Las Vegas is awesome!

Treasure Island

I haven't been to Las Vegas since I was a kid back in the 70s.  The few memories that I have as a little kid are smoke filled casinos and the sound of slot machines!  I think the only place that was a little kid friendly back then was Circus Circus.  Since then everytime I've passed Las Vegas it has been on my way to Utah or California and I never had the time to stop.  This time I've planned on this. A few days just for a trip to Vegas.  I've heard some great things about LV and I'm anxious to check it out.  The drive from Redlands to Las Vegas took a little over 4 hours. We stopped for gasoline and a hamburger at In-n-Out in Hesperia along the way.  I don't have a gps or anything but figured that finding the strip would be easy and I made reservations at Treasure Island right on the strip so I'm not concerned about not having a map or anything.

Lobby at Caesar's Palace. Pretty impressive. I'd never seen a curved escalator before!

I'm impressed as I get off the 15 and head on to Las Vegas Boulevard... In this short period of time we see:  the Eiffel Tower, a scene right out of Venice, the Statue of Liberty, an enormous roller coaster... and millions upon millions of shining lights.  Not to mention many many people walking everywhere.  The scene in front of our hotel is pretty cool - a little cove with a fisherman's village with pirate boats in the harbor!  And here we are in the middle of the desert!!

Finding parking at Treasure Island is pretty simple as well.  There is an enormous parking structure with about 6 levels of parking.  So, that is easy.

Pool at Caesar's Palace

We finally find the hotel's reception and wait in line to check in. The line moves pretty fast and before we know it we're checked in and are on our way to the room. We receive a bunch of coupons from the receptionist.

I was surprised to see an indoor Venetian Canal. This was a fun place to wander around.

This place is enormous and it takes a little effort to find the elevators and get up to the 25th floor and our room. The room is fantastic.  Everything seems really new.  The beds are very comfortable.  Everything is very clean... So, we're happy with our hotel room.  Once we get settled in we head downstairs to check this place out.  Unbelievable... That's all I can say.  We walked miles and miles, from one casino / hotel / shopping center to another... It's kind of hard sometimes to know exactly where one ends and another begins.  At one point we were strolling along a Venetian Canal complete with gondolas and singing gondoliers.

After walking for a few hours we decided to head back for dinner. It was getting late and I was pretty tired after  the long drive and all the walking. We decided to have dinner at the buffet restaurant in Treasure Island. But first, I bought tickets to see Mystere tomorrow night. Itis a Circ du Soleil show and I've heard good things about it.  Just like everything else so far, getting the tickets and then getting dinner meant standing in more lines.  But they're pretty fast and we're happy to be here.  So far it's almost a sensory overload. Everywhere you look there are flashing lights and colorful things to look at! Dinner at the buffet is good.  There's just about anything you can imagine to eat so we try a little of this and a little of that and have a nice dinner. Then we look around a little more and coincidentally stumble upon a show that's going on outside in front of the hotel. Something about pirates and sirens... Lots of stunts, highdiving, fireworks....   Fun to watch!  Finally I'm just too tired and at about midnight we head for the room to sleep after a short yet successful adventure with nickle slot machines! :-)