We didn’t have much interest in spending too much time in the major parts of LA, but did a trip in to Hollywood to see the walk of fame and all those things you see on TV. We only saw a small percentage of the stars - it was far too hot and crowded to see the whole lot.
Reading up before we went to see them we found out that there are about 5 Ruths on the Walk and no Hamishs. In fact, pretty much no one in America had heard the name Hamish - it was pretty odd - it may have well not been an English name.
From Hollywood we went on to our next stop - Las Vegas.
It’s hard to really believe Las Vegas is just in the middle of the desert, with nothing around it, but it really is. Driving there, you see it in the distance from so far away because there are no other towns to block your view. We had timed our drive so that we would arrive at night, and see all the neon lights glowing.
We even managed to combine two Vegas sights when we arrived at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, as there was a bride and groom just finishing their photos in front of it.
From there we checked into our hotel (the MGM Grand, chosen for its great deal and because it features in so many movies) and explored the complex. I think we did more walking in Vegas than in anywhere else...the casinos are huge, and the Strip is so long! It was incredible to see, although just one day and two nights were more than enough for me! It’s also incredible that they are still building at least two more massive casinos on the Strip, and there is plenty of construction going on elsewhere. Perhaps gambling is the only good business in a recession?
The following day, we walked along the Strip and went into many of the casinos...most have some kind of feature to try to draw you in, so we saw the lions in the MGM Grand (these animals looked pretty sad), flamingos at Flamingos, the pyramid at Luxor, the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas, the skyscrapers at New York New York, the Roman sculptures at Caesar’s, and the Venetian streets at the Venetian.
That night we watched the Bellagio fountain - this goes every 15 minutes at night, and is a choreographed water show. This particular one was set to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On...from there, we watched the Mirage volcano, which explodes on schedule every night.
All in all, Las Vegas is a spectacle, but there isn’t much substance to it. It was worth the drive to see it, but I don’t think we will be going back anytime soon.
2 comments:
Timed to Celine?! That's fricken awesome :)
What we didn't know was that each different show had a different song, so if we were 15 minutes later we may have had a better song!
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