Fremont Street Experience

Last evening was out night out on Fremont Street. This is the "original" strip in Las Vegas. The street is now a pedestrian walk which is covered with a $70 million light canopy plus sound system that covers five city blocks. The canopy is 1,400 feet long and consists of 12.5 million synchronized LED modules, including strobes and robotic mirrors. This is all part of the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas and personally, I enjoyed it as much, if not more, than the strip. The slot machines seemed to be much looser here and we were able to play for quite a long time on just a few $$. On one machine I put in $1 and cashed out $14.00. For me, that's good!!! The only bad point of the evening was dinner. We chose to eat at the buffet at the Fremont Hotel & Casino - don't do it if you come here. The price was right - $9.99 but the food was awful. Their sign promised lots of food that sounded good, but in reality there was only about half to two thirds of what was listed. Very disappointing. There are several other places to eat and I now wish that we had gone to the Golden Nugget buffet. A bit pricier, but I've heard it's good. Oh well, I guess you sometimes get what you pay for.

If you come to Vegas, do include the Fremont Street Experience on your list of things to do.

This shot is looking south.....



And this one is looking north...



One of the neon signs...



And another....



One of the scenes from the light show....



I guess we will have to return to Las Vegas someday since we didn't get to go to any of the great shows available. Why? I wish I knew - time just flew by. Anyway, a good reason to return!

Valley of Fire State Park

Since it was such a pretty day we decided to forget doing laundry and drive to Valley of Fire State Park north of Las Vegas. We made a very good decision. This park, to me, is as nice as Sedona, AZ. The one thing that really made it so was no commercial business's, just the wide open country with some very unusual red rock formations. You can even get hands on with a lot of them.

Dean and I did a half mile hike (our limit) to Mouse's Tank, a natural basin where rain water collects. Along the path on thecliff's were many petroglyphs. Many of these were very close to the path. I find it really amazing that this was the Indian means of communication. I feel privilaged to have seen them. Time and weather will slowly errode the rock that the petroglyphs are on (already happening) and sometime in the future they will be only a memory.

I took so many pictures of the rock formations that it will be hard to pick which ones to post. I'll try for what I consider the cream of the crop. Enjoy.....

The park greeters.....

The Beehives....

One of the Beehives....

Me in a Beehive.....

The Arch....

Some of the rock formations ...

More rocks and a cactus bloom.....

The path to the tank and petroglyphs....

I think the petroglyphs are sooo neat!

This rock reminded me of a boat trophy - can you see it?

I wonder how long the small rock will hold up the big ones?

More red rock.....

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I posted more than I was going to but it was so hard to choose.

Las Vegas 2

We continued our trek along the Vegas strip this past Thursday. Because there was so much we wanted to see, we didn't do any gaming so we came home winners!

This is the entrance to the Luxor....

The Luxor....

New York, New York.....

The strip during the day - at night it's so crowded you can hardly walk on the sidewalks..

MGM Grand...

My favorite, the Venetian....

One of the white tigers from the Mirage.....

Paris Casino....

And of course, typical Roman statue in front of Caesars Palace....

We had a really nice day and saw several of the "free" shows. Some were OK, but most I wouldn't go out of my way for. By far the best was at Circus-Circus. I hoping we can do Freemont St. next Monday evening. Not sure that I'll have pictures though as my night shots are coming out blurred for some reason. Later....

Red Rock Canyon

Today we drove about 20 miles west of Las Vegas to Red Rock Canyon. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I guess it was more than was there. In it's own right it was a pretty 13 mile loop through some back country with some red rock and lots of sandstone mountains. One of the rangers told us that there were some wall paintings along one of the trials, not far from the parking lot so we decided to go have a look see - ha! We were told that they would be about a 10 min. walk from the parking lot, well, we walked about 30 min. and still didn't see anything. We finally turned back, very disappointed. It was a nice walk though and the weather was just perfect, high in the low 80's with a nice breeze. Would have been better if I had wore walking shoes instead of sandals!

The story of the rock in this area....

Do you see the climbers on the rock wall?

More red rock....

The desert in bloom......

This is the path that we walked, oh my feet hurt!

Do you see the dog or wolf face on the rock?

Tomorrow is move day so we won't be doing much. I'm hoping Thursday to go back to the strip and Friday to Freemont St.

The Vegas Strip

We made our first trip to the strip last Friday. There is just so much to see that I'm not sure we will see it all. We parked at the Stratosphere and bought a day bus ticket. Pretty good deal - 24 hours for $5 per person. I'll tell you now that we have had absolutely no luck in any of the casinos that we have played at. Of course we are playing the penny slots and not spending much money, so I guess that is why we are not doing well.




We had lunch at the NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara. Pretty good food but kinda expensive. If you are into NASCAR big time, this is a place to visit while in Vegas. They have one of Dale Earnhart's original cars on display - no I didn't get a picture - to many people around it. I did get a picture of the largest stock car that is above the bar. I'm not sure it ever raced.





We saw this bar as we were walking through the casino.. It will speak for itself!



From the Sahara we walked to Circus Circus. After wandering through the casino we ventured upstairs just in time for the next FREE circus act. The one we saw was a balance act, one man and two women. The one part of the act that just blew me away was where he balances a long pole, about 15 - 20 ft, on his forehead with one of the ladies on top doing different balance acts on top of the pole. I wouldn't be the gal on top for all the $$ in the world nor would I want to have that pole on my head and keep it balanced. Sorry, no pictures, you will have to use your imagination.

From Circus Circus we walked next door to Slots of Fun - hah! Lots of slots, but no fun. They were tight so we didn't stay very long.

It was time to hop on the double decker bus and head down the strip to the Venetian. This place is so impressive, not the casino, by now they all look alike, but the second floor - it's like walking into a street in Italy. Of course it is lined with shops, some of the most expensive one around! I did enjoy looking though and saw some really unique and pretty things - well "stuff" - lol. Here are a few pictures from the Venetian.....












After having a bite to eat we finally pulled ourselves away from "Italy" and left the Venetian only to find that it had gotten dark. We didn't realize that we had spent to much time there. One thing that I wanted to see was the fountains at the Bellagio which was across the street, so off we went. We arrived just in time to catch a water show. Really neat. Believe me, the pictures don't do it justice.








After the fountain show we took the bus back to the Stratosphere where we had parked and came home for the night. It was a long day and we were tired. We will be going back as there is so much more to see and I want to see it all!