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It was a fun week and a quick getaway! We did just about everything from free shows to a lot of walking, picture taking, and my favorite, people-watching.
Free shows:
Volcano at Mirage
Fall of Atlantis at Caesar's Palace
Egyptian Exhibition at Luxor
Fremont Street
The Fountains at Bellagio
We took in two shows. We wanted to see Michael Jackson and Cirque du Soliel but not at $200 per ticket. The Vegas Show is a history of Las Vegas through entertainment and casinos. It was great recounting the Rat Pack, the build-up of casinos, and then the implosions one by one. Singers, actors, and dancers. We really enjoyed it. It was at the V theater which is due for a makeover but the place was packed and we had a good time. The other show, The Ultimate, had some good acts but not what we expected.
We did some touring and took a bus out to the sign next to the airport. Everyone is trying to make a buck. They had a line in front of the sign and a guy offered to take your picture with your phone or camera for a donation. You can still do it on your own but good luck getting in front of the sign. Every counter, every store, every every has a tip jar.
Transportation isn't cheap. Ubers are expensive although they are always minutes away. The Deuce buses run along the Strip but they charge $4 for a single ride and $6 for a two hour pass. We used RTC city buses that don't run on the strip. A 24 hour pass is $5 but the secret is that the pass is good on the Deuce buses on the Strip as well. It worked out well. The Uber we took back to the airport was on $12.43 which was a bargain.
After Juan made his first post on Facebook, he received a message from our friend Clara. She is an events manager for a major Mexican insurance company based in Monterrey. They were a customer of our for many years when we still had the school. She was at a hotel just two blocks from us. We were able to have a long lunch together.
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We took the Deuce bus to Fairmont Street which is downtown by the Stratesphere Hotel. That was a bit depressing. Most of the area we saw on the bus (double decker) was rundown, abandoned with many homeless people. I 've been watching a guy on YouTube, Nikc Johnson. He has been traveling around the U.S. and documenting the depressed state of the country. This looked just like one of his videos.
These girls came up to me and started flirting. I know what their job is but they were almost insistent on taking a picture with me. The "full" dancer is from Uruguay. She speaks perfect English and has little accent. She was very nice and she and I made ourselves understood. It was a nice conversation anyway.
As we walked down the mall area, a man came up to me and said, "interested in a hooker?". I told him no thanks. As I turned around to look back, there was a very tall and thin woman, dressed so very well with her hair coiffed, she looked like an actress from the early sixties. She was waiting on the sideline. Everyone is a hustler with something to sell.
We also took the bus to a Von's supermarket. Wow! Talk about expensive prices for food. No wonder everyone is complaining. A package of flour tortillas (10) for $4.99, avocados $1.50 each, half pound package of ground pork was $5.80. We spent around $40 and that covered our meals for the week with the exception of one breakfast, a lunch and a dinner. Not bad overall. We found a good price on vodka and we had to leave some behind. The maid I'm sure was happy to find that.
Our trip home was uneventful. Overall, we like to see the shows, the lights, and the people but I think if we were to go back it would be with the RV in tow. I wouldn't want to stay there more than two days.
