Adventures in Las Vegas

heisenbug and I had never been to Las Vegas, but that's exactly where we've been since midday Tuesday. Right on the Strip.

• We could see a roller coaster from our hotel window. Of course we rode it; that and the giant "observation wheel" a few hotels away.


• Vegas really loves to bring its outdoor activities inside. For starters, I haven't seen anyone SMOKING inside for about fifteen years. The malls also have a tendency to have small fake buildings inside big real buildings, with a fake sky painted on the big ceilings... a remarkably tranquil effect. And lastly, I saw real indoor fireworks for the first time ever; not just sparklers, I mean the hardcore kind that whoosh up high and then go kablooie into a starburst. Crazy.


• Everything we wanted to go to was in the back of a casino. But crossing the floor didn't tempt us toward anything; most of it looked like really braindead video gaming. I finally tried some in the airport as we left, and learned I was exactly right. I guess some people are working to change that, but it's not there yet. At any rate, our hunts for breakfast buffets and circus show theaters all required long treks through casinos, and the signage never was good until the back.


• We saw some threatening signs outside about "College girls in your room! $69!" but mercifully none appeared; we did not have to either listen to their chatter or pay the removal fee. Thank goodness.


• The Starbucks in Las Vegas will make drinks with coconut milk! I was entranced -- will this be rolling out across the country soon?


• I got a private handbalancing lesson from a teacher I've been following on Facebook, before I got too sick to move much (about which more later). That was very cool, and I have a new drill for press negatives that I intend to practice a lot.


• As for shows, we chose very well with Le Reve but I'm not so sure about Ka as a Cirque du Soleil show. The ads all over town for Varekai made me think I would have preferred that one; Ka had a beautiful set, and a paucity of clowns for which I was thankful, but it was oddly lacking in any of the traditional circus-style acts; particularly acro.


• I tried an oxygen bar for the first time! It woke me up, but didn't make me feel loopy, just refreshed. This is far from the nuttiest thing I might have done -- we saw an ad for a service that will do an IV drip to rehydrate you if you're too hungover. Yipes.


• We saw a lovely lingerie shop. Yes I like that bra/panty set, but not for $450. Yipes again.


• We had dinner with some of the bug's relatives, and saw the Neon Boneyard, on the same night. Had to cut the tour of old neon signs short due to arriving sickness, but that's okay; I think we'd seen enough to get the idea.


• On Wednesday I ate probably the best breakfast I've ever had. Oh, the food. Nom. We didn't get a chance to go back, though, because on Thursday the bug didn't want to and after that I was too sick. In fact, all I did on Friday was sleep and poop, and stubbornly attend Le Reve. It's a good thing we mostly front-loaded the trip. heisenbug was affected too, though not as severely.


• We're not very good at sinning. We never found a low-bid blackjack table with rules that were acceptable to heisenbug, so our only gambling was my halfhearted, last-minute spin of the slot machine; and although we had picked out a strip club in advance, we were planning to go on Thursday or Friday, and by then it seemed far more appealing to lie in bed quietly groaning. Never mind, didn't want a lap dance anyway. :P


• We can't even manage to drink properly! One alcoholic drink each, all week. That's how hard we ended up partying in Vegas. I seriously could have had more than that during a regular workweek, given the delicious apricot cider in my fridge.

Overall, I'd go again. Damn town still owes me a lap dance, as far as I'm concerned, and next time I'm picking my Cirque shows for the acro. It was still a fun, expensive week though, and I greatly enjoyed the crazy. :-)