The city that losers built

Its been a long time since I have spent any time wandering on the Strip.  We have visited Las Vegas at least briefly for most of the last 15 or more years.  but the last couple of times we have been here Marilyn has spent an extended period in town and I have flown to somewhere else.  This time we have been showing Don & Darlene the town and that has given me a chance to see it again too.  I’ll get sick of it pretty soon but so far I’ve been

having fun.

Las Vegas is definitely suffering under the recession.  Apparently the chosen one recently commented that Americans shouldn’t be wasting their money by travelling to Las Vegas when their neighbours were losing their jobs.  That has raised the hackles of the local business community but evidently the travelling public was smarter than their President because they aren’t here anyway.  Its possible to walk down the sidewalks without having to elbow your way through visitors.  The grimy little pimps that hand out the hooker business cards are still omnipresent but there are noticeably less tourists.  Yesterday when we bought last minute tickets for Lance Burton there were Phantom tickets available as well, and at pretty good prices.  We’ve never seen them available, let alone discounted.

Its hard to beat the Las Vegas scenery at night.  During the day it loses a lot but at night the Strip is ablaze with colour. 

 

I guess Excalibur must be one of my favourite casinos because I came home with dozens of shots of the facade.  Its a pretty impressive sight when you come down the Strip past New York and just as you enter the intersection this appears:

Yesterday we wandered around on the south end of the Strip all afternoon, ate supper at New York (which is kind of a tradition for us) and then went to Lance Burton’s show.  That was well worthwhile – he’s maybe not as well known as somebody like Copperfield but he’s pretty good nevertheless.  We first heard about Burton during a documentary about Peter Reveen.  American readers may not be familiar with Reveen but Canadians may remember his tag line “the man they call Reveen.”  I don’t think he tours anymore but he is managing Lance Burton.  After Burton’s show we went to Paris for dessert.  The two things the French are deservedly famous for are desserts and retreating – last night’s dessert was excellent.