Vegas Baby: Part II of II

The Vegas Strip: 

Cons:  I now know how herds of cattle feel as they are being led to pasture thanks to our stroll down the Vegas strip.  It’s hard for me to feel comfortable when I can’t get my pimp strut on, and it felt like being in shackles as we shuffled down the sidewalk.  You are also bombarded with people slapping prostitute trading cards, and they try to hand them out as you walk by…it makes the strip sound like a bicycle spoke full of baseball cards.  There are also vendors who have kiosks set up along the streets; they are quite persistent, and most of the stuff they are selling is not as unique as they would have you believe.  Some guy tried to sell us a “smokeless cigarette” for the special price of $160, and I almost bit because I had never seen anything like it.  I passed on his offer, but searched the internet for this item at our hotel later that night – I found the exact product he was selling for $ 79.99 at www.smokeanywhere.com.

Pros:  The many casinos that surround the strip are definitely worth checking out; you don’t even have to go in and gamble to appreciate the scale and magnitude of these buildings either.  You can even check out the U.S. version of the Eiffel Tower while wandering down the strip…so there’s no need to travel 3,000+ miles, and you will avoid being around all of those smelly, fromage-eating Frenchies.  There are some bars on the strip that offer decent (and free) live music, but you will also be paying $8 a beer as you enjoy the show.  I also got a chance to meet Zoltar from the movie Big; my wish was that all the bad things in life would happen to you, and nobody else…hate, hate, hate…

Fremont Street:

Cons:  I really don’t have anything too bad to say about the Fremont Street Experience, because it was by far my favorite spot in Vegas.  The only negative I can think of revolves around the watered-down free drinks at most of the Fremont casinos – but this seems to be the norm in Sin City unless you are paying for the alcohol.  A friend of mine was playing a card game called Let it Ride, and ordered a White Russian.  What he received was a glass of 2% milk on the rocks, and the subsequent drink orders weren’t any better.  So if your goal is to get as intoxicated as possible, this is not the place for you.

Pros:  The Fremont Street Experience reminded me of an adult-themed city fair, without the shoddy rides and rigged carnival games.  The whole area is enclosed, and each hour there is a light show that takes place overhead on the covered walkway - set to George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone”.  On the weekends, there are live bands playing in the streets and interesting sights everywhere you look.  My friends and I spent a couple of hours watching some guy create works of art with spray paint (here’s a video reenactment).  The casinos have that “Old Vegas” feel, and I never heard any songs by Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., or Dean Martin anywhere other than Fremont Street.  There’s also an inordinate amount of cheap card tables and slot machines that will help you pass the time, so you won’t find yourself running to an ATM machine every 30 minutes.