Bright light city….reflections on my Vegas trip

So, my Vegas trip was great, despite the fact of being apart from R and S for six days (they join me at home tomorrow). My Apple Training course was very useful, and I think it was well worth the cost – not that it was my cost, but still. I also think the consultant who taught the course may have me come back in September and teach a one-day course for him, which is very cool.

Vegas was ridiculously, ludicrously, insanely crowded!! Having been there for CES three times in the past, I thought I’d seen Vegas at its most packed. I was wrong!! There were sooooooo many people in Vegas; and more families with small kids and babies than I’ve ever seen before.

Taking kids to Vegas confuses me. Of all the places to go on vacation with kids, Vegas seems about the last place on the list. There’s so many places that are off-limits for kids, there’s so much drinking and sex everywhere, and so much secondhand smoke – I don’t really get the point in taking kids there. Of course, the pools – including the Flamingo’s, where I spent a decent amount of time – are beautiful, and feature water slides and other fun stuff for kids. So in the summertime, I guess that explains it. Still, it will be well over a decade before Sophie’s first trip, I think.

I visited a few casinos on this trip I’d never been to before – Rio, Hard Rock, and somewhat embarrassingly, the new Hooters Casino. Pretty much what you’d expect…

As always, I stayed at the Flamingo. Love the location, love the views from the room, love the presence of Margaritaville. And I thought I was going to lose my view of the Strip due to a large poster of Toni Braxton being affixed to the outside of the hotel. Fortunately, they didn’t get it completed to my window before I left.

Things I like about Vegas:

• The compactness of it all; you can get around without a car really easily. And I love how close the airport is to the Strip; I left ESPNZone at NYNY this morning around 12:30, dropped off my rental car, took the Budget shuttle to the airport, and was standing in line at the Southwest counter by 1:00. Beautiful.
• The pedestrian friendliness; I love the overhead skywalks at many of the busiest intersections.
• The fact that you can get a drink, breakfast, or gamble at any hour of the day.
• The gorgeous hotels, specifically, their garden and pool areas.
• The views from high above the Strip. Amazing.
  

Things I don’t like about Vegas:

• The buffets. Nothing makes me like human beings less, I think, than seeing them at buffet lines. Watching people load up their plates with six, seven, eight crab legs, dozens of shrimp, four or five pieces of prime rib, etc. – it’s disgusting. Just because it’s “all you can eat,” people, doesn’t mean you have to be gross about it. As a former Chinese coworker of mine once said, “Americans eat soooo much.”
• The smoking. EVERYONE smokes in Vegas, or so it seems, and there’s nowhere to get away from it. There are very few non-smoking venues around. Eventually, I get somewhat used to the cigarettes; inevitably, someone would then sit down next to me with a giant cigar hanging out of their mouth. Lovely.
• The obnoxious frat boys walking around. Vegas used to be classy, apparently, but no longer. Drunk idiots roam the streets, casinos, and pools, yelling at one another.
• The Mexicans on the Strip handing out their cards for “escorts.” How little do these guys and girls get paid for standing out there doing this? How can it be possibly worthwhile for these escort agencies? I guess it must work, or they wouldn’t do it. But the fact that people then dump these pictures of naked women all over the sidewalk makes it look so tacky. And I saw more than one curious kid pick one up to take a look. Nice.
  

All in all, a fun week. I feel like it recharged my batteries a little bit, and I can’t wait to see Sophie and Raya come home from their own adventures in Florida tomorrow.