Las Vegas

I am in Las Vegas with Christine for a few days. We took a late flight down and didn't get to bed until 3am (Toronto time) so I slept until about 8am (Vegas time). I went in search of coffee and found a Starbucks before returning to the room and rousing Chris.

We are staying at the Excalibur which has a medieval castle theme; knights, heralds, jesters, shields, banners etc. The actual casino floors all look pretty well the same but the trappings differ.

To go to the place Chris had picked for breakfast we had to walk though shopping malls, tunnels with moving walkways and the lobbies/casinos of the Luxur and Mandalay Bay. This is the inside of Luxor's pyramid.

I rather like Luxor's decor

and the high ceilings absorb the sound.

We ate at a restaurant that was promoted as "farm to table" which was quiet and away from the hustle and bustle and had an eggs and bacon style breakfast. We then set out to explore a bit, both inside and out.

A huge sports bar/betting area with screens showing the sports events and the odds.

We wandered into a gallery selling photographs by Peter Lik. He has taken 4 of the top 10 photos in terms of purchase price and won many awards. Although not light boxes his photos positively glow due to their processing on silver paper.

|Our hotel is opposite New York, New York and we can hear the people screaming on the roller coaster from our room.

We spent the afternoon by the pool, paying a bit extras to have an umbrella by the adults only pool.

I love sun and warmth but I couldn't walk outside for very long and burned in spite of a good base and sunscreen. The hotels are massive and "over the top". There are a surprising number of families here and they seem to outnumber the drinkers and gamblers. The kids have to stay on the designated carpet pathways through the casinos.

Its dominated by roads and huge hotels, scatterings of shopping malls, strip malls and strip clubs

and in the distance; the desert mountains.

Tonight we went to the Neon Museum but I have too many pictures and that will have to be the subject of the next blog.