penny more than I was prepared to, and that makes me feel like I won. One the other hand, there were members of my party that lost hundreds of dollars, in a shockingly cavalier manner, as if it were Monopoly money. I watched somebody lose $300 at blackjack in a matter of minutes! Not only that, I walked past roulette tables where the minimum bet was $100,and even a week later I can’t imagine an existence in which losing $100 on the spin of a wheel doesn’t ruin the rest of your month. That aside, though, the casinos were pretty incredible to look at (once I’d gambled myself out). The Paris had an Eiffel Tower of its own, the Luxor had its own Sphinx and in the Venetian you could ride a Gondola. One evening I just walked down the strip, looking into every casino I came across, and it was dazzling. My cousin described it as ‘Disneyland for adults’, and I had to agree; I can’t remember feeling such sensory overload anywhere that wasn’t Disneyland. Inside, it’s impossible to tell whether it’s day or night from the lighting, even if you didn’t have stars in your eyes from all the flashing lights.

Also, you can’t walk down the street in a straight line. There are so many bridges and pedestrian diversions, and so few places to cross the road, that you have to walk right past every legitimate (and many less so) shop, café, alcoholic slushee stand, emerging rap artist selling their new EP and Star Wars character before you get to your destination, wherever that might be. I thought that perhaps walking through the casinos might be a little more direct, but I was wrong. Once you’re in, the way out is not easy to find. It took me almost 15 mins to walk straight through the MGM Grand!

I did have a lot of fun though. The reason for the trip was my cousin Anne’s 20th wedding anniversary. Her husband had been planning this surprise trip to Vegas for years, and it had been planned for ages. And it was lovely to spend time with relatives who, until moving to San Francisco, I really hadn’t known at all (as well as several people who, to this day, I’m not sure how I’m related to them. It was a pretty large group!). It was beautifully warm, but thankfully not pavement-meltingly hot as I’m told it can be. I ate out a lot, which was nice even if it was hideously expensive (I paid $50 for a quesqedilla at the Aria. Ouch!). And Anne and Ed renewed their vows in an Elvis chapel which I think gave me a real Las Vegas experience, taxi ride through the dodgy part of town included.

I hadn’t planned to go, until I found out that my other cousin and his wife (who are expecting twin baby girls) were no longer allowed to fly because of the pregnancy, and so there was a spare place in the campervan for me. So it was that we drove all through a Thursday night with 5 people and a two-year-old, arriving on the Las Vegas strip at 5am. Because of my cousin’s old school friend’s very convenient job as a Vegas hotel manager, I was lucky enough to stay at one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever set foot, let alone slept in. So of course, I would be turning up to the only 5* hotel in Las Vegas bleary eyed, in my sweatpants, stinky and gross from 12 hours on the road (who knew California was so BIG?) in an RV. I’d have been embarrassed if I wasn’t so awed by the place.
I won’t lie, most of the days were spent recovering from the previous night’s fancy cocktails and the ‘free’ drinks you get while gambling in the casinos. As such the first two days were spent by the pool, first in the Paris, where most of my party stayed, and the next day in the gorgeous Mandarin Oriental, where my cousins and I stayed.

On the Sunday however, I decided to do a little exploring on my own. I had heard that there was a Titanic Artefact exhibition at the Luxor, and I just HAD to satisfy my inner nerd by going. And it was great, with its clever recreations of the Promenade deck and the steerage cabins, the real life iceberg that you could touch, and the audio guide with survivors’ testimonies voiced in dodgy English and Irish accents. I got to see the Big Piece, which is the aptly named largest piece of the Titanic which has been recovered from the ocean floor. And I decided that if Drama School doesn’t work out then writing information cards for museum exhibits is a career I could consider. It was all very exciting. I also went on the rollercoaster at New York New York, which jarred every single bone in my body but was actually an impressive ride considering it’s on the side of a building instead of in a theme park.

I know there is so much I didn’t see. I didn’t even leave the strip, even though I meant to go to Fremont Street and Old Vegas, and I feel like a weekend isn’t nearly enough time to see it all. But equally three days is more than enough time in Vegas, for the sake of the wallet if nothing else!