By Tuesday, I was on day 4 of being in Las Vegas and I think anyone who has ever been there can tell you - four days is a LONG time in Las Vegas. By Sunday morning I already felt like I had been there for 3 or 4 days, so you can imagine that by Tuesday it felt like a full week had passed. I can only hypothesize that this is because the days are so long and you do so much while in Vegas. I woke up at a normal time each morning, but went to bed really late every night...so that makes for really long days.
Despite being really tired already, I had nothing better to do in Vegas than wander the Strip and people watch. I wanted to explore a couple of the hotels I had seen the inside of yet, so off I went. One thing you can see plenty of in Vegas is beggars. I saw them sitting everywhere and even some sleeping on the nasty sidewalks. It's sad and intriguing to me, all at the same time. I don't know what drives a person to assume that this is the only way. It's just something outside of my realm of comprehension.
Although it was just across the street and a block down from our hotel, I had not yet been inside the MGM Grand. I decided to stop in there after I ate some lunch at the Border Grille in Mandalay Bay (which was AMAZING!) to look around. I was not impressed. The smell in the MGM Grand is horrible - the perfume they pipe in to cover the cigarette smoke is some kind of musky, patchouli like stink that is just as offensive as cigarette smoke is, in my opinion. I wandered through the casino until I found the lobby, and when I approached I realized it was packed full of people, a boxing ring, and several TV cameras and reporters.
I didn't realize that it was the afternoon that all the fighters would be arriving for the big boxing match this weekend, Mayweather vs Maidana. I decided to stick around for a few minutes and worked my way though the crowd thanks for a couple of tall guys that had pity on this short girl. The only boxer I watched arrive was Carlos Molina, one of the fighters in the less-important matches I guess because his name was at the bottom of the poster instead of the top. Since I care an extremely small amount about boxing in general, I decided I had enough of that. Nevermind that the MGM stench was making me sick to my stomach.
So I continued down the Strip, occasionaly sneaking a photo of a street performer here or there. I spotted my first normal sized Elvis. (I saw a midget Elvis the night before.) I also spotted Michael Jackson and met the Yellow M&M.
I made it down to Bellagio again to watch the fountains in the daylight. I had only seen them at night so far. I think I prefer the night show because of the lights, but the show was still impressive. I wonder how many songs and routines they have in the line-up? I never saw the same one twice while I was there.
My favorite street performers were the illusionists. I saw two different guys sitting on what appeared to be invisible chairs. What's most enjoyable about watching these guys is watching the people try to figure out how he's doing that. Their faces and comments are quite amusing, so I stayed behind this guy for quite some time and watching the on-lookers. It's really not that difficult to assume that he is sitting on a platform welded to the pole that he's holding on to, and that the arm holding the pole is probably fake as well. A quick google search will show you how it's done.
Now at night, there are the card snappers. Seriously, every 15 steps there is someone snapping stripper/hooker business cards together before they shove them in your face. When I was walking the other day, I didn't notice them I guess...but today I saw several, passing out those cards again. Who in their right mind actually uses these types of services? Do you even know how many people....where they've been....who they've been....I just....I can't...I JUST CAN'T HANDLE THE THOUGHT! It's disgusting. Like, I have a physical reaction to it. Gross.
No comments:
Post a Comment