Having Fun in Sin City, Las Vegas, NV…

We have enjoyed our time here in Las Vegas. The last time we were here we spent most of our time on the strip since we were camped only a few miles away from the Mandalay Bay Casino. This time we are staying near the Main Street Station Casino in the older downtown area which has offered a completely different vibe.

The obvious draw to the older downtown area is a nighttime light show called the Fremont Experience. The hourly light show along with people watching always makes for a fun evening. There are many characters dressed up in everything from cupid, transformers, Disney icons and we even saw Mr. T. Of course since this is Vegas there are some more unsavory characters as well.This is one of the few remaining free shows in Las Vegas as the casinos have fallen on hard times with gambling now pretty much legal in most of the USA. The big news here in Las Vegas is that Caesers Entertainment may declare bankruptcy if it can’t work out a deal with its creditors as they are in deep debt.

We also found a fun walk called The History of Downtown Vegas which is a walk in the older part of Las Vegas. We had fun finding such gems as the bar in Golden Gate Casino where Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. drank during the Rat Pack days and even a bathroom in the Main Street Station which has urinals mounted to an actual section of the Berlin Wall! We really recommend this free walking tour as a fun way to get a feel of the history of old downtown Las Vegas.

We also spent one afternoon and evening on the strip since a friend of ours from our past let us know she and her husband were at the Mandalay Bay for a conference. We met them at Mandalay Bay over a few cold beverages and had a blast catching up with our friend Patty and finally getting to know her husband better. Hopefully we will be able to stop and visit them in Texas the next time we pass through the state.

I downloaded the free walking tour for the strip but since the strip is much newer and we have spent a considerable time on the strip before this, taking tour was of little interest to us. So we decided instead to revisit all the casinos that we enjoyed on our last visit such as New York-New York, Paris, Venetian, Mirage, Flamingo and the Excaliber. We did very little gambling and I think by the end of the day we had lost about $8.00. However, we were comp’ed several glasses of wine which more than made up for our losses in our opinion and it was nice sitting down at the bar to rest a bit since the walking the strip meant we walked several miles…

We extended one more day here since we still have some chores to do before moving on… Next up for us will be a short stay near Laughlin, Nevada near the California Nevada border…