We're home!

We made it home safe. We had to spend most of yesterday in the airport. It's crazy how they have you check in two and a half hours early for a domestic flight. At least our shuttle ride from the Stratosphere to the airport was interesting. The driver drove about 500mph, cut everyone off and even gave us a little tour. He was older and kept saying, "This is where such-n-such hotel used to be" and things like that. That was pretty funny. It's amazing how much Las Vegas has changed in just the time I saw it last. There are a lot of skyrise apartments on the Strip now and some of those can be a half million dollars and up. I guess I'm just not a city person. I don't think I'd ever want to live in Las Vegas, more or less right on the Strip like that.

I really miss old Las Vegas. I've been visiting the city since the 70s when I was little and I've seen a lot of changes. It's always been Sin City and there has always been adult images everywhere you go, but it was different back then. It wasn't so much in your face like it is now. When I was little, I remember seeing adult stuff, but they were a lot more modest than they are now. It used to be that you'd see things that were sexy or provocative, but it's more like porn now. I'm not trying to sound like a prude. After all, I know it's Vegas. I'm just saying it's different. I know they tried to do the family atmosphere a few years back and that failed. It's just a shame they've let go of the themes of some hotels. I went to the Luxor when it first opened and it was really cool because you could look up and see the inside of the pyramid. There was also a boat ride down the Nile right in the hotel. Now they have the whole thing boarded off and you wouldn't even know it was an Egyptian theme. Caesar's Palace has kept their theme and so have Paris and the Venetian. We've always loved the Venetian Hotel and have stayed there a few times. I'd like to stay at the Hilton again, just for nostalgia sake.

The Aladdin is no more and now it's Planet Hollywood, or PH. There's no theme either. All we saw were a bunch of dancing girls riding up & down the escalator. There's a place in the casino called the Pleasure Pit and apparently these girls dance while people gamble. We must have been there on escalator practice night. All they did was ride down and say "whoo-hoo" a few times. Then they got scolded that they weren't enthusiastic enough, so they rode back up and did it again. It was kind of annoying and the whole place was stupid. Isn't Planet Hollywood supposed to have a Hollywood theme? I didn't see anything. The Planet Hollywood restaurant at Caesar's Palace had more of a theme to it than their own hotel. And I'm just sentimental too because I liked the Aladdin Hotel because that's where Elvis & Priscilla were married. Granted, they were married at the old Aladdin and not the newer building, which is now PH. And then there's TI, or the old Treasure Island. They could do so much with that theme, but they don't. They just have the pirate show, which is now a bunch of ladies capturing some guy. I know I sound like a prude -- I guess I am, but I'm fine with that.

And you know how people stand on the street passing out business cards for escorts? They've been in Vegas for years and they can be really annoying. I've had a few people try to hand them to me before. Most of the time, they're not too pushy and just offer it really quick and move on. That's no big deal to me, other than all the trash of the cards on the ground. But now they wear light-up signs on their backs. Yes, right on their backs! As if handing out the cards wasn't enough and now they have to be walking billboards. They do that on trucks too. Before it used to be on the sides of buses or backs of cabs. Now they have trucks driving around advertising escorts or strip clubs. It's amazing. And they have the gall to tell the tourists that they should ride the bus or Monorail to help eliminate traffic -- wth? Rumor has it that the city might legalize prositution soon -- great.

I know I'm complaining, but we really did have a good time. Rick & I are just old, I guess. It was fun talking to cab drivers who remembered old Vegas the way we do. One guy had moved there when he was 16 in 1978, so he just missed the Elvis era. He remembered Vegas World and all the other stuff though. Rick & I were talking how cool it would be to make a huge resort with an old Vegas theme. I think there would be a huge market for that. Not everyone who goes to Vegas is in the bachelor party mood. Regardless of us being old, cranky prudes, we did have fun. I would be happy skipping the shows and just sitting on the Strip for hours watching the weirdos go by. We saw one crazy guy walking along yelling at the flowers, saying how the aliens were jealous of us and then he went off to yell at people for eating sushi, saying it wasn't real fish. Gotta love the weirdos -- from a distance anyway. Our last night Rick won $400 on the Elvis slots, so that was cool. We used to go to Vegas a few times a year when we lived in California. Now that we're in Montana, we probably won't be going again for awhile, so it was a fun trip for us. Thanks to everyone who has left comments for the pictures I posted. I didn't get to type much because the internet connection came and went. I don't usually bring my camera to Vegas, but wanted to this time to post pictures for everyone to see. I hope you enjoyed them. We came home to 6-inches of new snow and it sure is good to be home, snow and all! But do I want to go back? Oh, hell yeah -- ;)