Dear Readers,
Recently some dear friends invited my husband and me to join them on a long weekend trip to Vegas to celebrate a special birthday. I was excited about the trip because I had never been to Las Vegas. But Mimi did have a lot of preconceived ideas about the city, and these ideas were certainly surpassed.
Caught my first glimpse of Vegas when driving into town. The bright lights and tall buildings could be seen from the highway more than 20 miles away. There’s something about bright, glittery lights that beckons us toward them. As human beings, we are somehow programmed to follow light. The city builders wisely exploited this fact of nature. Bright lights, mounting excitement, freely spending money – they’re all connected.
The first night we ate dinner at a restaurant in the middle of the new city center, only opened to the public about three weeks ago. It’s a large community of hotels, condos, restaurants and shops clustered together in the heart of Las Vegas. Most of the construction is green and environmentally friendly. The walls of this restaurant were rows of glass shelves holding large, smooth rocks ranging in size from 4 inches to 12 inches in diameter These shelves were backlit and then covered by panes of frosted glass. It was quite beautiful and very unusual. But then Las Vegas specializes in the unusual.
A native of Las Vegas encouraged us to visit the older part of the Strip. So we ventured down to Fremont Street, which is pure Vegas, complete with a large neon cowboy and cowgirl, lots of flashing light bulbs and the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino. This is what a travel brochure says about the Fremont Street Experience: “This pedestrian promenade features a light-and-sound show made up of 12.5 million synchronized LED modules and concert-quality sound”. The evening of our visit, Don McLean’s 1971 hit “American Pie” was playing during the laser show. Hundreds of people were singing along during the overhead laser show. It was very exciting being part of a big crowd, all singing a familiar song together.
Have lots more to tell you about the trip but you will just have to wait for Part 2 on Friday.
Keep smilin’!
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