Vegas at night

Yesterday morning we went for a hike with Mick. Their house on the outskirts of Henderson is on the base of a hill overlooking Las Vegas.

The land behind the house is all public land and park space. Of course this is the desert, so there's not much vegetation, but it's scenic in it's own way.

View of Las Vegas from Mick and Sandy's house.  

Mick and Ruth on a hike

After the hike, they took us for a short drive over to Lake Las Vegas. This is an entirely man made development with a lake and a hotel and casino, and condominiums and shops and golf courses. The whole thing was built just before the housing crisis and it's had some real problems. Even now, there's hardly anybody around even though it's open and operating. The man made lake also has some expensive homes owned by celebrities like Celine Dion. It's a nice spot, but the price point is probably still to high.

Lake Las Vegas even has a man made white sand Caribbean beach!

None of this water existed 15 years ago!

We made sure we were good and hungry by the time we went back to the Fiesta Casino for brunch. The lunch time prices end at 4:00pm so we arrived there about 3:30pm and ate till we were stuffed for $12.95 for the two of us!

Then we drove down to the strip. We had a lot of different buildings to visit, and Friday night on the strip is pretty busy. We visited only two casinos for the purpose of signing up for their players clubs and turned their free play money into $31 cash! Now we are up $78 cash without ever having gambled any of our own money.

The flowery entrance to the Wynn casino.

The strip at night.

Inside the Venetian Hotel and Casino they have a canal system built to make it seem like you are wandering the shops of Venice during the day. Absolutely amazing!

The free pirate show at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino is really well done. Lots of special effects and pyrotechnics and scantily clad women and muscled men!

Two of the "wenches" in the show.

Did I mention this show is totally free?!

Lots of people on the strip on a Friday night.

The half-scale replica of the Eiffel tower at night.

The shops inside Caesars Palace have one of the worlds very few circular escalators.

We did a TON of walking. It was after midnight by the time we left the strip and exactly 1:00am when we crawled into bed exhausted! Actually slept until 8:30am this morning...longest sleep in for a LONG time. I think today will be more of a relax day!